Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown

by Alan W. Watts

Over the course of nineteen essays, Alan Watts ("a spiritual polymatch, the first and possibly greatest" —Deepak Chopra) ruminates on the philosophy of nature, ecology, aesthetics, religion, and metaphysics. Assembled in the form of a “mountain journal,” written during a retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, CA, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown is Watts’s meditation on the art of feeling out and following the watercourse way of nature, known in Chinese as the Tao. Embracing a form of contemplative meditation that allows us to stop analyzing our experiences and start living in to them, the book explores themes such as the natural world, established religion, race relations, karma and reincarnation, astrology and tantric yoga, the nature of ecstasy, and much more.

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Religion, Buddhism, Psychology, Zen

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer and speaker, who held both a Master's in Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity. Famous for his research on comparative religion, he was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, the meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the non-material pursuit of happiness. In his books he relates his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy.

Reviews

[Thom Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look Mom, Here I am classifying, labelling and shelving your book about not classifying, labelling, and shelving experience !

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this one and, not surprisingly, it was amazing. The chapter titled "What are we doing?" is by itself worthy of 5 stars. Talk about hitting the nail on the head! In about ten pages or so he effectively lays bare the entire root system of Western thought and, more importantly, details the problems and social ills that it brings about.

Watts makes you feel so comfortable with the subject matter. Although this book was no more than a collection of some scattered essays and journal entries it was still amazingly consistent and well written. Watts truly has a gift. He is by far one of my favorite writers.

His ability to so eloquently and simply explain Eastern thought is astounding. His strength is that although he thoroughly analyzes his subject, he avoids the over-intellectualization that is so prevalent in a lot of other works on Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism (some of that crap is so dense as to be completely unintelligible and one cant help but feel that to overexplain Taoist thought is to completely miss its unbelievably simple thrust and profoundly powerful message).

Although one may be able to challenge Watts' objectivity due to his obvious personal affinity for his subject, I actually find it to be much more convincing precisely because of this personal involvement (which is not a usual reaction for me). Its as though you are reading a promotion or, I hate to say it, a pitch for a way of thinking that has brought its promoter great satisfaction and peace and yet throughout his writing, Watts never gives off a sense of moral superiority or preachiness. There is a beautful honesty that puts me completely at ease and allows my mind to open up and relax, knowing that what is being explained to me is not something that can be sold or preached but only experienced. Maybe someday I will read something that will prove otherwise but in the meantime I am happy to say that I have found someone who can communicate not only on an intellectual and philosophical level but also on a spiritual level without triggering my almost knee-jerk skepticism and mistrust. With me that is a rare thing and I am truly excited about reading the rest of Watts' extensive catalog.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book introduces me to two Alan Watts': Uncle Tao and Papa Patchouli. The former finds and reveals transcendence in the harmonies of nature; the latter rants (deservedly, but it is such a contrast to the serene wisdom of the Tao-based essays) against the church and imagines a rather unappetising Hippie utopia. The more Watts lets the modern world and western attempts to find better philosophical paths to inform his essays, the more he seems like a dated relic, complete with all the naive drug culture and recessive sexism that apparently went with so much of the 60s and 70s western counterculture. When he focusses on the natural world and Taoist concepts, his writings seem timeless and even wise. Interesting, and I am not at all sure why I've suddenly been drawn to read Watts, but I might try at least one more work by him because I've recently started finding more to chew on in certain streams of thought than I previously did.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read almost half of Watts' books, this offers little new in terms of material or stance. But probably my favorite thing about Watts is his gift of being able to say the same thing in various ways, and he definitely does that here. Additionally, he offers some harsh critiques of religion and the Church in general.

He loses me a little on some of his fantasizing about the way things could be, which he does once in a dream alternate universe and later on with suggestions on how Christianity/Catholicism might attract more followers. While his proposed changes come across as earnest, many are extremely naive and a little flaky, which is the first occasion I've ever had to use those adjectives with respect to Mr. Watts.

