Zen Effects - Life Of Alan Watts, Buddhism e-books mega collection
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Fonword
10 lite
SkYLZ~/lt
l.ives Edition
1:X
A(kIlOIl'/fI(~llletlIS
:XIV
Introduction
xv
I.
The Paradise Garden,
19[5-[920
2.
The Education of a Brahmin,
1l)20-1932
14
3.
Christmas Zen,
1932-193H
42
4.
The Towers of Manhattan,
[93H-194[
72
5·
Colored Christian,
194 1- 1947
9[
6.
Correspondence,
1947-1950
[10
7.
A Priest Inhibited,
[950-[95[
125
H.
The Wisdom
of Insecurity,
[95[-[960
13[
9·
Counterculture,
1960-196H
155
10.
The Home Behind Home,
1969-1973
186
,""011'.1
2
17
BookshI'
A/all
flims
227
indc:
229
About
Sk)'L(~1t1
Patlis
236
Foreword
Alan Watts rose
to
prominence in the 1<)60sand early seventies
as one of the key figures in that cultural wave that included the hip-
pie movement, "flower power," psychedelics, rock music, and a
gen~
cral throwing off of the shackles of convention-all elements of a
phenomenon that came
to
be known as the "counterculture."
Though many aspects of this movement may now seem quaintly
naive
to
us, there was a vision to it-one of a life simpler and more
humanly attractive than one characterized by consumer greed.
Along with it there came a new respect
for
the religions traditions
of Asia, and these Eastern philosophies began to make inroads into
the
Judeo~Christian
certainties of the West. The new ways of think-
ing also contributed
to
the civil rights and
anti-war
movements.
The traditionally Protestant societies of America and England were
taken over by a brief bohemianism, which brought a sense of joy
and fun, of play, that never entirely went away again. The movement
also laid the foundations
for
ecological concern, something which,
fortv years later, has fostered a worldwide dialogue on the subject.
The enduring influence of the counterculture is nowhere
more evident today than in the "normalization" of Eastern
rc-
ligion: the seeds planted by Watts and others in the I<)60s have
grown to the point where today Eastern religions are considered
mainstream-in the past decade the practice of Buddhism alone
among Westerners has more than doubled by most estimations-
and their continuing presence in our culture has altered the way
we think about the religious traditions of the West.
In the fifteen years since this book's original publication, the
legacy of the counterculture has increased rather than diminished.
Thus, this new edition of
Zcu Effects
comes at a time when it is
more important than ever
to
examine the lives of the people who,
like Alan Watts, are counted as the movement's movers and shak-
ers. These leaders were a mixed bag of academics and singers; poets
and painters; Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian teachers; adepts of
Zen. Watts, arguably the most influential among them, was an
Englishman who had literally "gone West," eventually finding his
home
in
California, after sojourns in N ew York and Chicago.
Classically educated at a British private school, a follower of
FOrC111()rd
Buddhism in his teens, for a time an Episcopalian cleq,ryman, he
gradually abandoned the more conventional aspects of Western
life along with Western dress, which he regarded as constricting. In
195
I
Watts moved to San Francisco where he helped set up the
American Academy of Asian Studies, to meet the growing interest
in all things Asian. The school quickly acquired some remarkable
pupils, including the poet Gary Snyder, a whole group of impor-
tant artists, and the people who later went on to found the Esalen
Institute, the center and retreat dedicated to the exploration of
human potential. Watts' intention was less an academic one than it
was a wish to bring about a transformation of consciousness in his
pupils. He certainly succeeded in bringing some extraordinary
people together, many of whom became friends for life.
Like almost everyone caught up in the vision of transtor-
mation. Watts experimented with psychedelics. Unimpressed at
first, he became fascinated at the timeless vision of the world they
showed him. In the early days, Watts, like others, did not guess how
destructive drugs could become. Watts, however, always saw them
as a temporary aid to consciousness, a cleansing of perception
which, like psychotherapy, you gave up when they had taught you
what they could: "When you've got the message, hang up the
phone," he would say.
