Huston Cummings Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016) was a scholar of religious studies in the United States, He authored at least thirteen books on world's religions and philosophy, and his book about comparative religion , The World's Religions (originally titled The Religions of Man ) sold over three million copies as of 2017.
116-803: Born and raised in Suzhou, China , in an American Methodist missionary family, Smith moved back to the United States at the age of 17 and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1945 with a PhD in philosophy . He spent the majority of his academic career as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis (1947–1958), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1958–1973) and Syracuse University (1973–1983). In 1983, he retired from Syracuse and moved to Berkeley, California , where he
232-468: A BA from Central Methodist University in 1940 and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1945. While at Chicago, he married Eleanor Wieman, the daughter of Henry Nelson Wieman , a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School . She later changed her name to Kendra. They had three daughters, Karen, Gael, and Kimberly Smith. Smith taught at the University of Denver from 1945 to 1947, and then at Washington University , for
348-711: A local dialect known as Suzhounese , a member of the Wu language family . In addition to American and European expatriates, there is a large Korean community in Suzhou. The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) estimated that there were 15,000 Koreans in the municipality in 2014. That year 850 Korean companies operated in Suzhou, and the Koreans made up the largest number of students at the Suzhou Singapore International School . Suzhou's economy
464-558: A 1,000-bed hospital for adult and pediatric patients. Once the hospital is unveiled, Washington University doctors in St. Louis will be able to provide long-distance health-care services to patients in China through a telemedicine program. The population of Suzhou is predominantly Han Chinese . The official language of broadcast, instruction, etc. is Mandarin Chinese , although many speak
580-412: A 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith . Smith 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. Throughout his career, Smith made himself available to
696-423: A Summer (1939). The novel won Huxley a British literary award, the 1939 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Huxley also incorporated Bird into the novel. During this period, Huxley earned a substantial income as a Hollywood screenwriter; Christopher Isherwood, in his autobiography My Guru and His Disciple , states that Huxley earned more than $ 3,000 per week (approximately $ 50,000 in 2020 dollars) as
812-674: A bad way." Huxley's engagement with Eastern wisdom traditions was entirely compatible with a strong appreciation of modern science . Biographer Milton Birnbaum wrote that Huxley "ended by embracing both science and Eastern religion". In his last book, Literature and Science , Huxley wrote that "The ethical and philosophical implications of modern science are more Buddhist than Christian...." In "A Philosopher's Visionary Prediction", published one month before he died, Huxley endorsed training in general semantics and "the nonverbal world of culturally uncontaminated consciousness", writing that "We must learn how to be mentally silent, we must cultivate
928-628: A circuit of about 10 miles (16 km) with four large suburbs lying outside. The Japanese invaded in 1937, and many gardens were again devastated by the end of the war. In the early 1950s, restoration was done on the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden . The Classical Gardens of Suzhou were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, for their metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture. The urban core of Suzhou, Gusu District ,
1044-476: A decrease of 2.9%. Grain supply was effectively guaranteed through the vigorous construction of commodity grain production bases, wholesale grain markets and reserve systems. Traditional handicrafts Suzhou has a long history of reeling silkworms and has always been an important base for silk production in China. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, Suzhou has been one of the centres of silk weaving and dyeing in
1160-533: A dystopian London, Huxley portrays a society operating on the principles of mass production and Pavlovian conditioning . Huxley was strongly influenced by F. Matthias Alexander , on whom he based a character in Eyeless in Gaza . During this period, Huxley began to write and edit non-fiction works on pacifist issues, including Ends and Means (1937), An Encyclopedia of Pacifism , and Pacifism and Philosophy , and
1276-476: A leading advocate of the Perennial Philosophy , which holds that the same metaphysical truths are found in all the major religions of the world. In the 1920s, Huxley was skeptical of religion, "Earlier in his career he had rejected mysticism, often poking fun at it in his novels [...]" Gerald Heard became an influential friend of Huxley, and since the mid-1920s had been exploring Vedanta, as
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#17327828815191392-454: A man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.” Aldous Huxley's agnosticism, together with his speculative propensity, made it difficult for him fully embrace any form of institutionalised religion. Over the last 30 years of his life, he accepted and wrote about concepts found in Vedanta and was
1508-448: A screenwriter, and that he used much of it to transport Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. In March 1938, Huxley's friend Anita Loos , a novelist and screenwriter, put him in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which hired him for Madame Curie which was originally to star Greta Garbo and be directed by George Cukor . (Eventually, the film
1624-677: A visiting professor of religious studies at the University of California, Berkeley until his death. In 1997, Smith entered into an agreement with the Syracuse University Archives to donate his papers, resulting in a large collection of published books, articles, reviews, or endorsements. During his career, Smith studied Vedanta (studying under Swami Satprakashananda, founder of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis ), Zen Buddhism (studying under Goto Zuigan ), and Sufism of Islam for more than ten years each. As
