This Is It : and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience

Rating:
Summary: Great explanation of the non-dual
Review: Alan Watts explains what unity/non-dual consciousness or nothingness really is and explains how it may be different from what many people think it is. He uses various interesting examples to make his case and I thought they were very effective. Ken Wilber has elaborated on this error that people tend to make as well but I think Toru Sato's "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" really explains it the best. Although it is impossible to explain this distinction in words, it is the only medium writers have and Sato uses this meduim in a very nice way to help us understand this concept (or shall we say "non-concept"). Anyways all of these author's books are well worth reading. They are all brilliant! We are very fortunate that these people write books.

Rating:
Summary: It is this
Review: kind of writing and insight, from someone I consider a mentor to this day, which 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.

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Summary: This is It and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience
Review: This book is a collection of six essays:

This is It

Alan Watts introduces an experience which Bucke calls `cosmic consciousness'. He elaborates on it, cites examples and draws parallel between `It' and the Buddhist doctrine of Emptiness (sunyata). He then shows the poverty of language in contrast to experience, and gives examples of some of his personal spiritual experiences. (All these are typical basic Zen knowledge.) At this point it might be useful to mention that Alan Watts sees Zen as a way of liberation, like Tao. In this essay he also talks about other Zen concepts like the present (the now-moment or absolute present) and is-ness and suchness (in contrast to purpose and duality and relativity, albeit without the technical Zen jargon). Overall a good sampler for those interested in Zen, but should not be read in isolation without other Zen literature.

Instinct, Intelligence and Anxiety

The essay begins by arguing that intelligence, while more useful than instinct for survival, has its negative effects in the form of anxiety. The essay develops to show how and why intelligence or intellectualism brings about anxiety and conflict and why dualism doesn't work. (Duality and dualism are stereotyped as western concepts by most writers on Zen.) Alan Watts then proposes Tao as a solution (Tao as a way of nature or balance of nature) and elaborates on it. He suggests that things and events are not separate but have a relationship and that we should not view things separately, and he goes at length to discuss issues like internal and external world, the `I' and consciousness etc. The main idea to take home is to look at things as they are and not dichotomise them or compartmentalize them (and this makes systematic or organized intelligence sounds very silly and trivial).

Zen and the Problem of Control

The essay raises an interesting question of `how is man to control the aspect of himself which does the controlling?' and Alan Watts suggests that willed spontaneity is a contradiction. (For this one, I suggest he step out of linguistics and look at art that has automatism - or use of chance) He then shows why dualistic philosophy cannot solve the problem of self control, and how Zen or Tao can solve the problem by eliminating the two opposing forces in dualistic thinking. The rest of the essay can be summed up in one sentence: Let your mind alone; let it think whatever it likes.

Beat Zen, Square Zen, Zen

Alan Watts talks about Zen as being `ordinary and nothing special', and talks about Zen's influence on the post-Christian West (Wow, I didn't even know there was a post-Christian phase in history.) He then compares Zen with the Judeo-Christian universe, and introduces Beat Zen as a revolt from culture and social order and `Square Zen' as a new form of stuffiness and respectability. It is useful that Alan watts points out that Beat Zen is used by artists and poets to justify sheer caprice in art and literature (even in the works of Ginsberg and Kerouac and John Cage), because this will warn uninformed audiences of the misuse of Zen. It is interesting that here we actually hear Alan Watts talk about `controlled accidents' in Chinese and Japanese Zen artists. The essay then dwells a while on Kerouac's work `The Dharma burns', which is a little unnecessary. Alan Watts then points out important social problems like how fascination of marijuana and peyote is often associated with Beat Zen. It was thought that these substances induce the state of satori (mystical experience of cosmic consciousness). Square Zen, on the other hand, has the problems of being stifling and snobbish and being dependant on authority (like the intellectualism and academic snobbery that Alan Watts proclaims to be characteristic of Far Eastern studies in American universities). It seems that people who practice this find Zen very exotic and mystical at one level but something that needs to be studied scientifically and academically at another level. Overall, this is a very useful essay as it touches on the problems of Zen in the Western world.

