Alan Watts: Not What Should Be

“I wonder what you mean when you use the word ‘I?’ I’ve been very interested in this problem for a long long time, and I’ve come to the conclusion that what most civilized people mean by that word, is a hallucination. That is to say, a false sense of personal identity, that is at complete variance with the facts of nature…”

 

Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in England in 1915, Alan was an Episcopalian priest who became the spokesperson for Eastern religions during the late 1950s and tumultuous 60s. His first book, The Spirit of Zen, however, was written in the 30s when Watts was just 20 years old. He went on to write more than twenty other books. He died in 1973.