The Watercourse way is a most wonderful work on Taoism and mysticism/spirituality in general. I started to read the book with only a vague understanding of Taoism, but when I was done I was in love with the philosophy. Alan Watt's characteristic intelligent and compassionate way of writing shines through, and with his help one can really wrap their head around very complex ideas.

Although some parts dealing with chinese translation and calligraphy can be somewhat monotonous, the insight gained from a heightened understanding of Tao, Te and wu-wei more than make up for any shortcomings of the book. This book is definately an important stepping stone on my personal spiritual journey. I just wish he had put the 'fun stuff' in.

This is Alan Watts' final work, left incomplete upon his death, "finished" by Al Chung-liang Huang. Many sections of the work seem sketchy and undeveloped, which is unsurprising.

That said, that which is there is as well-written as any of Watts' other prose. As an "introduction" to Taoism, it is somewhat lacking, but it's a good work to pick up after you're already familiar with the Tao Te Ching in common translations. The chapter on the method and beauty of the Chinese written language is a notable highlight.

In short, if you're looking for an introduction to Taoism, start with the Tao Te Ching; if you're looking for an introduction to Alan Watts, start with "The Way of Zen". But the fact that this book doesn't fulfill either of those purposes well doesn't detract from its good points.

Watts' scholarship is impressive, yet even more impressive is his ability to communicate what he knows. The Tao Te Ching is not the easiest book to read, but you wouldn't know that from Watts' Watercourse book. Everything is very clearly presented. Lacking are the word-games Watts sometimes likes to play in his other books. His rather lengthy discussion of "li" would have been worth the price of the book all by itself, but there was just so much more. Far and away, this is one of the best books on Taoism I have on my shelf. I have been reading a lot of Watts lately, recently introduced to him by an acquaintance, and it has been one of the best adventures of my life. Among all his books, this is one of my favorites.

I didn't find this autobiography as appealing as many of the other flowery reviews. I like Alan Watts' philosophical pieces a lot, but there was something in the tone of his autobiography that was arrogant and misleading. His writing is beautiful, as usual, but there is lack of intimacy that I would have expected in a candid autobiography, especially from someone who claims to be a spiritual entertainer. The prose is sprinkled with reminders of how he realizes the ego is a fiction, and how he is enlightened in that sense. Which is fine, I suppose, but I thought the frequent reminders were a little unnecessary, or as he likes to put it, "putting legs on a snake."

More importantly, his recounting of his life completely lacks a sense of problems or misfortunes. Some people really do lack this, but from his biographies it is evident that Alan Watts did not. He does not (at the request of his father) talk about his relationship with his mother at all in the book, and he also does not discuss at all his alcoholism problems. He also does not discuss the sexual problems which led to his first marriage dissolving, and doesn't really explain why he divorced his second wife. I found this disappointing because he probably had a lot of wisdom to share about this. It also makes him seem less human. ...

Despite all this, the autobiography is entertaining and definitely worth reading for anyone interested in an inside view of the counterculture movement. His reflections, though at times a little too confident, are still mostly interesting to read.

However, I would recommend reading this book along with an objective biography like "Zen Effects- the Life of Alan Watts" to get a more balanced view on his life.

The unabashedly eclectic Alan Watts neither aspired to dogmatic purity nor engaged in academic nitpicking. He culls what he needs, mostly from the Oriental tradition, in order to construct a project of spiritual hedonism.

Watts thinking and approach to life are emblematic of the 1960s,
even though his quest began many years prior to that tumultuous decade. He rejects the transcendental God, super-ego and status quo, in favor of a spirituality of immanence and id. This coincided with the human potential movement, blossoming at that time.

It is interesting to consider, however, how far the human potential movement in its latest incarnation - the new-age movement- diverged from the course laid down by Watts. For one thing, though he was a popularizer, Watts was undoubtedly an intellectual and would accept little or nothing as a matter of faith. The "New Age", on the other hand, seems to be intellectually vacuous. Like newagers, Watts did turn to the Orient for answeres. This may originally have been inspired by a sort of exoticism, but after having tried to frame his spirituality withinin the epicopalian faith (he became an ordained minister),
Zen/taoism turned out to be the best vehicle for him.

