Alan Wilson Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973) was a philosopher, writer, speaker, and expert in comparative religion. He was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. Image from the cover of the book The Essential Alan Watts, published 1984. ... is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... The Major religious groups of the world. ...

He wrote more than twenty-five books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, and the pursuit of happiness, relating his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religions or philosophies (Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism, etc.). Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences for an individuals comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... Higher Consciousness - also called Super Consciousness (Yoga), Buddhic Consciousness (Theosophy), Objective Consciousness (Gurdjieff), Christ Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness and God-consciousness (Islam and Hinduism), to name but a few - are expressions used in various traditions of spiritual science and psychology to denote the consciousness of a human being who has reached... For other uses, see Happiness (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Zen (disambiguation). ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ... Taoism (or Daoism) is the English name referring to a variety of related Chinese philosophical traditions and concepts. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages[1]) is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ...

Alan Watts was also a well-known autodidact. Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. ...

Early years

Watts was born to middle class parents in the village of Chislehurst (now in the London Borough of Bromley), Kent, England in the year 1915. His father was a representative for the London office of the Michelin Tyre Company, his mother a housewife whose father had been a missionary. With modest financial means, they chose to live in bucolic surroundings and Alan, an only child, grew up learning the names of wild flowers and butterflies, playing beside streams, and performing funeral ceremonies for birds. The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... Chislehurst is a place in the London Borough of Bromley. ... The London Borough of Bromley is a London Borough of outer southeast London, England. ... For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Michelin (full name: Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) (Euronext: ML) based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France, is primarily a tyre manufacturer. ... For other uses, see Missionary (disambiguation). ...

Probably because of the influence of his mother’s religious family, the Buchans, an interest in "ultimate things" seeped in. But it mixed with Alan’s own interests in storybook fables and romantic tales of the mysterious Far East. Watts also later wrote of a mystical sort of vision he experienced while ill with a fever as a child. During this time he was influenced by Far Eastern landscape paintings and embroideries that had been given to his mother by missionaries returning from China. With regard to the examples of Chinese paintings he was able to see in England, Watts wrote "I was aesthetically fascinated with a certain clarity, transparency, and spaciousness in Chinese and Japanese art. It seemed to float..." [as presented in his autobiography]. These works of art emphasized the participative relationship of man in nature, a theme that would be important to him throughout his life.

Buddhism

By his own assessment, Watts was imaginative, headstrong, and talkative. He was sent to boarding schools (which included both academic and religious training) from early years. During holidays in his teen years, Francis Croshaw, a wealthy epicurean with strong interests in both Buddhism and the exotic little-known aspects of European culture, took Watts on a trip through France. It was not long afterward that Watts felt forced to decide between the Anglican Christianity he had been exposed to and the Buddhism he had read about in various libraries, including Croshaw’s. He chose Buddhism, and sought membership in the London Buddhist Lodge which had been established by Theosophists, and was now run by the barrister Christmas Humphreys. Watts became the organization’s secretary at 16 (1931). The young Watts explored several styles of meditation during these years. A boarding school is a usually fee-charging school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers. ... Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus (c. ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ... Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of belief which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ... Justice Christmas Humphreys Q.C. (1901 - April 1983) lawyer, High Court judge, and founder of the Buddhist Society, London. ... For other senses of this word, see Meditation (disambiguation). ...

Education

Watts attended King's School next door to Canterbury Cathedral. Though he was frequently at the top of his classes scholastically, and was given responsibilities at school, he botched an opportunity for a scholarship to Oxford by styling a crucial examination essay in a way that was read as presumptuous and capricious. Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. ... This article is about scholarship (noun) and scholarship as a form of financial aid. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...