1740-454: A way of understanding individual human life and the individual's relationship to the universe. Heard and Huxley both saw the political implications of Vedanta, which could help bring about peace, specifically that there is an underlying reality that all humans and the universe are a part of. In the 1930s, Huxley and Gerald Heard both became active in the effort to avoid another world war, writing essays and eventually publicly speaking in support of
1856-539: A wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity." In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God , translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, which was published by the Vedanta Society of Southern California. As an advocate of the perennial philosophy, Huxley
1972-484: A white tiger appeared on the hill to guard it following the burial The hill has been a tourist destination for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, as is evident from the poetry and calligraphy carved into rocks on the hill. The Song dynasty poet, Su Shi said, "It is a lifelong pity if having visited Suzhou you did not visit Tiger Hill." Yunyan Pagoda (or Huqiu Tower), built in 961, is a Chinese pagoda built on Tiger Hill in Suzhou. It has several other names, including
2088-471: A writer and broadcaster, philosopher and interpreter of contemporary science. Heard was nearly five years older than Huxley, and introduced him to a variety of profound ideas, subtle interconnections, and various emerging spiritual and psychotherapy methods. Works of this period included novels about the dehumanising aspects of scientific progress , (his magnum opus Brave New World ), and on pacifist themes ( Eyeless in Gaza ). In Brave New World , set in
2204-651: A young man, Smith suddenly turned from traditional Methodist Christianity to mysticism , influenced by the writings of Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard . In 1947, before moving from Denver to St. Louis, Smith set out to meet with Heard. Heard responded to Smith's letter, inviting him to his Trabuco College (later donated as the Ramakrishna Monastery of the Vedanta Society of Southern California ) in Trabuco Canyon , Southern California. Heard made arrangements to have Smith meet Huxley. Smith recounts in
2320-513: Is a preferential tax policy for limited partnership venture capital enterprises in the Suzhou Industrial Park. Suzhou is a highly developed economic region in China and is the economic centre, industrial, commercial and logistical hub city of Jiangsu province, as well as an important financial, cultural, artistic, educational and transportation centre. Agriculture In 2013, total grain production reached 1,311,200 tonnes,
2436-476: Is also a popular residential district for many foreigners who work and live in Suzhou, as well as 'new Suzhou' residents who migrate to the area in search of work opportunities. The Suzhou Industrial Park Export Processing Zone was approved to be established by the government in April 2000, with a planning area of 2.9 km (1.1 sq mi). It is in Suzhou Industrial Park set up by China and Singapore. Inside
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#17327828815192552-401: Is also one of China's foremost destinations for foreign investment, based on its relative proximity to Shanghai and comparatively low operating costs. The municipal government has enacted various measures to encourage FDI in a number of manufacturing (e.g. pharmaceutical, electronic goods, automobile) and service (e.g. banking, logistics, research services) sectors. Included among these measures
2668-415: Is based primarily on its large manufacturing sector—China's first largest(from 2020)—including iron and steel, IT and electronic equipment, and textile products. The city's service sector is notably well-developed, primarily owing to tourism, which brought in a total of RMB 152 billion of revenue in 2013. Suzhou's overall GDP exceeded RMB 1.3 trillion in 2013 (up 9.6 percent from the year previous). The city
2784-500: Is doubly valuable; it is valuable because it gives the experiencer a better understanding of himself and the world and because it may help him to lead a less self-centered and more creative life." Having tried LSD in the 1950s, he became an advisor to Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in their early-1960s research work with psychedelic drugs at Harvard. Personality differences led Huxley to distance himself from Leary, when Huxley grew concerned that Leary had become too keen on promoting
2900-410: Is informally called the "Old Town." Suzhou Industrial Park is to the east of the old town, and Suzhou High & New Technology Development Zone is to the west. In 2000, the original Wu County was divided into two districts, Xiangcheng and Wuzhong . They now form the northern and southern parts of the city of Suzhou. In 2012, the original Wujiang City became Wujiang District of Suzhou City. Suzhou
3016-482: Is listed as the 48th cities by scientific output according to the Nature Index 2022. The city is home to universities, including Soochow University , Suzhou University of Science and Technology , Xi'an Jiaotong–Liverpool University , and Changshu Institute of Technology . The city's tourist attractions include canals, stone bridges , pagodas , and gardens. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou were added to
3132-547: Is one of the most prosperous cities in China. Its development has a direct correlation with the growth of its satellite cities , including Kunshan , Taicang , Changshu , and Zhangjiagang , which together with the city of Suzhou form the Suzhou prefecture. The Suzhou prefecture is home to many high-tech enterprises. Suzhou is on the Lake Tai Plain south of the Yangtze River , about 100 km (60 mi) to
3248-733: Is the Hanyu Pinyin spelling of the Putonghua pronunciation of the name. Prior to the adoption of pinyin, it was variously romanized as Soo-chow, Suchow, or Su-chow. Suzhou, the cradle of Wu culture , is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze Basin. By the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou, local Baiyue tribes named the Gou Wu are recorded living in the area which would become
3364-600: Is the unmanifested principle of all manifestations. That the Ground is at once transcendent and immanent. That it is possible for human beings to love, know and, from virtually, to become actually identical with the divine Ground. That to achieve this unitive knowledge of the Godhead is the final end and purpose of human existence. That there is a Law or Dharma which must be obeyed, a Tao or Way which must be followed, if men are to achieve their final end. For Huxley, one of