The New Age seems to have reconstructed a more Oriental God, who nonetheless resembles the fatherly God of their Catholic/Protestant parents. This God says "Thou Shalt" (although his rules are slightly different) and looks after his followers as a shepherd does for his flock. This takes many guises...the New Thought one, where if you supplicate to God and repeat enough affirmations, God, under the sobriquet of "the Universe" will grant you what you want...or the guru, in traditional costume or in his new thread as psychotherapist.
Watts rejects all of this transcentalism. He accepts the notion of karma, becoming as one acts,(but not necessarily the new age conception of karma which clings to the idea of returning in a next life).

On the one hand, the new age is either ascetic or it fully embraces hyperconsumersim. It is apparent throughout this biography that Watts rejects both of these paths. On the one hand, he does not envision the body as fallen spirit, but as part of the universe, hence part of God, and to be celebrated.
This is to be done through wine, food, sex and many other ways.
On the other hand, he is wary of the money game, and a blind pursuit of things.

This was my first reading of Watts, though I had listened to a few of his recorded lectures. I shall read more. I am particularly interested in understanding this question of the "illusion of the ego", in comparison with concept of the individual from the point of view of cartesianism or postmodernism.

Apart from those concerns, it was an enjoyable read. I found the first 50 pages, concerned with his childhood, to be a bit slow, but after that it was a real page-turner.

Thomas

In My Own Way: An Autobiography is the endlessly engrossing story of the persona, the public figure, of Alan Wilson Watts, who is sometimes referred to, and rightly so, as "the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines," and Zen Buddhism in particular. It was not Alan's idea to write this book, as he candidly admits in the Preface to the book, since in his opinion he had not done anything worthy of recounting. "I have not fought in wars, explored mountains and jungles, battled in politics, commanded great business corporations, or accumulated vast wealth. It seemed to me, therefore, that I had no story to tell as the world judges stories."

It was only at the insistence of two women in his life, his publisher's editor, Paula McGuire, and his third wife, Mary Jane Yates, that he consented to write down the details of the making of Alan Watts. Along the way we meet the people who influenced Alan, who helped guide, shape, and direct his persona. And though he was influenced by many people in his life, whose works and ideas found their way into his many books, essays, and lectures, Alan possessed, all on his own, a certain knack or genius for getting at the essence of a theme or subject. And then he was able to effectively communicate that essence, using his abundant imagination, to his readers and listeners. And this not just for the highbrows in the audience, but for every class of person who picks up one of his books and proceeds to make the effort to understand the ideas and concepts he expresses. Alan's work was, if anything, accessible to the reader, whatever his level of interest.

The title of this review, The Way I Came To Be, refers to the story that makes up the book. And so much of that story centers around the people Alan interacted with from whom he gathered the ideas, concepts and "philosophy" that he expoused. It's the inside story of how Alan Watts came to think and see things in the way he came to think and see them. And for this value alone the book is abundantly worth reading and re-reading.

(From a personal point of interest, it fascinated and amazed me, at first reading several years ago, how much my own life paralleled and intersected the same aspects of cultivation as his life: an early interest in Eastern philosophy; being associated with and entering a Western religious order, Episcopal in his case and old Catholic in my own; an interest in the metaphysical rituals of religion; a background in meditation combined with a fascination with psychology and psychoanalysis; and an insight into the little talked about mystical aspects of Western religions and the thought to express the marriage between Western and Eastern mysticism.)

In My Own Way is, in reality, an extension of Alan Watts' previous books in that it covers a lot of the same ground but with new stories of the people he lived with which provides additional insight into the concepts and ideas he wrote about.

