Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169311 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The taped lectures of Alan Watts have inspired a generation. Now, in handsomely designed little volumes, of which this is the first, they are appearing in print form. Few people in the middle of the century spoke as eloquently as Watts about Zen. Here, five of his justly famous lectures?three of the so-called "Japan Lectures" and two, delivered on his Sausalito house boat, on Tibetan Buddhism?are now transcribed and compiled. Especially welcome is the transcription of the renowned "Religion of No Religion" lecture in which some of the most difficult Buddhist concepts are presented with such lucidity as to make us gasp. Watts, an Episcopal priest who became a Zen scholar, was an accomplished stylist; and although his famous voice and happy laughter are missing now, his penetrating vision of Buddhism remains, and his lectures become brilliant prose in book form. This series, and this volume in particular, will be important to any new student of the East's religions.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Inner Directions Journal
"Alan Watts had the gift of being able to communicate with an intuitive intelligence and humor."

The New York Times Book Review
"Watts displays his famous breezy, devil-may-care style...it's easy to see why his influence remains strong."

Customer Reviews

The Best (Most Practical) Book I Have Ever Read!
This book explains PLAINLY and SIMPLY what exactly Buddhism actually is. It benefits the reader immediately. No wonder he is the "Master of Communication."

While reading this book, studying the "Concepts of Buddhism", they began to settle in my mind, coming through in my meditation. Without the "Concepts", meditation seems like autohypnosis. With these ideas from the Awakened One, meditation starts to have a lasting effect. I have had days of Nirvana without a thought in my head! I did feel as if there were no difference between myself and another. The time passed as if it were a dream. Silence. What a change from the noise that used ot go on. I owe it to Alan Watts. What an amazing man!

Used in conjunction with Alan Watts' audio cassette, "Alan Watts Teaches Meditation", this is the most practical and effective book I have ever read!

WOW!

Postscript
On pages 34-35, Watts says, "All religious comments about life eventually become cliches. Religion is always falling apart and promoting lip service and imitation. The imitation of Christ, for instance, is a perfect example. It is a terrible idea because everyone who imitates Christ becomes a kind of fake Jesus."

First of all, Watts has a lot of absolutes in this paragraph: all, always, everone. He has no evidence to support such statements.

Second, religious comments about life do not necessarily become cliches. Anyone who has ever read the autobiographies of the saints can see this easily. Even if you limit your sources to Patristic (early Church Fathers) documents, which Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants agree on, you can see very profound statements about life, and not one cliche to be found anywhere.

Third, religion does not always fall apart. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy have been around for a very long time and neither are in any danger of falling apart. Lip service does sometimes happen, but most often it is from ignorance or the common human situation, rather than anything deliberate, deceptive, or malevolent.

Fourth, there is nothing wrong with imitation, either within Christianity or within Watts' own Vedanta. It is said that we become what we meditate on and what is imitation but a kind of meditation-in-action? The "Imitation of Christ" is a magnificent spiritual guide which has been of use to Christians since the 1400's. Imitating Jesus produces a holy Christian, far from the "fake Jesus" of Watts' accusation. Was St. Francis of Assisi a fake? Mother Teresa? The millions who have been martyred because of their love for Jesus? When all is said and done, Christianity has little to do with dogma, and everything to do with loyalty to the Person of Jesus. Reflecting on Watts' hostility toward religion lowers my estimation of his insight.

Clear, Concise, and Thorough
This is definitely one of the best books on Buddhism I have read in a while. Many books seem to be written for the already-enlightened elite, and are thus perfectly useless to the rest of us who are just sloshing along in life. But Watts' knowledge and insight are evident from the first page to the last, and he manages to communicate without resorting to any kind of pseudo-mystical mumbo-jumbo at all.

There's a song I particularly like; its lyrics and melody often haunt me by day and wake me at night. Some of the words are "Feeling well protected in a cool dry place...limited perspective from a cool dry place." One of the best things abut this book, and most of Alan Watts' works, is that they will coax you out of your own "cool dry place" and invite you to take a look around, and try on some new ideas for size. Sometimes you find Truth lurking in the strangest places!

F.W. Faber used the interesting image of looking at things simultaneously through a microscope and telescope, and as I was reading Watts' discussion of "li" and "ji" and interdependence, I felt I was doing just that.

Watts' explanation of these, and other basic concepts, was just so clear, that they are actually comprehensible to one steeped in Western Christian thought as I am. Not that I agree with everything he said, especially his "double bind" analysis of free will, but I understand anyway why he has to say what he says. He's nothing if not consistent, although I'm no so sure he always considers all possibilities. But the point for the reader is that we also might not consider other possibilities if not for a book such as this. I am glad to have had the opportunity to read this book; it has given me much material for reflection.