Alan Watts facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alan Watts
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Alan Wilson Watts
6 January 1915 Chislehurst, England
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| Died | 16 November 1973 (aged 58) Marin County, California, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Seabury-Western Theological Seminary |
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| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
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Alan Wilson Watts (born January 6, 1915 – died November 16, 1973) was an English writer and speaker. He was known for making Eastern ideas like Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism easier for people in the Western world to understand. He was sometimes called a "philosophical entertainer" because of his engaging way of sharing complex ideas.
Watts was born in Chislehurst, England. In 1938, he moved to the United States. There, he started learning about Zen Buddhism. He later earned a master's degree in theology. After his studies, he moved to California. He joined the American Academy of Asian Studies as a teacher.
Watts became very popular through his volunteer work at the KPFA radio station in Berkeley. He wrote over 25 books and many articles about religion and philosophy. His book, The Way of Zen (1957), was one of the first popular books about Buddhism. It became a bestseller and introduced many people to these ideas. In another book, Psychotherapy East and West (1961), he suggested that Buddhism could be seen as a type of psychotherapy, which helps people with their mental well-being.
After Watts passed away, his recorded talks became even more popular. They were often played on public radio, especially in California and New York. Today, you can still find his lectures online on sites like YouTube and Spotify. Most of his recordings are from the 1960s and early 1970s.
Contents
Alan Watts's Early Life
Alan Watts was born on January 6, 1915, in a village called Chislehurst in England. His father, Laurence Wilson Watts, worked for a tire company. His mother, Emily Mary Watts, was a homemaker whose father had been a missionary.
Even though they didn't have a lot of money, his parents chose to live in a peaceful countryside area. Alan, who was an only child, grew up exploring nature. He learned about wild flowers and butterflies. His mother's religious family likely influenced his early interest in "ultimate things" or big questions about life. This interest mixed with his love for storybook fables and exciting tales from the mysterious Far East.
Watts later wrote about a special dream he had when he was sick as a child. During this time, he was also fascinated by paintings and embroideries from the Far East. Missionaries returning from China had given these artworks to his mother. Watts was captivated by the clear, open, and spacious feeling in Chinese and Japanese art. These artworks often showed how people are connected to nature. This idea became a very important theme throughout his life and in his writings.
Discovering Buddhism
Watts described himself as imaginative, determined, and talkative. From a young age, he attended boarding schools. These schools offered both academic lessons and religious training. He felt that this religious training was "grim and sad."
As a teenager, Watts spent holidays in France with a wealthy friend named Francis Croshaw. Croshaw was very interested in Buddhism and unique parts of European culture. Soon after, Watts felt he had to choose between the Christian teachings he knew and the Buddhism he had read about. He chose Buddhism. He then joined the London Buddhist Lodge when he was 16 years old in 1931. He even became the organization's secretary. During these years, young Watts explored different ways of meditation.
His Education and Learning
Watts went to The King's School, Canterbury, which is located near Canterbury Cathedral. He often did very well in his classes. However, he missed a chance for a scholarship to Oxford because he wrote an essay that was seen as too confident or unusual.
After leaving King's School, Watts worked in a printing house and then a bank. He spent his free time involved with the Buddhist Lodge. He also learned from a teacher named Dimitrije Mitrinović. Watts read widely in many subjects, including philosophy, history, psychology, and Eastern wisdom.
Watts was mostly self-taught, meaning he learned a lot on his own. Being part of the Buddhist Lodge in London gave him many chances to grow. Through his connections, he met important spiritual writers and scholars. In 1936, when he was 21, he attended the World Congress of Faiths. There, he met D. T. Suzuki, a respected expert in Zen Buddhism. Watts studied many books and learned the basic ideas of Indian and East Asian philosophy.
Early Writings and Moving to America
Watts became very interested in the Zen tradition in the 1930s. He liked that Zen combined spiritual ideas with practical life. He saw it as a blend of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in China. Watts published his first book, The Spirit of Zen, in 1936. Later, he felt this book was not very scholarly and had some outdated ideas.