Hence, when he graduated from secondary school, Watts was thrust into the world of employment, working in a printing house and later a bank. He spent his spare time involved with the Buddhist Lodge and also under the tutelage of a "rascal guru" named Dimitrije Mitrinović. (Mitrinović was himself influenced by Peter Demianovich Ouspensky, G. I. Gurdjieff, and the varied psychoanalytical schools of Freud, Jung and Adler.) Watts also read widely in philosophy, history, psychology, psychiatry and Eastern wisdom. Dimitrije Mitrinović Dimitrije Mitrinović Serbian Cyrillic Димитрије Митриновић (1887-1953) - philosopher, poet, revolutionary, mystic, theoretician of modern painting, traveller and cosmopolite. ... P.D. Ouspensky Peter D. Ouspensky (March 4, 1878, Moscow - October 2, 1947, Lyne Place, Surrey, England), (Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, also Uspenskii or Uspensky) was a Russian philosopher who invoked geometry in his discussions of psychology and higher dimensions of existence. ... Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (Георгий Иванович Гюрджиев, Georgiy Ivanovich Gyurdzhiev (or Gurdjiev); (January 13, 1866? – October 29, 1949), was an Armenian-Greek mystic, a teacher of sacred dances, and a spiritual teacher. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Jung redirects here. ... Alfred Adler (February 7, 1870 – May 28, 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor and psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology. ...

Influences and first publication

London afforded him a considerable number of other opportunities for personal growth. Through Humphreys, he contacted eminent spiritual authors (e.g., Nicholas Roerich, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan) and prominent theosophists like Alice Bailey. In 1936, aged 21, he attended the World Congress of Faiths at the University of London, heard D.T. Suzuki read a paper, and afterwards was able to meet this esteemed scholar of Zen Buddhism. Beyond these discussions and personal encounters, he absorbed, by studying the available scholarly literature, the fundamental concepts and terminology of the main philosophies of India and East Asia. In 1936, Watts's first book was published, The Spirit of Zen, which he later acknowledged to be mainly digested from the writings of Suzuki. Guests from Overseas, 1899 (Varangians in Russia) Longships Are Built in the Land of the Slavs (1903) Nicholas Roerich, (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Николай Константинович Рёрих), was a Russian painter and spiritual teacher. ... Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (September 5, 1888 - April 17, 1975) is best known as the man who introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophers into Indian thought. ... Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949), known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB, was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester, England, but moved to the U.S. in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher. ... Dr. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870, Kanazawa, Japan - 1966; standard transliteration: Suzuki Daisetsu, 鈴木大拙) was a famous author of books and essays on Buddhism and Zen that were instrumental in spreading interest in Zen to the West. ... A woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, (Japan, 1887) depicting Bodhidharma the founder of Chinese Zen. ... A concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. ... Terminology is the study of terms and their use — of words and compound words that are used in specific contexts. ... East Asia Geographic East Asia. ...

In 1938 he and his bride left England to live in America. He had married Eleanor Everett, whose mother Ruth Fuller Everett was involved with a traditional Zen Buddhist circle in New York. A few years later, Ruth Fuller married the Zen master (or "roshi"), Sokei-an Sasaki, and this Japanese gentleman served as a sort of model and mentor to Alan, though Watts chose not to enter into a formal Zen training relationship with Sasaki. Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... This article is about the state. ...

During these years, according to his later writings, Watts had another mystical experience while on a walk with his wife.

Priesthood and after

Watts had left formal Zen training in New York because the method of the teacher didn't suit him. He was not ordained as a Zen monk, but he felt a need to find a professional outlet for his philosophical inclinations. He entered an Anglican (Episcopalian) school (Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, in Evanston), where he studied Christian scriptures, theology, and Church history. He attempted to work out a blend of contemporary Christian worship, mystical Christianity, and Asian philosophy. Watts was awarded a master's degree in theology in response to his thesis, which he published as a popular edition under the title Behold the Spirit. The pattern was set, in that Watts did not hide his dislike for religious outlooks that he decided were dour, guilt-ridden, or militantly proselytizing, whether found within Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or Buddhism. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages[1]) is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ...

All seemed to go reasonably well in his next role, as Episcopalian priest (beginning in 1945, aged 30), until an extramarital affair resulted in his young wife having their marriage annulled. It also resulted in Watts leaving the ministry by 1950. He spent the New Year getting to know Joseph Campbell; his wife, Jean Erdman; and John Cage. For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ... For the Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ...

In the spring of 1951, Watts moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. Here he taught alongside Saburo Hasegawa, Frederick Spiegelberg, Haridas Chaudhuri, lama Tokwan Tada, and various visiting experts and professors. Hasegawa, in particular, served as a teacher to Watts in the areas of Japanese customs, arts, primitivism, and perceptions of nature. The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private graduate school founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California with two main schools—the School of Professional Psychology and the School of Consciousness and Transformation. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Haridas Chaudhuri (Bengali: )(May, 1913-1975), Bengali integral philosopher, was a correspondent with Sri Aurobindo and the founder of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). ... Not to be confused with Llama. ...

