Zen and the Beat Way, by Alan Watts
Six classic Watts talks on Zen
(Review posted 21 Apr 2006 02:33:50)

Robert Wilson: What is Zen?

Alan Watts: [Soft chuckling]

Robert Wilson: Would you care to enlarge on that?

Alan Watts: [Loud laughing]

No, that Wilson interview isn't in this little book (except for that snippet, which is in the preface), and in general the book is actual words rather than soft chuckling or loud laughter, but still. The general idea behind the actual words is the same as the general idea behind the chuckling and the laughter.

The actual words of the book are taken from six talks by Alan Watts, three given on the radio in 1959 (the year I was born!), and three given as lectures in 1960, 1963, and 1965. They're the usual Watts stuff: his own unique (and possibly naive, but endearingly so) take on Zen and what it means to the West, on haiku and the tea ceremony, on the virtue of the ephemeral, on giving up, on how real concentration is possible only once you realize that it's impossible. That sort of thing.

If you're at all interested in or amused by Zen, either personally or historically, and you aren't too annoyed by Alan Watts (or maybe even if, or especially if, you are), you should certainly have this book in your library. And it takes up very little shelf space.