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"Become What You Are" is a selection of writings by Alan Watts dealing with the dilemma of man seeking to discover himself. This becomes possible only if we manage to see our life "as it is", freed from illusions and expectations. To immerse yourself in the harmony of life and its eternal now is to become what you are.
It has been said that the highest wisdom consists in detachment—not regretting the past nor fearing the future, letting life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movements and changes, without seeking to prolong pleasant things or hasten the end of unpleasant ones. To do this is to enter time with life and be in complete harmony with its changing melody, which is called enlightenment. In short, it means detaching yourself from both the past and the future and living in the eternal now. Life exists only in this single moment, and it is precisely in this moment that it is infinite and eternal.
Alan Watts is one of the foremost authorities on Eastern wisdom. It was he who, in the middle of the last century, built a bridge between the West and the East, introducing the Western reader to Eastern philosophy and culture. Alan Watts is a scholar of both Zen Buddhism and Indian and Chinese spiritual traditions.
It has been said that the highest wisdom consists in detachment—not regretting the past nor fearing the future, letting life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movements and changes, without seeking to prolong pleasant things or hasten the end of unpleasant ones. To do this is to enter time with life and be in complete harmony with its changing melody, which is called enlightenment. In short, it means detaching yourself from both the past and the future and living in the eternal now. Life exists only in this single moment, and it is precisely in this moment that it is infinite and eternal.
Alan Watts is one of the foremost authorities on Eastern wisdom. It was he who, in the middle of the last century, built a bridge between the West and the East, introducing the Western reader to Eastern philosophy and culture. Alan Watts is a scholar of both Zen Buddhism and Indian and Chinese spiritual traditions.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
1397 people are currently reading
17362 people want to read
About the author
Alan W. Watts
255 books7,976 followersAlan 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 345 reviews
April 12, 2018
Whatever else I may have found to absorb during my now several years of practice I am both glad and grateful that I found Alan Watts, the self proclaimed "spiritual entertainer". His grasp of the essence of practice as it has at least presented to me, is both incisive and insightful and he is always able to express the most abstract idea in a way that anyone can grasp. I am gradually working my way through everything he has written that I can lay my hands on; he always, with out any seeming effort raises my spirit, cleanses my intellect and inspires me to move forward in the ever present task of simplification that is the humility of practice. What a great gift this man was to the world, in both his genius and his humanity. Another great read for anyone with an interest in living their life!
May 5, 2011
Become what you are and stop trying so hard to become what you are not. :)
May 25, 2016
Alan Watts' wonderful compilation of twenty essays,much of which is (essential) wisdom.
Liked at least three quarters of them, some of which could be certainly put into practice.
Excellent. Very much RECOMMENDED.
Liked at least three quarters of them, some of which could be certainly put into practice.
Excellent. Very much RECOMMENDED.
August 4, 2012
I really enjoyed this book a lot although not the best Watts. The book is basically just a short collection of essays about becoming what you are collected from mostly magazines. A lot of the essays, since not originally intended to be put in a book form, make some of the same points over and over again. The recurring ideas are great if you are new to them and want to make sure that some of those main points sink in. Even though some essays will say a lot of the same things i feel that each did have something to offer that would elaborate on those points to still make the essays worth reading. If not for a wee bit of redundancy and maybe one essay that bored me, i would have rated it higher.
August 11, 2016
“Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal. For the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it persists forever.”
December 27, 2015
The title perfectly captures the essential truth of this book, but echoes something more akin to the self-help genre rather than philosophy, which will naturally put off a lot of the people who should read it. Additionally, as I have felt compelled to say in the past when reviewing some books on Eastern philosophy, the nature of Alan Watts' book doesn't suit categorization. Most accurately it is not philosophy, religion, or mythology. Zen Buddhism is best understood as a way of the living. It is non-abstraction. It is the middle way, the "way of liberation" as Watts refers to it regularly.
This collection of concise essays--many can be read in one toilet sitting--aren't about self-improvement but stand as commentary on a way of living for as Watts puts it "you may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now...there is no coming toward it or going away from it; it is, and you are it. So become what you are." Watts gives the reader a golden nugget within the preface and spends the remainder of the book hitting that concrete truth until it turns soft, and real in ones hands. His truth has been articulated, perhaps, most masterfully by Chuag-tzu: "The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep."