If you're new to Watts I don't think I'd start with this one. I myself started with
Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation and I can't imagine a better way to do it. Since then, my favorite is The Wisdom of Insecurity followed by The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

@pointblaek

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way back in the old days, when the hallucinogens flowed like wine and hipness not quite so leaning on its laurels, friends & I used to find ourselves, often, late in the night, tuned in to FM radio and listening to the ever-wise seeming voice of the sage Rev. Watts seeping into our tripping heads. A lot of the time, he'd be posing some sort of intellectual idea you had just begun to get a clue or a bead on, often as not, his incisive insights about the burdens of social paradigms gave you something to think about as you readjusted focus to deal with "real life" on the other side of the trip-equation. Cloud Hidden is his life story, foreshortened to some extent, but primarily dealing with the world he helped to create once settled in the US, on the slopes of his favorite Marin mountain (conveniently depicted on the cover!) Essential reading for those who have read the bulk of his oeuvre, something of a fine introduction to it if you have not. The man was himself essentially the essence of cool, without even (really!) being a beatnik. Joe Campbell took up where he left off.

[Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of essays by the eastern philosopher, Alan Watts. It's a kind of journal of miscellaneous thoughts. He writes about nature, ecstasy, reincarnation, karma, dualism, environmentalism, tantra, meditation, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Sufism. Some of it is silly and cute, like the futuristic, utopian vision of The Future of Ecstacy, where he really shows his true hippie colors, and is amusing to read in retrospect. Some of it is harsh and critical, like What Shall We Do with the Church?. Watts is even more noticeably sexist in this book than in his other books that I've read, but a lot of that was the era he was living in. My favorites were On the Tantra and The Art of Contemplation, which are both toward the end, a great example of why it's always good to read a book till the end. This book is interesting in that it was his last book before his sad and untimely death. It serves as a kind of "parting thoughts of a great thinker."

[Swarup Mondal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a marvelous journey that starts from Nowhere and ends at Now-Here.

[Raimundas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One hell of a book! A masterpiece 🙌🙉

[Mandi Almaguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great "day read". Insightful, quirky, witty and I particularly loved the chapters "Spectrum of love" & "What on earth are we doing?". A book to ponder why we ponder at all. Alan Watts delivers again.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last book Alan Watts published before he died in 1973 at 58, and includes 19 articles that he wrote for various publications between 1968 and 1972. It’s a little uneven in places, but there are plenty of nuggets of gold in his philosophy to be mined here.

At a fundamental level, Watts believed we are all connected, that we are all one with the universe, and in fact are just forms of the universe which can look out upon the rest, which he describes as us being God playing hide-and-seek with himself. One of things which follows from this is that we should be kind to one another, and to recognize the duality present in everything as being interwoven. Another is to dance with life, to let things flow, to be free and playful, to appreciate nature and one another, instead of rigidly trying to conform to an artificial, unnatural set of rules which have been passed down to us. Watts emphasizes this with a playfulness with words and his writing style, but at the same time, it’s clear that he’s well-versed in a number of Western and Eastern religions and philosophies.

Watts certainly probes the larger questions of life and arrives at meaning in what seems to be a meaningless existence, but he was also well aware of the issues of the day. In ‘What on Earth Are We Doing?’ he decries the waste of resources on the Vietnam War, the racism in the country, the risk of nuclear Armageddon, and dangers of pollution. He espouses environmentalism from a viewpoint that we are not something apart from the world, and it is not something to be conquered or misused. In ‘Black and/or White’, he confronts the race issues in America, first by pointing out the problematic association of ‘White’ with light, life, good, and god, and ‘Black’ with darkness, death, evil, and devil, and then relating this to our apparent need to form in-groups and out-groups, rather than perceiving the duality of all things, and the connection all beings have with one another. In ‘Consider the Lilies’ he observes that the hippie movement has gradually morphed into something else, slipping away from its originally ideals, and one wonders what he would have thought of the 70’s and 80’s had he lived.