3480-692: The Center for Personality Research , where Leary was research professor. The group began experimenting with psychedelics and what Smith later called "empirical metaphysics". The experience and history of the group are described in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception . During this period, Smith was also part of the Harvard Psilocybin Project , an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants. However, he gave voice to
3596-489: The Eastern Han dynasty , mostly due to emigration from northern China . From the 10th century onwards, it has been an important economic, cultural, and commercial center, as well as the largest non- capital city in the world, until it was overtaken by Shanghai. Since economic reforms began in 1978 , Suzhou attained GDP growth rates of about 14% in 35 years. In 2023, Suzhou had 5 million registered residents. Suzhou
Huston Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
3712-552: The McCarran Act , the judge had to adjourn the proceedings. He withdrew his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S. In 1959, Huxley turned down an offer to be made a Knight Bachelor by the Macmillan government without giving a reason; his brother Julian had been knighted in 1958, while his brother Andrew would be knighted in 1974. In the fall semester of 1960 Huxley was invited by Professor Huston Smith to be
3828-663: The Peace Pledge Union . But, they remained frustrated by the conflicting goals of the political left – some favoring pacifism (as did Huxley and Heard), while other wanting to take up arms against fascism in the Spanish Civil War . After joining the PPU, Huxley expressed his frustration with politics in a letter from 1935, “…the thing finally resolves itself into a religious problem — an uncomfortable fact which one must be prepared to face and which I have come during
3944-499: The Suzhou Confucian Temple was founded by famed poet and writer Fan Zhongyan . It became a venue for the imperial civil examinations and then developed into the modern Suzhou High School in the 1910s. After February 1130, riots and unrest disrupted Suzhou. In 1356, Suzhou became the capital of Zhang Shicheng , King of Wu . In 1367, Zhang's rival Zhu Yuanzhang took the city after a 10-month siege. Zhu – who
4060-609: The Suzhou Museum (designed by I. M. Pei ), Suzhou Silk Museum , and the China Kunqu Museum . As a result of its recent rapid population increase, healthcare demand in Suzhou is increasing rapidly. In July 2019, Washington University School of Medicine announced a collaboration with Huici Health Management Co., and the Xiangcheng District , to open the new Huici Medical Center, which will include
4176-405: The Suzhou railway station , connecting it with Shanghai , opened on 16 July 1906. Just prior to World War I , there were 7000 silk looms in operation, as well as a cotton mill and a large trade in rice. As late as the early 20th century, much of the city consisted of islands connected by rivers, creeks, and canals to the surrounding countryside. Prior to their demolition, the city walls ran in
4292-480: The Tang dynasty and has 53 arches with a length of 317 meters. It was made out of stone from Jinshan Mountain and is the longest standing bridge of its kind in China. The bridge was included on the list of national monuments (resolution 5–285) in 2001. Tiger Hill is known for its natural environment and historical sites. The hill is so named because it is said to look like a crouching tiger. Another legend states that
4408-608: The Vedanta Society of Southern California , founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda . Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood and other followers, he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices. From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to Vedanta and the West , published by the society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John Van Druten from 1951 through 1962. In 1942 The Gospel of Ramakrishna
4524-556: The "Leaning Tower of China" (as referred to by historian O.G. Ingles) and the Yunyan Temple Tower. The tower rises to a height of 47 m (154 ft). It is a seven-story octagonal building built with blue bricks. In more than a thousand years the tower has gradually slanted due to forces of nature. Now the top and bottom of the tower vary by 2.32 meters. The entire structure weighs some 7,000,000 kilograms (15,000,000 lb), supported by internal brick columns. However,
4640-403: The 1930s, connected with him again in the U.S. in the early 1960s and wrote that "the enormous intellect, the beautifully modulated voice, the gentle objectivity, all were unchanged. He was one of the most highly civilized human beings I had ever met." Biographer Harold H. Watts wrote that Huxley's writings in the "final and extended period of his life" are "the work of a man who is meditating on
4756-783: The 2010 documentary Huxley on Huxley meeting Huxley at his desert home. Smith was told to look up Swami Satprakashananda of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis once he settled in St. Louis. So began Smith's experimentation with meditation and association with the Vedanta Societies of the Ramakrishna Order . Smith developed an interest in the Traditionalist School formulated by René Guénon , Frithjof Schuon and Ananda Coomaraswamy . Due to his connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith went on to meet Timothy Leary , Richard Alpert ( Ram Dass ), and others at
Huston Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
4872-541: The Bates method and the extreme and pure natural lighting of the southwestern American desert. He reported that, for the first time in more than 25 years, he was able to read without glasses and without strain. He even tried driving a car along the dirt road beside the ranch. He wrote a book about his experiences with the Bates method, The Art of Seeing , which was published in 1942 (U.S.), 1943 (UK). The book contained some generally disputed theories, and its publication created
4988-651: The Carnegie Visiting professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As part of the MIT centennial program of events organised by the Department of Humanities, Huxley presented a series of lectures titled, "What a Piece of Work is a Man" which concerned history, language, and art. Robert S. de Ropp (scientist, humanitarian, and author), who had spent time with Huxley in England in
