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Rating: 
Summary: Postscript
Review: On pages 34-35, Watts says, "All religious comments about life eventually become cliches. Religion is always falling apart and promoting lip service and imitation. The imitation of Christ, for instance, is a perfect example. It is a terrible idea because everyone who imitates Christ becomes a kind of fake Jesus."First of all, Watts has a lot of absolutes in this paragraph: all, always, everone. He has no evidence to support such statements. Second, religious comments about life do not necessarily become cliches. Anyone who has ever read the autobiographies of the saints can see this easily. Even if you limit your sources to Patristic (early Church Fathers) documents, which Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants agree on, you can see very profound statements about life, and not one cliche to be found anywhere. Third, religion does not always fall apart. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy have been around for a very long time and neither are in any danger of falling apart. Lip service does sometimes happen, but most often it is from ignorance or the common human situation, rather than anything deliberate, deceptive, or malevolent. Fourth, there is nothing wrong with imitation, either within Christianity or within Watts' own Vedanta. It is said that we become what we meditate on and what is imitation but a kind of meditation-in-action? The "Imitation of Christ" is a magnificent spiritual guide which has been of use to Christians since the 1400's. Imitating Jesus produces a holy Christian, far from the "fake Jesus" of Watts' accusation. Was St. Francis of Assisi a fake? Mother Teresa? The millions who have been martyred because of their love for Jesus? When all is said and done, Christianity has little to do with dogma, and everything to do with loyalty to the Person of Jesus. Reflecting on Watts' hostility toward religion lowers my estimation of his insight.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best (Most Practical) Book I Have Ever Read!
Review: This book explains PLAINLY and SIMPLY what exactly Buddhism actually is. It benefits the reader immediately. No wonder he is the "Master of Communication." While reading this book, studying the "Concepts of Buddhism", they began to settle in my mind, coming through in my meditation. Without the "Concepts", meditation seems like autohypnosis. With these ideas from the Awakened One, meditation starts to have a lasting effect. I have had days of Nirvana without a thought in my head! I did feel as if there were no difference between myself and another. The time passed as if it were a dream. Silence. What a change from the noise that used ot go on. I owe it to Alan Watts. What an amazing man! Used in conjunction with Alan Watts' audio cassette, "Alan Watts Teaches Meditation", this is the most practical and effective book I have ever read! WOW!
Rating:
Summary: The Best (Most Practical) Book I Have Ever Read!
Review: This book explains PLAINLY and SIMPLY what exactly Buddhism actually is. It benefits the reader immediately. No wonder he is the "Master of Communication." While reading this book, studying the "Concepts of Buddhism", they began to settle in my mind, coming through in my meditation. Without the "Concepts", meditation seems like autohypnosis. With these ideas from the Awakened One, meditation starts to have a lasting effect. I have had days of Nirvana without a thought in my head! I did feel as if there were no difference between myself and another. The time passed as if it were a dream. Silence. What a change from the noise that used ot go on. I owe it to Alan Watts. What an amazing man! Used in conjunction with Alan Watts' audio cassette, "Alan Watts Teaches Meditation", this is the most practical and effective book I have ever read! WOW!
Rating:
Summary: Clear, Concise, and Thorough
Review: This is definitely one of the best books on Buddhism I have read in a while. Many books seem to be written for the already-enlightened elite, and are thus perfectly useless to the rest of us who are just sloshing along in life. But Watts' knowledge and insight are evident from the first page to the last, and he manages to communicate without resorting to any kind of pseudo-mystical mumbo-jumbo at all. There's a song I particularly like; its lyrics and melody often haunt me by day and wake me at night. Some of the words are "Feeling well protected in a cool dry place...limited perspective from a cool dry place." One of the best things abut this book, and most of Alan Watts' works, is that they will coax you out of your own "cool dry place" and invite you to take a look around, and try on some new ideas for size. Sometimes you find Truth lurking in the strangest places! F.W. Faber used the interesting image of looking at things simultaneously through a microscope and telescope, and as I was reading Watts' discussion of "li" and "ji" and interdependence, I felt I was doing just that. Watts' explanation of these, and other basic concepts, was just so clear, that they are actually comprehensible to one steeped in Western Christian thought as I am. Not that I agree with everything he said, especially his "double bind" analysis of free will, but I understand anyway why he has to say what he says. He's nothing if not consistent, although I'm no so sure he always considers all possibilities. But the point for the reader is that we also might not consider other possibilities if not for a book such as this. I am glad to have had the opportunity to read this book; it has given me much material for reflection.
Rating:
Summary: Best Introduction to Buddhism Out There
Review: Transcribed from recordings of lectures by Alan Watts, this book contains the most dynamic and comprehensive introduction to Buddhism I have yet to read. I have plenty of books that try too hard to attack the novice readers with multiple Zen riddles and the "complexities that are not complex." By the time the curious readers get to the third chapter of such books, a fascinating subject dwindles away.
Not so with this book. The credit goes to both Alan Watts ---for his smooth and concise lectures--- and the person/people who edited the transcripts. The result is 98 pages of a keen and precise overview of Zen Buddhism, where concepts of "The Religion of No-Religion" and "The Middle Way" are easily accessible to readers who are going into the subject matter knowing nothing.
I especially liked the way Watts explains how the concept "The Cause of Suffering is Desire" is often misunderstood, emphasizing that when translated into English, "desire" might better be represented with words like "craving, clinging, or grasping." He then does an excellent narrative into the paradox of students trying to eliminate "desire" from their existence, only to learn they are still desiring something: not to desire. Watts walks the reader through these way-out riddles in a way few people can.
I would go as far to recommend this work above Alan Watts' better known "The Way of Zen" if this is your first venture into Buddhism. After reading this book, "The Way of Zen" is a great follow-up, and the other complex introductions to Zen Buddhism will begin to make more sense. Nothing esoteric here, just straight talk on Buddhism.
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