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97-773: 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

194-468: 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

291-684: 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

388-430: A "second maturity" who wish to resolve their inner conflicts and dissolve their inner blockages and become the sages of the modern world. As Heard put it metaphorically, "you notice there aren't these separations... we're parts of a single continent, it meets underneath the water.” Further, instead of simply enjoying biological and psychological health, as Freud and other important psychiatric or psychological philosophers of

485-546: 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

582-412: 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

679-528: A book titled The Five Ages of Man , was published. (A new edition, retitled The Five Ages of Humanity , has been published.) According to Heard, the prevalent developmental stage among humans in today's well-industrialized societies (especially in the West) should be regarded as the fourth: the "humanic stage" of the "total individual," who is mentally dominated, feeling him- or herself to be autonomous, separate from other persons. Heard writes (p. 226) this stage

776-518: A character named "Gerald Heard," modeled on the real-life Gerald Heard. The Heard character was played by Robert Sella in the first Broadway run (beginning in December 2021, though closing early during the mid-COVID period). Three other characters—Cary Grant, Aldous Huxley and Claire Boothe Luce—are modeled on those widely known public figures, each of whom, in real life, actually had repeated LSD experience. In

873-611: 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 ,

970-507: A deadly disease believing that he is curable by a hedge doctor (...) I am convinced that the way civilization is going is fatal, and the usual remedies only inflame the disease". Meanwhile, Heard played a minor part in the development of the Peace Pledge Union . Heard became well known as an advocate for pacifism and argued for the transformation of behaviour through meditation and "disciplined nonviolence ". In 1937 he emigrated to

1067-472: 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

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1164-486: A human being can effectively pursue intentional evolution of consciousness. He maintained a regular discipline of meditation, along the lines of yoga , for many years. He took interest in parapsychology and was a member of the Society for Psychical Research . Heard concluded that the impediment to be addressed was "the problem of letting in a free flow of comprehension beyond the everyday threshold of experience while keeping

1261-525: A person to see beyond his ego. In August 1956, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson first took LSD—under Heard's guidance and with the officiating presence of Sidney Cohen , a psychiatrist then with the California Veterans Administration Hospital. According to Wilson, the session allowed him to re-experience a spontaneous spiritual experience he had had years before, which had enabled him to overcome his own alcoholism. In

1358-409: A person, especially if educated, has the opportunity to begin entering the "first maturity" of the humanic "total individual" in his or her mid teens. However, according to Heard, a fifth stage is in the process of emerging, a post-individual psychological phase of persons and therefore of culture. According to Heard, the second maturity can be one that lies beyond "personal success, economic mastery, and

1455-658: 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

1552-484: 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

1649-693: 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

1746-503: 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,

1843-472: 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

1940-401: 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

2037-415: 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

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2134-480: Is characterised by "the basic humanic concept of a mankind that is completely self-seeking because it is completely individualized into separate physiques that can have direct knowledge of only their own private pain and pleasure, inferring but faintly the feelings of others. Such a race of ingenious animals, each able to see and to seek his own advantage, must be kept in combination with each other by appealing to their separate interests." In modern industrial societies,

2231-410: 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

2328-476: 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

2425-533: 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

2522-703: 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

2619-669: 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

2716-483: 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

2813-499: The Santa Ana Mountains . Heard was the guiding light and a helpful resident sage but, by nature, he was neither an organizer nor a manager. Felix Greene, a nephew of Christopher Isherwood, had filled those roles. Professionally, Greene ultimately pursued a career in journalism and film-making, but at the founding of Trabuco, he had exercised some talent in the planning of architecture and land-development. Soon after Greene left

2910-489: 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

3007-585: 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

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3104-405: 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

3201-476: 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

3298-534: The consciousness development movement that has spread in the Western world since the 1960s. The son of an Anglo-Irish clergyman, Heard was born in London. He studied history and theology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge , graduating with honours in history. After working in other roles, he lectured from 1926 to 1929 for Oxford University's extramural studies programme. Heard took a strong interest in developments in

