Alan Watts is the author that I’ve read the most. I’ve read probably 6 books by him and 3 others I haven’t finished but intend to finish. He was a very impressive man…certainly of exceptional intelligence and insight and ability. The thing about him is though, although he teaches about buddhism and taoism, I find him to be the anti-buddhist anti-taoist. He is too ambitious. He teaches about non-doing, but meanwhile he is one of the most ambitious man I’ve ever encountered. He mastered many languages, texts and much knowledge. This to me is what buddhism stands against. Maybe this was his intent. To be very western but to teach the west eastern principles. He sacrificed his real interests, for making a difference on this world. I used to think he was a prophet for teaching eastern philosophies to the west, but now I don’t believe in prophets, but I do believe in holy men, which he was not. Because he lived too complicated a life. Am I completely misunderstanding the point of Buddhism? Or am I spot on? I LOVE LOVE LOVE Alan Watts, but to me, he didn’t live by what he wrote. Oh well. I will appreciate him regardless. Thoughts?
People often say to do something and say how to do it correctly and even guide people through that process, yet they don’t do it themselves. An example is how a soldier may want peace but have to fight for it. A homeland security agent such as the police, FBI, they may want peace but are forced to be violent.
Kind of like how I tell people to take it easy and then I go and for the most part do not take it easy myself.
I always said “someone has to do it” when people asked me why I wanted to be in the military. Now when people ask me why I want to become a shrink and work in a mental hospital, I say the same thing, but it’s a little different in reality–I have a soft spot for people with mental illness, not just a utilitarian attitude.
“Skin Bag Ego”
Jayster
I was attracted to Alan Watt’s books. I’d linger over them at the book store + finally picked one out. However I always had this problem of not being able to read and understand them. Some wonderful revelation was just beyond my reach.
Both of his parents were Eastern scholars. He was following what he was schooled in as a a kid. You’re right. I think his place in the world was bringing eastern ideas to the popular west. And he did that. He was a bridge between what his parents did + the rest of the general population.
I think a lot of people lingered by those book racks. One thing I remember reading was - in talking about one of his ways of looking at things in an eastern way, he said this was a good thing to be doing, unless the person happened to be mentally ill. The quest for being was what I got hung up on by my mental illness. I struggled constantly to be here - to be real. Because I wasn’t - still am not. Lithium stopped me from constantly struggling.
I don’t know about any one else, or if it was the illness or the illness in that time. Or having to do with Alan Watts books among others being there in their many titles and shiny covers with their ideas A lot of mostly young people seemed to be leaning that way. The seekers, How many of them for real and in seriousness.
These are my thoughts you asked for. The only Alan Watts book I still have is The Wisdom of Insecurity. I gave a copy to my nephew when he was in high school. He let his mother pick a college for him to go to. He went to William And Mary on a scholarship. 15 years later he’s working at pretty much the same job he had in high school at the State archives. I think he still has the book.
When I was young I thought that Alan Watts had all the answers but when I learned that he drank himself to death in old age I became somewhat unsure about following him down that path.
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