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Beyond the Post-Modern Mind: The Place of Meaning in a Global Civilization
This new edition of acclaimed essays explores sea changes in the relationship between religion and science over the course of Western culture and suggest possible breakthroughs toward reaching an enlightened consciousness.
295 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1982
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About the author
Huston Smith
127 books319 followersSmith 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 18, 2009
There Will be Some Who Will Understand
While I would not necessarily recommend this book as a first introduction to the Perennial Philosophy, I would recommend it as the best single volume critique of the Modern Western Mindset. Indeed, I wish that this book would have been available in my younger years when I intuitively knew that there was something inherently wrong with the modern worldview yet I was not scholar enough to pin it down. Fortunately, Huston Smith is such a scholar.
While the chapters on the Perennial Philosophy and the relevance of the great religions are concise and to the point, it is the way that he deconstructs the deconstructionists that is unique and powerful. The way he proceeds to point out the flaws in the basic assumptions of the major modern schools of philosophy is refreshing to say the least. There is really no convincing foundation to the materialist (or naturalist) mindset. The scientism and dualist mindset that has grown to dominate the West since the 17th century has no real justifiable basis. The major thinkers in modern philosophy recognize this and have declared their own discipline as dead- except in the most technical and relatively insignificant technical areas. When they conspired to kill metaphysics they killed the source of all possible meaning in the world.
Still, it is not all an attack on modernity. When the author mentioned his discovery of Schuon's works I knew exactly the excitement that he was talking about. They served to validate conclusions that had been brewing in my mind for some time. In the same way, this book has served as a powerful validation.
One thing that jumped out at me was his discussion of the alienation and atomization that characterizes modern life. It is a direct result of the dualist mindset that has gained dominance over the past several centuries. So much of our lives are compartimentalized into separate closed boxes that no one sees us as total human beings- and as such they cannot reflect back this complete understanding to us. Combine this with bankrupt modern philosophies that deny even the possibility of meaning in the world- or our ability to even know reality- and you have the dehumanizing mess that that passes for modernity.
The author repeats the argument of Mara the Tempter when he tried to persuade the Buddha not to teach. The Buddha was told that it was hopeless since no one would be able to fathom his teachings. His response was, " There will be some who will understand."
While I would not necessarily recommend this book as a first introduction to the Perennial Philosophy, I would recommend it as the best single volume critique of the Modern Western Mindset. Indeed, I wish that this book would have been available in my younger years when I intuitively knew that there was something inherently wrong with the modern worldview yet I was not scholar enough to pin it down. Fortunately, Huston Smith is such a scholar.
While the chapters on the Perennial Philosophy and the relevance of the great religions are concise and to the point, it is the way that he deconstructs the deconstructionists that is unique and powerful. The way he proceeds to point out the flaws in the basic assumptions of the major modern schools of philosophy is refreshing to say the least. There is really no convincing foundation to the materialist (or naturalist) mindset. The scientism and dualist mindset that has grown to dominate the West since the 17th century has no real justifiable basis. The major thinkers in modern philosophy recognize this and have declared their own discipline as dead- except in the most technical and relatively insignificant technical areas. When they conspired to kill metaphysics they killed the source of all possible meaning in the world.
Still, it is not all an attack on modernity. When the author mentioned his discovery of Schuon's works I knew exactly the excitement that he was talking about. They served to validate conclusions that had been brewing in my mind for some time. In the same way, this book has served as a powerful validation.
One thing that jumped out at me was his discussion of the alienation and atomization that characterizes modern life. It is a direct result of the dualist mindset that has gained dominance over the past several centuries. So much of our lives are compartimentalized into separate closed boxes that no one sees us as total human beings- and as such they cannot reflect back this complete understanding to us. Combine this with bankrupt modern philosophies that deny even the possibility of meaning in the world- or our ability to even know reality- and you have the dehumanizing mess that that passes for modernity.
