alan watts opens a seminar talk in matsue, japan by recounting how childhood encounters with chinese and japanese art and lafcadio hearn's writing led him from anglican confirmatio

a three part seminar tracing zen from its buddhist and taoist roots through early chinese masters to its direct pointing at ordinary suchness.

the complete first eastern and western zen radio series, six talks moving from taoist roots in lao tzu and zhuangzi through chinese and japanese aesthetics and the nature of zen mi

a 1960s lecture recorded before a live audience and broadcast on kpfk los angeles, in which alan watts argues the ecological crisis is rooted in religious and philosophical ideas t

a lecture on zhuangzi's taoist philosophy, covering the value of uselessness, relativism, wu wei, and the eternal present moment.

a talk on the purposelessness of nature and human life, using a zen death poem, birdsong, and the parable of an ashtray to argue for trusting oneself rather than seeking meaning or

a lecture by alan watts on te, the second term of lao tzu's tao te ching, exploring virtue as unselfconscious natural skill and its implications for government, self, and the unity

a twelve part survey seminar in which alan watts introduces hindu, buddhist, taoist, and zen philosophy to a western audience, tracing the illusion of the separate self from ecolog

a lecture on taoist intuition and acting without choosing, illustrated with zen stories and the yijing's use in decision making.

an incomplete recording of a talk on daoism, covering lao tzu and zhuangzi on wu wei, the futility of enforced law and morality, and the body as a self governing organism.

watts compares life to music and dance to illustrate the tai chi chuan principle that movement has no goal beyond itself.

a nine part alan watts lecture series moving from the limits of language and the myth of the separate self through theories of nature, technological control, images of god, and the

a talk arguing that civilization may have been a mistake, tracing nuclear anxiety through genesis, the i ching, and the difference between a tortoise and a hummingbird civilization

a talk by alan watts arguing that life is fundamentally playful and spontaneous rather than a serious journey toward some future payoff.

a lecture on meditation using the chinese character for quiet observation to contrast linear, abstract thought with direct sensory experience of the world.

alan watts discusses wu wei, the taoist principle of not forcing action, and the related concept of li, or organic pattern, drawing on chinese poetry and the japanese aesthetic of

an audiobook reading of watts's book the way of zen, narrated by ralph blum and interwoven with recordings of watts himself, tracing zen's taoist and buddhist roots through to its

a six part kpfa radio series in which alan watts moves from chinese cosmology and the yijing through buddhist doctrine and mysticism to joseph campbell's shamanic forest and a saus

two incomplete surviving fragments from alan watts's world as play seminar, one on i ching hexagram divination and one on ingroup and outgroup game theory.