So i've seen all of his lectures on youtube at least 5 times
What books should i read now? Also other buddhist book recommendations please
>>7660084
I hear Watts was a fan of tequila. You should try that
>>7660101
I don't like alcohol or any drugs.
>>7660109
We he certainly did
>>7660119
Good for him i guess
>>7660084
Dao de jing
Zhuangzi
>>7660130
>Zhuangzi
thanks i'll try getting that
>>7660084
Read the actual sutras which buddhism is based on and try to understand yourself what is being expressed instead of listening to some feel good talks from Watts. If you want some challenge you can also refer to the ancient chinese or the zen koans which express the same thing.
Mumokan, Pranja paramita sutra, platfrom sutra, diamond sutra, bloodsermon, mahayana sutras.
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology from the Pali Canon
The Heart Sutra
The Dhammapada
>>7660230
Is there even anything to learn once you get that you are God manifested in different beings inside the universe. Playing this game called life one at a time and the only thing you can do is to still your mind and enjoy this moment?
This is really all i've learned so far from buddhism
Alan Watts is whiteys first encounter with philosophy. He just parrots well established Eastern philosophy in way that easy for white people to understand.
If you want to take philosophy seriously, then read the greats, don't waste your time with this hippy garbage
>>7660084
I'm reading Way of Zen and I like it alot, gives you a perspective on the original language of the texts and seems to allow for a transparent account.
Anyone that's read more rigorous eastern philosophy can confirm Alan Watts is a real nigga?
>>7660101
Low blow, nah but I'm pretty sure drinking himself to death was part of his greater design.
>>7660269
From what I've read and understood is that we have various sense 'organs' plus our thoughts that always strive to influence our mind. If you manage to control these organs, you will control your mind and see what is real. Real being that everything is outside of the thoughts and perception. This is what I understand to be the great wisdom, the way or the kingdom of heave, depending on which religion people talk about. Of course, like everyone, I sometimes get angry or emotional but I often just acknowledge it and try to stay on the path. It's often very much harder to do this if you are partaking in the working world for some kind of material gain than if you would move into a forest and become a recluse. But hey, I want to have fun once in a while too.
>>7660325
He is like the signpost to the path. Follow the path and you will arrive at the destination.
>>7660272
>He just parrots well established Eastern philosophy in way that easy for white people to understand.
Well that's the point, not everyone has the time to learn Chinese and reading the original texts in translation isn't even close to being enough to grasp it, anyone that thinks that has no experience with it. The ching reads like a vapid platitude in english, the thing with all esotericism is that it's not enough to read the words, you need conceptual framework and most of all you need understanding of the many carefully cultivated terms that make up the philosophical language necessary to navigate private reality.
>>7660269
Read "mastering the core teachings of the buddha"
It's online.
You're missing the yogic component
>>7660341
You mean he's a finger pointing to the moon.
>>7660368
No he means he's a signpost pointing to a finger pointing to the moon obviously.
>>7660084
1.
Ikkyu, excerpts from Skeletons:
Students, sit earnestly in zazen, and you will realize that everything born in this world is ultimately empty, including oneself and the original face of existence. All things indeed emerge out of emptiness. The original formlessness is the "Buddha," and all other similar terms -- Buddha-nature, Buddhahood, Buddha-mind, Awakened One, Patriarch, God -- are merely different express- ions for the same emptiness. Misunderstand this and you will end up in hell.
. . .
Toward dawn I dozed off, and in my dream I found myself surrounded by a group of skeletons . . . . One skeleton came over to me and said:
Memories
Flee and
Are no more.
All are empty dreams
Devoid of meaning.
Violate the reality of things
And babble about
"God" and "the Buddha"
And you will never find
the true Way.
. . .
I liked this skeleton . . . . He saw things clearly, just as they are. I lay there with the wind in the pines whispering in my ears and the autumn moonlight dancing across my face.
What is not a dream? Who will not end up as a skeleton? We appear as skeletons covered with skin -- male and female -- and lust after each other. When the breath expires, though, the skin ruptures, sex disappears, and there is no more high or low. Underneath the skin of the person we fondle and caress right now is nothing more than a set of bare bones. Think about it -- high and low, young and old, male and female, all are the same. Awaken to this one great matter and you will immediately comprehend the meaning of "unborn and undying."
>>7660594
2.
Zen Koans:
A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
. . .
Is That So?
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbours as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.
This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parent went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbours and everything else he needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth - the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"
. . .
A Parable
Buddha told a parable in sutra:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
. . .
Muddy Road
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl" said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"
>>7660603
3.
Reply To A Friend
by Ryokan
In stubborn stupidity, I live on alone
befriended by trees and herbs.
Too lazy to learn right from wrong,
I laugh at myself, ignoring others.
Lifting my bony shanks, I cross the stream,
a sack in my hand, blessed by spring weather.
Living thus, I want for nothing,
at peace with all the world.
Your finger points to the moon,
but the finger is blind until the moon appears.
What connection has moon and finger?
Are they separate objects or bound?
This is a question for beginners
wrapped in seas of ignorance.
Yet one who looks beyond metaphor
knows there is no finger; there is no moon.
I Watch People In The World
by Ryokan
I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
Never able to satisfy their desires,
Falling into deeper despair
And torturing themselves.
Even if they get what they want
How long will they be able to enjoy it?
For one heavenly pleasure
They suffer ten torments of hell,
Binding themselves more firmly to the grindstone.
Such people are like monkeys
Frantically grasping for the moon in the water
And then falling into a whirlpool.
How endlessly those caught up in the floating world suffer.
Despite myself, I fret over them all night
And cannot staunch my flow of tears.
The Monkey Is Reaching
by Hakuin
The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.
Way of Zen is good
and the Book.
>>7660101
Sometimes I wonder why he drank himself to death.
Did he realize it was all a "word-game?" That his insights were without substance?
I enjoyed In My Own Way and Way of Zen, and I don't mean to talk shit about Watts. I'm just curious as to what drove him down that route.
>>7660603
>"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"
In Thailand there is a variation on this story. It's a river instead of a road, and injured woman instead of a young girl. Everything else is exactly the same.
>>7662112
Of course he did. When asked about that, he said "birds sing because they like the way it sounds, and I talk because I like the way it sounds". You could take that as being egotistical, but I find his voice and ideas soothing as well.
In the end, he wanted to point out that his philosophy was a word game just the same as religion, science, and all other human activity.
The substance is never in the words, it's in your experiencing of life
>>7660272
>If you want to take philosophy seriously
Sounds like someone missed the point
>>7662804*sincerely
My favorite koan:
NANSEN'S ORDINARY MIND
Joshu asked Nansen, "What is the Way?" Nansen answered, "Your ordinary mind--that is the Way." Joshu said, "Can it be grasped (for study)?" Nansen replied, "The more you pursue, the more does it slip away." Joshu asked once more, "How can you know it is the Way?" Nansen responded, "The Way does not belong to knowledge, nor does it belong to non knowledge. Knowledge is illusion. Non knowledge is beyond discrimination. When you get to this Way without doubt, you are free like the vastness of space, an unfathomable void, so how can you explain it by yes or no?" Upon hearing this, Joshu was awakened.
Mumon's Comment:
The question Joshu asked Nansen was dissolved by a stroke. After being enlightened, Joshu must further his pursuit 30 more years to exhaust that meaning.
Hundred flowers in Spring, the moon in Autumn,
The cool wind in Summer and Winter's snow.
If your mind is not clouded with things,
You are happy at any time.
>>7660603
These are quite nice. Thank you very much for sharing Anon