3395-547: 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,

3492-892: The "total-individual" phase conceived, Leptoid man will not only have entered a meaningful "second maturity" recognised by his or her society, but can then become a human of developed spirituality, similar to the mystics of the past; and a person of wisdom. But collectively and culturally we are still in the transitional phase, not really recognising an identity beyond the super-individualistic fourth, "humanic" phase. Heard's views were cautionary about developments in society that were not balanced, about inappropriate aims of our use of technological power. He wrote: "we are aware of our precarious imbalance: of our persistent and ever-increasing production of power and our inadequacy of purpose; of our critical analytic ability and our creative paucity; of our triumphantly efficient technical education and our ineffective, irrelevant education for values, for meaning, for

3589-414: The 1920s and early 1930s, he acted as the personal secretary of Sir Horace Plunkett , founder of the cooperative movement, who spent his last years at Weybridge , Surrey . Naomi Mitchison , who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote of that time: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who

3686-466: The 1950s. Horace Plunkett owned real estate in the U.S. states of Nebraska and Wyoming, and left some properties to Heard in his will. Heard first embarked as a book author in 1924, but The Ascent of Humanity , published in 1929, marked his first foray into public acclaim as it received the British Academy 's Hertz Prize. From 1930 to 1934, he served as a science and current-affairs commentator for

3783-758: 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

3880-478: The BBC. From 1932 to 1942, Heard was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research . In 1931 Heard had initiated an informal research group to look into developing group-mindedness or group communications, which became known as The Engineers Study Group because several of its members were engineers who afterwards were involved in the early development of computers . Naomi Mitchison also participated actively in

3977-514: 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

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4074-518: The Fantastic are collections of stories that include both science fiction and ghost stories. Hugh Lamb has described The Great Fog and The Lost Cavern as "two splendid books of short stories". The Black Fox is an occult thriller featuring black magic . Doppelgangers is a dystopian novel , influenced by Huxley's Brave New World , set after the "Psychological Revolution." Anthony Boucher described Doppelgangers as "in style and imagination,

4171-513: 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

4268-702: 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

4365-733: 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

4462-463: The United States to give some lectures at Duke University . Heard was accompanied by Aldous Huxley; Huxley's wife, Maria; and their son Matthew Huxley. In the United States, Heard's main activities were writing, lecturing, and the occasional radio or television appearance. He had developed an identity as an informed individual who recognised no intrinsic conflict among history, science, literature, and theology. Though he lectured at Duke, Heard turned down

4559-760: 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

4656-530: 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

4753-411: 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

4850-485: 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

4947-656: 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. Gerald Heard Henry FitzGerald Heard (6 October 1889 – 14 August 1971), commonly called Gerald Heard ,

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5044-421: 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

5141-456: 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

5238-527: 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,

5335-731: 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

5432-695: The community and got married, the practical side of life at Trabuco College began to slide. Heard deeded the land and facilities to the Vedanta Society of Southern California , which still maintains the facility as a Ramakrishna monastery and retreat. In the mid-1950s, Heard was featured as series lecturer in the Sequoia Seminars (a precursor to the Esalen Institute ), organized by Emilia and Harold Rathbun, PhD. In 1954 Heard tried mescaline and, in 1955 tried LSD . He felt that, used properly, these had strong potential to "enlarge Man's mind" by allowing

5529-655: 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

5626-615: 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

5723-522: 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

5820-565: 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

5917-667: The effects of several earlier strokes he had, beginning in 1966. At his request, there were no memorial services, and his body was donated to the Willed Body Program at UCLA Medical Center . Heard's general philosophy and the ideas and opinions of his later years, were influences on Myron Stolaroff , the electrical engineer who in 1961 founded the Institute for Advanced study, in Menlo Park, California . Trabuco College and Heard's philosophy and ideas were also an important influence on

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6014-551: The founding of the Esalen Institute . Michael Murphy and Dick Price started organizing seminars at Esalen near Big Sur in 1962, with Heard being a notable presenter. Murphy and Price went on to officially establish the Esalen Institute in 1964. In turn, the institute has been a source of inspiration, and a prototype, for many other retreats and growth centers extending the human potential movement . In popular culture: James Lapine's Broadway musical Flying Over Sunset includes

6111-403: The group. After 1936, Heard broke with Mitchison over her outspoken support for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and her attempt, together with other members of the group, to run arms to Republican Spain. In his last letter to Mitchison, Heard expressed his sympathy for the victims of the war in Spain but compared the taking of sides in a war to "The relatives of a patient suffering from