For instance, there is the passage that quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson from his famous essay on "Self-Reliance" in which Emerson is writing about the timelessness of things in nature, roses in this case, and how the roses "make no reference to former roses or the better ones; they are for what they are....There is no time for them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence...But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past,or,...stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."

And then Watts writes: "Sokei-an Sasaki told me that reading this passage touched off his first experience of satori." Sokei-an Sasaki was one of the Zen masters with whom Watts studied. An alert reader, recognizing this fact, would be fascinated to learn about this passage which had such a profound effect upon a Zen master to see whether or not it could have the same effect on him. When one is on the path to self discovery, every little clue is valuable. And such clues as this, coming as it does from the experience of a Zen master, are especially invaluable.

There are dozens and dozens of such moments of insight and clarity offered up in this autobiography that it makes it a joy to read.

And if you are a careful reader, that is if you can read between the lines, you might even learn a thing or two about Alan Watts the man in addition to what you learn about his public facade. And herein lies the value of biography or autobiography and the reading of such, because the reader has the opportunity to gain a rare look at the inside workings of a fellow human being in order to learn and gain wisdom from that person's life which he can then apply to his own life.

You may learn, for example, to recognize and avoid the fatal flaw in Alan's approach to life that took him out at such a relatively young age, fifty-eight. And I'm not referring here to the much discussed abuse of alcohol, although that undoubtedly was a contributing factor. But it was secondary, however, and not the primary factor which led to his early death. He does mention the reason once or twice, but it's so well camouflaged that most people will read right through it without recognizing its significance. I'll leave it to you, the reader of his autobiography, to come to your own conclusion.

At any rate, suffice it to say that this book is a treasure trove of subtle wisdom, valuable perceptions, and fascinating stories of the development and coronation of one of Western civilization's most visible spiritual gurus.

This is the twelfth of the Alan Watts' books I've read. The final chapter, "The Practice of Meditation," reproduced Watts' own caligraphy (he did this very well it seems) and was interesting enough to read, but the rest of the book covered pretty much the same thing from the same perspective as the first eleven books I read by him. Book by book, he is getting less interesting and more predictable. On page 27, in the "Play and Survival" chapter, he quotes Albert Camus in "The Myth of Sisyphus": "The only real philosophical question is whether or not to commit suicide." Well, I would expect that from Camus and his ilk. There are many many other legitimate philosophical questions besides that one, ones more interesting and beneficial than that. But it does seem to fit in with Watts' perspective on life. The darkness descends. One more book by him and then my reading project will be finished.

In 'The Way of Liberation', Alan Watts offers a "rich selection of literay works and transcribed lectures", according to his son Mark Watts. Chapter 1, The Way of Liberation in Zen Buddhism, is an essay written in 1955 which was prior to his extensive work, The Way of Zen. Following this is Play and Survival: Are they in Necessary Contradiction? Watts offers much playful synthesis of philosophical insight and gives us some idea of how his 'thought evolved through all that followed.' With Chapter 3, The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy, Watts discusses the fundamental questions posed by Eastern Religions to Westerners of Christian background. After 'Suspension of Judgement', we get an interesting section on Chuang-tzu, a Chinese philosopher who Watts states is "one of the only philosophers from the whole of antiquity who has any real humour, and therefore, he is an immensely encouraging person to read." The book ends with 'The Practice of Meditation' which is delightfully written in his own calligraphy and stands as a fantastic essay for beginners. Quotes from mindful individuals like Bodhidharma, Mumonkan, Rinzai Roku, and Zenrin Ruiju give this book high markings. Much talk on Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and the essence of liberation within those faiths. Mark Watts gives a special thanks to Rebecca Shrophire George Ingles. Dedicated 'to our fathers and our mothers.'

DIAMOND DOGS pulled me in from the first pages. It's about the complexities of a father-son relationship, with a compelling plot: Neil Garvin is the 17-year-old protagonist and he accidentally kills a classmate. His father covers the boy's tracks, thinking he is protecting his son's future.

