I’ve often wondered why he is not listed in philosophy tomes
as one of their own. I understands that he was something of a populist, and his
thinking centered on religion—especially Asian religions—but other philosophers
have centered their thoughts on religion. Ah, but there it is: We focus on
western philosophers and the principle western religion, Christianity. Those
who write about the eastern religions are shut out of the west.
Mr. Watts’ 1966 classic has something to teach us in the
western world about death. As any adult cancer patient knows, death is always
around the next corner, the next day, the next month. Death stalks the cancer
patient like a specter from the future.
After the cancer diagnosis I picked up The Watts book again
and experienced the flashes of insight again that changed my life in 1973, but
this time with a death sentence interpreting the words. I saw death as a black
wall. I saw the death of my ego, my sense of self, and an uncaring universe
that would continue without me. But I also saw, in Reading The Book, a
universe that lives through the senses of those who live, have lived, and will
live. I saw every new life as a realization of a universe that can know itself
only through its people, its animals, its rocks, and oceans. It is a universe
in which every new life is us, a blank slate through which the universe us as
we experience the universe.
[*] Yes, I know. I’ve heard it before: Alan Watts is not a Real
philosopher. He merely reports on what other philosophers.have said? I’m not so
sure. Much of his interpretations of Asian religions and philosophies looks
original to me.