6208-451: The late 1950s, Heard also worked with psychiatrist Cohen to introduce others to LSD, including John Huston and Steve Allen . With experience, Heard arrived at a judicious view of the value of psychedelics, since at their best the insights and ecstasies they facilitate are temporary states. Religion writer Don Lattin wrote that Heard's view was "LSD might provide an experience of the great mysteries, but it offered no instant answers." Heard

6305-406: 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

6402-403: 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

6499-533: The mind clear." In 1942, he founded Trabuco College as a facility where comparative religion studies and practices could be pursued. It was essentially a cooperative training center for the spiritual life. Living as a freelance scholar, Heard had enjoyed security in America by way of what he had inherited from Horace Plunkett as well as his own family. He used some of his inherited resources toward this most ambitious of projects. The idealistic experiment required land, and Heard bought 300 acres in Trabuco Canyon , in

6596-440: 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

6693-432: 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"

6790-435: 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

6887-417: 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

6984-420: 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

7081-607: 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

7178-452: The offer of a post there and traveled west to settle in California. Heard was the first among a group of literati friends (several others of whom, including Christopher Isherwood , were also British) to discover Swami Prabhavananda and Vedanta . Heard became an initiate of Vedanta. Like that of his friend Aldous Huxley (another in the circle), the essence of Heard's mature outlook was that

7275-742: The play (set in the 1950s), each of these three characters deals with a nagging emotional challenge, and Lapine delivers the play's essence in Act II, when the three have a shared LSD session with Heard serving as their guide. Heard wrote fiction under the name H.F. Heard. This included three detective novels about Mr. Mycroft (implied to be Sherlock Holmes after his retirement). Mr. Mycroft and his friend, Mr. Silchester, appeared in three novels: A Taste for Honey , 1941 (televised in 1955 as Sting of Death and filmed, as The Deadly Bees , 1967); Reply Paid; and The Notched Hairpin . The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales and The Lost Cavern and Other Tales of

7372-506: The psychophysical capacity to enjoy life" (p. 240) Heard termed this phase "Leptoid Man" (from the Greek word lepsis : "to leap") because humans increasingly face the opportunity to "take a leap" into a considerably expanded consciousness, in which the various aspects of the psyche will be integrated, without any aspects being repressed or seeming foreign. A society that recognises this stage of development will honour and support individuals in

7469-515: 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

7566-666: The sciences and, in 1929, edited The Realist , a short-lived monthly journal of scientific humanism whose sponsors included H. G. Wells , Arnold Bennett , Julian Huxley , and Aldous Huxley . In 1927 Heard began lecturing for the South Place Ethical Society . During the 1930s he became the first science commentator for the BBC . As a young man, he worked for the Agricultural Cooperative Movement in Ireland. In

7663-490: 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

7760-464: 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

7857-437: 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

7954-575: 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

8051-459: The training of the will, the lifting of the heart, and the illumination of the mind." In May 2023, a revised and retitled edition of Heard's The Five Ages of Man was released as The Five Ages of Humanity . Toward the end of his life, Heard was given a bit of financial assistance by Henry Luce and Clare Booth Luce . Heard died on 14 August 1971 at his home in Santa Monica, California , of

8148-507: 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

8245-416: 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

8342-796: 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

8439-696: 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

8536-458: 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

8633-465: Was a British-born American historian, science writer and broadcaster, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. He wrote many articles and over 35 books. Heard was a guide and mentor to numerous well-known people from the 1940s through the 1960s, including Aldous Huxley , Henry Luce , Clare Boothe Luce , and Bill Wilson , co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous . His work was a forerunner of, and influence on,

8730-432: 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

8827-492: Was also responsible for introducing the then unknown Huston Smith to Aldous Huxley . Smith became one of the pre-eminent religious studies scholars in the United States. His book The World's Religions is a classic in the field, has sold over two million copies and is considered a particularly useful introduction to comparative religion. The meeting with Huxley led eventually to Smith's connection to Timothy Leary . In January 1964, what some consider to be Heard's magnum opus ,

8924-429: 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

9021-554: 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

9118-532: 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

9215-433: Was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". In the mid-1920s, Heard began a romantic relationship with socialite Christopher Wood, the young heir to a large grocery fortune, with whom he lived in London; by around 1935, however, Heard had declared himself celibate, though he continued to cohabit with Wood periodically until

9312-471: 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

9409-734: 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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