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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Of Apples and Grapes,
By
This review is from: Talking Zen (Paperback)
Talking Zen is not a book written by Alan Watts. It is a book which was pieced together out of lectures and talks Watts gave at various times in his life ranging from the age of eighteen to the age of fifty-six, a span of thirty-eight years. Therefore, dear prospective reader, do not expect it to be as disciplined and tightly woven as his written pieces. As a writer, Watts can be devastatingly perceptive and magical. He can dazzle a reader out of his usual ruts of thinking and suggest a previously unimagined through virtually inspired way to look at a mundane fact of life. When he is writing at his best, he is writing with a passion - or as much passion as a transplanted Englishman can - and a fervor to communicate an insight he has discovered. And he writes in such a way as to attempt to communicate the same feeling of epiphany he had when he first realized the insight he's writing about. So that the reader can experience, in his own time, the same feeling of joyous discovery as Watts first did. All this is by way of saying that if you are expecting the present book to dazzle you, you may be in for a big surprise. This is not to say that Talking Zen is without its moments. There some brilliant moments in it. But you have to be prepared to search them out and to wade through a lot of dross before finding them. Talking Zen is not the same as writing Zen, and therein lies the difference. Because the medium of speech is different from the medium of the written word the element of discipline is sometimes discarded in favor of flowing with the moment. This is to say that in writing one can more fully focus on developing an idea to its fullest potential, whereas in speaking one is "playing to the crowd," and some of the development can be left by the wayside. Of the nine pieces on display in the present book, the ones which come off the best in written form are the ones which were prepared ahead of time and were given as structured lectures rather than as extemporaneous talks. Of these there are three, which comprise the first three chapters of the book. The first of these, entitled "Picture Without a Frame," was crafted by an eighteen year old Watts. When one reads it, it is difficult to imagine its author was only eighteen when it was composed because it reads like the composition of a much older, and wiser, person. Without going into too much detail, "Picture..." can be summed up by the following sentence: "To know the universe in terms of nothing but frames is almost exactly what Indian philosophy means by maya, the idea that all such knowledge is in some sense an illusion." There is more to be culled from this piece than just this sentence, and those who are interested will be certain to dig deeper in order to uncover the other nuggets of value which make up this essay. The second piece, entitled "The Psychology of Acceptance: The Reconciliation of the Opposites in Eastern Thought and in Analytical Psychology," was composed in 1939 by a slightly more mature twenty-four year old Alan Watts, and was delivered before the Analytical Psychology Club in New York. Quite a daunting undertaking for a 24 year old, but Watts was up for the challenge. The piece is about creating a state of mind or attitude of acceptance regarding the darker side of reality, or rather those events which cause us psychological pain, and a method for conquering such pain in our lives. It is extremely insightful and, as with the previous piece, it also is a joy and a revelation to read. The third piece, with the improbably title "Mythological Motifs in Modern Science," is another lecture text probably given in the early 1940s. In it Watts examines how science is "Western man's attempt to liberate himself from myth, from the so-called 'pathetic fallacy' of constructing the world in his own unconscious image." He spends the rest of the piece suggesting "that this attempt [at liberation from myth] is impossible and absurd." And ends up by demonstrating that "Western [scientists'] concern for the control of nature is slipping over into Eastern man's concern for controlling the mind. We are now beginning to attack maya in both directions, and for this reason books on the philosophy of science become more and more reminiscent of Indian metaphysics." There is more, but you'll just have to read it, and enjoy it, for yourselves. For the reader who is discovering Watts for the first time I cannot recommend this book. You would be better served by picking up The Wisdom of Insecurity or The Way of Zen or Psychotherapy East & West or even The Meaning of Happiness. These are works which were composed and thought out as books in the first instance, and therefore are more fully explanatory of their subject matter as well as a better introduction to Watts' unique description of the indescribable. On the other hand, if you, as a reader, have been around the block once or twice before with Watts and are familiar with his main thematical interests, Talking Zen may contain some additional insights not touched on in some of his more familiar published works. But be prepared to do some slogging through the muck - through his extamporaneous meanderings, expecially in the latter two thirds of the book - to get at these newly offered gems.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Of Apples and Grapes,
