Rating: 
Summary: Watts enlightens
Review: It is unfortunate in my view that the word Zen gets attached to the most frivolous things. You see books with titles such as "The Zen of Motorcycle Repair" or "The Zen of Making Big Fat Wads of Cash". As Lao Tzu says, "Those who speak do not know; those who know do not speak". With that in mind, it's clear that the modern fad of Zen-everything is not really the way of Zen. Which raises the question - what is the way of Zen? Alan Watts recognises the difficulty in explaining the concept of Zen to the West, and freely admits he's not the world's foremost expert on the subject. However humble he may have been, Watts certainly seems to know what he's talking about. "The Way of Zen" traces the origins of this non-religion/philosophy/ideology from ancient China and India, to its uptake in the rest of Asia (notably Japan). There's even a few chapters on Zen in the Arts, discussing the idea of haiku and how it aspires to be Zen-in-motion. Watts is lucid in his approach, and always takes the time to explain even the most perplexing concepts. Overall if you want to get one step closer to understanding the inscrutable Zen, let Watts enlighten you (pun intended).
Rating:
Summary: Watts enlightens
Review: It is unfortunate in my view that the word Zen gets attached to the most frivolous things. You see books with titles such as "The Zen of Motorcycle Repair" or "The Zen of Making Big Fat Wads of Cash". As Lao Tzu says, "Those who speak do not know; those who know do not speak". With that in mind, it's clear that the modern fad of Zen-everything is not really the way of Zen. Which raises the question - what is the way of Zen? Alan Watts recognises the difficulty in explaining the concept of Zen to the West, and freely admits he's not the world's foremost expert on the subject. However humble he may have been, Watts certainly seems to know what he's talking about. "The Way of Zen" traces the origins of this non-religion/philosophy/ideology from ancient China and India, to its uptake in the rest of Asia (notably Japan). There's even a few chapters on Zen in the Arts, discussing the idea of haiku and how it aspires to be Zen-in-motion. Watts is lucid in his approach, and always takes the time to explain even the most perplexing concepts. Overall if you want to get one step closer to understanding the inscrutable Zen, let Watts enlighten you (pun intended).
Rating:
Summary: Watts enlightens
Review: It is unfortunate in my view that the word Zen gets attached to the most frivolous things. You see books with titles such as "The Zen of Motorcycle Repair" or "The Zen of Making Big Fat Wads of Cash". As Lao Tzu says, "Those who speak do not know; those who know do not speak". With that in mind, it's clear that the modern fad of Zen-everything is not really the way of Zen. Which raises the question - what is the way of Zen? Alan Watts recognises the difficulty in explaining the concept of Zen to the West, and freely admits he's not the world's foremost expert on the subject. However humble he may have been, Watts certainly seems to know what he's talking about. "The Way of Zen" traces the origins of this non-religion/philosophy/ideology from ancient China and India, to its uptake in the rest of Asia (notably Japan). There's even a few chapters on Zen in the Arts, discussing the idea of haiku and how it aspires to be Zen-in-motion. Watts is lucid in his approach, and always takes the time to explain even the most perplexing concepts. Overall if you want to get one step closer to understanding the inscrutable Zen, let Watts enlighten you (pun intended).
Rating:
Summary: the first and best of the zen books
Review: Maybe it was just luck but I picked up this little book while living in Taiwan over 25 years ago. It led me down a path of incredible simplicity and undefinable awe. It remains the single best western book about this topic.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly clear introduction to the thought
Review: Nothing compares to this text for its introduction to Zen Buddhism. Highly recommended for those wishing to understand its origins and basis of thought.
Rating:
Summary: The Zen world and the Jewish religious world
Review: Once I read this book as a seeking young person, one eager to know every possible way of understanding the world. And this with the hope of coming to the ' Truth'. I remember Watts book on Zen as clear and appealing if never wholly convincing. And this not because of any defect in Watts but because the fundamental thrust of Zen is different as I understand it from what I as a Jewish religious believer fundamentally understand.
Zen does not speak or think about a personal God. It does not speak or think about the Covenant or meeting between God and Man .It has no conception of this kind of personal revelation.
In opposite it seems to be teaching us not to look ' for this kind of thing' And to somehow leave aside the individual private and the collective communal selves and flow into the world of Nature and Being indistinguishable. And even this last phrase is probably wrong for Zen since the speaking about it in this way is again ' categorizing' and ' humanizing' . Zen as I sense Watts presents it wants us to free ourselves from these kinds of aspirations and find our way to an enlightentment which once it is called that is not enlightenment either.