While Watts is in general balanced, he does not hold back in his criticisms of the three related Western religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In one of the stronger essays, ‘What Shall We Do with the Church?’, he provides a fantastic review of Christianity and suggests reforms. He sees the flaws in both the belief in a religion with a ‘jealous God’ as well as how in it’s practiced, via preaching, as opposed to faiths with tolerance of others, whose practices involve introspective meditation. On the other hand, as many of the day were seeking spiritual enlightenment from the East, he recognizes the falseness of those who, unable to truly shed their egos while rushing off to meditate and chant, “compound a collective illusion, and even a mutual one-upmanship contest.”

He was also not afraid to speculate, and admit when he was doing so. In ‘The Reality of Reincarnation’, he provides an interesting argument for reincarnation, pointing out that perhaps if were able to speed up time and observe as if we were watching the time-lapse photography of a plant opening a flower, we might see connections and continuities between lives spaced out, e.g. from 10,000 BC to 9,930, from 8,500 to 8,430, and so on. It’s not that he convinced me, but what I liked was that he took a balanced view – recognizing that there must be a way for the self and memories to be ‘recorded’ outside of the gray matter in the brains of the life we’re living, since it obviously passes away, and admitting he is not aware of what that might be, but on the other hand, that conventional Western scientists err in dismissing evidence of people with apparent knowledge of past lives.

He may have had flaws and inconsistencies, and his writing may at times weave or be easily targeted as too idealistic. However, whether you call his worldview pantheistic, Taoist, Buddhist, or Hindu, or a blend of all of those, I think he was closer to the truth than most, and he was able to express this in lucid ways, making him a spiritual leader for a generation. I don’t think this collection represents his best work, but it’s got great breadth, real wisdom, and is well worth reading.

Quotes:
On Christianity and Hinduism, from ‘Was Jesus a Freak?’ (July 1971):
“It is obvious to any informed student of the history and psychology of religion that Jesus was one, of many, who had an intense experience of cosmic consciousness – of the vivid realization that oneself is a manifestation of the eternal energy of the universe, the basic ‘I am.’ … In India people would have laughed and rejoiced with him, because Hindus know that we are all God in disguise – playing hide-and-seek with himself.”

On dancing, from ‘What on Earth Are We Doing’ (Oct. 1970):
“Civilized human beings, and Westerners in particular, are always trying to straighten things out and put them in rectilinear boxes. …. Under some circumstances a straight line may be the shortest, and least fatiguing, distance between two points. But it’s no fun to follow the ‘straight and narrow way.’ Is the River of Life itself a mere canal? ….. Life itself dances, for what else are trees, ferns, butterflies, and snakes but elaborate forms of dancing?”

On enlightenment, from ‘The Art of Contemplation’ (April 1972):
“As another Zen verse puts it: If you understand, things are just as they are; If you do not understand, things are just as they are.”

On government, from ‘The Art of Contemplation’ (April 1972):
“For, speaking in religious language, it would be plain to the contemplative that only God exists and that there is nothing other than God. For obvious reasons this is a doctrine greatly feared by both ecclesiastical and secular rulers. On the one hand, when it is necessary that the people be exploited and oppressed, it is important to imbue them with a servile mentality. On the other hand, when people are vulgar and greedy, the mere idea that ‘all is God’ or that good and evil are polar is used to justify every wanton excess. It is for this reason that governments forbid the ingestion of hemp flowers and other psychedelic substances, lest immature and half-civilized individuals profane the mysteries. One does not wish noble wines to be used for drunken brawls.”

On men, from ‘What on Earth Are We Doing’ (Oct. 1970):
“For the life-ideal of power-crazy men is (and the word is not insignificant) screwing a plastic woman. She doesn’t talk back. She lies perfectly still. She will assume any position you want and be treated in any way. In fact, when it comes down to it, the whole enterprise of technology is to turn all nature into a plastic woman – a mass of completely obedient and predictable stuff. …. Why not, instead, lust over the syncopated convulsions of your wife or girlfriend in bed, when you get her into the genuine ecstasy of the witch riding on the broom? To me, this is far more manly than smashing and destroying other people and their property, killing wild animals that you neither need nor use for food, or thundering around racetracks in four-wheeled phalluses. Why not go in for something like gliding, sailing, swimming, or even dancing?”

