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Audiobook (abridged)2 hours
The Way of Zen
Published by Macmillan Audio
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Discover how the understanding and practice of Zen can bring peace and enlightenment into your daily life in this classic work. Narrated by Ralph Blum, this audio program presents readings of carefully chosen selections from Alan Watts's classic bestseller, illuminated by rare recordings of the author personally commenting and elaborating on the key concepts and ideas of his seminal work including: o The history of Zen o The principles and practice of Zen o The tradition of Za-Zen (meditation) and the Koan o The integration of Zen into every aspect of life THE WAY OF ZEN presents an understandable, inspirational, and spiritually rewarding exploration of Zen Buddhism-a way of liberation-that may be one of the most precious gifts of Asia to the world.
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Reviews for The Way of Zen
Rating: 4.609302325581395 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
215 ratings23 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm not a huge Watts fan - too esoteric for me. But this is a great introduction into Eastern Philosophy. I keep rereading this one, just to rermind myself of its profound insights.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great information. A labor to read. The audio version makes this a little better.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Watts comes off as a bit of a snob, ironically, but he's very smart, and the book is clear. It's almost as if acquiring knowledge of Zen made him feel superior--a bit un-Zen-like.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Even though Watts was very early on the Zen bandwagon, he recogized that Americans needed a)a good historical introduction to the subject and b)a way to bring that history into their context. He does both.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5i enjoyed this audiobook & recomend it very much, although in some sections it tends to glitch like an old fashion tape recorder, but does not distort the wise words of Alan Watts. Enjoy & continue on your path to understanding & putting Zen into practice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So meditatively exceptional. I can breathe and think well with this recording.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing! Get ready to listen to it over and over!!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great short read that explains basic principles and philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marvelous (although neither this word nor others cannot describe the beauty of this book) audiobook
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this. However, I think there must be two Alan Watts and this book is connected to the wrong Alan Watts.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book is an excessive display of twisted intellectual tricks, yet advocating that Zen is all about simplicity. The author is struggling with that concept and wrote a book to try to convince himself. The result is a condescending tone and a poor content.
Let me summarize:
1. Everything is a construction of the mind.
2. The only reality is now and simplicity is all you need.
3. There is nothing to be gained or taken from life.
4. Do not think too much about the above because you would breach the point 2.
There is a feedback loop, to overcome but you can do it with 30 years of training. Good luck. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alan Watts was a troubled genius/philosopher, his personal problems, however, showed us we're all subject to the torments of life regardless of who we are or what we think we know. This audiobook demonstrates his immense understanding of Zen Buddhism, from his incredible insight into the humble Japanese tea ceremonies to the more complex koans, to everyday issues and ultimately how everything is connected, that everything is part of the whole. Well worth listening to, especially because it features audio of Alan Watts himself. Priceless!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rather bland in delivery..listened to audiobook. Occasionally there would be some insight
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lots of information. Need to decipher the riddles at times as he tends to not give straight answers, which is normal coming from an Enlightened being.. Need to study the meaning behind of what he says.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing!!! Even the voice of the most of the audio chapters is a Zen voice. Before listening to this, I was sure I knew what zen was all about. Now I am sure, I don't even have a clue.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent and fascinating audio book for the zen, Taoist or Buddhist enthusiast
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skimmed it, so four stars is based on overall impression. Looks like a good book for looking at Zen, beginner or advanced practitioner. I wasn't ready for this at this time.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A concise history that takes great pains to distance the subject matter from traditional western readings of Zen and Buddhism, and in so doing, detach the practice from exoticism, nihilism or anti-intellectualism. He also makes very clear that the zen experience is not to be used propositionally in any deductive argument for ethics, theology or metaphysics. Phenomenology and the study of the unconscious have given way to analysis and science since this was written, but it still holds up well.