Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion
The Religion of No-Religion
'Although Alan Watts' famous voice and happy laughter are missing now, his penetrating vision of Buddhism remains, and his lectures become brilliant prose in book form.' — Publishers Weekly
Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion presents six powerful essays by Alan Watts, the guru for an entire generation of 20th century thinkers, writers and poets. Watts was an engaging speaker and an icon of America's Beat and Counterculture movements. His friends included Aldous Huxley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Cage and Joseph Campbell.
In this book, Watts explores all aspects of Buddhism — from its roots in ancient India to the explosion of interest in Zen and Tibetan Buddhist thought in the West.
The fascinating topics covered in this book include:
- Finding a Middle Way: How a spiritual path to awakening is formed not just by avoiding extreme indulgence but extreme denial as well
- The Religion of No-Religion: How Buddhism eschews any particular dogma and instead acts as a guide to understanding oneself
- Buddhism as Dialogue: How Zen teaches us that we are one with the world and so as we learn to navigate the world, we must also learn about ourselves
Watts traces the early beginnings of Buddhism, outlines the differences between Buddhism and other religions, and reviews the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion is a valuable reminder of the peace to be found by looking inward.
Alan Watts (1915-1973) was a former Episcopal priest, born in London in 1915. He came to the U.S. in the 1930s, where he would become a scholar of Eastern religions. He moved to San Francisco in 1951 where he began teaching Buddhist studies, and in 1956 began his popular radio show, Way Beyond the West. By the early 1960s, Alan's radio talks aired nationally and the counterculture movement adopted him as a spiritual spokesperson. He went on to write more than twenty other books. He died in 1973.
Mark Watts is Alan Watts' son and Director and co-founder of the Alan Watts Organization, which maintains an archive of all of Alan Watts' writings and audio recordings. Mark has also produced the Joseph Campbell Audio Collection and created archival projects for the San Francisco Zen Center and the Krishnamurti Foundation. In addition he is the host of the Being in the Way podcast.
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