Summary of Alan W. Watts's The Way of Zen

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Zen Buddhism is a way of life that is not affiliated with any of the formal categories of modern Western thought. It is not religion or philosophy, and it is not a psychology or a type of science. It is an example of what is known in India and China as a way of liberation.

#2 The task of education is to make children fit to live in a society by teaching them to accept its codes, which are the rules and conventions of communication. The child must learn how to speak, understand, and accept many other forms of code.

#3 The conventional self or person is made up of a history of selected memories and past events. We learn to identify ourselves with this view of ourselves, for it is far from adequate but it is also far from incorrect.

#4 The linear, one-at-a-time character of speech and thought is especially noticeable in alphabets, which represent experience in long strings of letters. It is not easy to say why we must communicate with others and with ourselves by this one-at-a-time method.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669364238

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Insights on Alan W. Watts's The Way of Zen

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Zen Buddhism is a way of life that is not affiliated with any of the formal categories of modern Western thought. It is not religion or philosophy, and it is not a psychology or a type of science. It is an example of what is known in India and China as a way of liberation.

#2

The task of education is to make children fit to live in a society by teaching them to accept its codes, which are the rules and conventions of communication. The child must learn how to speak, understand, and accept many other forms of code.

#3

The conventional self or person is made up of a history of selected memories and past events. We learn to identify ourselves with this view of ourselves, for it is far from adequate but it is also far from incorrect.

#4

The linear, one-at-a-time character of speech and thought is especially noticeable in alphabets, which represent experience in long strings of letters. It is not easy to say why we must communicate with others and with ourselves by this one-at-a-time method.

#5

The Western mind tends to feel that it does not understand things it cannot represent or communicate by linear signs. But the Chinese mind, which was developed differently, was able to use the peripheric mind to gain a deeper understanding of reality.

#6

Taoism is a way of liberation that never comes through revolution. It is a method of using convention instead of being used by it. The West has no recognized institution similar to Taoism because our spiritual tradition identifies the Absolute with the moral and logical order of convention.

#7

The Absolute is not something abstract and conceptual, but rather something concrete and real. It is the ultimate Reality, and it must not be confused with