5104-524: The Export Processing Zone, all the infrastructures are of high standard. The Suzhou New District was established in 1990. In November 1992, the zone was approved to be the national-level hi-tech industrial zone. By the end of 2007, foreign-invested companies had a registered capital worth of US$ 13 billion, of which US$ 6.8 billion was paid in. SND hosts now more than 1,500 foreign companies. Some 40 Fortune 500 companies set up 67 projects in
5220-915: The Garsington lifestyle. Jobs were very scarce, but in 1919, John Middleton Murry was reorganising the Athenaeum and invited Huxley to join the staff. He accepted immediately, and quickly married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys (1899–1955), also at Garsington. They lived with their young son in Italy part of the time during the 1920s, where Huxley would visit his friend D. H. Lawrence . Following Lawrence's death in 1930 (he and Maria were present at his death in Provence), Huxley edited Lawrence's letters (1932). Very early in 1929, in London, Huxley met Gerald Heard ,
5336-526: The Jiangnan Canal, Grand Canal (China) , includes ten city gates and over 20 stone bridges of traditional design and historic areas that have been well preserved, as well as temples and pavilions. There are a full 24 waterways in Suzhou near the Grand Canal. In 2015, both 800-year-old Pingjiang Road Historical Block ( 平江路 ) and 1,200-year-old Shantang Street Scenic Area ( 山塘街 ) were added to
5452-738: The Main Canal or encircling canal of Suzhou. Originally built during the Warring States period in the state of Wu, historians estimate it to be around 2,500 years old. It is now part of the Pan Gate Scenic Area . It is known for the "three landmarks of Pan Gate". They are the Ruiguang Pagoda , the earliest pagoda in Suzhou built in 247 BC, the Wu Gate Bridge , the entrance to the gate at that time over
5568-762: The Singapore Industrial Park). The project officially commenced on 12 May in the same year. SIP has a jurisdiction area of 288 km (111 sq mi), of which, the China-Singapore cooperation area covers 80 km (31 sq mi) with a planned residential population of 1.2 million. SIP is home to the Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District, an area of universities and higher education institutions, including Soochow University and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University . Suzhou Industrial Park
5684-628: The U.S., mainly southern California , until his death, and for a time in Taos, New Mexico , where he wrote Ends and Means (1937). The book contains tracts on war , inequality , religion and ethics . Heard introduced Huxley to Vedanta ( Upanishad-centered philosophy ), meditation , and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa . In 1938, Huxley befriended Jiddu Krishnamurti , whose teachings he greatly admired. Huxley and Krishnamurti entered into an enduring exchange (sometimes edging on debate) over many years, with Krishnamurti representing
5800-797: The World Heritage List include the Couple's Retreat Garden , the Garden of Cultivation , and the Retreat and Reflection Garden . Five Peaks Garden which dates to the Ming dynasty (1522–1566) is also located in the Suzhou. Ming painter Wen Boren established his home on the site. The original name was Qiayin Shanfang and the garden is located at Changmin West Street. The Suzhou section of
5916-540: The album continue to support the Gyuto Tantric University . Because of his belief in religion, however, Smith was mistrusted by his colleagues, leading MIT to prohibit him from teaching graduate students. In 1973, Smith moved to Syracuse University , where he was Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until he took emeritus status in 1983. That year, Smith moved to Berkeley, California , where he remained
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#17327828815196032-411: The area of modern Suzhou. In 514 BC, King Helü of Wu relocated his court nearby and called the settlement Helü City after himself. His minister Wu Zixu was closely involved with its planning and it was this site that grew into present-day Suzhou. The height of his tower on Gusu Hill ( Gusutai ) passed into Chinese legend. In 496 BC, King Helü was buried at Tiger Hill . In 473 BC, Wu
6148-409: The art of pure receptivity.... [T]he individual must learn to decondition himself, must be able to cut holes in the fence of verbalized symbols that hems him in." Huxley described himself as agnostic, a word coined by his grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley , a scientist who championed the scientific method and was a major supporter of Darwin's theories. This is the definition he gave, “…it is wrong for
6264-465: The article: For those of us who are not congenitally the members of an organized church, who have found that humanism and nature-worship are not enough, who are not content to remain in the darkness of ignorance, the squalor of vice or the other squalor of respectability, the minimum working hypothesis would seem to run to about this: That there is a Godhead, Ground, Brahman, Clear Light of the Void, which
6380-419: The attractive features of Vedanta is that it provided a historic and established philosophy and practice that embraced the Perennial Philosophy ; that there is a commonality of experiences across all the mystical branches of the world's religions. Huxley wrote in the introduction of his book The Perennial Philosophy : The Perennial Philosophy is primarily concerned with the one, divine Reality substantial to
6496-489: The breeze, adding to the charm of the river bank". Boat tours are offered on the waterways of this city that was dubbed the "Venice of the East" by Marco Polo because of its criss-crossing canals and stone bridges. The Grand Canal (from Beijing to Zhejiang province) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Suzhou Taihu National Tourism and Vacation Zone ( 苏州太湖国家旅游度假区 ) is in the western part of Suzhou, 15 km (9 mi) from
6612-674: The busiest passenger stations in China. It is served by the Beijing–Shanghai railway (mostly "conventional" trains to stations throughout China) and the Shanghai-Nanjing intercity railway (high-speed D- and G-series trains providing frequent service primarily between Shanghai and Nanjing). It takes only 25 minutes to reach Shanghai railway station on the fastest G-series trains and less than 1 hour to Nanjing. Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( / ˈ ɔː l d ə s / AWL -dəs ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963)
