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A review by bittersweet_symphony
Become What You Are: Expanded Edition by Alan Watts
4.0
The title perfectly captures the essential truth of this book, but echoes something more akin to the self-help genre rather than philosophy, which will naturally put off a lot of the people who should read it. Additionally, as I have felt compelled to say in the past when reviewing some books on Eastern philosophy, the nature of Alan Watts' book doesn't suit categorization. Most accurately it is not philosophy, religion, or mythology. Zen Buddhism is best understood as a way of the living. It is non-abstraction. It is the middle way, the "way of liberation" as Watts refers to it regularly.
This collection of concise essays--many can be read in one toilet sitting--aren't about self-improvement but stand as commentary on a way of living for as Watts puts it "you may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now...there is no coming toward it or going away from it; it is, and you are it. So become what you are." Watts gives the reader a golden nugget within the preface and spends the remainder of the book hitting that concrete truth until it turns soft, and real in ones hands. His truth has been articulated, perhaps, most masterfully by Chuag-tzu: "The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep."
I would not recommend this as an introduction to Zen Buddhist thought; however, I would give it to a friend as a selection of teasers for what one can expect from the amiable Alan Watts. Each 'essay' serves as a gentle but monumental challenge to western thought. He rejects the toxic concept of ego among other mental models foundational to mainstream psychology: "one has no self--that is, no self-consciousness. This is because the so-called self is a construct of words and memories, of fantasies which have no existence in immediate reality...We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment--an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained." Religion has lost its way. By striving through abstraction and thought, religions fail to produce fruits in our lives, keeping us from harmony with living: just being. "Now it seems that to me that what the finger of religion points at is something not at all religious. Religion, with all its apparatus of ideas and practices, is altogether a pointing--and it does not point at itself. It doesn't point at God, either, for the notion of God is part and parcel of religion...religion disappears when it becomes real and effective." He invites us to outgrow our western inclination to have to control and manipulate everything--we feel lost if we can't use force. Our ability to control is an illusion for "nature is what works and moves by itself without having to be shoved about, wound up, or controlled by conscious effort. your heart beats 'self-so,' and, if you would give it half a chance, your mind can function 'self-so'--though most of us are much too afraid of ourselves to try the experiment."
I welcomed the book being an assortment of small pieces I could read in short sittings. Still, my greatest criticism with this book is that it can be too repetitive, and not very cohesive--it's a makeshift binding of stray writings from Watts. Its the same warm wit and wisdom of Watts, but can't compete with his more comprehensive, close-knit books.
I recommend taking the book slowly. Read a piece and let it sit with you a few days while you learn to sit more tranquilly, rather than striving and seeking after change. The ideas in this book will change you, but only if you don't aspire to change. Just be. Become what you are.
This collection of concise essays--many can be read in one toilet sitting--aren't about self-improvement but stand as commentary on a way of living for as Watts puts it "you may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now...there is no coming toward it or going away from it; it is, and you are it. So become what you are." Watts gives the reader a golden nugget within the preface and spends the remainder of the book hitting that concrete truth until it turns soft, and real in ones hands. His truth has been articulated, perhaps, most masterfully by Chuag-tzu: "The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep."
I would not recommend this as an introduction to Zen Buddhist thought; however, I would give it to a friend as a selection of teasers for what one can expect from the amiable Alan Watts. Each 'essay' serves as a gentle but monumental challenge to western thought. He rejects the toxic concept of ego among other mental models foundational to mainstream psychology: "one has no self--that is, no self-consciousness. This is because the so-called self is a construct of words and memories, of fantasies which have no existence in immediate reality...We want to enjoy ourselves, and fear that if we forget ourselves there will be no enjoyment--an entertainment without anyone present to be entertained." Religion has lost its way. By striving through abstraction and thought, religions fail to produce fruits in our lives, keeping us from harmony with living: just being. "Now it seems that to me that what the finger of religion points at is something not at all religious. Religion, with all its apparatus of ideas and practices, is altogether a pointing--and it does not point at itself. It doesn't point at God, either, for the notion of God is part and parcel of religion...religion disappears when it becomes real and effective." He invites us to outgrow our western inclination to have to control and manipulate everything--we feel lost if we can't use force. Our ability to control is an illusion for "nature is what works and moves by itself without having to be shoved about, wound up, or controlled by conscious effort. your heart beats 'self-so,' and, if you would give it half a chance, your mind can function 'self-so'--though most of us are much too afraid of ourselves to try the experiment."
I welcomed the book being an assortment of small pieces I could read in short sittings. Still, my greatest criticism with this book is that it can be too repetitive, and not very cohesive--it's a makeshift binding of stray writings from Watts. Its the same warm wit and wisdom of Watts, but can't compete with his more comprehensive, close-knit books.
I recommend taking the book slowly. Read a piece and let it sit with you a few days while you learn to sit more tranquilly, rather than striving and seeking after change. The ideas in this book will change you, but only if you don't aspire to change. Just be. Become what you are.