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| 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
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| 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."
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| The early years (AW) |
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).
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| 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.
Way Beyond the West
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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