On the ocean, from ‘The Water’ (April 1970):
“If ever I have to get away from it all, and in the words of the Chinese poet ‘wash all the wrongs of life from my pores,’ there is simply nothing better than to climb out onto a rock, and sit for hours with nothing in sight but the sea and sky. Although the rhythm of the waves beats a kind of time, it is not clock or calendar time. It has no urgency. It happens to be timeless time. I know that I am listening to a rhythm which has been just the same for millions of years, and it takes me out of a world of relentlessly ticking clocks.”

On oneness, from ‘The Water’ (April 1970); I love how he puts this as the real ‘fall of man’:
“To be human is precisely to have that extra circuit of consciousness which enables to know that we know, and thus to take an attitude towards all that we experience. The mistake which we have made – and this, if anything, is the fall of man - is to suppose that extra circuit, that ability to take an attitude toward the rest of life as a whole, is the same as actually standing aside and being separate from what we see.”

And this one, from ‘The Zero-One Amazement’ (Sept. 1971); fantastic:
“For Hotei [the monk known as ‘Laughing Buddha’] knows what to wish on the third [of three wishes granted] – which is to wish not to wish any more. For when you see that the universe cannot be distinguished from how you act upon it there is neither fate nor free will, self nor other. There is simply one all-inclusive Happening, in which your personal sensation of being alive occurs in just the same way as the river flowing and the stars shining far out in space.”

On plants, from ‘Consider the Lilies’ (May 1971):
“I could make a strong, if not conclusive, case for the idea that plants are more intelligent than people – more beautiful, more pacific, more ingenious in their ways of reproduction, more at home in their surroundings, and even more sensitive. Why, we even use flower-forms as our symbols of the divine when the human face reminds us too much of ourselves – the Hindu-Buddhist mandala, the golden lotus, and the Mystic Rose in Dante’s vision of Paradise. Nothing else reminds us so much of a star with a living heart.”

On religion, from ‘Spectrum of Love’ (Nov. 1969):
“The whole history of religion is the history of the failure of preaching. Preaching is moral violence. When you deal with the so-called practical world, and people don’t behave the way you wish they would, you get out the army or police force or ‘the big stick.’ And if those strike you as somewhat crude, you resort to giving lectures – ‘lectures’ in the sense of solemn adjuration to ‘behave better next time.’”

And this, from ‘What on Earth Are We Doing’ (Oct. 1970):
“Our religious observances consist almost entirely of talk – ‘about it and about’ – about obeying commandments and about believing in verbalized statements or creeds presuming to define the ineffable. Virtually nothing is done to encourage any form of silent, nonverbal meditation or yoga wherein the eternal is experienced and not merely discussed. Many Christians will even assert that, save under the most extraordinary circumstances, you cannot experience God until you are dead, and thus are terrified of ‘cosmic unconsciousness’ or mystical experience as something close to madness.”

Lastly, from ‘The Zero-One Amazement’ (Sept. 1971):
“To abandon the idea of separation from and submission to God has always been feared as a threat to morals, but there is absolutely no evidence to show that monotheists have behaved more lovingly to one another than pantheists. If anything, the evidence goes the other way, for all peoples who have a cosmology that corresponds to a military chain of command are obnoxious fighters and imperialists. They are forever punishing and disciplining other people for their own good, and milking them to the limit at the same time. …. When you no longer make the distinction between the universe and how you are acting upon it, you are really on your own and so acquire a sense of responsibility. And to the degree that we develop (or that there grows in us) this sense of compassionate, as distinct from anxious, carefulness we shall be able to do without the State just as we have been learning to do without the Church.”

