Thoughts About Alan Watts 

Aamer hderee. In the early 70s I read. Him like crazy. Eventually I graduated to more serious Buddhism, Sri mahana ramarshi etc.

This! Love this. My thoughts exactly. I'd also call him a habitual purveyor of false dichotomies... Haha. Listen to him with that in mind and you'll notice a shit ton of em.

@@thotslayer9914 I suppose, no more than most of us, but he did have a problem with alcohol... it ended his life, and he had a reputation for liking the women, and fine things maybe a bit too much. I don't want to judge. It is what it is, but it was a problem for him and may turn some folks off. I don't see a problem for me enjoying his teaching, or thinking I might have liked him as a person. Sometimes folks want their "zen folks" to be very "zeny" and holy not human.

@@Anastasius12 They are not flaws.

@@bondye5929 Some might call dying at such an early age from alcoholism a bit of a flaw. Alan might say it was merely the leigh of his particular piece of jade. Maybe the grain of his particular piece of wood. Truth can't be found in words.

@@Anastasius12 you maybe right, Just also Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's one of the dead causes is probably alcohol. Its probably hard to tolerate some stuff. I loved and consumed alcohol very much too. I cant consume that much because I have gastritus nowadays but yeah. Just Idk everyone is flawed. Hopefully :p Also I have doubts about the ''truth'' now like i had before. Cant erase the thought this is a prison planet. Also womanizing is a cool thing. Idk man. just wanted to talk i guess.

To say ANYONE can be flawed is merely to state a concept. And concepts, as we know, have no base in the real world.

That's probably true.

​@@HardcoreZen,How would you possibly know? You confessed to knowing practically nothing about the man.

Yeah he didn't seem to advocate constant, regular drug use and seemed to prefer working with the regular, sober mind.

As someone that battles powerful demons I can see why he drank, sober these days but its a battle .he's daughter said in an interview her father said "I like myself better with drink " .having addictions is stressful, womanising and the battle of child maintenance all very stressful through hes life .

I would say that Watts "publically battling demons" and succumbing to alcoholism in the end is just one more evidence that he was nothing but a new age "anti-sage". As Christ said, "you will know them by their fruits". Surely a true sage (as opposed to someone who has merely read some books), that is a person who has attained to ultimate knowledge and self-realization will not end as an alcoholic, but rather as a Saint. A Nicholas of Cusa, Meister Eckhart, Adi Shankara, or closer to our times, Sri Ramakrishna, did not end their lives as alcoholics but as Saints...because the true possession of quintessential knowledge cannot but lead one to Sainthood.

@@Mike-md7op Much of it depends on our own perceptions too. By their fruits... indeed! And what are the fruits of Alan Watts? I believe he led many to seek deeper and find Buddha-Dharma, Vedanta, and ultimately themselves. I don't know that I agree with the premise that a true sage cannot end as an alcoholic. For my money the flaws and the recognition that a teacher/"Saint" is not perfect is preferable to a "perfect" holy man. I see your take though and that is fair enough.

​@@heressomestuffifound I appreciate your measured response. Here is mine: A sage is one who possesses perfect knowledge and has assimilated this knowledge. Having assimilated perfect knowledge, they themselves become perfect. How could alcoholism be the product of perfect knowledge? There have been many pseudo-sages in the 20th century. Westerners who picked up a few Eastern books, half-digested their contents, mixed them with various elements of decadent, anti-traditional modern Western philosophies, and then went around acting like they were sages. Sorry to say, Watts was one of these latter pseudo-sages or pseudo-gurus. As far as saying that you prefer someone with flaws to a "perfect" holy man, I believe this is nothing but the equalitarian bias of our times speaking through you. Someone said that modern societies "don't want great men"...and this is unfortunately true. We don't want Saints, and thus we don't get them. Perhaps the idea of a perfected Saint offends us, makes us uncomfortable, makes us feel "unequal". But Christ said: "Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect".

Thanks! That's nice of you to say.

Dean McCrorie any amount of zazen is a good amount of zazen

Oh wow, I listen to Alan Watts at night to help me sleep too. He was such a great speaker! I think he was so instrumental in bringing eastern philosophies to the west.

Sounds like a perv to me

Thank you. It's weird how popular these videos are.

Watts' book that played a large part in bringing me to the Soto Zen path.

His The Way of Zen is an audio on RU-vid. It's wonderful reading. His analysis, both historical and analytical, is not only insightful, but also prescient. Zen is contextualized. It's roots in China proclaimed, but its debt to Taoism in China celebrated, then, flying over to Japan, he shows its flourishing and artistry, how the Japanese culture shaped it into pearl-like drops of grains.

No worries. Judging from the comments people enjoyed the video. It was pretty easy to make and it was interesting to study a bit about Mr. Watts.

Interesting! I've read there is no god and hes always with you, but not AW's book. Alan was a Anglican minister in his earlier years wasn't he? I suppose it does make sense for him to have looked at the subject of Zen and God. 🙂

Ken Wilbur is not one of my favorite people. I think he's very smart, but he lets his smarts get in the way and obscure everything valuable.