What engaged me is how easily the author lets us see beyond Neil's cool facade into his scarred psyche. On the surface Neil seems like a typical high school star quarterback who dreams of getting out of his crummy town on his "million-dollar arm". He drinks beers with his buddies and is sometimes a bully. Inside, Neil's a real mess. He misses his mother (who he thinks deserted him as a boy) and he can't communicate with his father (the town sheriff and Neil Diamond fanatic). When the accident occurs, it further distances Neil from his father until the situation implodes.

DIAMOND DOGS reminded me of another book: BEFORE AND AFTER by Rosellen Brown also about a father covering up for his son. DIAMOND DOGS isn't as good as the Brown book because the story starts to stall toward the end, but Alan Watt is an excellent writer--a diamond in the rough--and I look forward to his next book.

A fine book buried behind a lousy cover and poor marketing, "Diamond Dogs" is a real treat that I might easily have over-looked had a friend not mentioned it to me. It is the engaging narrative of Neil, a high school football star from a troubled family who, after a night of drinking and recreational cruelty, accidentally kills a classmate. His father, the local police chief of their Nevada town (just outside of Las Vegas) disposes of the body without even talking to Neil, and thus begins three days of tension and mayhem.

Some of the elements of "Diamond Dogs" are a bit over-cooked. I found the father's obsession with Neil Diamond more gimmicky than believable, which is too bad because the rest of the father/son relationship is drawn brilliantly. I found Neil's problems with his father, his yearning for his long-departed mother, and his relationships with his friends and girlfriends both believable and moving. Neil is not a particularly likable character, but what makes this novel so compelling is that Alan Watt had built him around an utterly irresistible narrative voice. I was hooked from the first page, and I just kept on reading.

I don't know if it is true, but I have heard a rumor that Watt wrote this novel in six weeks. If that is the case, I tip my hate to him and bow in awe. Even if it is not the case, I am very impressed and I look forward to more good things from this talented young author.

Diamond Dogs is a wonderful work of fiction you can't put down from the moment you read the first page. Alan Watt has written an exciting, non-stop story centering around a hit and run accident and its subsequent cover-up. A wonderful suspenseful tale of a mixed-up but loving relationship between father and son.

High School quarterback Neil Garvin, a much-worshipped high school football star narrates the story. It's thru his eyes that the whole story enfolds, and you quickly realize that teenagers today are much more mature than we give them credit for. It's over the course of the next three days following the accident that Neil's life is completely changed when his father, the sheriff, helps cover-up the accident. We become a participant in the events that follow, whether we like it or not, and we get drawn into the complexities of small-town life, and father and son bonding.

Whether it takes you a few hours, a day, or 2 days, this is a book you won't forget. A very promising debut novel from this author. An easy read that will keep you very entertained. Bravo!!

If you think this book is about getting your priorities straight and considering what really matters, don't bother. This book is alot of junk ideas from the sixties. I threw the book in the garbage so that no other unsuspecting person would get it. What a disappointment.

It is subtitled "Essays on Man's Relationship to Materiality"...and my copy perhaps is almost ready for the Smithsonian. So much for my relationship with my materiality, eh? Well, I'm still learning. This book is one of his most accessible collections, his writing style here is so light and readable that it's clear that he is getting a kick out of his own whimsical turning of phrases. The words, the symbols, the images, the numbers in which we define reality are NOT reality and according to Watts, we confuse our descriptive world with what is really going on, thus we are distanced and numbed to real situations in the real world...we become blind to nature, we fail to connect to the living vibrations. These essays--I know, yet more descriptives--are designed for us to recognize the problem. (Money is not wealth. We are not our clothes. Food is not the packaging it is placed in.) These essays tell us ways we can connect to the cosmic consciousness...so we can avoid self destruction. One of the best essays is the short piece on Zen scholar DT Suzuki in which, I find, has the best line about both Suzuki and the Alan Watts of this text...it is "as if he had seen the Ultimate Joke and as if, out of compassion for those who had not, he were refraining from laughing out loud." Well, that is almost the way I have often been described, like I've told a joke that few people get...Anyway one of Watt's best, it's a pity is no longer in catalogue....

