Become What You Are : Expanded Edition

Rating:
Summary: We are all centered in the Tao- we have but to realize it.
Review: For such a small book there is an incredible quantity of wisdom here to contemplate. The essays included in this collection are all from Watt's work in the 50's. It becomes clear that this man was not merely ahead of his time- he was beyond time.

The Paradox of Self-Denial: This first essay sets the tone for the collection. It is framed around the intuition that "He who loseth his soul shall find it." It is pointed out that the seeker that consciously tries to transcend the world, and his own conscious ego, shall never do so. It is only when ego has truly, deeply, experienced defeat, failure, and despair that true transcendence is ever reached. And perhaps not even then, for it comes from beyond the self and is far from predictable.

Become What You Are: This essay deals with the concept of the enlightened man as a mirror. This involves grasping nothing/ refusing nothing and receiving all/ keeping nothing. This is detachment from future and past to live in an eternal Now. We are all centered in the infinite Tao- we have all but to recognize it.

The Finger and the Moon: One of his most famous essays, it deals with not mistaking religion for the ultimate goal of religion. Once you cross the river, don't try to carry the raft with you on your back.

Importance: Deals with the fact that the importance of things has nothing to do with their permanence or duration. Value is in quality and not quantity. The tiniest part of the universe contains that universe in microcosm- and fully participates in the whole.

Tao and Wu-Wei: Watts addressed the concept of Wu-Wei long before it became fashionable. This is what works and moves in harmony with nature without having to be forced. Your heart does this- so would your mind if you let it. You just have to get out of your own way. A life, or a society, totally balled-up in rigid self-control and self-consciousness must eventually fail. Wu-Wei means to live with your center outside of this trap.

Lightness of Touch: Deals with not taking the world of Maya, or yourself, too seriously. The real world is the play of the spirit.

Birds in the Sky: Describes the path of the sage as paradoxically both in harmony with the world, as well as detached from it (in the world but not of it.) Points out that almost all western thought rebels against this as pessimism and nihilism.

Walking on the Wheel: Examines the ideal life as 1) stillness, calm, and immovability, and as 2) dancing with the flow of life. Resolves the seeming conflict as a question of relative perception.

The Language of Metaphysical Experience: Examines how modern logical philosophy (scientific empiricism and logical positism) simply ignores metaphysical and spiritual issues as "meaningless." Points out that such philosophers have no idea what reality is. Shows how materialists are ego driven types who are driven to order and control- and ignore anything that doesn't fit.

Good Intentions: Shows how good intentions in and of themselves are not necessarily good- if they are based on ignorance, laziness, incompetence, or misplaced desire.

Birth of the Divine Son: Once again, long before it was popular Watts recognized that the symbolism of the Christ long preceded Christianity. The Universal power of the symbol of Spirit entering into union with matter is examined. Also dealt with is the concept of the Second Birth- of the potential for unregenerate man becoming Christ.

Even the cover of this book is a spiritual lesson, with its mirror at the center of the mandala, that we may glimpse our Self at the center of creation.


Rating:
Summary: What I have become
Review: is a result of this kind of writing and insight, from someone I consider a mentor to this day, who helped me to deepen my understanding of Christianity as I was recovering from a period of Jesus enthusiasm in the mid-70s. I am only now reading this particular work by Watts, but it just confirms for me how helpful were his words for me then, and for so many others who came of age during the 60s and early 70s.

Rating:
Summary: What Else Can I Be?
Review: Ours is a case of mistaken identity. We confuse ourselves by limiting our perspective to the seemingly apparent. We apply finite understanding to infinite reality. Dualistic rationalism applied to non-duality ends in paradox . God is not one, God is whole. Thus Solipsism is invalid. God is not other, there is no other, no second. Thus man is made in the image of God for it takes a god to worship God. Eternity does not mean everlasting time, rather no time, no past and no future, only now. Kant could not conceive of what for Watts was readily apparent because Kant couldn't accept things as they are. Realization is not a cognitive function. Watts knew as much. The speed of light is the same to all observers irregardless of their motion and speed relative to each other. Movement is an illusion. There is only one place, here. Only one time, now. Right here, right now and Zen. God is not always reasonable. Sometimes she is irrational. At least once a month. Caveat: Take Watts sincerely, but never seriously. Do the same with yourself. It helps on the journey of enlightenment to lighten up as you go along. Or as G.K. Chesterton said, "Angels have wings because they take themselves lightly." Peace & Love.

Rating:
Summary: What Else Can We Be?
Review: This is a collection of essays written by Watts before he came to the United States in 1938 along with articles he wrote during the 50's. The overall theme is about discovering, or realizing, who we are. No one explains our true natures better than Watts. I have been a big fan of his ever since my days growing up in the 60's in Northern California. I listened to his radio program out of Berkeley a few times and even met him once. Though I really didn't know what the heck he was talking about it was clear to me that he was a spiritual genius. I was more into girls than God at the time. I digress. Classically educated in Occidental Orthodoxy he went in search of further understanding and found it in the Wisdom of the East. He found no fundamental argument between Jesus and Buddha. Their message was essentially the same. The Father and I are a unitive oneness (a truism that Watts would finally come to terms with in his book 'Tao: The Watercourse Way'-nonduality does not mean one, it means not two. Reality is whole and it has no second. More than one, but less than two. That to be born again and to wake up are just different ways of expressing the same spiritual truth. Watts found that Oriental religious philosophy more freely shared this mystical interconnectedness of man and God with the common man than did Western religious traditions. Alan then made it his life's mission to spread the good news. That we are part and parcel of one totality. That we are essential. That our predominant Western conception of self is a case of mistaken identity. That we think we are separate from the rest of reality. Thus cut off from our source we face an alien world alone. Witness the universality in the West of existential dread. The truth shall set you free. We are not alone, nor are we strangers in a strange land. In my Father's house are many rooms. This is more than semantics. We are not alone because every whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Reality is synergetic. We are home for we come out of the world and not into it. No man is an island, he is a peninsula. It is an intuitive thing not understood through discursive rationalization. Though we cannot know God, I AM THAT I AM, we can experience God. Read this collection of essays and start seeing what Watts saw. That we are created in the image of God. That we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. That it takes a godlike being to worship God. That the Kingdom of God is a family and that we are all members.

Rating:
Summary: Wisdom and wonder
Review: This is quintessential self-help and empowerment that takes you past the sensationalism of today and into the wisdom of the past, ensuring your accomplishments and happiness in the future.

With the added benefit of containing the deft touch of Mark Watts, this is an invaluable text which shall prove edifying and entertaining for years to come.

This book is filled with the wisdom and humor of Alan Watts, and no body does it better.

If you buy one self-help book this year, make this the one!