Eastern Spirituality in America: Selected Writings

The presence of Eastern religions in our increasingly pluralistic American religious scene is a given fact. This book offers background insight into the history and significance of this reality from the perspective of Eastern spiritual teachers who have come to the United States, and from that of Americans of occidental background who have been attracted to Eastern faiths, from the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875 and the time of the famous World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, to the late twentieth century. Selections presented in this book include addresses given at that Parliament by the Hindu Swami Vivekananda and the Zen teacher Soyen Shaku, writings by Aldous Huxley, Paramahansa Yogananda of the Self-Realization Fellowship, Swami Bhaktivedanta of Krishna Consciousness, Alan Watts on Zen, W.Y. Evans-Wentz on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Thomas Merton on Taoism, and Helena Blavatsky on Theosophy. There is a substantial historical introduction by the editor.