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eligion shows an ugly face to many

contemporary eyes. In-group prejudice, violence

perpetrated in its name, sexism, commercialism, and

quackery—these crude surfaces often blind us to the

liberating wisdom that courses far below. Let us

readily admit that not all aspects of these wisdom

traditions are enduringly wise… . But while

jettisoning their chaff, we should continue to sift

for wheat. “The telling question of a person’s life,”

Carl Jung once wrote, “is whether or not [she or] he

is related to the infinite.” The animating conviction

of this book is that these great wisdom traditions

remain our most resourceful guides to the Infinite— »

that “Beauty so ancient and so new,” “Eternal” yet

“Closer to us than our jugular veins,” “vouchsafing

the “unshakeable deliverance of the heart” and the

“End of all love-longing.”

— FROM THE PREFACE

This extraordinary book is an essential collection of

the world’s most profound and enlightening wisdom—

a world Bible for our time—containing sacred readings

from Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Jewish,

Christian, Islamic, and primal religion sources. Like his

mentor Huston Smith, gifted teacher and author Philip

Novak sees religious traditions as the distilled wisdom

of humankind. Here Novak has gathered the most

powerful and elegant expressions of this global wisdom

in a distinctive and accessible volume.

(continued on back flap)

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2021 with funding from

Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/worldswisdomsacr0000nova_a0w2

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“A smorgasbord of delicacies prepared by the greatest chefs of religious literature that’s bound to please the spiritually discriminating palate.-—RAM Dass

“Mix one part of Philip Novak’s The Worla’s Wisdom with one part of Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions and you get the best possible introduction to the religions of the world.” —SAM KEEN, author of Fire in the Belly and To a Dancing God

“This skillfully compiled volume will be extremely valuable both as an independent work and as a companion to Huston Smith’s very widely used The World’s Religions.” JOHN HICK, author of An Interpretation of Religion

“In The World’s Wisdom, Philip Novak shows us the many similarities between the major religions of the world and gives every reader real insight into the great spiritual thinkers. It is a book that will fascinate everyone interested in discovering more about spirituality." —KEN BLANCHARD, co-author of The One Minute Manager

“The World’s Wisdom is a deeply felt, beautifully organized review of the world’s sacred texts. It is the finest thing of its kind.

I highly recommend it.”—-MICHAEL MURPHY, founder of the

Esalen Institute, author of The Future of the Body

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THE WORLD’S WISDOM

The World’s

Wisdom

SACRED TEXTS

OF THE

WORLD’S RELIGIONS

PHILIP NOVAK

CASTLE BOOKS Edison, New Jersey

THE WORLD’S WISDOM: Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions. Copyright © 1994 by Philip Novak. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

This edition published by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers, 10 E. 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

This edition copyright © 1996 by Castle Books

Published by CASTLE BOOKS

A Division of Book Sales, Inc.

114 Northfield Avenue, Edison, New Jersey 08837

ISBN 0-7858-0718-7

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

TO HUSTON

One should follow the wise, the intelligent,

the learned, the much enduring, the dutiful,

the noble; one should follow a good and wise

man, as the moon follows the path of the stars.

(Dhammapada, 208)

Contents

Foreword by Huston Smith

Preface

CHAPTER ONE: Hinduism

The Early Vedas

The Upanishads

The Bhagavad Gita

Grace Notes

CHAPTER TWO: Buddhism

The Instructive Legend of the Buddha’s Life

The Rebel Saint

Core Doctrines

Mahayana Buddhism

A. Tibetan Buddhism

B. Zen Buddhism

Grace Notes

CHAPTER THREE: Confucianism

Confucius the Man

The Confucian Project

The Great Learning

Mencius

Grace Notes

XU

103

113

119

133

134

138

CHAPTER FOUR: TJaoism

The Tao Te Ching

Chuang Tzu

Grace Notes

CHAPTER FIVE: Judaism

Torah: The Teaching

Nevwi’im: The Prophets

Ketuvim: Other Writings

Oral Torah: The Talmud

Grace Notes

CHAPTER SIX: Christianity

The Life of Jesus

The Sayings of Jesus

The Life of the Early Church

Grace Notes

CHAPTER SEVEN: Islam

The Qur’an: Suras of Mecca and Medina

The Qur’an: Selections Thematically Arranged

Hadith: Sayings and Traditional Accounts

of the Prophet

Grace Notes

CHAPTER EIGHT: Primal Religions

Beginnings

Returning to the Sacred Realm

The Spirit-filled World

The Shaman

The Sacred Earth

Grace Notes

Index of Texts

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

146

164

169

176

191

201

213

216

228

239

253

264

282

287

312

Jae

334

350

34

oo4

363

372

381

401

421

Foreword

HUSTON SMITH

Because this anthology of sacred texts is linked to my own The

World’s Religions, it could be predicted that I would speak well of

it. My response, however, is more than perfunctory. The reasons

lie with the book’s subject, its approach to that subject, and its

craftsmanship.

