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

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#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.

Sujets

• Religion
• Zen

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 25 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669364238
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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 the abstract. Taoism, like other ways of liberation, extends this kind of knowledge, which allows us to see the world differently than we normally do.

#8

The I Ching is a book of divination. It consists of oracles based on sixty-four abstract figures, each of which is composed of six lines. The lines are of two kinds: divided and undivided. The six-line figures, or hexagrams, are believed to have been based on the various ways in which a tortoise shell will crack when heated.

#9

The I Ching is a book that was used to make decisions. It did not contain an exact science, but rather a useful tool that would work for you if you had a good intuition. The Tao is the indefinable, concrete process of the world. It is the Way of life.

#10

The Tao is the source of everything in the universe. It is dark and mysterious, and it does not claim any accomplishments. It loves and nourishes everything, but it does not lord over them.

#11

The Tao is difficult to understand and appreciate without becoming stupid. It is only accessible to the mind that can practice the simple and subtle art of wu-wei, which is the second important principle of Taoism.

#12

The man of character lives at home without exercising his mind and performs actions without worry. The notions of right and wrong and the praise and blame of others do not disturb him. When within the four seas all people can enjoy themselves, that is happiness for him.

#13

The art of letting the mind alone is described by another Taoist writer, Lieh-tzu, who said that when his master Lao Shang looked at him, he did not think about right or wrong. He just spoke whatever came to his mind.

#14

The Taoist philosophy is based on the idea of no-mindedness, or un-self-consciousness. It is a state of wholeness in which the mind functions freely and easily, without the sensation of a second mind or ego standing over it with a club.

#15

The center of the mind’s activity is not in the conscious thinking process, but in the integrated and spontaneous way that is natural to it. When a man learns to let his mind alone, he begins to show the special kind of virtue or power called te.

#16

The Taoists criticized the Confucians for prescribing a virtue that depended on the artificial observance of rules and precepts. They pointed out that such virtue was conventional and not genuine. The sage makes provision for the stomach and not for the eye.

#17

The Taoist philosophy is the original Chinese way of liberation, which combined with Indian Mahayana Buddhism to produce Zen. It is a liberation from convention and the creative power of te. Every attempt to describe and formulate it in words and one-at-a-time thought symbols must, of necessity, distort it.