I would not recommend this as an introduction to Zen Buddhist thought; however, I would give it to a friend as a selection of teasers for what one can expect from the amiable Alan Watts. Each 'essay' serves as a gentle but monumental challenge to western thought. He rejects the toxic concept of ego among other mental models foundational to mainstream psychology: "one has no self--that is, no self-consciousness. This is because the so-called self is a construct of words and memories, of fantasies which have no existence in immediate reality...We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment--an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained." Religion has lost its way. By striving through abstraction and thought, religions fail to produce fruits in our lives, keeping us from harmony with living: just being. "Now it seems that to me that what the finger of religion points at is something not at all religious. Religion, with all its apparatus of ideas and practices, is altogether a pointing--and it does not point at itself. It doesn't point at God, either, for the notion of God is part and parcel of religion...religion disappears when it becomes real and effective." He invites us to outgrow our western inclination to have to control and manipulate everything--we feel lost if we can't use force. Our ability to control is an illusion for "nature is what works and moves by itself without having to be shoved about, wound up, or controlled by conscious effort. your heart beats 'self-so,' and, if you would give it half a chance, your mind can function 'self-so'--though most of us are much too afraid of ourselves to try the experiment."
I welcomed the book being an assortment of small pieces I could read in short sittings. Still, my greatest criticism with this book is that it can be too repetitive, and not very cohesive--it's a makeshift binding of stray writings from Watts. Its the same warm wit and wisdom of Watts, but can't compete with his more comprehensive, close-knit books.
I recommend taking the book slowly. Read a piece and let it sit with you a few days while you learn to sit more tranquilly, rather than striving and seeking after change. The ideas in this book will change you, but only if you don't aspire to change. Just be. Become what you are.
This collection of concise essays--many can be read in one toilet sitting--aren't about self-improvement but stand as commentary on a way of living for as Watts puts it "you may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now...there is no coming toward it or going away from it; it is, and you are it. So become what you are." Watts gives the reader a golden nugget within the preface and spends the remainder of the book hitting that concrete truth until it turns soft, and real in ones hands. His truth has been articulated, perhaps, most masterfully by Chuag-tzu: "The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep."
I would not recommend this as an introduction to Zen Buddhist thought; however, I would give it to a friend as a selection of teasers for what one can expect from the amiable Alan Watts. Each 'essay' serves as a gentle but monumental challenge to western thought. He rejects the toxic concept of ego among other mental models foundational to mainstream psychology: "one has no self--that is, no self-consciousness. This is because the so-called self is a construct of words and memories, of fantasies which have no existence in immediate reality...We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment--an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained." Religion has lost its way. By striving through abstraction and thought, religions fail to produce fruits in our lives, keeping us from harmony with living: just being. "Now it seems that to me that what the finger of religion points at is something not at all religious. Religion, with all its apparatus of ideas and practices, is altogether a pointing--and it does not point at itself. It doesn't point at God, either, for the notion of God is part and parcel of religion...religion disappears when it becomes real and effective." He invites us to outgrow our western inclination to have to control and manipulate everything--we feel lost if we can't use force. Our ability to control is an illusion for "nature is what works and moves by itself without having to be shoved about, wound up, or controlled by conscious effort. your heart beats 'self-so,' and, if you would give it half a chance, your mind can function 'self-so'--though most of us are much too afraid of ourselves to try the experiment."
I welcomed the book being an assortment of small pieces I could read in short sittings. Still, my greatest criticism with this book is that it can be too repetitive, and not very cohesive--it's a makeshift binding of stray writings from Watts. Its the same warm wit and wisdom of Watts, but can't compete with his more comprehensive, close-knit books.
I recommend taking the book slowly. Read a piece and let it sit with you a few days while you learn to sit more tranquilly, rather than striving and seeking after change. The ideas in this book will change you, but only if you don't aspire to change. Just be. Become what you are.
August 20, 2021
“The unenlightened man keeps a tight hold on himself because he is afraid of losing himself; he can trust neither circumstances nor his own human nature; he is terrified of being genuine, of accepting himself as he is and tries to deceive himself into the belief that he is as he wishes to be. But these are the wishes, the desires that bind him, and it was such desires as these that the Buddha described as the cause of human misery.”
Life is simply here and now in the present moment. Everything else simply passes by; only this moment remains. In his beautiful book ‘Become what you are’ Alan Watts introduces one to the art of being in the moment and understanding the importance of it.
Life is a constant and endless sequence of activities. Whether those activities make sense or not, they just keep on going. Learning the art of being in the moment helps one to be rooted in the experience of the present. This helps one to go beyond the disturbances of the constantly oscillating mind.