@@HardcoreZen i understand Thank you

That's interesting. Thank you.

Also i just want to say I think the 3 videos you did last week "Bad zazen is good zazen" and 2 on dogen were amazing and sparky :)

Most opinions given on this channel about mainstream figures in spirituality are presented like this. I think he doesn't really pay much attention to big name authors or teachers. I suppose there's plenty you can find about them elsewhere anyway

He also talks about where he found ideas/authors, etc and who he met who recommended them at some point rather than the things or people themselves, haha. Ah well it's all entertainment

Thank you for your support!

Our time there overlapped, then. Maybe I saw you at Ray's.

Probably true.

That's not really correct. Yes Alan was involved in the legal LSD experiments. But after his initial experimentation was became excited about psychedelics. He especially honored the natural ones. He voiced caution and temperance, and knew enough to see that psychedelics were not an end to themselves but simply a spiritual tool. From the mid 60's onwards Alan has been a large icon for the mystical psychedelic experience. He was friends with Leary, taught and lived at Esalen, and was a major attraction at Druid Heights.

P.S. part of his ashes were interred at Green Gulch as well.

It should be said DFW has little to do with zen, but rather, I think he had some of the insights and truth and remarkably articulate about it, that come with some.of the early stages of the contemplative journey

It's hard to give a specific answer about how zazen can help people work with addictions. I've never been addicted to any substances like alcohol or opiates. But I was legitimately addicted to caffeine for a number of years and I've also been addicted (in a sense) to certain ways of thinking and perceiving. As for the caffeine, the Zen practice helped me notice that it really was a physical addiction. When I made the decision to end that addiction, the discipline I had acquired from my practice was what made it possible to resist, for example, drinking a cup of coffee and thereby ending the 24/7 headache I was suffering from for literally about five weeks. Zazen can help you see that you can endure an uncomfortable situation without resorting to habitual ways of attaining temporary comfort. Maybe that's the main thing.

Oh wow! Was that the first house he had, before he moved to Franklin Street? I remember the first place he lived was right behind a row of fast food places.

Watts is in a causal chain that lead me to eventually encountering shining gems like "Mountains and Waters Sutra" though so I am extremely grateful to him.

He did too much thrinking .

I have! There are some good ones!

I wish people would say "groovy" unironically too these days after I learned what it's original meaning was before it was mocked :)

This!!!! This is basically what I came here to say, being a Watts aficionado, couldn't let the error stand, lol.

ru-vid.com/group/PL02D3110151849463

Thanks. I know about that book but I haven't read it.

@RakeRocter aye

I thought it was great. Apparently Neal Stephenson initially planned that story as a TV series. I wish someone would make that show. It would be a lot better than most science fiction shows these days.

@@HardcoreZen Agreed

txnygotw we are all talking about ourselves bro

Because AS I EXPLAINED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE VIDEO people asked me my opinion on Alan Watts.

@@HardcoreZen hmm .. okay.. but u know.. for those who were searching for this topic.. you could have added some more info.. so they actually share it.. it's only gonna help you increase the views.. 😁

@@tashurastogi Thank you! I could have done a better video.

Wikipedia was not my only source.

I watched 37 minutes of a 1:12hr talk by Watts, but it was enough for me to turn it off and be able to see where he was coming from, enough to do a meaningful critique of his ideas and approach. I know almost nothing at all of Zen, but I know what the Buddha taught and am familiar with Hindu philosophy inclusive of all the schools of thought there, as well as Christianity. He is impressively well spoken, no question. I agree with his criticism of modern Christianity. He then leads his listeners to Eastern philosophy, but proceeds to do the same thing to Eastern Philosophies that he accuses Christianity of doing. He opens the gateway, simultaneously corrupting the teachings and seeding doubt towards its' teachers. I think HZ gave a fair assessment, without pretending to have read more than he did. Also I looked at Watts' personal life. Not only an alcoholic, but a serial womanizer, self admitted bad father, he was lacking both the moral integrity and committed practice to realize the Self, leaning on the philosophy, which he knew well, but ignoring that at it's core it is a practical philosophy, he rejected any means to realize Self or apply any effort towards dissolving the ego. He also uses 'psychobabble' as a straw-man to both disparage vegetarians and to rationalize his habit of eating animal flesh, while conveniently ignoring the rationale by which the Buddha prescribed to abstain from meat eating. He rightly notes that developing spirituality can lead one to a false sense of superiority, but at it's heart that's also the ego and needs to be overcome. It's not a dead end that proves the methods false, it's part of the journey for some. A journey he would have you believe was not necessary to take. If you think that practicing meditation makes you 'wooden', it's time to try a different approach. In fact, for a Christian, better to stay a Christian but deepen your approach to it, than to take a non practical/non mystic approach to Eastern Mysticism.

After this review you need some zazen . Why do we people do what they do including judge/reacting ? I am doing it at the moment .

I have read some of krishnamurti's thoughts, what do you mean by without even trying ?

Yeah... I've only just recently started reading his stuff. Some of it is really good! But, then again, you're right that he sometimes misses the mark.