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Alan Watts

Alan Watts

First Name:

Alan

Last Name:

Watts

Alan Watts (1915-1973) was profoundly influenced by the East Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Buddhism, and by Taoist thought, which is reflected in Zen poetry and the arts of China and Japan. After leaving the Church he never became a member of another organized religion, although he wrote and spoke extensively about Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoisim. Some American Buddhists criticized him for not sitting regularly in zazen, even though he recorded several guided meditations teaching a variety of meditation techniques. Alan Watts responded simply by saying: “A cat sits until it is done sitting, and then gets up, stretches, and walks away.”

In 1957 he published his bestselling The Way of Zen, and in 1958 returned to Europe where he met with CG Jung. He was an early subject in pioneering psychedelic trials, and after recording two seasons of the public television series “Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life” traveled to Japan several times in the early sixties. By the late sixties he had become a counter culture celebrity, and traveled widely to speak at universities and growth centers across the US and Europe.

By the early 1970s Alan Watts had become a foremost interpreter of Eastern thought for the West. Overall he developed an extensive audio library of nearly 400 talks and wrote more than 25 books during his lifetime, including his final volume, Tao: the Watercourse Way.

Products by this Author:

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In My Own Way

An Autobiography

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Paperback Book

I was a weird child. I was a fantast who believed in fairies and magic when all the other children had given them up for twaddle… I would conduct funeral ceremonies for dead birds and bats and rabbits instead of learning tennis. I read about ancient Egypt and Chinese tortures and Aladdin’s lamp instead of “good books.”

$27.50 CAD

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Tao

The Watercourse Way

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Paperback Book

Drawing on ancient and modern sources, Watts treats the Chinese philosophy of Tao in much the same way as he did Zen Buddhism in his classic The Way of Zen. Critics agree that this last work stands as a perfect monument to the life and literature of Alan Watts.

$23.00 CAD

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Book

On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

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Paperback Book

In The Book, Alan Watts provides us with a much-needed answer to the problem of personal identity, distilling and adapting the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.

$21.00 CAD

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Fish Who Found the Sea

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Hardcover Book

Alan Watts, beloved for bringing a childlike wonder to the spiritual journey, wrote just one story for children. The Fish Who Found the Sea brings this delightful and wise parable to life for a new generation.

$23.50 CAD

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Way of Zen

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Paperback Book

Alan Watts was one of the great teachers and philosophers of our time, and forty years after its first appearance his classic study The Way of Zen continues to make Western readers far more aware of, and responsive to, the richness of Zen Buddhism and its place within the context and variety of Eastern religion.

$22.00 CAD

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Wisdom of Insecurity

A Message for an Age of Anxiety

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Paperback Book

"Anyone whose life needs a course correction would be fortunate to be guided by The Wisdom of Insecurity. My life still is, some thirty years later." —Deepak Chopra, from the Introduction

Alan W. Wattss message for an age of anxiety is as powerful today as it waswhen this modern classic was first published (in 1951).

$22.00 CAD

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This Is It

and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience

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Paperback Book

The six essays in this volume all deal with the relationship of mystical experience to ordinary life. The title essay on "cosmic consciousness" includes the author's account of his own ventures into this inward realm.

$14.00 CAD

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Become What You Are

Expanded Edition

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Paperback Book

"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 exists forever. . . .

$21.95 CAD

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Become What You Are

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Paperback Book

Renowned lecturer and author Alan Watts presents his meditations on the dilemma of seeking your true self. In this nimble collection of some of his writings, Alan Watts displays the intelligence, playfulness of thought, and simplicity of language that has made him so perennially popular as an interpreter of Eastern thought for W

$14.95 CAD

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Behold the Spirit

A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion

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Paperback Book

This study of the necessity of mystical religion, also shows how traditional Western doctrine can be reconciled with the intuitive religion of the Orient.

$20.00 CAD

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Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown

A Mountain Journal

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Paperback Book

These ruminations, assembled in the form of a journal and here published in paperback for the first time, were written at Alan Watts' retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, California.

$17.95 CAD

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Collected Letters of Alan Watts

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Paperback Book

Philosopher, author, and lecturer Alan Watts (19151973) popularized Zen Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies for the counterculture of the 1960s.

$33.50 CAD

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Do You Do It Or Does It Do You?

How to Let the Universe Meditate You

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Spoken Word CD

At the heart of the popularity of such spiritual teachers as Eckhart Tolle and Ken Wilber lies the spirit and intellectual passion of the seminal teacher who inspired them all—Alan Watts.

$41.99 CAD

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Does It Matter?

Essays on Man's Relation to Materiality

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Paperback Book

I have come to believe that the whole “hip” subculture, however misguided in some of its manifestations, is the earnest and responsible effort of young people to correct the self-destroying course of industrial civilization.

$22.50 CAD

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Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life

Collected Talks 1960-1969

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Paperback Book

From the mid-1950s, when he wrote The Way of Zen, to his death in 1973, Alan Watts introduced millions of Western readers to Zen and other Eastern philosophies.

$26.00 CAD

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Joyous Cosmology

Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness

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Paperback Book

In describing the effects of mescaline, Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception literally opened a door.

$20.50 CAD

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