Because his book presents (rather than discusses) religious ma-

terial, Philip Novak does not mention revelation, but that is essen-

tially what his book is about. This sets the stage for the book’s

importance, for revelation has shaped human history more than

any other force besides technology. Whether revelation issues from

God or from the deepest unconscious of spiritual geniuses can be

debated, but its signature is invariably power. The periodic incur-

sions—explosions, we might call them—of this power in history

are what created the world’s great religions, and by extension, the

civilizations they have bodied forth. Its dynamite is its news of an-

other world. Revelation invariably tells us of a separate (though not

removed) order of existence that simultaneously relativizes and ex-

alts the one we normally know. It relativizes the everyday world by

showing it to be less than the “all” that we unthinki»gly take it to

be, and that demotion turns out to be exhilarating. By placing the

quotidian world in a vastly more meaningful context, revelation

dignifies it the way a worthy setting enhances the beauty of a pre-

cious stone. People respond to this news of life’s larger meaning

because they hear in it the final warrant for their existence.

x FOREWORD

If revelation thus understood provides Novak with a worthy

subject, how does he approach it? Through its primary sources.

The subtitle of this book announces that it will consist almost

entirely of sacred texts, which (in being the earliest reports of the

revelations they register) take us as close to their original scenes as

we can possibly get. In translation, they provide us with either the

actual words through which the world-transfiguring “news” broke

into human consciousness, or with eyewitness accounts of revela-

tory events. Firsthand accounts carry authority in themselves, but

in the case of sacred texts, the diction in which they are couched

augments that authority. For one thing, it attests to the impact the

events had on their reporters; but more important, revelatory ac-

counts are like Rorschach blots in the wealth of interpretations they

allow. Commentators never tire of going back to comb them for

ever subtler meanings: it is said that every verse of the Qur’an con-

tains a minimum of seven inner significances, and the number can

reach to seventy. We hear that “the medium is the message,” and

with sacred texts this is substantially the case. In favoring direct ac-

counts of revelation—its aftershocks as well as its original earth-

quakes—Novak honors it in ways that secondary sources cannot.

Every anthology of sacred texts can claim these two virtues, but

that is not the case with this book’s third virtue.

Revelations are not mere assemblages. They are organisms and

works of art, where presiding forms and controlling ideas count for

everything. This presents a challenge for those who would anthol-

ogize them, for texts are not like pictures that can be reduced with-

out losing anything but scale. Reducing a sacred text requires

choosing at every point between what must be sacrificed (to keep

the book within bounds) and what must be retained to preserve the

revelation’s integrity. In addition, thin explanatory tightwires must

be stretched across the chasms that deletions create. Enter all the

insight, talent, and gifts of discernment that an anthologizer can

muster and pray for. It is a daunting project. In the end success

turns on spiritual artistry, and the plainest compliment I can pay

this book is to say that nowhere else in its genre have I found

Novak’s artistry equaled.

A word about the book’s title. When I first learned that it was to

be The World’s Wisdom, 1 feared pretension, but I have come to

FOREWORD

accept it as accurate. Traditional cosmologies do not figure in

Novak’s texts, modern science having retired them. Nor are social

mores (gender relationships and the like) his concern, for these too

need to be rethought in our changed world. What remains is the

vision of ultimate reality and the way human life can best be com-

ported in its context. That is what Novak fixes on, and I do not

know where I could turn to find a richer harvest.

xi

Preface

This book springs from fifteen years of teaching the world’s reli-

gions at the college level and from an ingrained habit of seasoning

lectures with illustrative quotations from foundational texts. The

search for a one-volume anthology to replace my own increasingly

unmanageable sheaf of papers had long been futile. Few scriptural

anthologies covered the ground in one volume; those that did ei-

ther proffered a format that I found disagreeable or tried to be so

inclusive that they became prohibitively bulky. When offered the

opportunity to create this new anthology, I eagerly embraced it.

Three criteria governed the composition of the present text: in-

spirational power, instructional value, and linkage. A word about

each.