The most important quality about you is your uniqueness. You have to travel very far before deciding to become yourself. That is the whole message of this book. How to find your true inner self and be rooted in the experience of being you? There is nothing more important than knowing that what you are searching for is yourself.
Life is simply here and now in the present moment. Everything else simply passes by; only this moment remains. In his beautiful book ‘Become what you are’ Alan Watts introduces one to the art of being in the moment and understanding the importance of it.
Life is a constant and endless sequence of activities. Whether those activities make sense or not, they just keep on going. Learning the art of being in the moment helps one to be rooted in the experience of the present. This helps one to go beyond the disturbances of the constantly oscillating mind.
The most important quality about you is your uniqueness. You have to travel very far before deciding to become yourself. That is the whole message of this book. How to find your true inner self and be rooted in the experience of being you? There is nothing more important than knowing that what you are searching for is yourself.
February 8, 2024
Five star thoughts with a three star delivery. Watts is too brilliant at times - his methods of delivery often get muddled into over explaining without rhythm.
July 1, 2025
3.5...
May 19, 2022
الكتاب جيد للنظر إلى النفس بمرآة مجردة، لكني أختلف مع الكاتب جذريًا في مآلاته وما توصل إليه بأن أهم ما ينبغي على المرء فعله هو التركيز على نفسه لا على خالق أو دين (إن اعترف بهما) ولا على الغاية من هذه الدنيا، فجعل من التركيز مع اللحظة الحاضرة هي الغاية التي تبنى حولها السعادة، لا توجيه البوصلة إلى ما ينبغي على كل البشر توجيهها إليه.. ما بعد الموت. أنصح بقراءته فقط لمن لديهم حصانة قوية في الفلسفة الدينية الإسلامية
April 12, 2018
Who you are is what you were?? Don't be fooled by the number of pages. It's a short book, but very dense. Alan Watts does a good job of making Eastern Buddhism accessible to Westerners, but there is still a lot of circuitous / paradoxical logic that is difficult to understand upon first read.
June 22, 2012
I reread this every summer. Preferably in a park. Essential.
November 6, 2023
《همان شو که هستی》✍🏼 آلن واتس/نشر فلسفه
"معنا وصف شدنی نیست.تنها زمانی میتوان تجربهاش کرد که بین خود فرد و دنیا چنان عشقی وجود داشته باشد که آنچه باهم میسازند بیش از هرکدامشان باشد.همانطور که برای زن و شوهر فرزند بیش از خودشان است."
"زندگی فقط در همین لحظه وجود دارد، و در این لحظه بی نهایت و ابدی است. زیرا لحظه حال بی نهایت کوچک است؛ قبل از اینکه بتوانیم آن را اندازه گیری کنیم، از بین رفته است، و با این حال برای همیشه وجود دارد... ممکن است خودتان باور کنید. با زندگی و اکنون ابدی آن هماهنگ نیست، اما شما نمی توانید باشید، زیرا شما زندگی هستید و اکنون وجود دارید."
مفید بود.شنیدنش میچسبید.باعث میشه به خودت بیای، سخت نگیری و به کمک بودا با خودت و زندگی در صلح باشی.
اگر هم کتاب "روان🧠" میخواید بخونید، از اینجور نویسندههایی که از بودا و ذن و برهما مینویسن بخونید خیلیی تاثیرش بیشتره.
🎧:https://taaghche.com/audiobook/150463
"معنا وصف شدنی نیست.تنها زمانی میتوان تجربهاش کرد که بین خود فرد و دنیا چنان عشقی وجود داشته باشد که آنچه باهم میسازند بیش از هرکدامشان باشد.همانطور که برای زن و شوهر فرزند بیش از خودشان است."
"زندگی فقط در همین لحظه وجود دارد، و در این لحظه بی نهایت و ابدی است. زیرا لحظه حال بی نهایت کوچک است؛ قبل از اینکه بتوانیم آن را اندازه گیری کنیم، از بین رفته است، و با این حال برای همیشه وجود دارد... ممکن است خودتان باور کنید. با زندگی و اکنون ابدی آن هماهنگ نیست، اما شما نمی توانید باشید، زیرا شما زندگی هستید و اکنون وجود دارید."
مفید بود.شنیدنش میچسبید.باعث میشه به خودت بیای، سخت نگیری و به کمک بودا با خودت و زندگی در صلح باشی.