Spirituality and Sensuality

This is the easiest essay to summarise. In short, live life in moderation. One needs not be the stereotyped thin ascetic living in an abstract world of moralistic philosophies and ideals on one hand or the hedonistic-pagan-materialist on the other. What's the idea to be revised? Duality and opposites need not be viewed separately all the time.

The New Alchemy

Alan Watts discusses his experiences or experiments with LSD, without making an explicit moral judgment on its uses.

On the whole, I personally enjoy the fourth and fifth essays the most (the fourth being the better one in my opinion), though the first three essays would be useful to those less familiar with Zen. The last essay is a curious one because it relates spiritual experience with drugs, which might not be something most readers are interested in (maybe except for the scientists). It is an average book, but useful especially before one reads other more in-depth Zen writings.




Rating:
Summary: Great explanation of the non-dual
Review: Yes, the Nike ads have captured the essence of Zen. As Alan Watts puts it, This Is It.

Logical paradoxes aside, the "just shut up and get on with it" approach to Life is one of the key elements in Zen. The 'kill the Buddha' psychology of avoiding the pitfalls of externally arising enlightenment is well in line with Watt's own philosophy.

Completeness comes from within and from a place of non-duality, which the koans of Zen are designed to lead you towards. One of the key human errors and the cause of immense suffering is the belief that Life must make sense. Who ever said that? And make sense to whom?

The Techno Bible in The Hitch Hiker's Guide bore the words "Dont Panic" on the cover. That's a good starting point. Add to that Just Do It and This Is It, and you're going to be just fine.

Another great read from the man who gave us The Two Hands Of God.

Rating:
Summary: Better Living Through Chemistry?
Review: Zenmeister and superb wordsmith Watts becomes increasingly obscure, paradoxical, antithetical in these essays compiled in part to take the reader on a journey toward the realm of cosmic consciousness. That's okay by me, because he ends up saying some of the things I've heard before and I have started to believe: the spiritual and material are inseparable and that clarity comes about not after some years of study, and years of indoctrination and years of doing what is felt to be right and holy and blessed....it is neigh impossible to make rational what is emotional. Clarity is now. It is here, it is now.

Watts' essays have not ignored the fact that people perceive things differently and that people are different--this book has some of Watts trademark wordworkings with definitions, modern parables, and comparisons of how the nature of the Zen experience should be/is....but...

The ultimate point is...one doesn't have to go through what anyone preaches and evvyelse tells you to do to have one, it will be anyway. We in the Western 'Judeo-Christian' influenced world would perhaps rather believe in the order, the hierarchy of a supreme consciousness, hence we blind ourselves to the miracle of "it is now", "this is it"...the paradox of Watts' many writings, histories, descriptives is somewhat understandable. We don't wanna believe personal and spiritual awareness could come so easy. We say, "Where's the levels, where are the steps to happiness, where the intellectual satisfaction of a journey sought for...." Watts has provided the academics for those who want it,...but...

Rating:
Summary: Short but Good
Review: _This Is It_ by Alan Watts is a good solid work, but is too short to provide the rigorous instruction needed to achieve any appreciable amount of enlightenment or Zen Satori. That said, it is a wonderful, enjoyable, and profound book page for page, and is essential to round out your collection of Alan Watts' more recent and well-known works. _This Is It_ is also perfect for someone who does not want a megadose of strenuous philosophy and theology; it is ideal for those who are new to psychological-religious non-fiction, or who do not have the time to hack through some kind of magnum-opus epic of philosophy. If, however, you want to read one of the more comprehensive books by Alan Watts, I would recommend _Psychotherapy East and West_, which is his best work.

Rating:
Summary: Short but Good
Review: _This Is It_ by Alan Watts is a good solid work, but is too short to provide the rigorous instruction needed to achieve any appreciable amount of enlightenment or Zen Satori. That said, it is a wonderful, enjoyable, and profound book page for page, and is essential to round out your collection of Alan Watts' more recent and well-known works. _This Is It_ is also perfect for someone who does not want a megadose of strenuous philosophy and theology; it is ideal for those who are new to psychological-religious non-fiction, or who do not have the time to hack through some kind of magnum-opus epic of philosophy. If, however, you want to read one of the more comprehensive books by Alan Watts, I would recommend _Psychotherapy East and West_, which is his best work.