What do you think of Alan Watts?

[Mootoo]

e.g. http://deoxy.org/w_psyrel.htm

 

[RobotRipping]

in many ways i agree with him and in other ways i think he was a bit out of teach with reality. That pretty much sums it up for me.

 

[What 23]

I have found relation with his thoughts, and find them interesting... But it has been a while since I have read much of his.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

He was inspiring, intelligent, and a wonderful human being.

he was a bit out of touch with reality

Out of touch with certain levels of reality, but in touch with others that people are too seldom exposed to.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Reading Alan Watts is, simply put, refreshing. There's a whole lot of Oh yeah, that's right, I'd forgotten that, but that's good to keep in mind! that goes through my head when I've read his works. Watts was profound not because he came up with a lot of new ideas, but because he reminded his readers of some very simple truths about life, and some oft-forgotten ways of reframing the world, that most of his target audience have long ago lost touch with.

Alan Watts was like a good psychologist -- he didn't so much teach new concepts, so much as bring people troubled by the confusion and paradoxes of modern life to new perspectives, making their anxieties more manageable.

Alan Watts was living proof that one doesn't need big words, italicized foreignisms, and lengthy sentences to express profound concepts, and that most profound truths are very much expressible and understandable to the average Joe. I've taken this lesson with me into medicine, where my favorite part of the job is teaching patients about their bodies in plain English.

Whenever I hear someone be dismissive of Alan Watts as a "real philosopher", I've learned that this is a good indicator of someone I'm probably not going to enjoy having heady conversations with, and is probably looking for something very different out of intellectual exchanges than I am. In my experience, people approaching philosophy from the background of Analytical philosophy, formal logic, mathematics, and the natural sciences are not too impressed with Watts. But approaching the philosophical as I am, from a familiarity with chaplaincy and religious ministry, counseling and psychotherapy, teaching, geography, cultural studies, and medicine, he's definitely speaking my language.

 

[Foreigner]

e.g. http://deoxy.org/w_psyrel.htm

What do you think of Alan Watts?

 

[TheAppleCore]

Alan Watts... My spiritual brother!

Out of touch with certain levels of reality, but in touch with others that people are too seldom exposed to.

Absolutely.

Reading Alan Watts is, simply put, refreshing.

And listening to him speak even more so. There's a certain mesmerizing tranquility to the lilt of his voice: it implies a deep wisdom that there is nothing to be afraid of in this world. It's the same glimmer of good humor that Watts says you can see in the eyes of a Zen master.

Watts was profound not because he came up with a lot of new ideas, but because he reminded his readers of some very simple truths about life, and some oft-forgotten ways of reframing the world, that most of his target audience have long ago lost touch with.

Agreed. My discovery of Eastern philosophy and mysticism has given my life unspeakable richness and dimension, and I can thank Watts for that.

 

[scraphead]

Alan Watts' works were hugely important in the Westerner embracing the Eastern concepts of that time but maybe tbinking has moved on.