اگر هم کتاب "روان🧠" میخواید بخونید، از اینجور نویسندههایی که از بودا و ذن و برهما مینویسن بخونید خیلیی تاثیرش بیشتره.
🎧:https://taaghche.com/audiobook/150463
August 25, 2025
maybe I'm just dumb? 🤷♂️
May 24, 2024
Korte essays, dense gedachtestroom.
Essentiële boodschap: meer in harmonie leven met uw eigen natuur, minder denken als een ego, meer als wezen onderdeel van een geheel waarin je meevloeit. Enige moment dat telt is nu.
Bewustzijn krijgen door dingen los te laten die niet begrepen kunnen worden. Balans proberen vinden zonder er obsessief naar op zoek te gaan.
Klinkt vaag en paradoxaal, is het ook 🙏🏼
Watts:
"A watched pot never boils. For if you try to watch your mind concentrate, it will not concentrate."
Chuang-tzu
"The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror, it grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives, but does not keep."
Essentiële boodschap: meer in harmonie leven met uw eigen natuur, minder denken als een ego, meer als wezen onderdeel van een geheel waarin je meevloeit. Enige moment dat telt is nu.
Bewustzijn krijgen door dingen los te laten die niet begrepen kunnen worden. Balans proberen vinden zonder er obsessief naar op zoek te gaan.
Klinkt vaag en paradoxaal, is het ook 🙏🏼
Watts:
"A watched pot never boils. For if you try to watch your mind concentrate, it will not concentrate."
Chuang-tzu
"The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror, it grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives, but does not keep."
March 13, 2024
I only read about a third of this book. However, I enjoyed what I read. Watt's writing is more accessible than other authors on eastern wisdom.
My biggest takeaway is the idea of using religion or philosophy as a medicine rather than a diet. A medicine in the sense of a temporary aid vs a diet in the sense of a point of regular consumption.
I will try to come back and finish this book - however, I've already had the book out from the library for too long and figure it's best to let others have their turn.
My biggest takeaway is the idea of using religion or philosophy as a medicine rather than a diet. A medicine in the sense of a temporary aid vs a diet in the sense of a point of regular consumption.
I will try to come back and finish this book - however, I've already had the book out from the library for too long and figure it's best to let others have their turn.
December 4, 2016
As a big fan of Alan Watts' works, I found this book to be a bit of a mixed bag. It's indeed a collection of essays on topics ranging from Western religion, Buddhism, eastern philosophy, and mostly how they all mingle (and don't mingle) together. The essays feel a bit scattered, though, and while others convey a sense of personal development and self-reflection, others are hands-down a history lesson by the book in which I found myself trying to memorise words, rather than making sense of the teachings.
Some essays were so great that I took notes about more than half of them, others I completely dismissed, so expect that not all of them will be tailored to your expectations. It feels a bit repetitive; though to be fair, these teachings need to be repeated and reminded constantly in order for them to sink in fully.
I will definitely bring something with me from this book, and I may revisit some selected essays in the future.
“Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal. For the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it persists forever.”
“For obviously there is a vital contradiction in the very notion of self-renunciation, and just as much is self-acceptance. People try to accept themselves in order to be different, and try to surrender themselves in order to have more self-respect in their own eyes—or to attain some spiritual experience, some exaltation of consciousness the desire for which is the very form of their self-interest. We are really stuck with ourselves, and our attempts to reject or to accept are equally fruitless, for they fail to reach that inaccessible center of our selfhood which is trying to do the accepting or the rejecting”
“But it is just when I discover that I cannot surrender myself that I am surrendered; just when I find that I cannot accept myself that I am accepted. For in reaching this hard rock of the impossible one reaches sincerity, where there can no longer be the masked hide-and-seek of I and Me, “good I” trying to change “bad Me,” who is really the same fellow as “good I.”
Some essays were so great that I took notes about more than half of them, others I completely dismissed, so expect that not all of them will be tailored to your expectations. It feels a bit repetitive; though to be fair, these teachings need to be repeated and reminded constantly in order for them to sink in fully.
I will definitely bring something with me from this book, and I may revisit some selected essays in the future.
“Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal. For the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it persists forever.”
