Best Alan Watts Books to Explore Philosophy
- in Metaphysics
Alan Watts was a gifted British philosopher who tasked himself with the near impossible, putting that which transcended the knowable into words. He was an early proponent for spreading Eastern philosophy to Western culture. He was an author, a poet, a radical thinker, an ex-priest, a mystic, a teacher, and a critic of society. Unlike many of the philosophers who came before and after him, he understood the concept of stepping back from all of the drama we created in life and understood the cosmic humor of it all and he expresses the real life lessons through his books that may change anyone's perspective of thinking about life. Writing over 25 books and holding over 400 lectures, Watts became one of the most popular philosophers of his time.
Here you will get some list of best Alan Watts books if you want to enjoy every little thing of life that we usually ignore and will help you to appreciate the parts of life which you can't control.
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, is the kind of book of Allan Watts that can renew your faith in the possibility of
communicating profound ideas without having to use a dense and
impenetrable style of prose. It conveys the essence of Watts' thought and insight which provides a fundamental philosophic grounding wholly compatible with both modern science as well as a spiritual dimension. Modern Western culture and technology is inextricably tied to the belief in the existence of a self as a separate ego, separated from and in conflict with the rest of the world. In this classic book, Watts provides a lucid and simple presentation of an alternative view based on Hindu and Vedantic philosophy. This book really gets explains well just how humanity fits into creation. This is a very good fundamental book for anyone who wants to have a western understanding of some concepts that are well-known in eastern thought but are not often mentioned in western thought.
This Wisdom of Insecurity is the best Alan Watts book that precisely, simply and clearly explains life's most complex and existential experiences. This book shows us how, in order to lead a fulfilling life, we must embrace the present and live fully in the now. In this book, Alan Watts shows that it is only by acknowledging what we do not and cannot know that we can learn anything truly worth knowing. Because we spend all our time trying to anticipate and plan for the future and to lamenting the past, we forget to embrace the here and now, and we are so concerned with tomorrow that we forget to enjoy today. This book is completely an antidote to self-absorption. For anyone who is experiencing depression and anxiety, this book explains the evolutionary reason for these emotions.
Out of Your Mind, this set is one of the most unique audio-books of Alan Watts not only in its scope but because it is the voice, personality, and character of Alan Watts that communicates the information. He does such a great job of expressing his years of study into simple truths and embodies the Great Cosmic Joke that will leave you laughing at yourself and how serious you take it all at times. If you are interested in playing the cosmic game of hiding and seek this is the book for you and you are cordially invited to immerse yourself in 12 of this legendary thinker's teaching sessions about how to break through the limits of the rational mind and begin expanding your awareness and appreciation for
the Great Game unfolding all around us. Whether you are completely new to Alan Watts or familiar with his work,
here is a rare opportunity to experience him at his best, improvising brilliantly before a live audience on Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives.
Become What You Are by Alan Watts is the most insightful presentation of eastern and western religious philosophy. It is a good guide for opening the eyes and discovering a world hidden by our cultural indoctrination and opening a path the understanding true freedom. In this collection of writings, Watts displays the intelligence, playfulness of thought, and simplicity
of language that has made him so perennially popular as an interpreter
of Eastern thought for Westerners. This book is a collection of several of Alan Watts’ smaller essays that focus around living in the moment. This book is clearly written with varied examples is certainly a very good piece to reflect upon. Great book of thoughts and highly recommended for those who have in-depth philosophy with great analysis and knowledge.
The Meaning of Happiness is the most powerful book of Alan Watts that precisely describes about the happiness that we always search to lead a successful life. This book was written by Alan Watt at the age of when he was 24 years old, originally published in 1940. Deep down, most people think that happiness comes from having or doing something. Drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western mysticism, and analytic psychology, Watts demonstrates that happiness comes from accepting both the outer world around us and the inner world inside us, the unconscious mind, with its irrational desires, lurking beyond the awareness of the ego. While some may write about how to obtain happiness by changing one's circumstances, Watts explains, and while others may write about how to obtain happiness by changing oneself, Watts notes that happiness is not something we obtain by doing anything to obtain it. Rather, happiness arises from knowledge, from the awareness of non-duality, which ends the illusion of a self that needs to find happiness. In other words, if you want to be happy, become enlightened.
So, if you are searching for happiness here you go! This book is for you.
The Way of Zen is a great overview of Zen Buddhism in the large context of Indian and Mahayana Buddhism and his insights. The chapters on the principles and practices of Zen, comprising a goodly portion of the book are nothing short of marvelous, full of wit and sly observations, revealing Watts's thorough knowledge of Zen and his deep appreciation. The book is divided into two parts, 'Background and History' and 'Principles and Practice', each with four chapters. There is a bibliography also divided into two parts, the first referring to original sources and second to general works on Zen in European languages.
By this book Watts takes the reader back to the philosophical foundations of Zen in
the conceptual world of Hinduism, follows Buddhism's course through the
development of the early Mahayana school, the birth of Zen from
Buddhism's marriage with Chinese Taoism, and on to Zen's unique
expression in Japanese art and life. It's a great writing will keep you spellbound until the end of the book.
The collected Letters of Alan Watts is the most unique and popular book of Alan Watt that contains a brilliant anthology, of Alan Watts's letters, that reveal his philosophies, personality, experiences, teachings, and much more. This book reveals the remarkable arc of Watts’s colorful and controversial life,
from his school days in England to his priesthood in the Anglican Church
as chaplain of Northwestern University to his alternative lifestyle and
experimentation with LSD in the heyday of the late sixties. it is a series of letters he wrote to his parents, compiled by his family, starting when he was a young man. This book is highly recommended for those who like Alan Watts' teaching approaches and writing styles.
This Is It by Alan Watts is a collection of essays written in the 1950s.The six revolutionary essays exploring the relationship between spiritual experience and ordinary life and the need for them to coexist within each of us.
'Cosmic consciousness' includes the author's account of his own ventures into this inward realm.
'Instinct, Intelligence, and Anxiety' is a study of the paradoxes of self-consciousness.
'Spiritually and Sensuality' is a lively discussion of the false the opposition of spirit and matter.
'The New Alchemy' is a balanced the account of states of consciousness akin to spiritual experience induced by the aid of lysergic acid.
'Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen' includes the text of
Watts' celebrated pamphlet.
This book is known as the top Alan Watts book that shows the developed ideas of Alan Watts about life and highly recommended for those who have insightful thoughts to see the world differently.
Nature, Man and Woman is truly enlightening book Alan watt of about the problem of man's relationship with Nature, a problem that gives rise to the problem of man's relation to a woman and to himself. The great philosopher Alan Watts reexamines humanity’s place in the natural world and the relation between body and spirit in the light of
Chinese Taoism. Here, Watts fundamentally challenges these assumptions, drawing on the
precepts of Taoism to present an alternative vision of man and the
universe, one in which the distinctions between self and other, spirit
and matter gives way to a more holistic way of seeing. The Taoist philosophy of Nature is more than a theoretical system, it is primarily a way of life in which the original sense of the seamless unity of Nature is restored without the loss of individual consciousness. This book is perhaps the best Alan Watts book and thought-provoking book that will familiarize the readers with the forms of spirituality and the reality lies in the mighty nature.