Watts also studied written Chinese and practiced Chinese brush calligraphy with Hasegawa as well as with some of the Chinese students who enrolled at the Academy. While Watts was noted for an interest in Zen Buddhism, with its origins in China, his reading and discussions delved into Vedanta, "the new physics," cybernetics, semantics, process philosophy, natural history, and the anthropology of sexuality. A woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, (Japan, 1887) depicting Bodhidharma the founder of Chinese Zen. ... This article is about the Hindu philosophy. ... Fig. ... For other uses, see Cybernetics (disambiguation). ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now often viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines of integrative organismal biology. ... Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ...

Middle years

After heading up the Academy for a few years, Watts left the faculty for a freelance career in the mid 1950s. He began what became a long-running weekly radio program at Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley. Like other volunteer programmers at the listener-sponsored station, Watts was not paid for his broadcasts; they did, however, gain him a large following in the San Francisco Bay Area. These programs were later carried by additional Pacifica stations, and were re-broadcast many times over in the decades following his death. The original tapes are currently held by the Pacifica Radio Archive, based at KPFK in Los Angeles. Pacifica Radio Network. ... KPFA is a listener-sponsored radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay area on 94. ... Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. ... USGS satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... KPFK (90. ...

In 1957 when 42, Watts published one of his best known books, The Way of Zen, which focused on philosophical explication and history. Besides drawing on the lifestyle and philosophical background of Zen, in India and China, Watts introduced ideas drawn from general semantics (directly from the writings of Alfred Korzybski) and cybernetics (Norbert Wiener's early work on cybernetics had been recently published). Watts offered analogies from cybernetic principles possibly applicable to the Zen life. The book sold well, eventually becoming a modern classic, and helped widen his lecture circuit. General Semantics is a school of thought founded by Alfred Korzybski in about 1933 in response to his observations that most people had difficulty defining human and social discussions and problems and could almost never predictably resolve them into elements that were responsive to successful intervention or correction. ... Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski is a philosopher and scientist born on July 3, 1879 in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire and died on March 1, 1950, in Lakeville, Connecticut, USA. He is probably best-remembered for developing the theory of general semantics. ... For other uses, see Cybernetics (disambiguation). ... Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894, Columbia, Missouri – March 18, 1964, Stockholm Sweden) was an American theoretical and applied mathematician. ...

Around this time, Watts toured parts of Europe with his father, meeting the renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung. In relation to modern psychology, Watts's instincts were closer to Jung's or Abraham Maslow's than to those of Freud. Jung redirects here. ... Abraham (Harold) Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ...

Experimentation

When he returned to the United States, he began to dabble in psychedelic drug experiences, initially with mescaline given to him by Dr. Oscar Janiger. He soon tried LSD several times with various research teams led by Drs. Keith Ditman, Sterling Bunnell, and Michael Agron. He also tried DMT, later stating that it was 'like loading the Universe into a gun and firing it into your brain'. Watts’s books of the sixties reveal the influence of these chemical adventures on his outlook. He would later comment about drug use, "When you've got the message, hang up the phone." ^[1] Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Dr. Oscar Janiger was a University of California Irvine Psychiatrist who was best known for his LSD research, which lasted from 1954 to 1962. ... Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly called LSD, LSD-25, or acid. ... Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also known as N,N-dimethyltryptamine, is a psychedelic tryptamine. ...

For a time, Watts came to prefer writing in the language of modern science and psychology (Psychotherapy East and West is a good example), finding a parallel between mystical experiences and the theories of the material universe proposed by twentieth-century physicists. He later equated mystical experience with ecological awareness, and emphasized whichever approach seemed best suited to the audience he was addressing.

Philosophical development

Watts's explorations and teaching brought him into contact with many noted intellectuals, artists, and American teachers in the human potential movement. His friendship with poet Gary Snyder nurtured his sympathies with the budding environmental movement, to which Watts gave philosophical support. He also encountered Robert Anton Wilson, who credited Watts with being one of his 'Light[s] along the Way' in the opening appreciation of Cosmic Trigger. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (originally, often associated with the Beat Generation), essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. ... The environmental movement (a term that sometimes includes the conservation and green movements) is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher. ...

