Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan W. Watts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1974

These ruminations, assembled in the form of a journal and here published in paperback for the first time, were written at Alan Watts' retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, California. Many current themes are discussed, including meditation, nature, established religion, race relations, karma and reincarnation, astrology and tantric yoga, and the nature of ecstasy, but the underlying motif is the art of feeling out and following the watercourse way of nature, known in Chinese as the Tao. Watts suggests a way of contemplative meditation in which we temporarily stop naming and classifying all that we experience, and simply feel it as it is.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

These ruminations, assembled in the form of a journal and here published in paperback for the first time, were written at Alan Watts' retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, California. Many current themes are discussed, including meditation, nature, established religion, race relations, karma and reincarnation, astrology and tantric yoga, and the nature of ecstasy, but the underlying motif is the art of feeling out and following the watercourse way of nature, known in Chinese as the Tao. Watts suggests a way of contemplative meditation in which we temporarily stop naming and classifying all that we experience, and simply feel it as it is.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books (March 12, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394719999
• ISBN-13: 978-0394719993
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.5 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing about the Unknowable, October 19, 2004

By 

Kris (Oxnard, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal (Mass Market Paperback)

It's a little hard to write about something that can't be written about, but Watts gives it his best shot, and he seems to pull it off.

He writes, for example, "Yet the intention of the guru himself is simply to exhaust the energy of the illusion by bringing his disciples again and again to experiences of the absurdity of trying to transform mind with mind."

Watts, as his readers know, started as an Anglican (Episcopalian) priest, and then studied at a Zen monastery in Kyoto, Japan. His metamorphosis is evident in these writings (he died in 1973, right after this book was published).

Watts has little sympathy for the established Christian churches and instead finds sustenance in Zen, Taoism, and Hinduism.

Personally, I found sustenance in his writings here. He doesn't give a whole lot of what we might call "practical" advice, except to meditate, but that's the point of his teachings: "So long, then, as we are concerned with powers, we are still aiming at increased control of nature and aggravating our frustrations." The "Western" efforts to control nature, Watts feels, are self-defeating.

"You, as ego, cannot change what you are feeling, and you cannot, effectively, try not to change it."

You may get the dichotomous drift of what he is saying in these few quotations. When you read the book, you'll get much more. Like other books with a spiritual theme, but moreso, this book will fulfill and feed your spirit. Diximus.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise summary of Watts' enlightening lectures., August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal (Mass Market Paperback)

Unlike "The Book", one of my favorite books of Watts, "Cloud-Hidden..." is a collection of short essays that can be digested in a brief sitting. Some of these essays are direct transcriptions of his lectures. Yet, I find myself returning to this book quite often for a quick "Watts fix".

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just marvelous, December 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal (Mass Market Paperback)

This is perhaps the best of the half dozen or so Watts books I've read. Watts is a brilliant philosopher of the "Big Picture", and it is all wonderfully laid out here: Cosmic consciousness, Tantric Buddhism, the Hippies, Tao... he nails them all in splendid fashion. Highly recommendable.