The Wisdom of Insecurity
Ratings36
Average rating3.9
A book that changed my life. Exactly what my twenty-something eyes needed to read.
Constantly restates the idea that you are the universe and compares eastern and western approaches to stating this. There are better options for reading about this topic. I did enjoy the book because I like the way the author writes, but I would not really recommend it.
My first Alan Watts and very surprisingly, I didn't find it interesting enough. I hope I like his other books though, as every single person I meet who knows about Alan Watts highly recommends him. Fingers crossed for The Way of Zen.
Und so lang du das nicht hast, Dises: stirb und werde Bist su nur ein trüber, Gast Auf der dunklen Erde - Goethe
Transl: As long as you do not know how to die and come to life again, you are but a distressed traveler on this dark earth...
Life, in existence, is deemed a positive experience to the same degree that death is considered a bad encounter. The more a person is able to attach another person and enjoy his/her company the greater is the grief at their death or in separation. By using simple events that we observe on a daily basis, Watts subtly conveys the essence of non-dualism and Zen throughout the book. As he points out in many instances how materialistic conditioning since childhood destroys the morality of Quale because the man dwells deeper in these pursuit of material and couldn't satiate his brainy endeavors as the goal post will shift perpetually. Nevertheless, he never portrays them as evil. instead, he asks the observer to see the transcendence of the world and find the middle path to comprehend the calmness, similar to the Vijnana-bhairva of Kashimiri Shaivism which deals with attention to paradigm of relations.
Having listened to lectures of Alan Watts's for several years, I have come to realize he is one of the few westerners who understand the core of eastern philosophy.