The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are explores an unrecognised but mighty taboo - our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Alan Watts, key thinker of Western Zen Buddhism, explains how to reconsider our relationship with the world. We are in urgent need of a sense of our own existence, which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. In The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Alan Watts asks what causes the illusion of the ...
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The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are explores an unrecognised but mighty taboo - our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Alan Watts, key thinker of Western Zen Buddhism, explains how to reconsider our relationship with the world. We are in urgent need of a sense of our own existence, which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. In The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Alan Watts asks what causes the illusion of the self as a separate ego which confronts a universe of physical objects that are alien to it. Rather, a person's identity binds them to the physical universe, creating a relationship with their environment and other people. The separation of the self and the physical world leads to the misuse of technology and the attempt to violently subjugate man's natural environment, leading to its destruction. Watts urges against the idea that we are separate from the world. Nowhere is this idea more apparent than in the concept of cultural taboos. The biggest taboo of all is knowing who we really are behind the mask of our self as presented to the world. Through our focus on ourselves and the world as it affects us, we have developed narrowed perception. Alan Watts tells us how to open our eyes and see ourselves not as coming into the world but from it. In understanding the individual's real place in the universe, Watts presents a critique of Western culture and a healing alternative.
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This was the first book I read by Alan Watts and now, after reading a number of his collected essays, I think it is one of his best. He had a quick wit and his insights into nonduality and consciousness were well beyond his time.
studiorats
Jan 8, 2009
Balanced simplicity
I first read this book in paperback in 1985. I've carried this copy in my backpack for years as a reference and reminder to keep things simple in my life. Alan Watts allows us to think past what preconcieived notions we have about ourselves in that we are simply a series of contrasts that is easily explainable. I remembered hearing his recorded lectures on NPR radio back when I was working the graveyard shift at a Santa Monica gas station--that was in 1976. So it was a grand delight have found a hard cover copy on Alibris to put on my bookshelf next to my dog-eared copy of the paperback. It is THE BOOK.