The author repeats the argument of Mara the Tempter when he tried to persuade the Buddha not to teach. The Buddha was told that it was hopeless since no one would be able to fathom his teachings. His response was, " There will be some who will understand."
July 11, 2014
A simply wonderful collection of extraordinary thoughts and ideas.
"Relativism holds that one can never escape human subjectivity. If that were true, the statement itself would have no objective value; it would fall by its own verdict. It happens, however, that human beings are quite capable of breaking out of subjectivity; were we unable to do so we would not know what subjectivity is. A dog is enclosed in its subjectivity, the proof being that it is unaware of its condition, for, unlike a man or a woman, it does not possess the gift of objectivity." (page 150)
"Relativism holds that one can never escape human subjectivity. If that were true, the statement itself would have no objective value; it would fall by its own verdict. It happens, however, that human beings are quite capable of breaking out of subjectivity; were we unable to do so we would not know what subjectivity is. A dog is enclosed in its subjectivity, the proof being that it is unaware of its condition, for, unlike a man or a woman, it does not possess the gift of objectivity." (page 150)
May 2, 2007
This book begins with an brief summary of the intellectual tradition called post-modernism. Smith traces the various philosophic underpinnings of post-modernism. He then goes on to rescue meta-physics from post-modern scepticism.
January 11, 2008
Here Huston Smith documents the recent history of philosophy particular the modern and contemporary philosophy and explains how we may have lost our way in the postmodern, deconstructionist world where nothing is certain and where I minds play tricks on us. Smith proposes that we take a look back at the perennial philosophy, borrowing a phrase, I think, from Huxley's book of the same title. He proposes we take use perennial philosophy as a way of extracting ourselves out of the postmodern quagmire.
October 3, 2007
For all of us intellectuals who have trouble understanding the basis for claims about morality and objective right and wrong. Smith is brilliant.
Currently reading
July 11, 2011HUSTON SMITH IS THE MAN MAN
December 21, 2012
Everything by Huston Smith is golden.
Read
July 30, 2017Often times while reading I caught myself thinking, 'what am I reading? What is this paragraph trying to say?'. Truth be told this was a bit challenging read for me, which was great as brain needs to be challenged.
Apparently, science doesn't have all the answers. I will try to write a fuller review a bit later.
Apparently, science doesn't have all the answers. I will try to write a fuller review a bit later.
September 1, 2019
Smith's book, spurred on by a life of devotion, studying and immersing himself in the ways of God, is full of wisdom. At a number of points throughout the book he overturned our common assumptions- as followers of the modern western mindset- To the right side up I should say.
His brief description of philosophy in perennial terms vs what we shamefully call philosophy today is a shining example.
By comprehensively and with great precision criticising the utterly arbitrary and depressing nature of todays dominant worldviews, which each suffer from a fatal reductionism, Smith redirects the conversation to first things.
Over and against scientism, deconstuctionism and other ideologies, Smith places the perennial vision, handed down over the long course of human history, and beckons us once again to a higher way of living. One which incorporates, but transcends, the many little misdirected truths of our ideologies. This is all done with impressive balance and reorients us to wonder and the real.
By reminding us of the higher>lower order of life, in it's many glorious permutations, Huston serves us well.
Memory Eternal!
His brief description of philosophy in perennial terms vs what we shamefully call philosophy today is a shining example.
By comprehensively and with great precision criticising the utterly arbitrary and depressing nature of todays dominant worldviews, which each suffer from a fatal reductionism, Smith redirects the conversation to first things.
Over and against scientism, deconstuctionism and other ideologies, Smith places the perennial vision, handed down over the long course of human history, and beckons us once again to a higher way of living. One which incorporates, but transcends, the many little misdirected truths of our ideologies. This is all done with impressive balance and reorients us to wonder and the real.
By reminding us of the higher>lower order of life, in it's many glorious permutations, Huston serves us well.
Memory Eternal!
Read
November 7, 2012I read this in 2012
April 23, 2017
I simply love Huston Smith.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews