Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence and the Cosmic Game of Hide-and-Seek

Description

In order to come to your senses, Alan Watts often said, you sometimes need to go out of your mind. Out of Your Mind brings readers, for the first time, six of this legendary thinker's most engaging teachings on how to break through the limits of the rational mind. Offering answers to generations of spiritual seekers, Alan Watts is the voice for all who search for an understanding of their identity and role in the world. For those both new and familiar with Watts, this book invites us to delve into his favourite pathways out of the trap of conventional awareness: discover art of the 'controlled accident' - what happens when you stop taking your life so seriously and start enjoying it with complete sincerity. Embrace chaos to discover your deepest purpose. How do we come to believe 'the myth of myself' - that we are skin-encapsulated egos separate from the world around us-and how to transcend that illusion? Find the miracle that occurs when we stop taking life so seriously.

Alan Watts was one of the best-known writers of the 1960s and 1970s, and the leading interpreter of Eastern religion and philosophy for Western readers. He published over 25 books, including The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, The Way of Zen and Tao: The Watercourse Way. He was a philosopher, academic and theologian, who wrote and spoke widely on Asian philosophy and theology. He is best known as an interpreter of Zen Buddhism in particular, and of Indian and Chinese philosophy in general. He was the author of more than twenty books on the philosophy and psychology of religion. He died in 1973.

Praise for Alan Watts: Offering spiritual answers... Watts is the voice of all who seek a deeper understanding of their own identity and role in the world. * Watkins Review * The best book I've ever read on the nature of what actually is, what the world is about, and how you should behave. * John Lloyd, Desert Island Discs * There is just something so right-minded about his overall awareness that I still love reading and listening to anything by him. Out of Your Mind certainly qualifies, and is a fine indicator of why Watts was both my philosophical and literary mentor. This book makes fine company with his best, and I can highly recommend it as a fine starting place to the wonderful world of Alan Watts. -- Ken Wilber * (author of Integral Meditation) *