Though never affiliated for long with any one academic institution, he did have a fellowship for several years at Harvard University. He also lectured to many college and university students. His lectures and books gave Watts far-reaching influence on the American intelligentsia of the 1950s-1970s, but Watts was often seen as an outsider in academia. While some college and university professors found his writing and lectures interesting, others said things like: "He's not really a scholar of Eastern philosophy. He's not that disciplined. Alan Watts doesn't teach Eastern philosophy, he teaches 'Alan Watts.'"^{[citation needed]} To which he replied in numerous lectures that "the scholar who is interested in medals and prizes and not interested in the fun of it, has amazing put downs." He pointed this out with an example: "The original scholars in history were men that owned land, and being rich they had enough free time to study in their library, not for the progress of science, but for fun." Another Japanese Zen master, Maezumi Roshi, however, once remarked, "Alan Watts? He is not Zen!"--a perfectly Zen-like response that may well have delighted Watts. Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Applied aesthetics

Watts often alluded to or wrote about a group of neighbors in Druid Heights^[2] (near Mill Valley, California), who had endeavored to combine architecture, gardening, and carpentry skills to make a beautiful and comfortable life for themselves. Druid Heights was founded by the writer Elsa Gidlow. Mill Valley is a city located in Marin County, California. ... Elsa Gidlow (1898 – 1986) was a poet, who in 1923 published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States: On A Grey Thread. ...

Regarding his intentions, it can be argued that Watts attempted to lessen the alienation that accompanies the experience of being human that he felt plagued the modern Westerner, and (like his fellow British expat and friend, Aldous Huxley) to lessen the ill will that was an unintentional by-product of alienation from the natural world. He felt such teaching could improve the world, at least to a degree. He also articulated the possibilities for greater incorporation of aesthetics (for example: better architecture, more art, more fine cuisine) in American life. In his autobiography he wrote, "… cultural renewal comes about when highly differentiated cultures mix" (Watts, In My Own Way). Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. ... The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ...

Later years

In his writings of the 1950s, he conveyed his admiration for the practicality in the historical achievements of Chán (Zen) in the Far East, for it had fostered farmers, architects, builders, folk physicians, artists, and administrators among the monks who had lived in the monasteries of its lineages. Chán is a major school of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. ...

In his mature work, he presents himself as "Zennist" in spirit as he wrote in his last book, Tao, the Watercourse Way. Child rearing, the arts, cuisine, education, law and freedom, architecture, sexuality, and the uses and abuses of technology were all of great interest to him.

On the personal level, Watts sought to resolve his feelings of alienation from the institutions of marriage and the values of American society, as revealed in classic his comments on love relationships in "Divine Madness" and on perception of the organism-environment in "The Philosophy of Nature".

In looking at social issues he was quite concerned with the necessity for international peace, for tolerance or even understanding among disparate cultures. He also came to feel acutely conscious of a growing ecological predicament; as one instance, in the early 1960s he wrote: “Can any melting or burning imaginable get rid of these ever-rising mountains of ruin – especially when the things we make and build are beginning to look more and more like rubbish even before they are thrown away?" [The Joyous Cosmology] These concerns were later expressed in a television pilot made for NET filmed at his mountain retreat in 1971 in which he noted that the single track of conscious attention was wholly inadequate for interactions with a multi-tracked world. The color NET logo was incorporated into a model building at the beginning and end of Mister Rogers Neighborhood from 1969 to 1970. ...

Political stance

In his writings, Watts alluded to his own political shift from Republican conservatism to a more liberal legal and political outlook. However, his opinions did not lean to the political left. Distrusting both the established political left and right, he found inspiration in the Chinese sage Chuang-Tzu. He disliked much in the conventional idea of "progress". He hoped for change, but personally he preferred amiable, semi-isolated rural social enclaves, and also believed in tolerance for urban tenderloins, social misfits, and eccentric artists. Watts decried the suburbanization of the countryside and the way of life that went with it. The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ... Ths article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... Left wing redirects here. ... thumb|Zhuang Zi by Japan Zhuāng Zǐ (pinyin), Chuang Tzu (W-G), or Chuang Tse (Chinese 莊子, literally meaning Master Zhuang) was a famous philosopher in ancient China who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of...

