Alan Watts books?

Have any of you read any Alan Watts books? I recently read "The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are" and I must say it changed my whole perspective on life.

 

watts was a good author. i read several books back about 35-40 years ago.the book on the taboo was one of his best....a few other titles i recall reading...the joyous cosmology...nature,man and woman...does it matter...and this is it....

 

Alan Watts articulates things so clearly. I learned everything about eastern philosophy through him... because let's face it, many books just discuss the terminology and the symbols of the philosophies but they never go into how any of this applies to reality...

 

I just finished reading "the book on the taboo against knowing who you" for the 8th time today. He truly was amazing.

 

Thats what I love about him. He called himself the "Bridge between Western and Eastern Culture" and I think thats fairly accurate.

 

Fairly accurate is an understatement

 

actually i was thinkin that as i was typing but saying very accurate, super accurate, and ultra accurate all sounded cheesy to me and for some reason that was all i could think of at that moment. but yeah. its super duper accurate haha.

 

I read the Taboo... several years ago and it did offer a fresh perspective on life that I had never considered. I need to read it again, as well as some of his other books if I could ever find the time between work and grad school.

 

Kick arse he does.

 

i've always liked alan watts' writings, but I don't like one of the main myths he uses/endorses - the hindu? influenced idea of life as a play/drama, or even the hide and seek thing. he wrote about using ideas that gave respect to life (as opposed to scientific materialism) but as far as im concerned those ones dont at all - as if everything is just an act and similarly with the hide and seek idea, the implication is that when you regain your identity the play of the universe stops. It seems to be saying that the ego is the basis of the world.

 

the Wisdom of Insecurity. a great, quick read. the kind of book you can keep in your back pocket and look like a beatnik, then pull it out at a coffee shop

 

I've read "The Way of Zen" by Watts. I used to listen to recordings of his speaking on a local radio station here in the SoCal area. I remember he used to go in these logic circles, and then say something like "So you see,,there really is no meaning,,and all the meaning in the universe, simultaneously. Ha!"

 

but if you don't let that throw you off, and actually read the whole book, you'll find he's saying the ego is a tool to be used carefully and consciously, instead of mistaking it for the way the world actually is. ego is the net we use to break up and understand the water of life. but when you lift the net, the water slips thru. "things" like fish, plants, rocks, snails (i use these examples both literally and metaphorically) can be held in the net and analyzed and named and "understood", and the trick is to know which to keep and which to throw back. and more importantly, how long to keep them out of the water before we become too attached and identify with our momentary distinctions... only to find them die and disapear because they need water to survive. i think more than anything, watts was using the eastern philosophy to offer westerners a perspective that goes against our cultural conditioning, but in the end points the same direction as the western monotheistic traditions. in the end, he was an existentialist.

 

sorry didnt mean to assume you havent read a whole book... i've just read many of his books cover to cover, thanks to my father having so many of them, and i feel like i've gained an understanding of his work, and more importantly his evolution and progression as a philosopher. did you know he was once an ordained priest in a protestant church?

 

Another couple of books on Zen I have read were "Zen Bones, Zen Flesh", a collection of Zen poetry and anecdotes. "The Three Pillars of Zen", by Philip Kapleau Roshi.

 

yeah i did, quite the evolution indeed. i can't remember if i finished the book, i only read it online on something like scribd. i think i see what youre saying, although i would say everytime i see the word ego used it seems to be pointing at something a little different. im sure the myth i mentioned is useful in some ways, just less so in others, though i spose thatll always be the case. similar to bill hicks' life is a ride thing if you know it, alot of people like it but i think its ugly for the same reasons, even if i get what hes trying to say. (funny tho )

 

yes, bill hicks among many of the artists and visionaries of our time, had a great message. but in the end, he, like many others, died half way through the ride

 

I loved that book in undergrad. A few more of my favorites:

This is It

Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown

Does it Matter?

Nature, Man and Woman

The Wisdom of Insecurity

Tao: the Watercourse Way (Great for bookshelf collections. Beautiful art and calligraphy).

Alan Watts was by far my favorite philosopher as I came into my own style. He offers hours of entertaining lectures on YouTube, many of them taken from his San Francisco Beat radio days. He was inspiring to me because of the sheer enjoyment and play involved in deep thinking. Compared to the academics I was reading at the time, this feat was magical!

 

Just listened to this the other night. Don't let the name fool you, he goes into the deep end on this one! Turn off the lights and prepare to go on a ride!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm8S4ExJ8ss