Alan Watts

Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion
$12.00
Behold the Spirit stands in the company of very few books in my life that can be called foundational. The expression of the Christianity portrayed within is simply amazing. Watts seems to have written it at a time in which his vision into the mystical experience and, more importantly, his coherence to Christian thought, (especially the Incarnation) hits on all cylinders. His ability to relate this to his very developed understanding of Eastern views is unparalleled. The result it truly magical.

In 1947, I believe Watts came nearer to the Truth than most of us are ever granted. It is disappointing then, in 1971, in the preface to the new edition, that he reverses his position on the uniqueness of Christ. He then believes that Jesus was just a man who reached a point of cosmic consciousness and as a Hebrew, simply lacked the theological language to express it. This makes Christ simply one of many who recognized "God within" and strips the significance of the Incarnation as God's extension of living grace to us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

But thirteen pages does not overshadow hundreds. So find the original edition or read the new one with a clear awareness of the differences that 24 years can make in someone's thinking. The original text is some of the most lucid theology and philosophy ever written. In the expression of the necessity of mystical religion, namely our absolute need to have union with God, it is a remarkable piece of work.

The Wisdom of Insecurity
$9.95
The book has alot for readers to think about but the content is a bit esoteric. One can find alot of insight for their personal life and be freed from conventional thinking. Hardly do I notice any un-heard of powerful devices in the book but it serves as an introduction to the basics of life changing paradigms. I recommend this book to those who have never been schooled in thinking outside the box or to somone who has experience with such principles and wants to enjoy an antiquated delivery of inner discovery. When I say antiquated I mean the opposite of the
to-the-point and broken-down-in-simple-and-easily-understood-techniques like that of modern literature.

I like the book anyhow.

Tao: The Watercourse Way
$13.00
"Tao: the Watercourse Way", Alan Watts' last, unfinished book, may be his best. It's hard for us to imagine the starched, repressed, either/or America of the 1950's; hard to know whether to look back with nostalgia or horror. But no doubt that was a world that badly needed to get in touch with its Yin side, and Alan Watts helped with that as much as anybody. He and D.T. Suzuki between them doublehandedly introduced America to "Eastern Religions" (oddly so-called since Asia is to the West of America.)

Watts was happiest with the easygoing world of Taoism. You feel that his ideal was a carefree drunken Romantic poet like Li Po, often identified as a Taoist Immortal: this would have a great influence on the stereotype of the beatnik, and later the hippie.

Two intuitions lay at the heart of Watts' philosophy. One was pure Protestant, encountered by Martin Luther before him: what we might call "the paradox of effort." The harder you try to be good or virtuous, to reach transcendence or Enlightenment, the further you fall short. It's like being told to "Act natural." The moment you consciously Try to be natural, all naturalness vanishes.

The other might be called "the fallacy of dualism". Contraries like dark and light, good and evil, man and woman, are not at war, but need each other and define each other. If we take this to its conclusion, we find that all separations and barriers are creations of our own minds. Distinct, isolated objects do not exist, everything shades into something else, and so the Universe is One: not shapelessly One like some vast ocean of custard, but One through continuous interplay, interchange, merging, transaction, transformation.

So if Taoism hadn't existed it would have been necessary for Alan Watts to invent it: but the concepts of Non-Effort and the Harmony of Opposites were all there waiting for him.
This book is a poetic evocation of Taoism rather than a detailed account of its rituals or spiritual practices. No doubt more recent scholarship, and a flood of translations, have left it behind; but it's still a good place to begin exploring.

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
$12.95
Not having read Alan Watts before, but cognizant that he was a major guru of the 1960's, I was prepared for a hippie, psychedelic version of truth. But I was surprised and pleased to find that Watts expounded his ideas in a manner that was very down-to-earth, but yet had the backing of scholarship.

The first couple of chapters, in which Watts analyzes the condition of modern Western society, are dated by some of his illustrations, but the principles involved are still timely. The major problem of modern civilization is a rampant materialism, fueled by an unbalanced egotism and an inability to live in the present moment. We are victimized by the 'double-bind', a condition of self-conflict which arises in response to the old dogmas and rules of 'should', oughtn't, 'must', etc. Watts says our behavior should be based on knowledge instead of commandments and prohibitions.

Starting with the question of what sort of book would he like to be able to give to today's youngster's as a guide to life, Watts rejects the traditional sacred writings as being too rigid to provide meaningful guidance in a dramatically changing world. Watts asserts that there is a meaningful way of viewing the world, but that it has been ignored by the philosophers of the West, and is not easy to access.

Watts harks back to the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta for guidance to a meaningful conception of life. In what I thought was a clear easy-to-follow exposition, he demolishes the sacrosanct Western idea of individuality, in the sense of each person being a separate spirit poured into a bag of skin. He introduces the concept that each person is a focal point for the manifestation of 'IT', the cosmic consciousness, or God, or whatever name you want to assign to the great unknowable Unity which composes the entire universe.

At about the third chapter I really began to resonate with this book, and was swept up with this vision of a cosmic entity who was alone; so that in order to know itself, IT became the universe, and evolved consciousness in the higher animals so that IT could search for itself through the awareness of it's creatures, who were in reality not separate entities, but focal points and expressions of IT. This is really a far-out and staggering concept for those of us who had a conventional Western upbringing. I thought Watts brought this argument off very well, without hyperbole, and with many pertinent and persuasive analogies and metaphors, as well as references to sayings of various thinkers.

In summing up, Watts deals with the question of "Well, so what if it's all true? What good is it ?" I think he provides a quite adequate answer, which I will let you read for yourself.

Am I personally convinced that Watts found the secret meaning of life? The fact that I rated the book 4 stars instead of 5 should give you a clue. But it was an exhilarating read which I am happy to file away in my memory banks as a valuable bit of vision which contributes to and expands my overall world-view.