6728-430: The central problems of many modern men". Huxley had deeply felt apprehensions about the future the developed world might make for itself. From these, he made some warnings in his writings and talks. In a 1958 televised interview conducted by journalist Mike Wallace , Huxley outlined several major concerns: the difficulties and dangers of world overpopulation; the tendency towards distinctly hierarchical social organisation;
6844-494: The circle. Not long afterwards, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, The Perennial Philosophy , which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world. Huxley became a close friend of Remsen Bird, president of Occidental College . He spent much time at the college in the Eagle Rock neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The college appears as "Tarzana College" in his satirical novel After Many
6960-421: The city center. Gate to the East is a 301.8 meter, 74-story skyscraper in Suzhou's central business district, built in 2015 at a cost of 700 million USD and is currently the tallest building in Suzhou. Suzhou IFS is a 450 meter tall building home to 95 floors near Gate to the East. You can see the tower from Huqiu which is a special tourist attraction in Suzhou. Pan Gate is on the southwest corner of
7076-461: The city, with its surroundings as an economic base, represented an extraordinary source of tax revenue. When the shipwrecked Korean official Choe Bu had a chance to see much of Eastern China from Zhejiang to Liaoning on his way home in 1488, he described Suzhou in his travel report as exceeding every other city. Under the Ming , Suzhou was a prosperous center of the Nanzhili area controlled by
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#17327828815197192-540: The city. When the Grand Canal was completed, Suzhou found itself strategically located on a major trade route. Suzhou served as the regional metropolis of industry and foreign commerce on the southeastern coast of China. During the Tang dynasty , the great poet Bai Juyi constructed the Shantang Canal (better known as " Shantang Street ") to connect the city with Tiger Hill for tourists. In AD 1035,
7308-760: The communities where he resided. Toward the end of his life, while living in Berkeley, California, he participated in the Pacific Coast Theological Society at the Graduate Theological Union. He also attended local churches, including Trinity United Methodist, First Congregational Church, and Epworth United Methodist. On the occasion of publishing Tales of Wonder , in 2009 he co-convened "community conversations" at Epworth, during which he responded to questions about his life and work. For his lifelong commitment to bringing
7424-494: The contrast between himself and Leary when he reminisced about encountering the exile Tim Leary in Switzerland, years later (early 1970s): “he was still a fugitive from lawful society—kicked out of it as he had been kicked out of West Point, Harvard University, and Zihuatanejo.” During his tenure at Syracuse University, he was informed by leaders of the Onondaga tribe about the Native American religious traditions and practices, which resulted in an additional chapter in his book on
7540-503: The country, and in the Ming dynasty , Suzhou silk was praised as the "clothing of the world". The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) is the largest cooperative project between the Chinese and the Singaporean government. It is beside Jinji Lake , which lies to the east of the Suzhou Old City. On 26 February 1994, Vice Premier Li Lanqing and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew , representing China and Singapore respectively, signed an agreement to jointly develop Suzhou Industrial Park (originally called
7656-409: The criticism to Huxley's widow, Laura: [December 11, 1963, a few weeks after Aldous Huxley’s death] The publisher had suggested John Lehmann should write the biography. Laura [Huxley] asked me what I thought of the idea, so I had to tell her that John disbelieves in, and is aggressive toward, the metaphysical beliefs that Aldous held. All he would describe would be a clever young intellectual who later
7772-475: The crucial importance of evaluating the use of technology in mass societies susceptible to persuasion; the tendency to promote modern politicians to a naive public as well-marketed commodities. In a December 1962 letter to brother Julian, summarizing a paper he had presented in Santa Barbara , he wrote, "What I said was that if we didn't pretty quickly start thinking of human problems in ecological terms rather than in terms of power politics we should very soon be in
7888-405: The district. The Suzhou Dongwu currently play in China League One , the second highest level of Chinese professional football competition. The 13,000 seat Suzhou Industrial Park Sports Arena was one of the venues for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup . Suzhou is on the Shanghai-Nanjing corridor which carries three parallel railways. Suzhou railway station , near the city center, is among
8004-456: The division of Jiangnan into the separate provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui at some point during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor . The Taipings captured the city in 1860. Many of its former buildings and gardens were "almost... a heap of ruins" by the time of their recovery by Charles Gordon 's Ever-Victorious Army in November 1863. Nonetheless, by 1880, its population was estimated to have recovered to about 500,000, which remained stable for
8120-531: The drugs rather indiscriminately, even playing the rebel with a fondness for publicity. Differing accounts exist about the details of the quality of Huxley's eyesight at specific points in his life. Circa 1939, Huxley encountered the Bates method , in which he was instructed by Margaret Darst Corbett . In 1940, Huxley relocated from Hollywood to a 40-acre (16 ha) ranchito in the high desert hamlet of Llano, California , in northern Los Angeles County . Huxley then said that his sight improved dramatically with
8236-497: The experience he had there of "an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence" was an important source for the novel. Huxley completed his first (unpublished) novel at the age of 17 and began writing seriously in his early twenties, establishing himself as a successful writer and social satirist. His first published novels were social satires, Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925), and Point Counter Point (1928). Brave New World (1932)