By
19()9
Watts had become an icon of the movement to the
extent that his celebrity made life sometimes difficult. One
woman described to me how, at this period, dining with Watts in
a restaurant in San Francisco, she was embarrassed by a disciple
who came in and knelt before him, disregarding a roomful of
onlookers. Perhaps we understand more nowadays about that sort
of fame-s-the sort where people have an awed need to touch, or
at least to stare.
Watts' philosophy, caretullv developed over the years with
study, had a freshness and honesty about it. He had read deeply in
Christian theology and felt that many of its symbols had lost their
power as a result of being taken too literally, and needed to be
rediscovered. He worked at meditation, read Jungian psychology,
studied Oriental religious ideas of all kinds, visited Japan. Out of
much thinking, reading, and talking, he developed a language that
spoke to Westerners who wanted a religion, or at any rate a way of
life, that was not totallv trapped in rationalitv He felt that rclicion
I
• ~
tended to suffer from mystification and the use of a mandarin
language that excluded most people, except as timid followers of
leaders who then abused their power. His own teaching moved
between ways of talking about huge irnpondcrablcs-c-suflering,
death-e-re the evervdav v-rhe kind of food, clothes, relationships,
ways of living that might be appropriate for human beings.
Few, ifany, human beings can cope well with becoming a guru
or icon. Alan Watts handled it better than some, mainly because he
had good friends, and he had a sense of humor that put his fame
into perspective, but he was stressed by the exposure and at times
his head was turned by it. Watts is not a man on whom it is possi-
ble to deliver an easy verdict-s-he escapes labels. He had an
extraordinary wisdom, a lot of knowledge, and a rare ability to put
both into language that ordinary people can understand. He still
has much to teach anyone searching to find belief-s-his short and
deceptively simple little books are remarkable guides. He was
sometimes vain, a know-it-all who could be thoughtless of others,
but he was invariablv kind in what he said about other people. "He
was fond of lifting the elbow," Dom Aelred Graham wrote to me,
"but I never heard him say a harsh word about anybody." There are
not many of us of whom the Kecording Angel will be able to say
as much, and it was perhaps Watts' capacity to live out the life he
wanted, with all its ups and downs, its failures and successes, that
left him so attractively free of envy. His children, I noticed when I
interviewed them, were both clear-sighted and truthful about him,
but also had loving memories, as had his friends.
He was both an inspired leader and, like all of
LIS,
flawcd v-in
Gary Snyder's words, "he sowed problems wherever he went"
Watts knew himself quite well, and used to describe himself as a
"genuine f:lke," an expression that catches not only his ambigui-
ties, but also the ambiguities of the human condition, not least
when we are trying to be religious. This book tries to explore both
the genuineness and the takcrv,
A[ollira Furlono
London
January
2001
x
XI
Acknowledgments
My principle thanks go to Joan Watts Tabernik of Bolinas, Cali-
fornia, Alan Watts's daughter and executor, who encouraged me
to write the book and was full of useful information. I was also
most grateful to Ann Andrews who talked with me at great length
about her father and the family history, and showed me much
personal kindness. Mrs. Mary Jane Watts was very generous with
her time.
Other members of the Watts family who helped with time,
memories, photographs, tapes, and diaries were Mark Watts, Joy
Buchan, Leslie and Peggy Watts, Sybil Jordeson, and Jean Mc-
Dermid. Mrs. Dorothy Watts wrote to me at length about Alan
Watts.
Watts had many close and loving friends; those I talked with
about him were Elsa Gidlow, Roger Somers, Gary Snyder, Gordon
Onslow-Ford, Toni Lilly, June Singer, Robert Shapiro, Ruth Cos-
tello, Sandy Jacobs, Virginia Denison, and Watts's niece by mar-
riage, Kathleen.
Others who gave information were Bishop John Robinson,
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