Watts married Eleanor Everett in 1938. Her mother was involved with a traditional Zen Buddhist group in New York. Watts saw Eleanor's stepfather, Zen master Sokei-an Sasaki, as a guide. In 1938, Alan and Eleanor moved from England to the United States. Watts became a US citizen in 1943.
Teaching and Exploring New Ideas
Watts left formal Zen training in New York. He wanted to find a way to use his philosophical interests in a career. He studied Christian scriptures and history at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He tried to combine Christian ideas with Asian philosophy. He earned a master's degree for his thesis, which was published as Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion.
In 1951, Watts moved to California. He became a teacher at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. He taught alongside other experts from 1951 to 1957. One of his teachers, Saburo Hasegawa, taught him about Japanese customs, art, and how people see nature. Watts also learned Chinese writing and brush calligraphy. While he was known for his interest in Zen Buddhism, he also explored other topics like Vedanta (an ancient Hindu philosophy), quantum physics, and natural history.
Middle Years and Growing Popularity
Watts left the teaching faculty in the mid-1950s. In 1953, he started a weekly radio show at the Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley. He was a volunteer and was not paid for his broadcasts. These shows continued until 1962, and he gained many regular listeners.
Watts gave many talks and seminars. Recordings of these were played on KPFA and other radio stations. Even today, his lectures are still broadcast. For example, in 1970, his talks were on San Francisco radio station KSAN. Many radio stations still have an Alan Watts program. His son, Mark Watts, keeps the original recordings of his talks.
In 1957, Watts, at 42, published The Way of Zen. This book explained the philosophy and history of Zen. It also included ideas from general semantics (about how language affects our understanding) and cybernetics (the study of control and communication in systems). Watts used ideas from cybernetics to explain aspects of the Zen way of life. The book sold very well and became a modern classic. This helped him get more invitations to give lectures.
In 1958, Watts traveled in Europe with his father. He met famous thinkers like the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. When he returned to the United States, Watts made two seasons of a TV series called "Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life" for KQED public television in San Francisco.
In the 1960s, Watts became interested in how patterns in nature repeat themselves, from tiny things to huge ones. This became a big part of his research and thinking.
Watts was not always connected to one university. He was a professor at the American Academy of Asian Studies. He also had a fellowship at Harvard University (1962–1964) and was a scholar at San Jose State University (1968). He gave lectures to college students and the general public. His talks and books influenced many thinkers in America from the 1950s to the 1970s. However, he was often seen as an outsider by traditional academics. When asked by students in 1970, Watts said he was not an academic philosopher but a "philosophical entertainer."
Ideas on Beauty and Life
Watts sometimes ate with his neighbors in Druid Heights, California. These neighbors worked together to create a beautiful and comfortable life by using their own skills in building and gardening. They lived simply, relying on their own talents. Watts dedicated his book The Joyous Cosmology to the people of this community. He later dedicated his autobiography to his friend, the writer Elsa Gidlow.
Watts wanted to help people feel less disconnected from being human, which he felt was a problem for many in the modern Western world. Like his friend Aldous Huxley, he also wanted to reduce the negative feelings that came from being separated from nature. He believed his teachings could make the world better. He also talked about how to bring more aesthetics (like better architecture, more art, and good food) into American life. He wrote that "cultural renewal comes about when highly differentiated cultures mix."
Later Years and Important Ideas
In his writings from the 1950s, Watts admired the practical achievements of Chán (Zen) in the Far East. Zen monks were often farmers, architects, builders, doctors, artists, and administrators. In his later work, especially in his last book, Tao: The Watercourse Way, he presented himself as having a "Zennist" spirit. He was very interested in topics like raising children, the arts, cooking, education, law, freedom, architecture, and how technology is used.
While he was known for his talks on Zen, he was also influenced by ancient Hindu scriptures, especially Vedanta and Yoga. He often spoke about the true nature of reality that people miss. He discussed how opposites are part of life and how our minds can sometimes make us feel separate from everything. He also talked about how to connect with a deeper level of awareness.