“For obviously there is a vital contradiction in the very notion of self-renunciation, and just as much is self-acceptance. People try to accept themselves in order to be different, and try to surrender themselves in order to have more self-respect in their own eyes—or to attain some spiritual experience, some exaltation of consciousness the desire for which is the very form of their self-interest. We are really stuck with ourselves, and our attempts to reject or to accept are equally fruitless, for they fail to reach that inaccessible center of our selfhood which is trying to do the accepting or the rejecting”
“But it is just when I discover that I cannot surrender myself that I am surrendered; just when I find that I cannot accept myself that I am accepted. For in reaching this hard rock of the impossible one reaches sincerity, where there can no longer be the masked hide-and-seek of I and Me, “good I” trying to change “bad Me,” who is really the same fellow as “good I.”
July 11, 2025
If you catch me reading this while my experiment is failing, mind your business, I am in the process of ascending.
January 12, 2020
I wish I could embrace Alan Watts; so many people I respect love his writings. I don’t: he reminds me too much of that too-clever Debate Club bully who twists fancy words and esoteric quotations until you’re too dizzy to follow. Watts is no bully, and his message is a valid important one, but something about his approach just turns me off. Partly it’s his reliance on judeochristian mythology: kind of like basing your argument on Obi-Wan Kenobi sayings.
August 12, 2021
Read few of the essays, on reality, on being and so on. not appealing to me currently
September 30, 2025
I am very glad I've stumbled onto Alan Watts. This guy can talk circles around anything, but especially about the concept of self ....and how to realize it.
This is one I will probably read more than once. Actually - the audio is great. Reading can sometimes almost twist you around and I find that I have to put it down in order to think about what he's actually saying. The audio just lets you listen and have it flow over you. It's very soothing. He's a wonderful teacher.
It's a great book to source on your journey of life, to enjoy the moments in the here and now.
I highly recommend it!
This is one I will probably read more than once. Actually - the audio is great. Reading can sometimes almost twist you around and I find that I have to put it down in order to think about what he's actually saying. The audio just lets you listen and have it flow over you. It's very soothing. He's a wonderful teacher.
It's a great book to source on your journey of life, to enjoy the moments in the here and now.
I highly recommend it!
November 15, 2021
”Buddhismul conștientizează frumusețea schimbării, întrucât viața este precum muzica: dacă ținem o notă mai mult decât trebuie, melodia s-a pierdut. De aceea buddhismul poate fi sintetizat în două propoziții: Nu te atașa! și Mergi mai departe!. Renunță la dependența de sine, la permanență, la circumstanțele particulare și continuă să te miști odată cu mișcările vieții.”
https://ciobanuldeazi.home.blog/2021/...
https://ciobanuldeazi.home.blog/2021/...
February 23, 2009
great book. for me, i have had to figure out 'what" i am and have always been, which is simply ME. but i've had to wrestle with the acceptance of that I am and always have been what I am and I am exactly perfect in who and what i have always been. too bad i didn't really get that in high school... confused?? mabye if you read the book you'll get what I am talking about.
March 1, 2025
* The point is that these ultimate feelings ((Feelings when faced with events about which nothing can be done)) are as wise as all the rest, and their wisdom emerges when we give up resisting them, through the realization that we are simply unable to do so. When, for example, life compels us at last to give in, to surrender to the full play of what is ordinarily called the terror of the unknown, the suppressed feeling suddenly shoots upwards as a fountain of the purest joy. What was formerly felt as the horror of our inevitable mortality becomes transformed by the inner alchemy into an almost ecstatic sense of freedom from the bonds of individuality.
* The highest wisdom lies in detachment.......... The detachment means to Have neither regrets for the past nor fears for the future, to let life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movements and change, neither trying to prolong the stay of things pleasant nor to hasten the departure of things unpleasant.
* ......... In the state of concentration, of clear unwavering attention, one has no self- That is, no self consciousness. This is because the so called self is a construct of words and memories, fantasies that have no existence in immediate reality........ We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment- an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained..... Therefore, the important thing is simply to begin- Anywhere, wherever you are. If you happen to be sitting, just sit if you are smoking a pipe, just smoke it. If you are thinking out a problem, just think. But don't think and reflect unnecessarily, compulsively, from sheer force of nervous habit. And then, they call this having a leaky mind- Like an old barrel with open seams which cannot contain itself.
* It is well that one who is too much concerned with his own affairs should consider the immensity of the universe and the Destiny of the human race. Let him not consider it too long, lest he forget that the responsibility not only for human prosperity but also for the order of the universe is his own. While modern astronomy tells us of our significance beneath the stars, also tells us that if we lift so much of their finger, we affect them. It is true that we are transient, that we have no abiding self, but the fabric of life is such that one broken thread may work immeasurable ruins. The magnitude of the world with whose destiny we are bound up increases rather than diminishes our importance.
