Way Beyond the West (Buddhist radio)

Alan Watts, Buddhist Radio, Pacifica Los Angeles (KPFK.org), Sunday mornings 8:00-8:30 am, Thursdays midnight to 5:00 am Friday with Roy of Hollywood Tuckman (Something's Happening)

The Buddha on a background of violet like the seventh chakra (Justina Lape/flickr.com).

I don't know why you're all listening to Alan Watts when I'm over here at KROQ replaying the hits, other music, and LOTS of commercials to make CBS, Inc. rich - DJ Nicole Alvarez.

Who's Alan Watts?
Wisdom Quarterly wiki edit

Alan Watts (ianmack.com)

Alan Watts -- the British-born California Buddhist philosopher, Pacifica radio host, writer, former Episcopal priest, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience -- loves to talk about Zen and the Tao, the "Way."

He joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies then gained a large following in the San Francisco Bay Area while working as a volunteer programmer at KPFA, a Pacifica Radio station in Berkeley.

The early years (AW)

He wrote more than 25 books and articles on subjects important to Eastern and Western religion, introducing the then-burgeoning youth culture to The Way of Zen (1957), one of the first bestselling books on Buddhism. 

In Psychotherapy East and West (1961), Watts proposes that Buddhism can be thought of more as a form of ancient psychotherapy than as a religion. He explored human consciousness in his essay "The New Alchemy" (1958) and in his book The Joyous Cosmology (1962).

 

You, too, can be a radio legend. Here's how.

Many of his books are now digital and many of his recorded talks and lectures are available through the Pacifica Radio Archives. AlanWatts.org and other online outlets also have recordings.
 

According to the critic Erik Davis, Watts' "writings and recorded talks still shimmer with a profound and galvanizing lucidity."
 

He's one the best thing LA's Pacifica station, KPFK 90.7 FM, plays. It's available worldwide by Internet. And KPFK goes further because Roy Tuckman's show "Something's Happening" can be thought of a "Buddhist Radio" as it features many Buddhist luminaries and New Age thinkers.

• LISTEN NOW: KPFK Audio Archives (going back 90 days)
• ALAN WATTS: KPFK Intro Program "Way Beyond the West"

Way Beyond the West

Japan (sunrisejetphotogallery)

On Nov. 29, 2015 (8:00-8:30 am), KPFK rebroadcast the first episode of "Way Beyond the West," Watts' show about Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy in general. In it he explained the Tao. There's the Way of Zen (zendo), the Gentle Way (Judo), the Way of the Sword (kendo), the Way of Tea (chado), and the Buddhist Way, the Buddha-Dharma.

Little Alan Watts, age 7.

By his own assessment, Watts was imaginative, headstrong, and talkative. He was sent to British boarding schools -- which included both academic and religious training of the Muscular Christianity sort -- from early years. Of this religious training, he remarked "Throughout my schooling my religious indoctrination was grim and maudlin…"

Watts spent several holidays in France in his teens, accompanied by Francis Croshaw, a wealthy Epicurean with strong interests in both Buddhism and exotic little-known aspects of European culture.

Alan Watts cartoon (kwout.com)

Soon Watts felt it necessary to decide between the Anglican Christianity forced on him and the Buddhism he had read about in various libraries, including Croshaw's. He chose Buddhism. He sought membership in the London Buddhist Lodge, which had been established by Theosophists, and was now run by the barrister and Buddhist translator Christmas Humphreys.

Watts became the organization's secretary at 16 (1931). The young Watts explored several styles of meditation during these years. More