8352-594: The last year to find it easier to face.” Huxley and Heard turned their attention to addressing the big problems of the world through transforming the individual, "[...] a forest is only as green as the individual trees of the forest is green [...]" This was the genesis of the Human Potential Movement , that gained traction in the 1960s. In the late 1930s, Huxley and Heard immigrated to the United States, and beginning in 1939 and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had an extensive association with
8468-1144: The latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist . He grew interested in philosophical mysticism , as well as universalism , addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline . In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia , respectively. Huxley
8584-519: The list of China's "National Historic and Cultural Streets". Pingjiang Road runs parallel to the Pingjiang River for 1.5 kilometers and is lined with homes and some teahouses. Shantang Street, over twice as long at 3.8 km, is described by the BBC as retaining "the alluring qualities of an old canal-side street: whitewashed buildings are completed by red-tasseled lanterns that swing softly in
8700-533: The list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997 and 2000. During the Zhou dynasty , a settlement known as Gusu after nearby Mount Gusu ( Chinese : 姑 苏 山 ; pinyin : Gūsūshān ) became the capital of the state of Wu . From this role, it also came to be called Wu as well. In 514 BC, King Helü of Wu established a new capital nearby at Helü City and this grew into
8816-415: The lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship and presented themselves for examination. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state that his objections were based on religious ideals, the only excuse allowed under
8932-678: The manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that it cannot be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit. Huxley also occasionally lectured at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara Vedanta temples. Two of those lectures have been released on CD: Knowledge and Understanding and Who Are We? from 1955. Many of Huxley's contemporaries and critics were disappointed by Huxley's turn to mysticism; Isherwood describes in his diary how he had to explain
9048-505: The modern city of Suzhou. These tribes formed villages on the edges of the hills above the wetlands surrounding Lake Tai . Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian records traditional accounts that the Zhou lord Taibo established the state of Wu at nearby Wuxi during the 11th century BC, civilizing the local people and improving their agriculture and mastery of irrigation. The Wu court later moved to Gusu within
9164-587: The modern city. During the Warring States period , Helü City continued to serve as the local seat of government. From the areas it administered, it became known as Wuxian ( lit . " Wu County ") and Wujun (" Wu Commandery "). Under the Qin , it was known as Kuaiji after its greatly enlarged commandery, which was named for the reputed resting place of Yu the Great near modern Shaoxing in Zhejiang . The name "Suzhou"
9280-435: The monks chanting and realized that each individual was producing a chord, composed of a fundamental note and overtones. He returned to record the chanting in 1967 and asked acoustic engineers at MIT to analyze the sound. They confirmed the finding, which is an example of overtone singing . Smith has called this the singular empirical discovery of his career. The recording was released as Music of Tibet (1967). Royalties from
9396-405: The more rarefied, detached, ivory-tower perspective and Huxley, with his pragmatic concerns, the more socially and historically informed position. Huxley wrote a foreword to Krishnamurti's quintessential statement, The First and Last Freedom (1954). Huxley and Heard became Vedantists in the group formed around Hindu Swami Prabhavananda , and subsequently introduced Christopher Isherwood to
9512-417: The most UNESCO-recognized gardens in the world. The Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden are among the four most famous classical gardens in China. The Canglang Pavilion , Lion Grove Garden , Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden, respectively representing the garden styles of traditional architecture are called the four most famous gardens in Suzhou. Other gardens inscribed on
9628-420: The next 10 years. In 1958, Smith was appointed professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he remained until 1973. While there, he participated in experiments with psychedelics that professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert conducted at Harvard University . In 1964, during a trip to India, Smith stayed in a Gyuto Tibetan Buddhist monastery. During his visit he heard
9744-627: The next few decades. In the late 19th century, the town was particularly known for its wide range of silks and its Chinese-language publishing industry. The town was first opened to direct foreign trades by the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the First Sino-Japanese War and by the most favored nation clauses of earlier unequal treaties with the Great Powers . The new expatriates opened a European-and-Chinese school in 1900 and
9860-491: The only road of escape from the self–imposed necessity of self–destruction. As a means of personally realizing the "divine Reality", he described a "Minimum Working Hypothesis" in the Introduction to Swami Prabhavananda's and Christopher Isherwood's translation of the Bhagavad Gita and in a free-standing essay in Vedanta and the West , a publication of Vedanta Press . This is the outline, that Huxley elaborates on in
9976-525: The posthumous publication of J. D. Unwin 's 1940 book Hopousia or The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society . On 21 October 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four , congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is". In his letter, he predicted: "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narcohypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that
10092-592: The publication of The Doors of Perception , in which he recounted this experience, Huxley and Swami Prabhavananda disagreed about the meaning and importance of the psychedelic drug experience, which may have caused the relationship to cool, but Huxley continued to write articles for the society's journal, lecture at the temple, and attend social functions. Huxley later had an experience on mescaline that he considered more profound than those detailed in The Doors of Perception . Huxley wrote that "The mystical experience
