Alan W Watts – författare

'The perfect guide for a course correction in life' Deepak ChopraIf we open our eyes and see clearly it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant An insightful exploration into the origins and history of Zen Buddhism from pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts. With a rare combination of freshness and lucidity, Watts explores the principles of Zen and how it can revolutionize our daily life.

The timeless spiritual classic on overcoming anxiety, embracing uncertainty and learning to live in the present, from the acclaimed philosopher and author of The Way of Zen.‘The perfect guide for a course correction in life’ Deepak Chopra, bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success‘What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously’In uncertain times, it’s easy to feel anxious about the future while burdened by the past. In the midst of this negative loop, we often forget how to live in the now.In The Wisdom of Insecurity, pioneering philosopher and Zen scholar Alan Watts offers a profound yet practical guide to psychological freedom. Blending Eastern philosophy with Western thought, Watts shows us how, in an age of unprecedented anxiety, we must embrace the present in order to live a fulfilling life.A beloved modern classic, The Wisdom of Insecurity is the empowering and uplifting guide to help provide calm and allow you to live fully in the here and now.'A revelatory classic… one of those books bound to stay with you for a lifetime ' Maria Popova

'A spiritual polymath, the first and possibly greatest' Deepak ChopraThe spiritual is not to be separated from the material, nor the wonderful from the ordinaryThis remarkable collection of essays from pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts offer a challenging and comprehensive insight into 'cosmic consciousness'. From the paradoxes of self-consciousness to psychedelics and the connection of spirit and matter, this is a mind-opening exploration into the relationship between spirituality and ordinary life.

The timeless spiritual classic on overcoming anxiety, embracing uncertainty and learning to live in the present, from the acclaimed philosopher and author of The Way of Zen.‘The perfect guide for a course correction in life’ Deepak Chopra, bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success‘What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously’In uncertain times, it’s easy to feel anxious about the future while burdened by the past. In the midst of this negative loop, we often forget how to live in the now.In The Wisdom of Insecurity, pioneering philosopher and Zen scholar Alan Watts offers a profound yet practical guide to psychological freedom. Blending Eastern philosophy with Western thought, Watts shows us how, in an age of unprecedented anxiety, we must embrace the present in order to live a fulfilling life.A beloved modern classic, The Wisdom of Insecurity is the empowering and uplifting guide to help provide calm and allow you to live fully in the here and now.'A revelatory classic… one of those books bound to stay with you for a lifetime ' Maria Popova

"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. . . . You may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now."—from Become What You Are In this collection of writings, including nine new chapters never before available in book form, 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 Westerners. He draws on a variety of religious traditions, and covers topics such as the challenge of seeing one''s life "just as it is," the Taoist approach to harmonious living, the limits of language in the face of ineffable spiritual truth, and the psychological symbolism of Christian thought.

The timeless spiritual classic on overcoming anxiety, embracing uncertainty and learning to live in the present, from the acclaimed philosopher and author of The Way of Zen.‘The perfect guide for a course correction in life’ Deepak Chopra, bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success‘What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously’In uncertain times, it’s easy to feel anxious about the future while burdened by the past. In the midst of this negative loop, we often forget how to live in the now.In The Wisdom of Insecurity, pioneering philosopher and Zen scholar Alan Watts offers a profound yet practical guide to psychological freedom. Blending Eastern philosophy with Western thought, Watts shows us how, in an age of unprecedented anxiety, we must embrace the present in order to live a fulfilling life.A beloved modern classic, The Wisdom of Insecurity is the empowering and uplifting guide to help provide calm and allow you to live fully in the here and now.'A revelatory classic… one of those books bound to stay with you for a lifetime ' Maria Popova

'A spiritual polymath, the first and possibly greatest' Deepak ChopraThe spiritual is not to be separated from the material, nor the wonderful from the ordinaryThis remarkable collection of essays from pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts offer a challenging and comprehensive insight into 'cosmic consciousness'. From the paradoxes of self-consciousness to psychedelics and the connection of spirit and matter, this is a mind-opening exploration into the relationship between spirituality and ordinary life.

'The perfect guide for a course correction in life' Deepak ChopraTo be forever looking beyond is to remain blind to what is here In this engaging and enduring work, pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts examines humanity's place in the natural world and the spirit's connection to the body. Drawing on the precepts of Taoism, Watts offers an alternative vision of our place in the universe that will revolutionise the way you think, feel and live.

'The perfect guide for a course correction in life' Deepak ChopraIf we open our eyes and see clearly it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant An insightful exploration into the origins and history of Zen Buddhism from pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts. With a rare combination of freshness and lucidity, Watts explores the principles of Zen and how it can revolutionize our daily life.

This classic series of essays represents Alan Watts''s thinking on the astonishing problems caused by our dysfunctional relationship with the material environment. Here, with characteristic wit, a philosopher best known for his writings and teachings about mysticism and Eastern philosophy gets down to the nitty-gritty problems of economics, technology, clothing, cooking, and housing. Watts argues that we confuse symbol with reality, our ways of describing and measuring the world with the world itself, and thus put ourselves into the absurd situation of preferring money to wealth and eating the menu instead of the dinner.With our attention locked on numbers and concepts, we are increasingly unconscious of nature and of our total dependence on air, water, plants, animals, insects, and bacteria. We have hallucinated the notion that the so-called external world is a cluster of objects separate from ourselves, that we encounter it, that we come into it instead of out of it. Originally published in 1972, Does It Matter? foretells the environmental problems that arise from this mistaken mind-set. Not all of Watts''s predictions have come to pass, but his unique insights will change the way you look at the world.

In describing the effects of mescaline, Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception opened a proverbial door for a generation of seekers. Watts walked through it with this classic account of the levels of insight that consciousness-changing drugs can facilitate “when accompanied with sustained philosophical reflection by a person who is in search, not of kicks, but of understanding.” Watts and peers including foreword authors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (then Harvard professors) anticipated physicists’ recognizing the individual’s “inseparability from the rest of the world,” the work of New Age thinkers who combine scientific findings and spiritual experiences, and federally funded clinical trials utilizing psilocybin to treat a variety of conditions. More than an artifact, The Joyous Cosmology is both a riveting memoir of Watts’s personal experiments and a profound meditation on our perennial questions about the nature of existence and the existence of the sacred.