Alan Watts

Alan Wilson Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973) was a philosopher, writer, speaker, and expert in comparative religion. He wrote over twenty-five books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, consciousness and the pursuit of happiness, relating his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religions or philosophies (Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism). Beyond this, he was sensitive to certain new leanings in the West, and was in a position to be a proponent for certain shifts in attitudes regarding society, the natural world, lifestyles, and aesthetics. Alan Watts was a well-known autodidact. He was most renowned as an interpreter of Asian philosophies.

Later years

In his writings of the 1950s, Watts expressed what the zen-type inner experience might lead to on the personal level - more spontaneity, a more relaxed attitude, and generally being more fully human. He also conveyed his admiration for the practicality in the historical achievements of Chan or Zen in the Far East, for it had fostered farmers, architects, builders, folk physicians, artists, and administrators among the monks who had lived in the monasteries of its lineages.

Related Topics:
1950s - Chan

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In his mature work, it becomes clear that Watts was not especially committed to the Zen Buddhism with which he tended to be identified in the popular mind, but saw himself as Taoist in spirit, and was very interested in "civilizing" and making more humane the post-Christian industrial culture of the modern West. Child rearing, the arts, cuisine, education, law and freedom, architecture, sexuality, and the uses and abuses of technology were all of great interest to him.

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On the personal level, Watts sought to resolve his feelings of discomfort and not being ?at home? among other people or the institutions of society. But looking at society itself, he was quite concerned with the necessity for international peace, for tolerance or even understanding among disparate cultures. He also came to feel acutely conscious of a growing ecological predicament; as one instance, in the early 1960s he wrote: ?Can any melting or burning imaginable get rid of these ever-rising mountains of ruin ? especially when the things we make and build are beginning to look more and more like rubbish even before they are thrown away?"

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In his writings, Watts alluded to his own political shift from Republican conservatism to a more open-minded legal and political outlook. However, his opinions did not lean to the political left. He was more libertarian, distrusting both the left and right. He disliked much in the conventional idea of "progress". He hoped for change, but personally he preferred amiable, semi-isolated rural social enclaves, and also believed in tolerance for urban tenderloins, social misfits, and weirdo artists. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, Watts hated the suburbanization of the countryside and the way of life that went with it.

Related Topics:
Republican - Conservatism - Political left - Libertarian - Progress - Tenderloins - J.R.R. Tolkien

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In one campus lecture tour, which Watts titled "The End to the Put-Down of Man," Watts presented positive images for both nature and humanity, spoke in favor of the various stages of human growth (including the teenage years), reproached excessive cynicism and rivalry, and extolled intelligent creativity, good architecture and food.

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Watts felt that ethics had nothing to do with the fundamental realization of one?s deep spiritual identity. He advocated social rather than personal ethics (an emphasis which, perhaps, led to problems in his own relationships). In his writings, Watts was increasingly concerned with ethics applied to relations between humanity and the natural environment and between governments and citizens. He wrote out of an appreciation of a racially and culturally diverse social landscape. At the same time, he favored representative government rather than direct democracy (which he felt could readily degenerate into a mobocracy).

Related Topics:
Ethics - Mobocracy

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He often said that he wished to act as a bridge between the ancient and the modern, between East and West, and between culture and nature.

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Watts led some tours for Westerners to the Buddhist temples of Japan. He also studied movements from the traditional Chinese martial art T'ai Chi Ch'uan, with an Asian colleague, Al Chung-liang Huang. Watts lived his later years at times on a houseboat in San Francisco Bay and at times in a secluded cabin at Mt. Tamalpais (in Fairfax). Feeling laden with financial and social responsibilities, he struggled increasingly with alcohol addiction, which probably shortened his life. Watts died at home, while asleep next to his third wife, in 1973 at the age of 58.

Related Topics:
Chinese martial - T'ai Chi Ch'uan - San Francisco Bay - Mt. Tamalpais - Fairfax

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