Alan Watts

Alan Watts ( Alan Wilson Watts, born January 6, 1915 in Chislehurst, Kent, † November 16, 1973 at Mount Tamalpais ) was an English philosopher of religion, who worked primarily in the United States, where he was a priest of the Episcopal Church in the United States, lecturer and freelance writer worked.

It dealt primarily with the philosophy of Zen, Buddhism, and Daoism.

Biography

Born in England, grew up in a middle class family. His father was a tire dealer, his mother a housewife. His maternal grandfather had been a Christian missionary. Watts emigrated 1939 to the USA to study at the University of Vermont and later at the Seabury Western Theological Seminary theology. He served from 1945 to 1950 as a priest of the U.S. Episcopal Church, until an extramarital affair ended his marriage.

He wrote more than 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality and human consciousness. An instructive and critical biography that embeds Alan Watts in his time and pays tribute to his teaching prior to this, the philosopher Volker Zotz written as epilogue of the book by Alan Watts: Zen. Stillness of the mind. Berlin 2001.

In his later life he taught a lot. Towards the end of his life he also had to deal with alcohol problems. Watts died in 1973 at the age of 58 after a strenuous international lecture tour in his mountain cabin on Mount Tamalpais.

His philosophy at a glance

Alan Watts was a popular author of philosophical postmodernism. His writings reflect the cultural and psychological limitations that he experienced in the UK. Despite the educational opportunities that were opened to him by the schools in his childhood, he felt the general cultural influence, particularly in the religious sphere, as restrictive and repressive. In his opinion, the Western- Christian culture had developed over the centuries in a way that skeptical as such faces of human nature, which suppresses the nature of man and alienated him from a holistic, nature-oriented world view, rather than to teach him; to recognize its true nature and to live in the here and now.

Watts, who saw himself as a thinker and public workers, had a lifelong interest in Eastern philosophies; especially of Zen Buddhism and Daoism; and knowledge areas such as parapsychology, mysticism, the Thaumaturgy. He was of the view that man is an expression of the divine and saw life as a wonderful playground, which, as he called it, is based on a metaphysical game of hide. Known as mediators of Eastern philosophies in the Western public, was sometimes accused him communicate the Eastern teachings, which are learned directly from Eastern traditions, on a very simplified and banal way.

Alan Watts:. " Inability to accept the mystic experience as such, more than an intellectual limitation lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination For in a civilization equipped with immense technological power. , leads the alienation between man and nature on the use of technology in a hostile spirit - the " conquest " of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with it. "

Bibliography

  • The Spirit of Zen, 1936
  • The Legacy of Asia and Western Man, 1937
  • The Meaning of Happiness, 1940
  • The Theologica Mystica of St. Dionysius, 1944
  • Behold the Spirit, 1948
  • Easter - Its Story and Meaning, 1950
  • The Supreme Identity, 1950
  • Wisdom of unsecured Life ( orig.: The Wisdom of Insecurity, 1951), OWBarth 1955
  • Myth and rite of Christianity ( orig.: Myth and Ritual in Christianity, 1953), OWBarth 1956
  • The Way of Zen, 1957
  • In harmony with nature ( orig.: Nature, Man, and Woman, 1958 ), 1977, ISBN 3-85914-114-7
  • "This is it" and other essays on Zen and spiritual experience ( orig.: "This Is It " and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience, 1960 ), 1981, ISBN 3-85914 135- X
  • Psychotherapy and eastern liberation paths ( orig.: Psychotherapy East and West, 1961), Goldmann, 1986, ISBN 3-442-11410-1
  • Cosmology of Joy - adventure in the worlds of consciousness ( orig.: The Joyous Cosmology - Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness, 1962), At- Verlag, ISBN 3-85502-681-5
  • The Two Hands of God - The Myths of Polarity, 1963
  • Beyond Theology - The Art of Godmanship, 1964
  • The illusion of the ego. ( orig.: The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are 1966. ), Goldmann 2005, ISBN 3-442-21717-2
  • Nonsense, 1967
  • Does It Matter? - Essays on Man's Relation to Materiality. 1970
  • Erotic Spirituality - The Vision of Konarak. 1971
  • The art of contemplation. ( orig.: The Art of Contemplation 1972. ), Kamp -hausen, 1987, ISBN 3-591-08033-0
  • In My Own Way - An Autobiography 1915-1965. 1972
  • Cloud -hidden, Whereabouts Unknown - A Mountain Journal. 1973
  • The flow of the water - the wisdom of Taoism. ( orig: Tao: The Watercourse Way 1975. ), Island, Frankfurt 2003, ISBN 3-458-34639-2.
  • The Early Writings of Alan Watts. 1987
  • The Modern Mystic: A New Collection of Early Writings. 1990
  • The Tao of Philosophy. ( orig: The Tao of Philosophy in 1995. ), Theseus Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89620-208-1
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