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this to be more difficult than I expected, though there were parts that switched on light bulbs for me. I liked the last chapter best, about Zen art. Much of the book refers to the impossibility of explaining Zen or attaining enlightenment with verbal instruction, so the concept of using art, such as paintings, poems, ceramics & gardens, to put us on a path to understanding makes sense. I feel I understand better how Zen is reflected in art.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very good historical overview of the development of Zen Buddhism. It is not so much a description of beliefs and practices for someone who wishes to practice Zen Buddhism as it is a scholarly description of thos beliefs and practices. So if you are looking for a handbook to Zen, look elsewhere. But if you are interested in the place of Zen in the history of other forms of Buddhism, this is an excellent, readable study.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very difficult book. Alan Watts is clearly convinced that Zen is a great truth and superior in many ways to western thought, but he is not convincing. Much of the problem is tendentiousness. Western thought is said to be limited by mind body dualism, and Zen liberated by using the ""peripheral vision of the mind"" to grasp essential truths about existence. But is western thought limited by the envisioning of a world separate from the self, or emboldened to manipulate that world rather than allowing it to simply exist? The historical summary of thought is confusing, and the repetition of the koans of Zen teaching simply mysterious. Is it really useful to have sitting meditation when monks are beaten to stay awake, or is it, as Watts admits, a response to the constraints of oriental politeness? I plan to revisit this book another time, since the simplicity of the doctrine and its lack of a god-centered view of reality is appealing, but I have not yet been able to separate the sensation of satori from terminal boredom.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be prepared to read this 'instruction' manual a few times. There is great wisdom to be had here but it is a little bit like listening to Bertrand Russel teach about common sense. What starts out as a historical overview of Zen ends up becoming a philosophical explanation and investigation into the various forms of Zen and how they logically work and don't work. It is all there, all the information needed, but you might spend a lifetime decoding it. It will take you several lifetimes learning to practice. Not bad for a book of only 256 pages.What struck me as peculiar was how Alan Watts' written voice is not as elegant and clear as his speaking voice. That makes me wonder what would have happened if he had read the book out loud and if that would have changed the contents. I'm convinced that Mr. Watts had the capability of greatly simplifying and clarifying the work but for some reason opted to compete with academics in the field of philosophy. Because that is the only reason I can see for the peculiar literary style found in the dense pages.I will read the book many times more but for now all I've learned is how the Indian and Asian forms of Buddhism differ.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of Zen, by Alan W. Watts is a scholarly popularization of Zen Buddhism, written in 1957. It has the bibliography, notes and index of a scholarly book, but the looser style of a book written for real people. In the author's opinion, Zen cannot be understood in a purely literary or scholarly method. The author is, therefore, a participant observer. He attempts to put it within a context understandable by the Western mind, I think he is successful in that attempt.The book is divided into 2 parts. The first part gives us the context for Zen. The background and history includes information on how the Eastern mind-set differs from the Western mind-set and how this informs the study of Zen. He discusses the Chinese tradition of Tao (the Way), Buddhism in general, and how they joined to create Zen. The second part of the book is about Zen principles and practices; empty mind, still body, contemplating koans (sayings), and creating art in stillness.In the beginning, Watts reminds us how much our conventions and mind-sets informs our understanding. When we say the word fist, it is a noun, a thing. It is not a part of our body or an action we have chosen to take. Thus we can ask “what happens to my fist [noun-object] when I open my hand?”(p.5). Because our conventions are different from Asian conventions it is difficult to study Zen using translated Asian texts. We are missing the context. “... so that one who thinks in Chinese has little difficulty in seeing that objects are also events, that our world is a collection of processes rather than entities.” (p.5) It then takes pages of examples, explanations, quotations and analysis to get the feel of Tao and wu-wei. Wu is non or not, wei is action, doing, striving, busyness or grasping. Other concepts from the Tao are also expressed. The next chapters deal with India's religious background, Buddhism, how Buddhism changed when it became accepted in China, and the beginning of Ch'an (China) and Zen (Japan).The book goes gingerly, step-by-step along the path of understanding, yet it never condescends. In Watt's words, the difference between Zen and other meditation traditions of Buddhism is the feeling that “awakening” is quite natural and possible to attain in this lifetime, at any moment. Your regular family life and duties can continue to be fulfilled while you experience the “thunderous silence” of enlightenment.The second part of the book, the principles and practices of Zen are understandable because of the context explained in the first part of the book.I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this old friend for this review.