* One sees so many faces dulled by the seriousness which, if it were born of grief, would be understandable. Kind of seriousness which drags man down to Earth and kills the life of the spirit is not the child of sorrow but of the a sort of play acting in which the player is deceived into identifying himself with his part. There is a seriousness in the play of children, but even this is different, for the child is aware that it is only playing and its seriousness is an indirect form of fun. But this seriousness becomes a vice in the adult, because he makes a religion of the game, so identifying himself with his part or position in life that he fears to lose it. This is especially so when the unenlightened man attains to any degree of responsibility, he develops a heaviness of touch, a lack of abandon, a stiffness which indicates that he is using his dignity as stills to keep his head above adversity. His trouble is that instead of playing his part, his part plays him and makes him the laughingstock of all who see through his guise.
* But there is no way. Knows the way. Way that there is is the path of a bird through the sky, now you see it, now you don't. A trace left. Is not going anywhere, there is nothing to be attained. All striving and grasping is so much smoke in the clutch of a dissolving hand. We are all lost, kicked off into a void the moment we were born, and the only way is to fall into oblivion.
*Passage from Mahaparinibbana-sutta: "Be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. aisten Take to yourselves no other refuge."
*All those things upon which unenlightened man depends for his happiness are dual, and thus conditioned by their opposites. Life cannot be had fore, depend for our ultimate salvation and security upon without death, pleasure without evil. We cannot, there any one aspect of a given pair of opposites, for the two are as essential to each other as back and front are essential to the totality of any object.
*Spiritual freedom, however, involves much more than going on living exactly as you have lived before. It involves or what the Buddhists a particular kind of joyousness, term bliss (ananda). It is the discovery that to accord with the universe, to express the Tao, one has but to live, and when this is fully understood it becomes possible to live one's life with a peculiar zest and abandon.
* That's the experience of freedom or enlightenment is like discovering and immeasurable precious jewel in one's little acts and lowest thoughts. One discovers it where all jewels are first found, in the depths of the earth, or lying in the mud. Those who appreciate jewels do not leave them there, they lift them up from the depths, polish them, place them on velvet or set them in gold.
*Service, morality, and gratitude are our response as men for a gift to which we cannot respond as Buddhas.
*"The river flows, the flowers bloom, you walk down the street, so what?" So what? Well, what else are you looking for? Here are someone who eats out the grocery store and still complains that he is starving. But the word and concept God, Brahmin, Tao, or what you will, was really introduced for such unappreciative stomachs.
*There is an ancient paradox of the spiritual life whereby those who try to make themselves great become small.
*For life and reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you record them to all others. They do not belong to particular persons any more than the sun moon and stars.
*Ignorance and spiritual darkness is the result of being involved in a dualism, a conflict between opposites, whether Divine and human, self and the world, conscious and unconscious. This is the condition in which almost every man finds himself on Awakening to self-consciousness. There is an opposition between ourselves and the universe in which we live and the society to which we belong, for again and again we find that the demands of life conflict with personal desires. Hence there is a tendency to draw everything towards ourselves, to set ourselves up in a stronghold and to carry off into its walls whatever things in life we particularly desire.
*Old Buddhist saying: to him who knows nothing of the Buddhism, mountains are mountains, waters our water, and trees are trees. When he has read the scriptures and understood a little of the doctrine, mountains are to him no longer mountains, waters no longer waters, and the trees no longer trees. But when he has thoroughly enlightened, then mountains are once again mountains, waters waters, and trees trees.
* To receive the universe into oneself, after the manner of some mystics, is simply to become inflated with a conceit that one is God and so to set up yet another opposition between the mighty whole and the degraded part. To give one self utterly and slavishly to the world is to become spiritual non-entity, a mechanism, a shell, a leaf blown by the winds of circumstance. But if the world is received and the self is given at the same time, there then prevails that union which brings about the second birth. In this state alone it is possible to appreciate life in any real sense, to accept with love, gratitude, and reverence what is pleasing in other creatures together with what is not, through the knowledge that joy is unknown without sorrow, life without death, pleasure without pain.
* The highest wisdom lies in detachment.......... The detachment means to Have neither regrets for the past nor fears for the future, to let life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movements and change, neither trying to prolong the stay of things pleasant nor to hasten the departure of things unpleasant.
