The Way of Liberation [antikvár]

PREFACE T "^HE FOLLOWING chapters hold for the reader a rich selection of literary works and transcribed lectures by the late Alan Watts. They comprise a representative view of his career, from his first essay on Zen Buddhism to his final seminar given only weeks before he died in 1973. Herein, one will find an overview of the formative influences which shaped Watts's philosophy, and which in turn offer the reader a unique insight into the process of realization that, through his works, has given the Western world an unprecedented perspective of Eastern thought. The opening essay, "The Way of Liberation in Zen Buddhism," was written in 195S, prior to Watts's more extensive work on the subject, The Waj of Zen. Although The Waj of Zen contains many of the same concepts as presented in this essay, the essay offers a refreshingly concise and inspired approach to Zen by Watts. In juxtaposition to the first essay, the subsequent transcription of Watts's last seminar, "Play and Survival," PREFACE ix