Inspirational power. Especially when the intended audiences are

the beginning student and the general reader, it is easily as impor-

tant for a text to inspire as to instruct. For it is often upon an initial

opening of the heart in wonder and delight that all further study

depends. I have therefore taken pains to choose passages that I be-

lieve will edify, exalt, and refresh. And in each chapter’s conclud-

ing “Grace Notes” I roam beyond the scriptural boundaries of the

earlier sections to present the brightest gems I could find, many of

which reflect the universal character and transcendent unity of

these wisdom traditions. The text’s power to inspire is also the cri-

terion that counted most when I was faced with a difficult choice

among translations. Accustomed to reading aloud to students, I

xiv PREFACE

gave the nod to renditions that I felt stood the best chance of quiv- ering a listener’s viscera.

Instructional value. Religions share profound family resem- blances, but each is also unique. I have tried in every chapter to re- veal a tradition’s crucial mythic or historical moments, its central doctrines and practices, its distinctive vision, and its characteristic moods. Almost every passage has been pedagogically helpful to me in presenting the uniqueness of these traditions. Teachers will chart their own courses through the chapters, but I have composed each with the hope that any reader, moving attentively from begin- ning to end, will be rewarded with a vivid sense of a tradition’s dis- tinctive personality. To reduce clutter I have kept introductory and explanatory comments to a minimum; enough remains, I believe, to guide solo readers to happy discoveries. In all but the final Grace Notes section of each chapter, I have confined myself almost en- tirely to selections from foundational scriptures. Only two liberties were taken with them: occasional alteration for inclusive language and frequent minor abridgement—without rewording—in order to include a larger number of selections in the space I allowed myself.

Linkage. Anticipating its use in academic settings, I have linked The World’s Wisdom to Huston Smith’s acclaimed expository text, The World’s Religions (formerly The Religions of Man), a favorite among instructors for almost forty years. The aims of that book— to focus on core ideas and values and to treat the world’s religions at their best (as opposed to examining their historical vicissitudes and all-too-human vagaries)—are echoed here. The structure of Smith’s book has also been mirrored, thus limiting the number of traditions covered to eight: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Primal Religions as a category. By virtue of their longevity, historical impact, and/or numbers of current adherents, these are undeniably major tradi- tions. They also seem to be those most often surveyed in introduc- tory courses. Other traditions that could justifiably claim longevity or impact—Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shinto, the Latter Day Saints—are not included here, not because of any inherent de- fect or unworthiness, but simply because that inclusion would have caused the length of the current volume to swell unacceptably. Though the linkage to Professor Smith’s work is deliberate, it is

PREFACE xv

certainly neither slavish nor obtrusive. Nothing prevents the cur-

rent volume from being used in tandem with a different covering

text or indeed from being enjoyed in and for itself. Every effort has

been taken to make it meaningful for the general reader.

Religion shows an ugly face to many contemporary eyes. In-

group prejudice, violence perpetrated in its name, sexism, com-

mercialism, and quackery—these crude surfaces often blind us to

the liberating wisdom that courses far below. Let us readily admit

that not all aspects of these wisdom traditions are enduringly

wise.! Their cosmologies have been overtaken by modern science,

and their social blueprints, drawn for times now gone, need revi-

sion in the light of changed circumstances and the continuing

quest for social justice. But while jettisoning their chaff, we should

continue to sift for wheat. “The telling question of a person’s life,”

Carl Jung once wrote, “is whether or not [she or] he is related to

the infinite.”* The animating conviction of this book is that these

great wisdom traditions remain our most resourceful guides to the

Infinite—to that “Beauty so ancient and so new,”? “Eternal”* yet

“closer to us than our jugular veins,”> vouchsafing the “unshake-

able deliverance of the heart”® and the “End of all love-longing.””

Let me take this opportunity to thank: at Harper San Francisco,

John Loudon for his encouragement and savvy, Priscilla Stuckey

for her magnificent editorial work, Mimi Kusch for an angel’s aid

in the home stretch, and Karen Levine for her patience and help;

Mark and Amy Brokering and Paula and Jim Karman for their

moral support; my friends and professional colleagues Rabbi Einat

Ramon, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the Reverend Raymond

Gawronski, S.J., Dr. Alan Godlas, Dr. Scott Sinclair, and Dr.

1. Cf. Huston Smith, The World’s Religions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,

1991), 387. 2. Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Pantheon, 1963), 325.

3. Christianity (Augustine).

4. Judaism.

5. Islam (Qur’an).

6. Buddhism.

7. Hinduism (Upanishads).

xvi PREFACE

Kendra Smith for incisive critiques of portions of the text; Katie

Field for researching some elusive facts; the students of

Dominican College who have explored the wisdom traditions with

me; Bridgett Novak for helping me regain balance and perspective

when they slipped away (and for some serious typing too); and, fi-

nally, Huston Smith, to whom this book is dedicated and without

whom it would not be. What is of worth here belongs to him—and

the traditions; the rest is mine.

