Customer Reviews

Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation

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Alan watts is a brilliant writer and this book is nothing short of extraordinary. It is a compilation of speeches and seminars the late Alan Watts gave during his lifetime. I read the book knowing little about Zen, but found after reading it that I always knew. That is the beauty of Zen. We have always known the truth - there is a better way to live - only we have been socialized to feel as though we are seperate and need to conquer something or everything. Mr. Watts points out that this is a fallacy and that there is no need to feel seperate. Instead, he offers that we are a part of one organism and there is no need to conquer. Life is just being in the moment. This book really has made a difference for me.

Watts explains thought and encourages the listener to release the grip of mental chatter and slide into the meditative state that is the wellspring of inspiration. Using humor and allegory, he finds many different ways of stating the truth. Chiding the Western mind for its overuse of force of will and muscle, Watts emphasizes that if you practice meditation in order to achieve perfection, you're not meditating. Through his own ease of being, he guides a meditation step by step, taking his audience into a gentle, sometimes playful state of mind through his skill as both a meditator and a speaker. Both beginner and experienced meditator will get a lot out of this material.

Of the Alan Watts lecture transcripts in print, this is a good read, though not as tightly edited and expressive as his finest in this line of works, which I believe to be "Buddhism: The Religion of No Religion."

The finest points in this book are revealed when Watts' describes the motivation behind meditation, emphasizing the pleasure one receives in the practice in itself, as opposed to practicing in hopes of it producing pleasure in the future. He keenly dismisses practicing any religion out of necessity, obligation, or hope of reward, and instead drives home the notion of religion and meditation as sources of expression and enjoyment.

Still, if you are going to pick only one of Alan Watts' lecture series, then "Buddhism: The Religion of No Religion" is vastly superior to this work. If you enjoy any of his lecture series, I strongly urge you to seek out his lengthier written projects like "The Way of Zen." Watts had quite a way of making Zen Buddhism tangible to the Western reader.

Alan Watts was popular about thirty years ago...and still he is untouchable in the arena of those who transmute for Westerners a deep yet very realizable understanding of the mystical path. Think Jung and Campbell - timeless messengers of higher truth.

This is no highbrow philosophizing for so-called "adepts." This is the best combination of common person-meets-Zen approach I have encountered.

Works well in conjunction with "Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation and Other Devices" by Christopher Hyatt: both are edgy, at least slightly more hip approaches - that better account for the integral elements of humor and happenstance - than other works on the subject.

Watts became famous as an intellectual and then as a student of Buddhism: this provides several talks he gave in later years, recorded by his son and published in book form, and will interest any who want an introduction to meditation's concepts.

i dont know where to start with this book. basically, its been one of those life-changing reads to me, along with siddhartha. the amount of wisdom and philosophical info in here is mind-boggling, but somehow alan watts is able to make you understand as though it were the simplest thing in the world. its as though he were a good friend sitting with you explaining things over coffee. its hard to grasp everything in here in one read because there is so much in this small book. i needed to read it a few times for everything to really sink in. it is so unbelievably enlightening and powerful, i want everyone i know to read it!

I like this alot, just now wish I had bought cd instead of tapes, as the tape recorders are becoming obsolete!!! Thanks......

STILL THE MIND, cassette version, uses Alan Watts' grace and good humor as an aid to teaching meditation. On Side A, his major ideas are presented with emphasis on "What is meditation?", "Why should I do it?" and "How is meditation carried out?".

Side B is concerned with the practical aspects of meditation; but always referring the practical back to theory. After some thoughts on breathing and posture, Alan Watts progresses to his main technique--the use of sound. In a comment made more than 30yrs. ago, he points out that the abudance of professional music has caused us to lose confidence in our melodic (spiritual) voices. He restablishes this confidence through a unique "free-form" mantra, which can be used by an individual or in a group. Finally he uses these experiments in sound to form the basis of "deep listening", effectively bringing the focus back to his starting thesis.

Mark Watts has done an excellent job of editing his father's material, seamlessly combineing segments into a coherent whole, without the use of commentary or musical intervals.

Alan Watts doing his thing, which is almost always good.

However, the audio quality of the download is terrible, (non-native speakers beware) and the CDs I burned to listen to in my car started to hiss, crackle, and pop after track 4 (20 min). I'm appalled that someone took my money for this.

I'm also unhappy with the Audible.com experience of having to download an app plus numerous "upgrades" only to download an audio file in .aa format which winamp, roxio, or realplayer weren't able to recognize/playback. It would be better if they just sent you an .mp3 file.

Taken individually, there are some great ideas here: awareness, connection, toning down your manic grasping of glittering objects. Hey, who could argue with that? Taken as a whole though, Watts' philosophy is ultimately self-negating and meaningless. His take is "don't try to change yourself". Fine. But he takes it to an absurd extreme: don't even try to change your neurotic desire to change yourself. If you are mired down by fear, plagued by greed, or strangely attracted to underage boys, take it easy man, it's all part of the cosmic dance! Errr...OK, so is there anything I could do or say or think differently to be a little better or inch a little closer to peace and enlightenment? No. So I shouldn't even try to "let myself be" because that in itself would be "not letting myself be". Right. What this book actually says is....nothing. It really borders on an irritating type of word-play that can easily be mistaken for profundity, similar to what scientologists practice. In the end, this book is like one of those cheap buffet places that old people love so much: Sounds good in theory, but you're left with the sick feeling of too much grease.