Alan Watts

Before he became a counterculture hero, Alan Watts was known as an incisive scholar of Eastern and Western psychology and philosophy. In this 1963 classic, Watts demonstrates his deep understanding of both Western (Freudian/Jungian) psychotherapy and Eastern spiritual philosophies.

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

Life is the ultimate game of hide and seek . . . and the good news is that you're it!

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.”

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.

You cant catch a wave in a bucket and walk off with it, teaches Alan Watts, and so, you cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you persist in trying to. In Learning the Human Game, Watts starts with this Taoist insight; then takes his audience into a mind-expanding inquiry into the human condition.

"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. . . .