On tolerance, from ‘Implications of Karma’ (Feb. 1971):
“His [The Buddha’s] dharma or method of life was, instead, the Middle Way of compassion – that is, of feeling for both sides, of allowing, respecting, and owning the apparently random and involuntary aspects of our karma. This means increasing tolerance for surprising and unscheduled events, for life-forms and life-styles other than our own, and for all things sinuous, slippery, wayward, and wiggly as distinct from straight, square, boxed and classified in defiance of the curvaceous forms of the natural world.”

[CoolBreeze1978 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of some of Alan Watts' essays on a variety of subject matter. Mostly dealing with religion, sex, drugs, Western thought, and all containing Watts' disciplined and playful buddhist perspective. Ranging from bizarre to profound, repetitious to amusing, this book sent me in a lot of directions thought wise. There were moments where I thought Watts must clearly have been a genius, and others where I was borderline bored with some of his duller musings. I think this book is important, and should be read, or at least some of Watts' work, or if nothing else a Buddhist book every so often. It cleared the air for me, just going with the flow, as I always have, as I have never had any other choice but to do. :)

[David Swatling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in the mid-70s when first released in paperback. It had a profound effect on my evolving 20-something awareness, and much has stayed with me all these many years later. Was reminded of it as today (Jan 7) is the author’s birthday. Also, one of my favorite titles ever.

[Joe Slomski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself re-reading this every few years. A beautiful book that always comes back into my life at, it seems, just the right moments. Alan Watts was a gift to the world; his voice is a treasure.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A COLLECTION OF SHORT PIECES WRITTEN FOR WATTS' "JOURNAL," AND ELSEWHERE

Alan Wilson Watts (1915-1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as a populariser of Eastern philosophy. He and his then-wife left England for America in 1938 on the eve of WWII, and he became an Episcopal priest---but he left the priesthood in 1950 and moved to California, where he became a cult figure in the Beat movement of the 1950s and later. He wrote many popular books, such as 'The Spirit of Zen,' 'The Way of Zen,' 'Nature, Man and Woman,' 'This Is It,' 'Psychotherapy East & West,' 'eyond Theology,' 'The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are,' 'Does It Matter?,' 'Tao: The Watercourse Way,' and his autobiography, 'In My Own Way.'

He wrote in the Preface to this 1972 book, "I live between two place---a ferryboat on the Sausalito waterfront and a lonely cottage in the foothills... During the past three years I have done almost all my writing in this cottage. This includes... a considerable number of short pieces written for my Journal... and for such magazines as Playboy and Earth. Most of the latter are assembled here in the form of a journal with dated entries... it does not go in a straight line... The form of this book is therefore that of a 'mountain journal' concerned with the philosophy of nature, ecology, aesthetics, religion, and metaphysics, and the entries are grouped more or less according to those topics."

He says, "there seems to be a paradox in all that I have said here. On the one hand, you do not and cannot do anything: it is all happening, as the stream flows of itself. On the other hand, you yourself are no other than this stream---however much you may feel yourself to be some distinct entity in the stream, occasionally controlling it, though mostly driven helplessly along. But the paradox is resolved when you realize that it would be impossible to experience the subjective and voluntary aspect of experience without the contrast of the objective and the involuntary... these are two poles in a single process, and our mistake is to identify the reality of self with one only..." (Pg. 25)

He reports a conversation with a "Jesus freak" hippie couple, whom he asked, "Who's Jesus? Billy Graham's or mine?" and was told, "Well, it's all for of the same, isn't it?" He writes, "It is not. Billy Graham follows a long tradition...wherein the gospel has been eclipsed and perverted by pedestalization... so as to get him out of the way, and by following a religion ABOUT Jesus instead of the religion OF Jesus. Obviously, Jesus was not the man he was as a result of making Jesus Christ his personal savior. The religion of Jesus was that he knew he was a son of God... a son of God is an individual who realizes that he is, and always has been, one with God." (Pg. 147)

He says, "[this] isolates the career of Jesus as an exhibit in a glass case---for worship but not for use." (Pg. 148) He adds, "This is not good news. The good news is that if Jesus could realize his identity with God, you can also---but this God does not have to be idolized as an imperious monster with a royal court of angels and ministers. God... is something much more inward, intimate, and mysterious." (Pg. 149)

He argues, "both religion and sex can 'get under your skin' and reach that nonverbal and ecstatic level at which one is tempted to let go and abandon oneself, and such Christians and Jews who believe more firmly in the Devil than in God are always afraid that if they let go, the Devil will take over first, unaware that NOT having let go IS the Devil already in full control. For ordinary self-control is the domination of one's behavior by the selfish self..." (Pg. 171)

This is not one of Watts' "major works," but it covers some topics and areas not covered in his other books, and thus will be of interest to fans of his work.

