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Author,
teacher, and lecturer Huston Smith is best known for his
scholarship, being the father of world’s religions studies
in America. But on December 27, 2009, Ken Dychtwald,
psychologist, gerontologist, and visionary thinker on the
subject of the age wave that is upon us, interviewed Smith
with the objective of getting not his academic view, but
rather his personal view, of the maturation process.
Dychtwald brought out the warmth, depth, common sense, and
wonderful humor of Huston Smith in the course of elucidating
Smith’s perspective on life at 90 from the age of 90-plus.
Huston Smith has been a pioneer and role model for the Boomer
generation in the field of Religious Pluralism. He now has
something to teach about the aging process.
The
two men developed a wonderful rapport, Smith being elated to
encounter in Dychtwald an interviewer with a sharp mind and
novel approach. At one point, he turned to Dychtwald, arms
spread wide, saying, “If you see an opening, hit me!”
…much to Dychtwald’s delight.
Ken
Dychtwald has for decades studied and interviewed many
seniors, but found Smith unique. To quote Dychtwald about the
interview: “One of the things that surprised me most … was
his sense of humor, his playfulness. …Being in the presence
of a deep-thinking philosopher and religious expert in his
nineties who was boyish, who was teasing, who was in the
sparring action of the interview, who was having fun, who was
clever and wry and creative with his mind as any 12 or 15 or
25 year old I’ve met, was an incredible experience.”
About Huston Smith:
Film biography
About Ken Dychtwald
About Institute for World Religions & Berkeley Buddhist
Monastery
Praise for The Arc of Life
"The Arc of Life
DVD is a magnificent contribution to understanding of Huston Smith
and his work."
-Harry R. Moody, Ph.D.,
Director of Academic Affairs, AARP
"I loved this
interview with Huston better than any I've heard or seen in ten or
fifteen years. I found Ken Dychtwald's questions so clever, in
that they solicited from Huston aspects of his philosophy that I had
never heard before! I found myself thinking, 'why didn't I ever
ask him that?' Of course, the answer is that Ken is a more astute
interviewer, and possessed of an incredible knowledge on the subject at
hand."
-Dana Sawyer, author Aldous
Huxley: A Biography and
currently writing the authorized huston Smith biography
"When we worked together on his memoir Tales of Wonder, I marveled at the great
'book' Huston was composing on aging--not by writing but by living it. So successfully was he overcoming aging’s frailties and hardship that he hardly noticed he was doing it, much less that he should write about it. Now, in conversation with Ken Dychtwald, Huston lets us eavesdrop through the window and take heart and be undaunted by what is to come. The DVD is called The Arc of Life but it could easily bear the subtitle: How to Grow Old and Remain Forever Young."
Jeffery Paine, co-author with Huston Smith, Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the
Divine, author of Re-enchantment:
Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West &
Father India
"Huston Smith ends the arc of his life with kindness and wisdom that is both ordinary and extraordinary. His interview with Ken Dychtwald inspires this writer to approach the final chapters with less fear and more hope."
Don Lattin, author of THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB -- How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America
"Rarely does one across so rich a feast as this! Huston Smith is in top form
in this discussion with Ken Dychtwald. Huston Smith parries Dychtwald's thoughtful,
searching questions with wisdom, erudition, humility and humor. This DVD deserves a wide audience and those who see it will be grateful for the
opportunity."
Pravrajika Vrajaprana, Vedanta Society of Southern California,
co-author Interpreting Ramakrishna
Produced by
Jon & Anna Monday
Directed by Jon Monday
Art Direction by Anna Monday GemsTone/mondayMEDIA
Get Huston Smith's The
Roots of Fundamentalismwith The Arc of Life
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