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FT88

Alan Watts

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Hey TB's. I recently discovered some of Alan Watts audio series and i must say he has some very good insight and was before his time as most of his stuff was recorded in the 50's/60's. I was just wondering if any of you guys are familar with him and what your thoughts were.

 

Heres some torrents of his u can download

http://thepiratebay.org/search/alan%20watts/0/99/0

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8PLp_RX7Ow

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UAv9tJ-fVA&feature=related

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I've heard traditional members of the Taoist religion refer to Alan Watts as "that man from California." Ironically he's English, but he did live in California and was profoundly influential in the counter culture movement.

 

I also believe that he was one of the first Westerners to truly understand how much the Western world needed Eastern philosophy. In a time when many people in the west were losing faith in nearly every institution, Watts came along and showed them another way, one that had been there all along, but was ignored and dismissed as Eastern Barbarism at best and rubbish at worst. What ended up happening was that he exposed millions of Westerners to a way of thought that profoundly changed their lives and Western history forever.

 

Buddhism and Taoism are two of the fastest growing religions in the Western world. There are millions of Western Taoists and Buddhists today that may never have been if it were not for Watts and others, like Eugen Herrigal.

 

I also credit Watts "The Book" as being the turning point for me, where I ceased to wonder and finally understood. He was an amazing man, a womanizer, a philanderer, and yes a liar, but none the less, amazing. He understood better than most the true weakness inherent in morality and the reason why so many people needed something that made sense of the paradoxical world we live in.

 

Aaron

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I just finished "The Book" today, after catching its title mentioned here 2 days ago under a meditation thread. Very, very neat stuff. I'm a skeptic, so I'm not "won over", but I also realize I like thinking of myself and everything like he describes. Which leads me to the question, why not think this way? ^_^

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  On 2/11/2011 at 7:01 AM, surfingbudda said:

thought I might post this library link I found that lets you read many of Allan Watts books for free, enjoy :)

My link

 

Only allows those of us with UCSC accounts to read, I believe. Alas...

 

Must credit Watts with transitioning me from West to East so seamlessly that it couldn't have gone better any other way. I owe the man a tremendous debt, for his work was the initial impetus for my life toward the bodhicitta.

Edited by unmike

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I read "The Book" because of this thread...got some great insights from it! Loved the way he wrote and explained things...

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Very nice - thanks for posting. :)

 

The following really struck a chord with me (from the first of the two talks you posted):

 

It is absolutely absurd to say that we came into this world: We didn't. We came out of it.

 

Edit: Typo

Edited by devoid

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Blessed Alan Watts...

 

"Man has to discover that everything which he beholds in nature - the clammy foreign-feeling world of the ocean's depths, the wastes of ice, the reptiles of the swamp, the spiders and scorpions, the deserts of lifeless planets - has its counterpart within himself. He is not, then, at one with himself until he realizes that this "under side" of nature and the feelings of horror which it gives him are also "I".

Alan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity, Chapter 7: "The Transformation of Life", p.111.

 

We must see that consciousness is neither an isolated soul nor the mere function of a single nervous system, but of that totality of interrelated stars and galaxies which makes a nervous system possible.

Alan Watts

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A nice little limerick I found in Allan Watts' book, "Buddhism The Religion of No-Religion"

 

There was a young man who said, "Though

It seems that I know that I know.

What I would like to see

Is the I that Knows me

When I know that I know that I know."

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