CHAPTER ONE

Hinduism

St four thousand years ago

pastoral nomads whose ancestors

had sprung from the soil of northeastern Europe entered the Indus

Valley of ancient India. They called themselves Aryans, or Noble

Ones, and the religion they brought with them comprised the first evolu-

tionary layer of Hinduism. The ritual centerpiece of Aryan religion

was a fire sacrifice, a burnt offering to the gods, performed by priests

specially trained to chant sacred hymns. The hymns themselves were

known as Vedas or “sacred knowledge.” The Vedas are the scriptural

bedrock of the Hindu tradition.

The aim of the Vedic fire sacrifice, indeed of Aryan religion in gen-

eral, was to ensure well-being and prosperity in this life. The early

Vedas, the focus of the first section, contain little evidence of sustained

thought about human destiny beyond this life. The doctrines most of us

associate with Hinduism—the cycle of reincarnations driven by karma

and the liberation from this bondage by means of yogic discipline—were

to be reflected only a thousand years later in the most recent layers

of Vedic literature, called the Upanishads. Selections from the Upani-

shads comprise the second section of this chapter. The third section focuses

on the scripture called the Bhagavad Gita and has its own introduction.

2 HINDUISM

THE EARLY VEDAS

1. He, O Men, Is Indra

Of the four collections of Vedas, the Rig-Veda 1s the most important and

foundational. The most popular god of the Rig-Veda 1s the expansive

and dynamic Indra. He is said to have surpassed the other gods in

power as soon as he was born (v. 1), and he 1s credited both with having

created the world by slaying a cosmic serpent and thus releasing the life-

giving, monsoon-bringing waters (v. 3), and with helping the Aryans

overcome the non-Aryan populations they encountered.

The chief wise god who as soon as born

surpassed the gods in power;

Before whose vehemence the two worlds trembled by reason

of the greatness of his valor: he, O men, is Indra.

Who made firm the quaking earth

who set at rest the agitated mountains;

Who measures out the air more widely,

who supported heaven: he, O men, is Indra.

Who having slain the serpent released the seven streams . . .

Who has made subject the Dasa colour [the non-Aryan

population] and has made it disappear . . .

The terrible one of whom they ask “where is he,”

of whom they also say “he is not”;

He diminishes the possessions of the foe like the stakes

of gamblers. Believe in him: he, O men, is Indra . . .

Even Heaven and Earth bow down before him;

before his vehemence even the mountains are afraid.

Who is known as the Soma-drinker,! holding the bolt

in his . . . hand: he, O men, is Indra.

1. See selection no. 3, below.

THE EARLY VEDAS 3

2. O Agni, Dispeller of the Night

Because of his role in the all-important fire sacrifice, Agni, the god of fire, is perhaps second only to Indra in popularity, with over one thou- sand hymns dedicated to him in the Vedas. Here is a brief selection from a few.

a. From Rig-Veda I

I praise Agni, domestic priest, divine minister of sacrifice,

Invoker, greatest bestower of wealth . . .

To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer,

Bringing thee reverence, we come;

Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal [Rta], radiant one,

Increasing in thine own abode.

Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son:

Agni, be with us for our weal.

b. From Rig-Veda II

Thou, Agni, shining in thy glory through the days, art

brought to life from out the waters, from the stone;

From out the forest trees and herbs that grow on ground, thou,

sovereign lord of men, art generated pure.

By thee, O Agni, all the immortal guileless gods eat with thy

mouth the oblation that is offered them.

By thee do mortal men give sweetness to their drink.

Pure art thou born, the embryo of the plants of earth.

c. From Rig-Veda VII

I have begotten this new hymn for Agni, falcon of the sky:

will he not give us of his wealth?

Bright, purifier, meet for praise,

Immortal with refulgent glow,

Agni drives Rakshasas [demons] away.

4 HINDUISM

Agni, preserve us from distress:

consume our enemies, O God Eternal,

with thy hottest flames.

3. We Have Drunk Soma and Become Immortal

All one hundred and fourteen hymns of the ninth book of the Rig-Veda

are addressed to Soma, the god who inhabits a mysterious psychotropic

beverage, said in the Vedas to be the food of the gods. Soma probably

ranks behind only Indra and Agni in Vedic popularity.

Of the sweet food I have partaken wisely,

That stirs the good thoughts, best banisher of trouble,

On which to feast, all gods as well as mortals,

Naming the sweet food “honey,” come together. . . .

We have drunk Soma, have become immortal,

Gone to the light have we

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