The late philosopher Huston Smith is emeritus professor of philosophy at Syracuse University. He has also taught at M.I.T. and at U.C. Berkeley. He is author of The World’s Religions, The Primordial Tradition and Beyond the Post-Modern Mind. Here he points out that we confront three essential relationships with nature, with other people, and with ourselves, and that [...]

In this video he recounts how India transformed his understanding of spiritual life—from early Advaita/Jñāna practice in the U.S. to immersive encounters with India’s sacred culture. He reflects on reports of siddhis (yogic powers) while affirming the “greater miracle” of moral transformation, visits Gandhi’s ashram and Vinoba Bhave’s village movement, observes laboratory studies of yogis’ [...]

Huston Smith, PhD, delineates the common threads that run through spiritual traditions of all cultures. Because the science of acoustics has nothing to say about beauty, he says, does not mean that Brahms isn’t beautiful. Similarly, the notions of the soul and spirit persist regardless of their lack of relevance to a modern, materialist world [...]

The late philosopher Huston Smith, PhD, points out that we confront three essential relationships with nature, with other people, and with ourselves, and that these relationships correspond to the enduring philosophical traditions of the West, of China and of India.