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mathias_arvidsson 's review for:
The Way of Zen
by Alan Watts
challenging
medium-paced
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts is a scholarly work, packed to the brim with references and deep knowledge about the practice and history of Zen Buddhism. The bibliography and sheer amount of footnotes can make the book seem daunting, but this is balanced by the relatively short length and Watts’ approachable language. The book is written in a clear and direct manner, but since the subject matter can be difficult to grasp the book still manages to be demanding.
The Way of Zen takes the long way around to explain the principles of Zen. We start at the beginning, introducing concepts and terminology as they appear all the while giving ample context for thought patterns, cultures and relationships. To exemplify the focus on context, the Way of Zen starts by introducing Taoism, Confucianism, the setting of China and Japan at the time, then moving onto Satori, Buddhism and then the branches of Zen Buddhism. After the first half of the book we are finally ready to move onto practice. The context that is built up in the first 100 pages feels very necessary for a western reader to even begin grasping the evolution of Zen and the ideas corresponding to it. The sheer amount of information included in this book is impressive and in any other writers hands this book could easily drag out to 400-500 pages. However Watts manages to bring the relevant concepts and ideas to light in a very efficient way thanks to his clear style of writing.
The writing itself is at the perfect level for this sort of introductory, yet heavily informative book. While the book is quite old, and contains a few difficult words and phrasings here and there, the language is surprisingly easy to understand. The meaning is never clouded behind complicated smart-sounding terminology or misleading explanations. On the contrary the book continuously points directly at the meaning, and does so through beautiful anecdotes or poems. It is done in a very “Zen” way. As explained in the book the act of pointing directly is one of the main characteristics of Zen. The approachable language makes the book much easier to work through, and you’ll need the aid since the subject matter is indeed challenging.
The Way of Zen takes the long way around to explain the principles of Zen. We start at the beginning, introducing concepts and terminology as they appear all the while giving ample context for thought patterns, cultures and relationships. To exemplify the focus on context, the Way of Zen starts by introducing Taoism, Confucianism, the setting of China and Japan at the time, then moving onto Satori, Buddhism and then the branches of Zen Buddhism. After the first half of the book we are finally ready to move onto practice. The context that is built up in the first 100 pages feels very necessary for a western reader to even begin grasping the evolution of Zen and the ideas corresponding to it. The sheer amount of information included in this book is impressive and in any other writers hands this book could easily drag out to 400-500 pages. However Watts manages to bring the relevant concepts and ideas to light in a very efficient way thanks to his clear style of writing.
The writing itself is at the perfect level for this sort of introductory, yet heavily informative book. While the book is quite old, and contains a few difficult words and phrasings here and there, the language is surprisingly easy to understand. The meaning is never clouded behind complicated smart-sounding terminology or misleading explanations. On the contrary the book continuously points directly at the meaning, and does so through beautiful anecdotes or poems. It is done in a very “Zen” way. As explained in the book the act of pointing directly is one of the main characteristics of Zen. The approachable language makes the book much easier to work through, and you’ll need the aid since the subject matter is indeed challenging.
The challenge comes in the constant accepting, and trying to understand how your own perception is flawed, or coloured. Throughout the book the same concepts are repeated again and again in different formulations and it is still not enough to become comfortable with said concepts. All this talk of “you are already the buddha”, yet we do not accept our buddha nature until we have some sort of awakening or satori. Furthermore in grasping for awakening it cannot be found. This apparent contradiction even lead to the separation of two schools of Zen, one which is all about not grasping, and one which is all about direct pointing and letting the student discover the answers rather than being told them. I personally resonated a lot with the aspect of discovery. Spontaneous growth feels very missing in especially modern western society, where no one can ever do anything without watching a YouTube instruction about it first. Fear of failure overshadows the joy of discovery. Such a shame.
With the difficult to grasp subject matter, and enormous contextual leap from western to eastern culture, The Way of Zen is a difficult book, and one that I don’t think I understood perfectly. Still with the clear and direct language, and with the focus on providing the necessary background for western readers, beginners and scholars alike, I cannot think of a better introduction to Zen Buddhism than this.