10208-522: The relationship between theology, mythology, and science" in a special session in 2012. In 2015, the society presented Smith with their Codron Prize for The World's Religions . Suzhou, China Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China . As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis , it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by
10324-494: The secondary capital at Nanjing ; scholar-officials constructed the area's most famous private gardens during this period in a " Jiangnan style" copied at the time by Shanghai 's Yu Garden and later by parts of the empress dowager Cixi 's Summer Palace . After the Qing occupied the area in 1644 and 1645, it was reorganized as Jiangnan Province , whose "Right" Governor controlled its eastern prefectures from Suzhou until
10440-468: The southeastern corner of the city proper of Suzhou. They are artistic and natural as they are close at hand. One of them is called "Clarity-Dispensing Pagoda," and the other, the "Beneficence Pagoda"; they are in the same form of architecture. There are many legends about this one-thousand-year-old pagodas. It is charming that the exquisite and straight Twin Pagoda look like two inserted writing brushes. There
10556-437: The summer can push temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F). The hottest temperature recorded since 1951 was at 41.0 °C (106 °F) on 7 August 2013, and the lowest at −9.8 °C (14 °F) on 16 January 1958, though an unofficial record low of −12 °C (10 °F) was recorded on 10 January 1933. Suzhou is famous for its over 60 Classical Gardens , collectively a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The city has
10672-594: The tower leans roughly 3 degrees due to the cracking of two supporting columns. Beisi Pagoda or North Temple Pagoda is a Chinese pagoda at Bao'en Temple in Suzhou. It rises nine stories in a height of 76 m (249 ft). It is the tallest Chinese pagoda south of the Yangtze river. Twin Pagodas ( simplified Chinese : 苏州双塔 ; traditional Chinese : 蘇州雙塔 ) lie in the Dinghui Temple Lane in
10788-518: The water passage and the highest bridge in Suzhou at the time, and the Pan Gate . The Ruigang Pagoda is constructed of brick with wooden platforms and has Buddhist carvings at its base. Baodai Bridge stretches across the Tantai Lake in the suburbs of Suzhou. To raise money to finance the bridge, the magistrate donated his expensive belt, hence the name. The bridge was first built in 806 A.D. in
10904-416: The west of Shanghai and just over 200 km (120 mi) east of Nanjing . Suzhou has a four-season humid subtropical climate with hot, humid summers and cool, cloudy, damp winters with occasional snowfall ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ). Northwesterly winds blowing from Siberia during winter can cause temperatures to fall below freezing at night, while southerly or southwesterly winds during
11020-821: The world's religions together to promote understanding, social justice and peace, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts . Smith was named to be one of the first recipients of the Order of Universal Interfaith and Universal Order of Sannyasa's Interfaith-Interspiritual Sage Award in January 2010. He received the award at his home on February 23, 2010. The Pacific Coast Theological Society celebrated "the lifetime of achievements of Professor Emeritus Huston Smith by considering
11136-732: The world's religions. In 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that the use of peyote as a religious sacrament by Native Americans was not protected under the US Constitution . Smith took up the cause as a religion scholar. With his help in 1994, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act amendment, providing legislative protection to a religious practice that the Supreme Court had decided lacks constitutional protection. Smith
11252-818: Was 14 (his father later remarried). He contracted the eye disease keratitis punctata in 1911; this "left [him] practically blind for two to three years" and "ended his early dreams of becoming a doctor". In October 1913, Huxley entered Balliol College, Oxford , where he studied English literature. He volunteered for the British Army in January 1916, for the Great War ; however, he was rejected on health grounds, being half-blind in one eye. His eyesight later partly recovered. He edited Oxford Poetry in 1916, and in June of that year graduated BA with first class honours . His brother Julian wrote: I believe his blindness
11368-463: Was a visiting professor of religious studies at the University of California, Berkeley , until his death. On May 31, 1919, Huston Cummings Smith was born in Dzang Zok , Suzhou, China , to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. His first language was Mandarin Chinese , spoken in the Suzhou dialect. Upon emigrating to the United States to complete his education, he received
11484-474: Was a blessing in disguise. For one thing, it put paid to his idea of taking up medicine as a career ... His uniqueness lay in his universalism. He was able to take all knowledge for his province. Following his years at Balliol, Huxley, being financially indebted to his father, decided to find employment. He taught French for a year at Eton College , where Eric Blair (who was to take the pen name George Orwell ) and Steven Runciman were among his pupils. He
11600-432: Was a practicing Christian, with a Vedantic understanding, who credited his faith to his missionary parents who had "instilled in me a Christianity that was able to withstand the dominating secular culture of modernity". While at Washington University, Smith was the host of two National Educational Television series (NET – the forerunner of PBS): The Religions of Man and Search for America . In 1996, Bill Moyers devoted
11716-530: Was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works , as well as essays, narratives , and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley family , he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford , with a degree in English literature . Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry , before going on to publish travel writing , satire, and screenplays. He spent
