The Game of Yes and No – Alan Watts on The I-Ching

“Now it has been announced that I would speak this evening about the I Ching. I should just say then briefly, that the Book of Changes, is thought to be the oldest of the great Chinese classics… because the I Ching really is the ground plan of the way in which the Chinese think and not only the Chinese. It’s almost a mapping of the thinking processes of man, and it may surprise you to know that the system of arithmetic, which is used by digital computers, came from the I Ching…” ~ Alan Watts.

 

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.