[Designated Hysteric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am eternally mesmerized by Watts' idiosyncratic synthesis of bastardized Eastern spiritualism, vulgar philosophizing, and guerrilla theologizing. He has authored a myriad of works and delivered innumerable lectures, but in some odd sense, he has authored only one text. Thus, traversing the vastness of Watts' oeuvre is primarily a project of encountering and reencountering the crème de la crème of his ludic and expressionistic thought, which is fundamentally too unserious for a savant yet rather appropriate for a disjointed eclectic. Watts is simply a wonderfully illuminating jollityorist for neophytes. While you will eventually have to disregard some of the Wattsisms - if not the most - the genuine value of engaging with Watts for the majority is the undertaking itself, i.e., the development of the thinking apparatus. Entertain the following paragraph as an example:


"We own what we do and disown what happens, and go on to expand the area which we can own and control. Technology, as now practiced, is one of the principal means of this expansion, but we are just beginning to see that this extension of the voluntary is also extension of the involuntary, because our behavior is increasingly controlled by the nature and structure of our machinery. Our food, clothing, housing, traveling, and general behavior must increasingly be dictated by mechanical efficiency to the point—already passed—where we cannot live without it. It is even conceivable that machinery is creating an environment in which only machines can live, that it will capture the voluntary aspect of karma and eliminate the biological world by regimentation and asphyxiation. Its operations are not restrained or confused by emotions or tender feelings. But, on the other hand, our very strength is in the possibility of feeling for, or owning, what is other than ourselves—and if machines cannot accomplish this transcendence of self and other they will destroy themselves faster than people have done the same."


One could readily register it as a merely superficial pseudo-Ellulian reflection baptized in Eastern spiritual optimism, and surely one could not be necessarily reproached for doing so. However, one should empathize, indeed, imagine a poor soul who has never been confronted with this violently disquieting vision, and no less formulated with such elegant simplicity, they must rave mad - simultaneously perplexed and enlightened. I jest - somewhat - but the fact that this paragraph alone can seduce someone into inquiring further upon this theme - beyond Watts - clearly renders the role Alan Watts plays as potentially precious.

As for this book, it is fun, a joy to read, go for it.

[Phillip Brunetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woaaaa what a build up! This is my first encounter with the written word of my boiii Allan and I have to say he is an amazing teacher! His ability to reinforce past ideas and concepts to build a better understanding and an overlapping of new concepts and Ideas is truly amazing. He repeats himself quite often ( which is under stable in a collection of journal entries) but in such an efficient way that the reader not only comes away with a clear picture of unfamiliar or complicated ideas but with truly mind blowing epiphanies based on the acknowledgement of the previous suppositions. This is a book you definitely have to read through to the end because the last two or three journal entries are an exciting culmination of concepts of the idea of the self the place we have in the universe and the ecstatic realization that we are simply a process of the universe experiencing itself. Good times all around and truly a beautifully written work of thought.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my quest for knowledge and insight, philosophy has been one area of growing interest and authors like Alan Watts are the reason I keep coming back for more. He is so laid back and down-to-Earth in his approach to explaining the cosmic and daily questions like "What Are We Doing?" and "What Shall We Do With The Church?" The fact that he wrote it and published it over forty years ago simply adds to the beauty of his writing and the prophetic voice he seemed to have. His idealized future seems so much better than what has happened, perhaps it would have come to being if we would have all been as enlightened as Dr. Watts.
There were some minor typos and slightly eccentric ideas but no more than you might expect from a philosophy essay... or series of essays. Regardless, I will be adding this book to my personal library, it is a good one to re read.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a well-loved copy of this book in a local Little Library - all yellowing pages, scuffed corners and the names of previous custodians handwritten in the front cover. One cannot help but feel at peace when reading Watts, and this collection of somewhat informal essays is no exception. His thoughts on the Christian church are particularly insightful, and the ways he circumambulates the oneness of existence are deeply grounding. This book, along with the web of other essays and lectures I've read/listened to, has provided some tools to dissemble the toxic elements of a Christian upbringing and refocus attention away from hierarchical striving. If you've not already read Watts, begin anywhere.

