Huston Smith on Hinduism fr. "The Wisdom of Faith" with Bill Moyers
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101,123 views Feb 4, 2009
Video of Bill Moyers' interview of scholar Huston Smith from the Video series, "The Wisdom of Faith: Hinduism & Buddhism. In this video, the gentelmen discuss the complexity of Hinduism including, a useful take on the retirement stage (relative to moksha) and our divine nature and karma. This has actually been uploaded for sharing with my UW Religion 1000 classmates.
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Transcript
0:04
is it impossible to state the essence of
0:07
Hinduism and what Hinduism is
0:09
contributed to the world it's so multi
0:13
splendored so many so many yes and one
0:17
has to have some rubric some divine to
0:21
bring it into focus otherwise it is
0:24
bleonard out into a kind of chaos of
0:28
everything and the device that I have
0:31
found and lived with for decades now is
0:36
that there is an underlying motif to
0:41
everything you see and that is the claim
0:45
of Hinduism that you can have what you
0:52
want no that sounds good but immediately
0:59
it opens on to what do you want and they
1:06
move right in they say people want four
1:09
things they want pleasure then they want
1:14
worldly success which includes power
1:17
wealth and thing and then a little more
1:22
subtle they want to have behave
1:26
responsibly then finally we want
1:30
liberation they put it in the negative
1:33
term they don't put a positive what you
1:35
want because that's beyond all
1:38
description they put it negatively
1:41
liberation from any impediment that will
1:45
hold you back from what will bring you
1:50
your complete fulfillment and then they
1:55
go on to different stages of life which
2:00
they divide into
2:01
childhood they don't count because no
2:05
responsibilities there but use where
2:09
your chief obligation is to learn time
2:14
is free so you can learn against the
2:17
time when much will be expected of you
2:20
then the householder stage where your
2:24
primary concern is family and profession
2:27
and community responsibility and then
2:31
they go into the third stage which is
2:33
retirement retirement for us we think of
2:37
as rest and recreation but they think of
2:41
retirement as the opportunity to really
2:45
dig into your true adult education
2:49
because up to this time you've been just
2:52
too busy the clamor the demands but now
2:57
before it's all over to turn your
3:00
attention to an understanding of what
3:03
life is all about before you exit it
3:08
what do you make of that Hindu proverb
3:11
there are realms of gold hidden in the
3:14
depths of our hearts in the automatons
3:20
the philosophical versions and texts of
3:23
Hinduism there is a phrase that comes
3:28
repeatedly like the clang of a gong it's
3:32
top form ah see literally that thou art
3:39
and what it means is the that which we
3:44
see in rothman the divine whatever you
3:48
call it is right here within you you see
3:55
they not only begin by saying you can
3:57
have what they what you want and that
3:59
sounds very good but wait until you get
4:02
to the climax and that you've already
4:04
got it well why don't we
4:08
doesn't feel like and they say well
4:12
that's that's no problem there because
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the light of a lamp the shade can be
4:19
covered with dust or soot or mud even to
4:25
the point where the light does not shine
4:28
through at all and that's our nature
4:33
that are the divine which is completely
4:37
present here has been shadowed by bad
4:43
karma
4:44
and so the object of life is to free
4:48
those little grains and flecks of karma
4:52
until the light can be not only shine
4:56
before other people but can be
4:59
experienced within you nobody told me