11832-410: Was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) . In 1937, Huxley moved to Hollywood with his wife Maria, son Matthew Huxley , and friend Gerald Heard. Cyril Connolly wrote, of the two intellectuals (Huxley and Heard) in the late 1930s, "all European avenues had been exhausted in the search for a way forward – politics, art, science – pitching them both toward the US in 1937." Huxley lived in
11948-472: Was born in Godalming , Surrey, England, on 26 July 1894. He was the third son of the writer and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley , who edited The Cornhill Magazine , and his first wife, Julia Arnold , who founded Prior's Field School . Julia was the niece of poet and critic Matthew Arnold and the sister of Mrs. Humphry Ward . Julia named him Aldous after a character in one of her sister's novels. Aldous
12064-511: Was completed by MGM in 1943 with a different director and cast.) Huxley received screen credit for Pride and Prejudice (1940) and was paid for his work on a number of other films, including Jane Eyre (1944). He was commissioned by Walt Disney in 1945 to write a script based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the biography of the story's author, Lewis Carroll . The script was not used, however. Huxley wrote an introduction to
12180-409: Was corrupted by Hollywood and went astray after spooks. In early 1953, Huxley had his first experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline . Huxley had initiated a correspondence with Doctor Humphry Osmond , a British psychiatrist then employed in a Canadian institution, and eventually asked him to supply a dose of mescaline; Osmond obliged and supervised Huxley's session in southern California. After
12296-429: Was defeated and annexed by Yue , a kingdom to its southeast; Yue was annexed in turn by Chu in 306 BC. Remnants of the ancient kingdom include pieces of its 2,500-year-old city wall and the gate through it at Pan Gate . The city was originally laid out according to a symbolic three-by-three grid of nine squares , with the royal palace occupying the central position. During the Warring States period, Suzhou
12412-509: Was described by his brother, Julian, as someone who frequently contemplated "the strangeness of things". According to his cousin and contemporary Gervas Huxley, he had an early interest in drawing . Huxley's education began in his father's well-equipped botanical laboratory, after which he enrolled at Hillside School near Godalming. He was taught there by his own mother for several years until she became terminally ill. After Hillside he went on to Eton College . His mother died in 1908, when he
12528-565: Was drawn to the Gita , as he explained in the Introduction, written during WWII, when it was still not clear who would win: The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the most systematic scriptural statement of the Perennial Philosophy. To a world at war, a world that, because it lacks the intellectual and spiritual prerequisites to peace, can only hope to patch up some kind of precarious armed truce, it stands pointing, clearly and unmistakably, to
12644-565: Was first officially used for the city in AD 589 during the Sui dynasty . Su ( 蘇 or 苏 ) in its name is a contraction of the old name Gusu. It refers to "Satisfied place" in the Old Yue language. The zhou 州 originally meant something like a province or county (cf. Guizhou ), but often came to be used metonymously for the capital of such a region (cf. Guangzhou , Hangzhou , etc.). Suzhou
12760-658: Was his fifth novel and first dystopian work. In the 1920s, he was also a contributor to Vanity Fair and British Vogue magazines. During the First World War , Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor near Oxford, home of Lady Ottoline Morrell , working as a farm labourer. While at the Manor, he met several Bloomsbury Group figures, including Bertrand Russell , Alfred North Whitehead , and Clive Bell . Later, in Crome Yellow (1921), he caricatured
12876-531: Was mainly remembered as being an incompetent schoolmaster unable to keep order in class. Nevertheless, Blair and others spoke highly of his excellent command of language. Huxley also worked for a time during the 1920s at Brunner and Mond , an advanced chemical plant in Billingham in County Durham, northeast England. According to an introduction to his science fiction novel Brave New World (1932),
12992-542: Was originally a single-story house with three rooms just like a writing brush holder with the shadows of the two pagodas reclining on its roof at sunset. To the east of the pagoda is a square five-story bell building built in the Ming dynasty which appears exactly like a thick ink stick. So there is a saying that "the Twin Pagodas are as writing brushes while the bell building as ink stick". The city's major museums include
13108-564: Was published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York. The book was translated by Swami Nikhilananda , with help from Joseph Campbell and Margaret Woodrow Wilson , daughter of US president Woodrow Wilson. Aldous Huxley wrote in the foreword, "...a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such
13224-471: Was soon to proclaim himself the first emperor of the Ming dynasty – demolished the old city walls at the center of Suzhou's walled city and imposed crushing taxes on the city and prefecture's powerful families. Despite the heavy taxation and the forced exile of some prominent citizens' south, Suzhou was soon prosperous again. During the early Ming, Suzhou Prefecture supervised the Yangtze shoals which later became Shanghai 's Chongming Island . For centuries
13340-429: Was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley , the zoologist , agnostic , and controversialist who had often been called "Darwin's Bulldog". His brother Julian Huxley and half-brother Andrew Huxley also became outstanding biologists. Aldous had another brother, Noel Trevenen Huxley (1889–1914), who took his own life after a period of clinical depression . As a child, Huxley's nickname was "Ogie", short for "Ogre". He
13456-752: Was the seat of Wu County ( 吳縣 , Wú xiàn) and Commandery ( 吳 郡 , Wú jùn ). Following the Qin Empire 's conquest of the area in 222 BC, it was made the capital of Kuaiji Commandery , including lands stretching from the south bank of the Yangtze to the unconquered interior of Minyue in southern Zhejiang. Amid the collapse of the Qin , Kuaiji's governor Yin Tong attempted to organize his own rebellion only to be betrayed and executed by Xiang Liang and his nephew Xiang Yu , who launched their own rebellion from
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