[Abby Neer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fun and enjoyable read. Alan Watts’ humor and playfulness truly comes out in his essays. I have read several of his collection of essays and this has been my favorite. I particularly enjoy reading his criticisms of the church, especially considering that he himself was a pastor at one time. He does not reject Christian belief, but rather is critical of its authoritarian and humorless interpretation and practice. Ultimately the theme of all these essays is that we are not separate from the universe. We did not come into the world, we came out of it.

[Colton Hornstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little hard to read at times, but worth the effort. Chapters are small and separate, so great to read one at a time with a break in between to really absorb and contemplate the ideas. Originally from 1968, it's incredible how much has stayed the same and is still relevant, and how much the author predicted - in particular, a section about Reagan could be replaced with "Trump" and would be completely unchanged and fully truthful.

[Keira · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book didn't age well.
A white, Western, straigh man expresses his views, sprinkled with a random mix of references to various Asian schools of thought. Preaches lack of prejudice and anti-dualism while being prejudiced against things the author doesn't like or isn't familiar with. Uses the N-word, and is really self-serving when discussing racism. Sings praises for nature and closeness to it, but uses Eastern European peasant as a derogatory term.

[Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in learning deeper truths of Taoism and Zen will enjoy this book. Watts is such a great conduit to explain the philosophies of eastern thought for a western audience. Highlights include reincarnation, contemplation, what do we do with all these empty churches, etc. Look forward to coming back to this book in a few years to see if I learned anything

[Robin Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A person reading Alan Watts for the first time will probably have their mind blown from his essays, but as a longtime reader of his work— I wasn’t as inspired as usual. Some of his thoughts were profound, but I found most of his essays too preoccupied with religion and somewhat crass.

[Silvio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful exposition of Letting: Flowing with the Tao, the stream, the gentle and fluid way of nature. Letting it unfold naturally, spontaneously, beautifully. Pure sensitivity with life, feeling, profoundly, into its ecstatic depth. Immanent and intimate, sensuous and sexy.

Sex.

This whole thing, the Tao, is a sexual dance of separation and connection, a love-play of polarity in unity.

2 = 0 = 1

Relativity is connectivity.
Let's honor uniqueness. Let's honor this unique mess. We're all dancing together.
And the whole dance is created by us, all of us beings. Full of purpose and intelligence.

The Flow of forms.
The Play of patterns.
The Dance of diversity.

The cosmic jazz.

The pulsing Heart.

Calling us home.
We are home. This is home. We need to go nowhere. We just need to recognize and inhabit our Home, Here, Now, This.
Happening.

And the fundamentals of inhabiting This are clear: Awareness and Surrender. No ignorance, no resistance. Conscious surrender to the Flow of Being. Looking and Letting, deeply.

Full, whole-hearted immersion, with a big "Yes".

And where does it arrive at? What's home?

Love.

Being = Love

A smiling Heart.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Total coincidence I picked this up and the title is from the same poem as . Heh! Scattered collection of essays; most are excellent, some dated and cringey.

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great essays hidden in there.

[Josh Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply brilliant

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the essays weren’t for me, but a couple (“What are we doing here?” especially) were amazing!!! Most of the others were a slog for me.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Simple and complex. This is my favourite AW book. 🙏🏽

[Kelly Cree · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of these essays were dated, but the majority were timeless and poignant. Recommend!