In one campus lecture tour, which Watts titled "The End to the Put-Down of Man", Watts presented positive images for both nature and humanity, spoke in favor of the various stages of human growth (including the teenage years), reproached excessive cynicism and rivalry, and extolled intelligent creativity, good architecture and food.

On spiritual and social identity

Watts felt that ethics (at least of the judgmental Judeo-Christian kind) had nothing to do with the fundamental realization of one’s deep spiritual identity. He advocated social rather than personal ethics. In his writings, Watts was increasingly concerned with ethics applied to relations between humanity and the natural environment and between governments and citizens. He wrote out of an appreciation of a racially and culturally diverse social landscape. At the same time, he favored representative government rather than direct democracy (which he felt could readily degenerate into mob rule). For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... Ochlocracy (Greek: οχλοκρατια; Latin: ochlocratia) is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of constitutional authorities. ...

He often said that he wished to act as a bridge between the ancient and the modern, between East and West, and between culture and nature.

Watts led some tours for Westerners to the Buddhist temples of Japan. He also studied some movements from the traditional Chinese martial art T'ai Chi Ch'uan, with an Asian colleague, Al Chung-liang Huang. Watts lived his later years at times on a houseboat in Sausalito on San Francisco Bay and at times in a secluded cabin on Mount Tamalpais. Laden with social and financial responsibilities, he struggled increasingly with alcohol addiction, which probably shortened his life.^[3] In October 1973 he returned from an exhausting European lecture tour. Watts died of heart failure in his sleep at home the following month at the age of 58. Kung fu redirects here. ... Tai Chi Chuan or Taijiquan (Chinese: 太極拳; pinyin: ; literally supreme ultimate fist), commonly known as Tai Chi, Tai Chi, or Taiji, is a nei chia (internal) Chinese martial art which is known for the claims of health and longevity benefits made by its practitioners and... Sausalito is a city located in Marin County, California. ... San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Golden Gate San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. ... Mount Tamalpais (Mount Tam) is a peak in Marin County, California, USA. It is a popular hiking destination for residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the Edgewood Botanic Garden, and often considered symbolic of Marin County. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Family life

Alan Watts was married three times and had five children including two sons, the oldest of whom, Mark Watts, has recently served as curator of his father's work.

Books

• 1936 The Spirit of Zen, Paperback. 1969 ISBN 0-8021-3056-9
• 1937 The Legacy of Asia and Western Man
• 1940 The Meaning of Happiness, Paperback. 1970, ISBN 0-06-080178-6
• 1944 Theologica Mystica of St. Dionysius, (translation from Greek of pseudo-Dionysius, now available online)
• 1948 Behold the Spirit:A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion, Vintage ed. 1972, ISBN 0-394-71761-9
• 1950 Easter - Its Story and Meaning
• 1950 The Supreme Identity, Vintage ed. 1972, ISBN 0-394-71835-6
• 1951 The Wisdom of Insecurity, Vintage ed. 1968, ISBN 0-394-70468-1
• 1953 Myth and Ritual in Christianity, Beacon Press 1971, ISBN 0-8070-1375-7
• 1957 The Way of Zen, Vintage Spiritual Classics 1999, ISBN 0-375-70510-4
• 1958 Nature, Man, and Woman, Vintage reissue 1991, ISBN 0-679-73233-0
• 1960 "This Is It" and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience, Vintage reprint 1973, ISBN 0-394-71904-2; excerpted essay: "The New Alchemy"
• 1961 Psychotherapy East and West, Vintage ed. 1975, ISBN 0-394-71609-4 (excerpt here)
• 1962 The Joyous Cosmology - Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
• 1963 The Two Hands of God - The Myths of Polarity
• 1964 Beyond Theology - The Art of Godmanship, Vintage 1973, ISBN 0-394-71923-9
• 1966 The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Vintage reissue 1989, ISBN 0-679-72300-5 (excerpt here)
• 1967 Nonsense, ISBN 0-525-47463-3. This book is an interesting spiritual application of literary nonsense.
• 1970 Does It Matter?: Essays on Man's Relation to Materiality, Vintage ed. 1971, ISBN 0-394-71665-5
• 1971 Erotic Spirituality - The Vision of Konarak
• 1972 The Art of Contemplation
• 1972 In My Own Way - An Autobiography 1915-1965, Vintage 1973, ISBN 0-394-71951-4
• 1973 Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal, Vintage 1974, ISBN 0-394-71999-9

