Alan Watts

Alan Watts was born in London, January 1915. At an early age he became interested in oriental life, culture, and philosophy. He moved to the USA to live in Chicago, New York and eventually San Francisco. He is one of the main proponents in the bringing of Zen Buddhism to the west and in particular the United States in the 1950's and 60's along with other luminaries such as D.T Suzuki, Shynryu Suzuki, and Gary Snyder, among others. Although Zen became a cornerstone of his personalised philosophy, he also integrated aspects of Taoism, Vedantaism, and Hinduism into his worldview. His prominance was ameliorated by the 60's counter culture looking for a new way of thinking, trying to move away from the war scarred lives of their parents and grandparents and the economic difficulties of the 50's.

Alan Watt's was keen to convey the fundamental value that can be gleaned from Zen although he was always careful to stress the pitfalls of orgainsed thought and religion in general. Although an articualte writer, able to convey complex philosophical topics to the average man, he would emphasise the limitation of the written and spoken word and point towards a more fundamental existence to be found through unfettered thought and meditation. He was occasionally critisised by prominent members of the Zen fraternity for not meditating enough, although it could be said that he never really fully subscribed to the doctrine of Zen thought, rather building his own way of thinking, picking and choosing a patchwork of ways if perceiving existence offered by the various branches of oriental thinking and culture.

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