* ......... In the state of concentration, of clear unwavering attention, one has no self- That is, no self consciousness. This is because the so called self is a construct of words and memories, fantasies that have no existence in immediate reality........ We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment- an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained..... Therefore, the important thing is simply to begin- Anywhere, wherever you are. If you happen to be sitting, just sit if you are smoking a pipe, just smoke it. If you are thinking out a problem, just think. But don't think and reflect unnecessarily, compulsively, from sheer force of nervous habit. And then, they call this having a leaky mind- Like an old barrel with open seams which cannot contain itself.
* It is well that one who is too much concerned with his own affairs should consider the immensity of the universe and the Destiny of the human race. Let him not consider it too long, lest he forget that the responsibility not only for human prosperity but also for the order of the universe is his own. While modern astronomy tells us of our significance beneath the stars, also tells us that if we lift so much of their finger, we affect them. It is true that we are transient, that we have no abiding self, but the fabric of life is such that one broken thread may work immeasurable ruins. The magnitude of the world with whose destiny we are bound up increases rather than diminishes our importance.
* One sees so many faces dulled by the seriousness which, if it were born of grief, would be understandable. Kind of seriousness which drags man down to Earth and kills the life of the spirit is not the child of sorrow but of the a sort of play acting in which the player is deceived into identifying himself with his part. There is a seriousness in the play of children, but even this is different, for the child is aware that it is only playing and its seriousness is an indirect form of fun. But this seriousness becomes a vice in the adult, because he makes a religion of the game, so identifying himself with his part or position in life that he fears to lose it. This is especially so when the unenlightened man attains to any degree of responsibility, he develops a heaviness of touch, a lack of abandon, a stiffness which indicates that he is using his dignity as stills to keep his head above adversity. His trouble is that instead of playing his part, his part plays him and makes him the laughingstock of all who see through his guise.
* But there is no way. Knows the way. Way that there is is the path of a bird through the sky, now you see it, now you don't. A trace left. Is not going anywhere, there is nothing to be attained. All striving and grasping is so much smoke in the clutch of a dissolving hand. We are all lost, kicked off into a void the moment we were born, and the only way is to fall into oblivion.
*Passage from Mahaparinibbana-sutta: "Be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. aisten Take to yourselves no other refuge."
*All those things upon which unenlightened man depends for his happiness are dual, and thus conditioned by their opposites. Life cannot be had fore, depend for our ultimate salvation and security upon without death, pleasure without evil. We cannot, there any one aspect of a given pair of opposites, for the two are as essential to each other as back and front are essential to the totality of any object.
*Spiritual freedom, however, involves much more than going on living exactly as you have lived before. It involves or what the Buddhists a particular kind of joyousness, term bliss (ananda). It is the discovery that to accord with the universe, to express the Tao, one has but to live, and when this is fully understood it becomes possible to live one's life with a peculiar zest and abandon.
* That's the experience of freedom or enlightenment is like discovering and immeasurable precious jewel in one's little acts and lowest thoughts. One discovers it where all jewels are first found, in the depths of the earth, or lying in the mud. Those who appreciate jewels do not leave them there, they lift them up from the depths, polish them, place them on velvet or set them in gold.
*Service, morality, and gratitude are our response as men for a gift to which we cannot respond as Buddhas.
*"The river flows, the flowers bloom, you walk down the street, so what?" So what? Well, what else are you looking for? Here are someone who eats out the grocery store and still complains that he is starving. But the word and concept God, Brahmin, Tao, or what you will, was really introduced for such unappreciative stomachs.
*There is an ancient paradox of the spiritual life whereby those who try to make themselves great become small.
*For life and reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you record them to all others. They do not belong to particular persons any more than the sun moon and stars.
*Ignorance and spiritual darkness is the result of being involved in a dualism, a conflict between opposites, whether Divine and human, self and the world, conscious and unconscious. This is the condition in which almost every man finds himself on Awakening to self-consciousness. There is an opposition between ourselves and the universe in which we live and the society to which we belong, for again and again we find that the demands of life conflict with personal desires. Hence there is a tendency to draw everything towards ourselves, to set ourselves up in a stronghold and to carry off into its walls whatever things in life we particularly desire.
*Old Buddhist saying: to him who knows nothing of the Buddhism, mountains are mountains, waters our water, and trees are trees. When he has read the scriptures and understood a little of the doctrine, mountains are to him no longer mountains, waters no longer waters, and the trees no longer trees. But when he has thoroughly enlightened, then mountains are once again mountains, waters waters, and trees trees.
