In My Own Way, Alan Watts
In My Own Way, Alan Watts
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In My Own Way

Author: Alan Watts

Narrator: Jeremy Arthur

Unabridged: 13 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/19/2019


Synopsis

Macmillan Audio presents In My Own Way, Alan Watts's acclaimed autobiography, published for the first time in audio.

In this audiobook, Alan Watts tracks his spiritual and philosophical evolution from a child of religious conservatives in rural England to a freewheeling spiritual teacher who challenged Westerners to defy convention and think for themselves. From early in this intellectual life, Watts shows himself to be a philosophical renegade and wide-ranging autodidact who came to Buddhism through the teachings of Christmas Humphreys and D. T. Suzuki.

Told in a nonlinear style, In My Own Way wonderfully combines Watts’ own brand of unconventional philosophy and often hilarious accounts of gurus, celebrities, psychedelic drug experiences, and wry observations of Western culture. A charming foreword written by Watts’ father sets the tone of this warm, funny, and beautifully written story of a compelling figure who encouraged seekers to “follow your own weird” — something he always did himself, as his remarkable account of his life shows.

About Alan Watts

Alan Watts, one-time professional meteorologist, spent considerable time studying wind changes and short-term alterations in the weather. This, combined with his enthusiasm for sailing which began with the sea scouts, enabled him to assist people to read the weather from the signs in the sky. He died in May 2020.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on January 23, 2015

An ever-green book, almost a friend, to return to. I've read it a number of times before, and will read it again. It strongly brings a elegiac feeling to me - the sense of a life past and passing and a slight sadness underneath the exuberant surface. Watts had a beautiful way of seeing (he would'be......more

Goodreads review by AGustavia on February 02, 2008

I seem to be on a real Watts kick...what more can I say......more

Goodreads review by Preston on April 23, 2016

Alan Watts is what I like to call a "Mystic rascal." Unlike the majority of Mystics, he was a rather sensuous man, and was delighted in so many of the things in this life most mystics would turn down as impediments to enlightenment. However, he had it, and an ability to articulate it so eloquently a......more

Goodreads review by Jack on January 08, 2012

It's shocking that I couldnt find a single copy of this book for lending in the Sacramento CA library system [in Dec. 2011]. Why shocking? Because the author is so much associated with northern California, and prominent to boot. I read and loved this book when I discovered it 25 years ago in the coun......more

Goodreads review by Nick on May 29, 2018

Alas, kill your darlings folks. Even Mr. Watts—for all his enlightened ideas—gave me a few “yikes” moments in the margins when he seemed to be objectifying women. To my eyes this was a portrait of the aristocratic English world—both it’s intelligence and it’s hindrance. & a portrait of how a suppose......more