Alan Watts is somehow able to turn upside down our most basic assumptions and, by doing so, make more sense of the world. "Does It Matter" is a small collection of essays about Western man's relationship to everyday material things (e.g. food, clothing, money). Watts convincingly shakes us out of rutted thinking. With humor, irreverance, sincerity, and clear writing, he articulates profound ideas without resorting to obscure argument. A theme that runs through the essays is our tendency to confuse symbols with the material things to which they refer(desiring the menu more than the food). I get the feeling while reading these essays that the author is comfortable enough in his own search for truth to enjoy sharing it.

To parody one reviewer of this book at the time of its first publication in the Spring of 1940, "The mountain has labored and brought forth wildflowers." Which is to imply that through the mysterious vehicle of words Alan Watts has succeeded in unmasking the mysterious "meaning of happiness," just as a mountain can, mysteriously, bring forth a meadow of beautiful wildflowers where there was once only barren ground.

The original reviewer equated the laboring mountain with the bringing forth of a mouse, by which one may reasonable infer to mean that the voluminous mountain of words amounted to the slightest substantiality of meaning. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Written in 1939 and published in 1940, The Meaning of Happiness, with its annotative subtitle "The Quest for freedom of the spirit in modern psychology and the wisdom of the East," represented a watershed moment in western man's attempt to understand himself and his relationship to the universe and the creative energy of the universe.

At the tender age of twenty-four Alan Watts used all his immense powers of perception and intellect, in this his third book, to draw together seemingly disparate concepts into an organic whole which help to illuminate the genesis of the elusive feeling of happiness. Though the philosophy brought out by Watts' discussion is profound he nevertheless presents it in a simple and easily understandable way, which is perhaps a preview of his uncanny ability to describe the indescribable.

Seen and read today, through the distance of 60 years, The Meaning of Happiness may seem at first to be a bit dated. This is because it was written for a people who were under the influence of a different set of intellectual circumstances than those of us alive today. Back then, in 1940, most westerners had little exposure to the ideas and philosophies of what was then thought of as the Orient, which included the major cultures of Asia -- India, China, Tibet and Japan. Therefore Watts wrote in an effort to help educate as much as to illuminate his Western, predominately Judeo-Christian, audience's understanding of eastern philosophies coupled with the parallels of what was at the time known as modern psychology.

What he was in the initial stages of formulating was a synthesis between traditional Christianity and the unitive mysticism of Hinduism and Buddhism, a theme he would explore in more depth in three other books: Behold the Spirit (1947), The Supreme Identity (1950), and Myth and Ritual in Christianity (1953).

Though there are gems of wisdom and insight throughout the book, the chapters which stand out the most are the third along with the last three -- the sixth, seventh and eighth. If you are one who like to read ahead to get to the meat of the message, you will be especially interested in chapter six, The One in the Many. I won't spoil it for you, but you may find yourself in for a surprise and amazed at the depth of spiritual understanding that Watts brings to the concept of happiness.

In today's world of quick fixes and mind numbing psychotropic drugs, like ritalin, the spiritual truths that Watts wrote about at mid-twentieth century are as meaningful and necessary a cure-all for the ills that plague men's minds today as they were then, in 1940. The lessons are as wise and practical as they are timeless. Here, in the brief span of two hundred pages, Alan Watts has managed to decode an ancient holistic plan for attaining not only mental well-being but for capturing that elusive feeling of bliss.

