And Live Rejoicing: Chapters from a Charmed Life: Personal Encounters with Spiritual Mavericks, Remarkable Seekers, and the World's Great Religious Leaders

by Huston Smith, Phil Cousineau (With)

Spiritual trailblazer Huston Smith has written comprehensive books about religion and a memoir of his own life, but nowhere has he merged the two elements of seeking and experience with such storytelling flair as he has in these pages. Few have done as much as Smith to explore and illuminate the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, and none have done it with such accessibility, wonder, and delight. In this joyous volume, he looks back on his extraordinary life, describing riveting scenes with unforgettable characters in India, Africa, Tibet, and Japan. Smith’s charm and exuberance come through on every page.

Praise for And Live Rejoicing:

“When I think of Huston Smith, the word radiance comes to mind. And that generous radiance shines through this extraordinary book — a tribute to his delight in the joy at the heart of things. He has had a reverence for and a delight in everyone he has met. Someone once wrote of Shakespeare’s immense intelligent charity. That’s Huston. His unique gift to us is the generous radiance of the joining of his sharp intellect with his universal spirit. At the same time, this book reveals the richness of the great spiritual traditions, which call us to be generously human. A healing and hilarious book for our time.”
— Alan Jones, dean emeritus of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and honorary canon of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres

“One loves what Huston Smith brings to us as one loves an unfailing source of light and warmth. A book — a life — that nourishes the spirit as it opens the heart.”
— Jacob Needleman, author of An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth

“An enthusiastic discourse on authentic joy, and Smith’s joy resonates from every page. His missionary lineage and childhood in rural China...positioned him to look at life through a different lens. As he matured, he made a decision to use that lens to find the humanity at the heart of what he perceived. Humble, kind, and nonconforming, Smith gives readers the gift of observing through the obvious to the core of existence and the eternal spirit that is our birthright.”
— Anna Jedrziewski, Retailing Insight

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2012

About the author

Smith was born in Suzhou, China to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Denver from 1944–1947, moving to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for the next ten years, and then Professor of Philosophy at MIT from 1958–1973. While at MIT he participated in some of the experiments with entheogens that professor Timothy Leary conducted at Harvard University. He then moved to Syracuse University where he was Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status. He now lives in the Berkeley, CA area where he is Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

During his career, Smith not only studied, but practiced Vedanta Hinduism, Zen Buddhism (studying under Goto Zuigan), and Sufism for over ten years each. He is a notable autodidact.

As a young man, Smith, of his own volition, after suddenly turning to mysticism, set out to meet with then-famous author Gerald Heard. Heard responded to Smith's letter, invited him to his Trabuco College (later donated as the Ramakrishna Monastery) in Southern California, and then sent him off to meet the legendary Aldous Huxley. So began Smith's experimentation with meditation, and association with the Vedanta Society in Saint Louis under the auspices of Swami Satprakashananda of the Ramakrishna order.

Via the connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith eventually experimented with Timothy Leary and others at the Center for Personality Research, of which Leary was Research Professor. The experience and history of the era are captured somewhat in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception. In this period, Smith joined in on the Harvard Project as well, an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants.

He has been a friend of the XIVth Dalai Lama for more than forty years, and met and talked to some of the great figures of the century, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Thomas Merton.

He developed an interest in the Traditionalist School formulated by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy. This interest has become a continuing thread in all his writings.

In 1996, Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith." Smith has produced three series for public television: "The Religions of Man," "The Search for America," and (with Arthur Compton) "Science and Human Responsibility." His films on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won awards at international film festivals.

His latest DVD release is The Roots of Fundamentalism - A Conversation with Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It almost seems like it was masterminded for me to be in the right place at the right time” Huston Smith San Francisco Chronicle, May 21st, 2009

I am quite embarrassed to admit, I never heard of Huston Smith before New World Library sent me And Live Rejoicing last month. How did I go my whole spiritual life without picking up one of his books, or seen his name on a quote? I guess the important thing here is I finally was introduced to one of the most “traveled” and amazing men I have ever read about. Not only has Mr. Smith gone around the world 3 times over, he has met, had lunch with, vacationed with, interviewed, toured, studied, meditated and discussed world views with some of the most spiritual and influential authors, gurus, religious leaders, and advocates of all time!

The Title “And Live Rejoicing” reflects Smith's key values on how every moment counts. From getting a flat tire in the Serengeti Plain where lions are amok, to witnessing and experiencing many Native Rituals . The key to life, according to Smith is JOY!

continue reading here Book Review

[Mary-Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 93 years of age, Huston Smith has experienced an incredibly diverse life. And Live Rejoicing is the second installment of his memoir filled with brief yet elegantly worded stories. It is easy to imagine him sitting in a rocking chair by a fire relating these tales. His language is warm and inviting. He traveled around the world ten times over forty year. He met the Dalai Lama and arranged for His Holiness’ first visit to the United States. To open a Union of Concerned Scientists event, he hired a young and unknown singer named Pete Seeger. He counts among his friends the British author Aldous Huxley and the drummer and ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart. His stories weave across the world and through his relationships, yet they are told clearly and simply. Through all of them runs the thread of his deep and abiding faith from which springs his obvious joy. If the reader likes books with open wonder at all things spiritual, this book would certainly satisfy that interest.

[Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, couldn't put it down. Personal interviews and experiences with Spiritual Mavericks, Seekers, Authors, Poets, Physicists, Philosophers and religious leaders.

No one person no matter how intelligent can know all. We are all brothers walking arm in arm down the road of life together, so we should help each other along that road. Reuben Snake.

Each of us knows very little of what we need to know, so we ask our companions. And thus begins the process by which we proceed to understand as much as we can of what it's all about. Oppenheimer on Ecclesiastes.

Gratitude and empathy first, love is third.

[Shelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the great pleasure to meet Huston Smith on a couple of occasions, and to travel with him and his lovely Kendra briefly during a seminal time in my life in the summer of 1984. I've read many of his books and loved every single one, including this one. Reading "And Live Rejoicing..." was like sitting with Professor Smith in his living room, on a mountain top, in an ashram, in a lecture hall or in a holy sanctuary while he shared amazing vignettes from his life. What a journey! He is truly a global treasure.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the retelling of his life stories! Such a gift for getting to the nut of the matter. Though I think it not a natural grace to live and let live, he finds the beauty in others, with an open mind and heart. Just a joy to read and relax with as he walks through the memories.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huston Smith grew up the son of Methodist missionaries in China and became a world renown author and professor of world religions. These essays have a feel of occasionally scattered remembrance as Smith was over 90 when they were written. But they provide an interesting look into his life and occasionally the songs and music that accompanied that life -- My life flows on/How can I keep from singing, Oh happy day, and reminisces of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger.

[Yvonne Flint · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted more depth of thought ... it's Huston Smith, after all.