It is one of Alan Watts’s spiritual books full of truly valuable information for any reader who wishes to spiritually grow, improve, and make changes in their life. Under such conditioning it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that myself does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body. His father, a businessman, would bring Alan to the Buddhist Lodge in London, where as a teenager, Alan became editor for the Lodge’s journal, The Middle Way.

When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way.To help us understand that the self is in fact the root and ground of the universe, Watts has crafted a revelatory primer on what it means to be human—and a mind-opening manual of initiation into the central mystery of existence. S., Canada, and European, Alan passed away in his sleep on November 16, 1973, on the mountain he loved. In his mature work, he presents himself as "Zennist" in spirit as he wrote in his last book, Tao: The Watercourse Way. In his talks, Watts defined zazen practice by saying, "A cat sits until it is tired of sitting, then gets up, stretches, and walks away", and referred out of context [57] to Zen master Bankei who said: "Even when you're sitting in meditation, if there's something you've got to do, it's quite all right to get up and leave".

If you are familiar with Alan Watts’ work then you are the last person I need to convince to give this audio book a try, but if you are completely new to his work, then this would be a good place to start. We fill the gaps, connect the dots, in ways which we were taught were good, honest, true, accurate, scientific and so on. Actually, they were covered a bit in Freshman Civilization class taught by Kelly Fox and that was intriguing, but Watts was the first actual believer I may have read.

In 1951 he moved to San Francisco where he began teaching Buddhist studies, and in 1956 began his popular radio show, “Way Beyond the West. Carefully chosen from hundreds of recordings by Watts’ son, this book consists of seminars that captures Watts at his most brilliant.

According to the critic Erik Davis, his "writings and recorded talks still shimmer with a profound and galvanising lucidity. Do you sometimes get the feeling that there is an unwritten taboo written all across the faces of the faceless crowd around you?

I really had my eyes opened while reading this; it is one of those rare books that truly has an impact on the way you think, feel and love. In The Book Watts addresses one of the core assumption in Eastern thought; that the self or ego that we create and identify as a separate being does not really exist. So I think it was, like many things in his life, it was well thought out, well orchestrated, and well executed. Our generation knows a cold hell, solitary confinement in this life, without a God to damn or save it.