"When you say it's the wrong way, and when you don't say you don't say , so the way the real way is to say and not say, to not say and say , to not say and not say , to say and say- everyday."
The Jewish way is of course to pray three times a day in the very same words other Jews elsewhere and all generations of Jews have prayed"
I am sorry. I know most of the readers of these reviews on Watts book are seeking to better understand Zen. I don't think I have helped you. I think that what I have said is that I recognize that Watts has written a very good book about Zen, but Zen is simply not my cup of chicken soup.
Rating:
Summary: High voltage stuff from Watts!
Review: Over a period of time, we have mistaken the map for the territory as depicted in the sciences(Aristotle, Newton, Euclid did a great disservice to the human intellect through their mechanistic/ geometric interpretation of God and reality), in Psychology(skinner and his behaviourist crowd would have us believe that we live like rats, or rather, like they think rats live), anthropology(which sees us as a linear improvement from amoeba to ape to man), nuclear sciences(sending guys to the moon after blowing millions of dollars for some dirty slag/ nuclear weapons that could blow the world off) and in almost all other pursuits.Some of this is also due to our warped interpretation of religion. Fundamentally, it has been a mass-based, irrelevant pursuit where the believers are the cherished and get to sack in heaven with angels and the damned will be burnt in hell. I mean, even religion is based on what happens to one's senses which has proven time and again to be misleading. All great wars have been fought over religion and the heap of dead from time-immemorial has had generous contributions from the business of religious warfare. And all this is supposedly presided over by a monarch(read God) who sits in the heavens and is neatly using a double accounting system to be sure of his assets(believers) and liabilities(the pagans). It is in this background that an experience like Zen is extremely critical so that we just get up, see that the emperor is not wearing any clothes and get on with our lives. Watts is simply the best as far as Zen is concerned. Zen or Dhyana Budhhism is against the use of words/ symbols to describe enlightenment but believes in going for the state of pure bliss itself. This point has been brought about in this brilliant book by Alan Watts. The gist of the message is One doesn't and cannot have a map(read words and other symbols here)to know oneself. Just imagine feeling ourselves not as human beings but as skull+nerves+tendons+bones+muscles+ ego. It is impossible to get any kind of coherent picture. The same analogy applies to reaching god through prayers(more words), sacrifices(symbols), idols, magic(more symbols)etc. Definitely,reading this book is one of the most important experiences in my life.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is excellent - the audio tape is not
Review: Please don't be fooled by the enthusiastic reviews based on the book that... I understand that the publisher has a lot of information to present in condensing a book to an audio form, however the narration is so rapid fire and fast paced it is almost impossible to simply sit and enjoy the recording. Although academically excellent, the author's insights are lost as the narrator jumps from topic to topic, speaking as quickly as he can and bombarding the listener with concept after concept. (This seems so odd and out of place for a work on Zen). It is like trying to drink from a cup while someone is tipping the other end. It would seem fair that to get the most out of this tape, you would have to listen to it again and again, but I found this experience to be unbearable. Buy the book. Avoid the audio tape.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine book
Review: Readers will find this book to be interesting, insightful and concisely written. Watts' book offers a wonderful introduction to Zen, particularly for Westerners who might know little about its history and evolution. Deftly bridging the gap between textbook and spiritual guide, the book lives up to its reputation as one of the definitive Western texts on Zen Buddhism.
Rating:
Summary: The Way of Zen is an excellent introduction to Zen Buddhism.
Review: Scan the "Eastern Philosophy" racks at your local bookstoreand you'll see the problem--books with titles like "The Taoof Love and Relationships" or "The Zen of Career Advancement." Much of the literature on eastern philosophy written by westerners is distorted as it is re-focused through the prism ("prison," some would argue) of western thought and language. Alan Watts appreciates and addresses these difficulties in The Way of Zen, an excellent introduction to the Zen Buddhism. Watts explores Zen's historical background, tracing it from Buddhism's migration from India to China, where it absorbed elements of Confucian and Taoist thought, to its final development in Japan. The second half of the book describes Zen's underlying principles and its practices, such as the absence of "self" and the futility of purpose. Rich in scholarly detail, yet accessible to the lay reader, The Way of Zen, is remarkable in its lucidity. Watts uses analogies and allusions culled from daily life to illustrate Zen principles and does much to clear up western misconceptions about Zen thought. He also warns of the difficulties many westerners face trying to understand Zen. With the English language's clear separation between the observer and the observed, the action and the actor and its rigid division of time into past, present and future, Zen thought often strikes westerners as mystical or moronic. While Watts may champion Zen, he never stoops to mere cheer-leading. Instead he has produced a highly readable book that explains and de-mystifies Zen.
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