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite is the name scholars have given to an anonymous theologian and philosopher of the 5th century, who wrote a collection of books (Corpus Areopagiticum) falsely ascribed to the Dionysius mentioned in Acts 17:34. ... Literary Nonsense refers to literature in which there are either nonsensical words, or the meaning does not make the slightest bit of sense. ...

Posthumous publications

• 1974 The Essence of Alan Watts, Celestial Arts 1977, ISBN 0-89087-210-4
• 1975 Tao: The Watercourse Way, with Al Chung-liang Huang, Pantheon 1977, ISBN 0-394-73311-8
• 1976 Essential Alan Watts
• 1978 Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk: The Mystery of Life
• 1979 Om: Creative Meditations
• 1982 Play to Live
• 1983 Way of Liberation: Essays and Lectures on the Transformation of the Self
• 1985 Out of the Trap
• 1986 Diamond Web
• 1987 The Early Writings of Alan Watts, Paperback. 1995, ISBN 0-89087-794-7
• 1990 The Modern Mystic: A New Collection of Early Writings
• 1994 Talking Zen
• 1995 Become What You Are, Shambhala Expanded ed. 2003, ISBN 1-57062-940-4
• 1995 Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion
• 1995 The Philosophies of Asia
• 1995 The Tao of Philosophy, edited transcripts, Tuttle Publishing 1999, ISBN 0-8048-3204-8
• 1996 Myth and Religion
• 1997 Taoism: Way Beyond Seeking
• 1997 Zen and the Beat Way
• 1998 Culture of Counterculture
• 1999 Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion, edited transcripts, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 0-8048-3203-X
• 2000 Still the mind : an introduction to meditation, New World Library, ISBN 1-57731-214-7
• 2000 What is Zen?, New World Library, ISBN 0-394-71951-4
• 2000 What is Tao?, New World Library, ISBN 1-57731-168-X

Audio and video works, essays

Including recordings of lectures at major universities and multi-session seminars:

• 1960 Eastern Wisdom in Modern Life, television series, (here)
• 1960 Essential Lectures, audio recordings, (here)
• 1960 Nature of Consciousness, essay, (here)
• 1960 The Value of Psychotic Experience
• 1960 The World As Emptiness
• 1960 From Time to Eternity
• 1960 Lecture On Zen
• 1960 The Cross of Cards
• 1960 Taoism
• 1962 This Is IT
• 1968 "Psychedelics & Religious Experience", in California Law Review (here)
• 1969 Why Not Now: The Art of Meditation
• 2005 Do You Do It, or Does It Do You?: how to let the universe meditate you (CD)
• 2007 Zen Meditations with Alan Watts, DVD, (here)

The cover of the CLR. The California Law Review (CLR) is the flagship law review of the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). ...

References

1. ^ http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/watts_alan/watts_alan.shtml Erowid Character Vaults: Alan Watts
2. ^ http://www.techgnosis.com/index_druid.html Druids and Ferries
3. ^ Zen Effects, p. 188–189

• Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hard cover); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (paperback)
• Furlong, Monica, Zen Effects: The Life of Alan Watts Houghton Mifflin. New York. 1986 ISBN 0-395-45392-5, Skylight Paths 2001 edition of the biography, with new forward by author: ISBN 1-89336132-2
• Watts, Alan, In My Own Way New York. Random House Pantheon. 1973 ISBN 0-394-46911-9 (his autobiography)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Alan Watts

• The Alan Watts Archive
• Alan Watts Podcast - The official Podcast of Alan Watts
• Alan Watts Online - Project Unicorn
• Watts essay on Nothingness
• "Alan Watts Theatre" - audio recordings of Watts set to animations by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park
• Alan Watts audio archive from the DIY Dharma website
• Alan Watts Lectures and Essays Audio, video, essays and articles - resources from deoxy.org