The Way of Zen by Alan W. Watts Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Way of Zen
Book Review: fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
I usually prefer to download lectures by Alan watts rather than read his books, some ofwhich seemed to just ramble along. I am not really good at critiques, but I really enjoyed
this book. Easy to read. Some concepts are so foreign to my common sense way of
thinking that it sort of turns my thinking inside-out. The idea makes sense. I cannot find
fault with it. But regrettably, my mind snaps back to its usual way of thinking.
For example: We tend to think of our self as an independent being inside of a separate
world. But actually there exists no separate being or outside world. The two are opposite
ends of a spectrum and reality exists only between the two ends. Sort of seems to be the
main point. That who you think you are is a mental construction, sort of a caricature of
itself. your true self is the entire world. One of my favorite sayings is "everywhere is the
center." Everywhere is everything. you are everything. I am everything and so is my
computer. Our minds create symbols to stand for parts of the world and then we start to
think that the world is made of parts. It seems that liberation comes from dying to your
sense of self. from ceasing trying to grasp at life as though it were something "other" that
could be grasped.
I can remember some magical times in my life when instead of me acting in the world, I
let the world take me by the hand and everything just clicked. I find these things
fascinating, but for some reason impossible to share.
There are some Zen stories which I can't seem to make any sense of, and I dunno, maybe
the point is to watch your mind try to make sense of it. I really am running off at the
mouth now. Oh well. Have you ever been in pain and then stopped to think, am I really
feeling constant pain IN THIS MOMENT? And no, you weren't in this particular
moment. It was an idea that you were carrying along perhaps from one moment of pain to
another. in Zen liberation also means liberation from the idea that there exists some
constant unchanging self that some how is carried from one moment to the next to affect
or be affected by the world. There really is no cause and effect. One just follows the other
like spring following winter. And the burning log does not BECOME the ashes, because
like the previous example there is no "stuff" which was the wood and then is the ashes.
First there is wood and then there are ashes.
I guess zen is a method to get you to stop dreaming and wake up.
Book Review: great history, great philosophy for serious students of Zen
Summary: 5 Stars
Generally speaking, Watts doesn't appeal to new-age crystal fairies, channelers, and so forth, and if you prefer your Zen texts all poetical and mysterious, then this book isn't for you; but if you want a treatment of Zen as an important, credible and viable philosophical tradition, then you'll like this book. It's not an easy read, but this is good, solid, hardheaded Watts.Book Review: watt's The Way of Zen
Summary: 4 Stars
Alan Watts' The Way of Zen, is an excellent, though somewhat dated, overview of Zen Buddhist and Taoist "thinking".