If you have ever heard the recorded sessions of Allan Watts, you know what you're in for when reading the book. A must read for anyone feeling alienated from the societal roles they play. As Mr. Watts would say,"Take off your masks! Run free! We are all One! "

I love Alan Watts' writing. He makes you feel warm, like part of the family, but does not talk down to you like a parent. This book, written in 1940, is one of his earlier works, and you can sense he is still formulating his style. While sometimes scholarly, and other times playful, he mixes the right amount of both perspectives to give the reader a profound sense of being alive. The book is called "The Meaning of Happiness". While we all have at some point experienced happiness, Watts explores the meaning of what happiness is and how might it be experienced more than a transitory feeling. Happiness is defined essentially as "libertaion," where one no longer has the need to be happy, or need to be mad or need be anything exept to be. In a round about way it is enlightenment (or enlightenment is happiness). In Watts' calssical style, there is no progression one must endure, it just happens. It happens as easily looking with ones eyes. This is not the happiness that we coined in "dont worry be happy" because this presumes that one has to worry in order to be happy. It is not the, in order to experience happiness we must experience sadness. It is the "transcendence of opposites". To dispute the Buddha's "all things are sorrow," Watts says all things are happy.

I found this tape to be more of the ancient times, then anything. He really doesn't take you into any real type of meditation and really was not interesting at all to me to even keep my attention up. The only good part of the whole tape was at the end, when he can really make you laugh yourself silly, other than that this tape was not helpful to me at all.

Alan Watts has a very soothing voice. I found that when I listened to him talk on the tape about how to meditate that I was able to achieve reasonable relaxation. However, I never truly reached a true meditative state while trying to meditate on my own. I have since switched to a yoga/meditation routine that works much better for me.

This was my first experience with Alan Watts, & after this I read all his works & have heard all of his talking shows. This is a great piece of Watts.

I suppose if you've been around the block with respect to computer graphics, you could do very well with this book. Watt covers all sorts of topics- with ray tracing and radiosity providing a very large section of the text's coverage.

Unfortunately, for the beginner it's too overwhelming. There is relatively little coverage of linear algebra and the other mathematical basics needed for understanding much of what Watt is talking about. Often times, the author will mention a technique or subject of some sort about which a novice to the field will have no idea whatsoever. It gets confusing at times.

The chapters themselves are also organized in an "unusual" fashion- for instance, spline curves are introduced right at the beginning with an in-depth coverage sure to scare off anyone new to the field. More basic ideas- such as how 3d transformations actually work- are deferred until later chapters.

And while some chapters are quite well-written, the more advanced subjects (ray-tracing and radiosity) are often plunged into in-depth without enough preparation, leaving most readers scratching their heads as to what in the world is going on.

With all that said, Watt's book should prove useful to anyone reasonably familiar with 3D graphics who might be looking to understand more advanced concepts. It's a well-written book (aside from a few typos), just not one for the uninitiated.

Wow, this book had the potential of being so much better. The organization is in, I find, a very odd colated fashion. This has the effect of confusing even the most capable reader not already familiar with the various implementations. For instance: with the section on "Viewing Systems" there are 5 five such systems described. Instead of giving a complete account of any one in any one place, like aspects of each are distributed in groups across the section. This makes things very difficult on the novice who is seeking to first form a general abraction of a process before proceeding to gather the details. The only source in the book is a wireframe implementation in one of the appendices; I did not mind this per se, however it's rendered in of all languages PASCAL!! (I have a particular dislike of the language if you can't tell) Apparently C was JUST becoming popular when and where the book was written. Experts in the field of Computer Graphics are, I imagine, more likely to take to this book with an appreciation of it's merits.

All things aside however this is a fairly comprehensive book and a worthy addition to any programmer's library. Novices (teen game programmers like myself especially!) take heed that some patience may be required and some brain-power to spare wouldn't be bad either.

Contrary to what the other reviews say, I believe this is an excellent book for beginners in the 3D computer graphics world. However, that being said, you will need some basic math skills to be able to understand and apply the concepts in this book. If you are unfamilar with linear algebra, you should probably start with studying up on your math skills first. With the basic math skills, this book does a great job of introducing the basics to almost every major topic you'll see in 3D computer graphics programming. The book doesn't go into great detail at times, but the simplicity of this book is the winning ingredient that allows beginners to grasp the basics before moving on to indepth research in paticular topics of 3D graphics that interest them.