* To receive the universe into oneself, after the manner of some mystics, is simply to become inflated with a conceit that one is God and so to set up yet another opposition between the mighty whole and the degraded part. To give one self utterly and slavishly to the world is to become spiritual non-entity, a mechanism, a shell, a leaf blown by the winds of circumstance. But if the world is received and the self is given at the same time, there then prevails that union which brings about the second birth. In this state alone it is possible to appreciate life in any real sense, to accept with love, gratitude, and reverence what is pleasing in other creatures together with what is not, through the knowledge that joy is unknown without sorrow, life without death, pleasure without pain.
July 25, 2025
I enjoy Alan Watts in most of what he’s produced. If I could be more specific I would have graded 3.75. This book is a collection of essays, and since the essays are set together based on a general theme, there are some repeat notions or parables throughout. I enjoy how he respects all beliefs and thoughts and describes their position in whatever the topic is, and how they can miss the point. Most of this boils down to take yourself less seriously, and we ought not separate the thinker from the doer. To become what you are, try trying less. I feel my grip has loosened as I made my way through the book.
September 16, 2024
In this book you really feel the weight of the years, plus the last part about Sanskrit and Hindu deities was really cumbersome for me, but as already mentioned, I will never be able to become a Buddhist.
In questo libro si sente molto il peso degli anni, inoltre l'ultima parte sul sanscrito e le divinitá indú é stato veramente pesante per me, ma come giá detto, non riusciró mai a diventare buddista.
In questo libro si sente molto il peso degli anni, inoltre l'ultima parte sul sanscrito e le divinitá indú é stato veramente pesante per me, ma come giá detto, non riusciró mai a diventare buddista.
February 8, 2020
Alan Watts writes with such clarity. He thinks deeply and brings it to the reader to grasp and think about. He seems to have the agenda of getting an idea across rather than converting others to his way of thinking, or more precisely perhaps, way of seeing.
June 2, 2025
This book is a gentle yet profound reminder that our true nature isn’t something to be achieved, but remembered.
May 8, 2024
A great introduction to Eastern Philosophy for the Western mind. Definitely an ambitious book with a lot of facets of eastern beliefs under its scope. I think Watts is able to use the stage of Eastern concepts beautifully in order to drive home his points. The highlights for me were where he explains the shortcomings of Western belief systems in becoming yourself, along with how the past and future are illusions and how technology, religion and philosophy need not be at odds.
Ultimately what keeps it from being an instant recommendation is the scope of topics is frankly a little large for the 130 or so pages he encompasses them in, making the finished product very dense and at times feeling much like various introductory essays (which to be fair is semantics) rather than a cohesive text with one uniform thesis. Don't know if its possible to improve that though to be fair, and ultimately it left me wanting more of Watts and more of Eastern philosophy which is a good thing.
Ultimately what keeps it from being an instant recommendation is the scope of topics is frankly a little large for the 130 or so pages he encompasses them in, making the finished product very dense and at times feeling much like various introductory essays (which to be fair is semantics) rather than a cohesive text with one uniform thesis. Don't know if its possible to improve that though to be fair, and ultimately it left me wanting more of Watts and more of Eastern philosophy which is a good thing.
July 14, 2023
What a let down!
I spent a good amount of the day today and yesterday really giving this a chance and I fear I have to say I give up on this.
It is fair to say I want to avoid the work of Alan Watts. His handling of genuinely wonderful philsophical ideas are so cocky and blundered, his tone is intolerable. I was very much not brought into his style at any point and I do not want to read shit like this again. Just very unnecessarily too cool for school, deconstructionist for the sake of a literary flare, and pretentious as shit. Cannot stand being spoken to like the speaker is meant to be the only perspective that exists. Smh
Only good parts is the genuinely awesome eastern thought that he could barely handle percisely describing.
I spent a good amount of the day today and yesterday really giving this a chance and I fear I have to say I give up on this.
It is fair to say I want to avoid the work of Alan Watts. His handling of genuinely wonderful philsophical ideas are so cocky and blundered, his tone is intolerable. I was very much not brought into his style at any point and I do not want to read shit like this again. Just very unnecessarily too cool for school, deconstructionist for the sake of a literary flare, and pretentious as shit. Cannot stand being spoken to like the speaker is meant to be the only perspective that exists. Smh
Only good parts is the genuinely awesome eastern thought that he could barely handle percisely describing.
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