By
This review is from: Talking Zen (Paperback)
Talking Zen is not a book written by Alan Watts. It is a book which was pieced together out of lectures and talks Watts gave at various times in his life ranging from the age of eighteen to the age of fifty-six, a span of thirty-eight years. Therefore, dear prospective reader, do not expect it to be as disciplined and tightly woven as his written pieces. As a writer, Watts can be devastatingly perceptive and magical. He can dazzle a reader out of his usual ruts of thinking and suggest a previously unimagined through virtually inspired way to look at a mundane fact of life. When he is writing at his best, he is writing with a passion - or as much passion as a transplanted Englishman can - and a fervor to communicate an insight he has discovered. And he writes in such a way as to attempt to communicate the same feeling of epiphany he had when he first realized the insight he's writing about. So that the reader can experience, in his own time, the same feeling of joyous discovery as Watts first did. All this is by way of saying that if you are expecting the present book to dazzle you, you may be in for a big surprise. This is not to say that Talking Zen is without its moments. There some brilliant moments in it. But you have to be prepared to search them out and to wade through a lot of dross before finding them. Talking Zen is not the same as writing Zen, and therein lies the difference. Because the medium of speech is different from the medium of the written word the element of discipline is sometimes discarded in favor of flowing with the moment. This is to say that in writing one can more fully focus on developing an idea to its fullest potential, whereas in speaking one is "playing to the crowd," and some of the development can be left by the wayside. Of the nine pieces on display in the present book, the ones which come off the best in written form are the ones which were prepared ahead of time and were given as structured lectures rather than as extemporaneous talks. Of these there are three, which comprise the first three chapters of the book. The first of these, entitled "Picture Without a Frame," was crafted by an eighteen year old Watts. When one reads it, it is difficult to imagine its author was only eighteen when it was composed because it reads like the composition of a much older, and wiser, person. Without going into too much detail, "Picture..." can be summed up by the following sentence: "To know the universe in terms of nothing but frames is almost exactly what Indian philosophy means by maya, the idea that all such knowledge is in some sense an illusion." There is more to be culled from this piece than just this sentence, and those who are interested will be certain to dig deeper in order to uncover the other nuggets of value which make up this essay. The second piece, entitled "The Psychology of Acceptance: The Reconciliation of the Opposites in Eastern Thought and in Analytical Psychology," was composed in 1939 by a slightly more mature twenty-four year old Alan Watts, and was delivered before the Analytical Psychology Club in New York. Quite a daunting undertaking for a 24 year old, but Watts was up for the challenge. The piece is about creating a state of mind or attitude of acceptance regarding the darker side of reality, or rather those events which cause us psychological pain, and a method for conquering such pain in our lives. It is extremely insightful and, as with the previous piece, it also is a joy and a revelation to read. The third piece, with the improbably title "Mythological Motifs in Modern Science," is another lecture text probably given in the early 1940s. In it Watts examines how science is "Western man's attempt to liberate himself from myth, from the so-called 'pathetic fallacy' of constructing the world in his own unconscious image." He spends the rest of the piece suggesting "that this attempt [at liberation from myth] is impossible and absurd." And ends up by demonstrating that "Western [scientists'] concern for the control of nature is slipping over into Eastern man's concern for controlling the mind. We are now beginning to attack maya in both directions, and for this reason books on the philosophy of science become more and more reminiscent of Indian metaphysics." There is more, but you'll just have to read it, and enjoy it, for yourselves. For the reader who is discovering Watts for the first time I cannot recommend this book. You would be better served by picking up The Wisdom of Insecurity or The Way of Zen or Psychotherapy East & West or even The Meaning of Happiness. These are works which were composed and thought out as books in the first instance, and therefore are more fully explanatory of their subject matter as well as a better introduction to Watts' unique description of the indescribable. On the other hand, if you, as a reader, have been around the block once or twice before with Watts and are familiar with his main thematical interests, Talking Zen may contain some additional insights not touched on in some of his more familiar published works. But be prepared to do some slogging through the muck - through his extamporaneous meanderings, expecially in the latter two thirds of the book - to get at these newly offered gems.
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