“Change your philosophy, change your life!”
I think everyone should read at least one book by Alan Watts before they die!
Here is just one example of what be hundreds of examples of how Watts can stop and make you think:
“….. do you listen of mind and body? And to think of the former as sensible as the latter as a dumb animal our custom to do this is an affront to the wisdom of nature and a ruinous exploitation of the human organism as a whole.”
When I read this particular paragraph I thought about how much I can sometimes live in my head, disconnected from my heart and feeling who I am. I reflected upon the fact that I spent excessive focus on rationalising who I am and the world around me using my thinking mind, instead of feeling who I am and feeling my body. I decided to meditate more often and this really has transformed my life!
How often do you review your philosophy for your life? How often do you look at the underlying assumptions, definitions and beliefs that fundamentally shape your perceptions of yourself and the world around you?
With the New Year beckoning, many people typically review their ‘goals’. As most of my clients are entrepreneurs historically, they will review both their personal and business goals, which I believe is something that should happen throughout the year, not just at the end of it. Likewise, the same is true about regularly reviewing ‘your philosophy of life’. Indeed, it is your philosophy of life that will determine which goals you choose, how effectively you pursue those goals and how fulfilling this experience is for you.
Have you ever considered, as suggested by the title of this book ‘that there is great wisdom to be found in insecurity’? Compared to some of the great classic philosophy books authored by the likes of Aristotle and Plato, this book is something of ‘a modern classic’ being written in 1951 some 22 years before Alan Watts death. Although written 70 years ago, it could be argued that in the current ‘insecure’ times we are living in, having a philosophy that ‘great insecurity brings with it great wisdom’ is a truly life empowering concept!
Alan Watts had the unique vocational path of moving from England where he grew up to live in New York and study full time with a Zen master and Buddhist monk, to then doing a master’s degree in Theology, then he become a Christian priest until 1950. Following this he worked as a teacher, lecturer and author until his death in 1973. His most famous book is The Way of The Zen, which is also well worth a read if you like this book.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s Alan Watts was a popular voice on the USA national radio station KPFA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d9rr59013c You can listen to some of his popular lectures that were broadcast on KPFA radio here on YouTube!
Watts’ diversity of knowledge through both study and life experience across multiple eastern and western theology, philosophy and psychology was quite breath-taking. His thought-provoking ideas included concepts such as his perspective that ‘Buddhism is a form of psychotherapy’.
One important way that I know to develop a more empowering Philosophy for life, is to read philosophy from ‘great philosophers. Of course, what you considered to be ‘great philosophy’ is by its nature very subjective.
My experience is that ‘it is not your agreement with any given philosophy that makes it great’, a mark of great philosophy is that it provokes you to have insights and to get clearer about and build your own philosophy of life.
In this book Alan Watts presents truly thought-provoking concepts that both challenged and supported some of my own philosophies of life. I did not necessarily agree with everything in the book, but that is not why I chose to read it, I read the book to help me to grow and further develop my own philosophy of life.
There is no doubt in my mind that this book will give you a bonanza of thought-provoking philosophical quotations to put in your own philosophy pipe to smoke.