Watts also became very aware of growing environmental problems. In the early 1960s, he wrote about how much waste humans create. He wondered if we could ever get rid of "ever-rising mountains of ruin." These concerns were shown in a TV show he made in 1971, where he said that focusing on only one thing at a time was not enough for dealing with our complex world.
His Passing and Lasting Impact
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In October 1973, Watts returned from a lecture tour in Europe to his cabin in Druid Heights, California. On November 16, 1973, he passed away at age 58. He had been receiving treatment for a heart condition. His body was cremated on a wood pyre at a nearby beach by Buddhist monks. His son, Mark Watts, said that Watts was cremated at Muir Beach early in the morning.
His ashes were divided. Half were buried near his library at Druid Heights, and the other half were buried at the Green Gulch Monastery.
His wife, Mary Jane Watts, later wrote that Alan had told her, "The secret of life is knowing when to stop."
His Views on Life and the World
Watts believed that strict rules about right and wrong were not the most important thing for understanding one's true spiritual self. He focused on ethics that applied to society as a whole, rather than just individuals. In his writings, he was increasingly concerned with how humans interact with nature and how governments treat their citizens. He valued a society with many different cultures and races.
He often said he wanted to be a bridge between old and new ideas, between East and West, and between human culture and nature.
Watts also led tours for Westerners to Buddhist temples in Japan. He studied some movements from the traditional Chinese martial art taijiquan with a friend.
In some of his later books, like Beyond Theology and The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Watts shared his view of the world. He drew ideas from Hinduism, Chinese philosophy, and modern science. He believed that the entire universe is like a cosmic Self playing hide-and-seek. This Self hides by becoming all living and non-living things in the universe and then forgets what it truly is. This means that we are all part of this universal "IT" in disguise. In this view, Watts said that thinking of ourselves as just an "ego in a bag of skin" is a myth. He believed that what we call separate "things" are actually just parts of a bigger whole.
Watts's books often talked about patterns found in nature. He noted how these patterns repeat in different ways and at many different sizes, including patterns in the history of civilizations.
Supporters and Critics
Watts's ideas connected him with many well-known thinkers, artists, and teachers. His friendship with the poet Gary Snyder helped him support the growing environmental movement. Watts also met Robert Anton Wilson, who said Watts was one of his "Lights along the Way."
Some Buddhists, like Philip Kapleau and D. T. Suzuki, criticized Watts. They felt he misunderstood some key Zen Buddhist ideas. For example, they believed he didn't properly understand zazen, which is a specific way of sitting meditation.
However, Watts also had supporters in the Zen community, including Shunryu Suzuki, who founded the San Francisco Zen Center. David Chadwick wrote in his book about Suzuki that when a student spoke negatively about Watts, Suzuki became very serious and said, "You completely miss the point about Alan Watts! You should notice what he has done. He is a great bodhisattva" (a person who helps others reach enlightenment).
Watts's biographers saw him as a unique thinker who didn't belong to any single religion. They described him as a very talented speaker and writer. Elsa Gidlow, whom Watts called "sister," wrote a kinder picture of his life in her autobiography. Critic Erik Davis said that Watts's writings and talks still "shimmer with a profound and galvanizing lucidity," meaning they are very clear and inspiring.
Watts himself was open about his unique personality. In his autobiography, In My Own Way, he described himself as "a sedentary and contemplative character, an intellectual, a Brahmin, a mystic and also somewhat of a disreputable epicurean who has three wives, seven children and five grandchildren."
Personal Life
Alan Watts was married three times and had seven children (five daughters and two sons). He met Eleanor Everett in 1936, and they married in 1938. They had two daughters, Joan and Anne. Their marriage ended in 1949.
In 1950, Watts married Dorothy DeWitt. They moved to San Francisco in 1951. They had five children together: Tia, Mark, Richard, Lila, and Diane. They separated in the early 1960s.
He then married Mary Jane Yates King in 1964. They lived on a houseboat called the Vallejo in Sausalito, California, and also at a quiet cabin in Druid Heights. Mary Jane passed away in 1993.
Works
- 1936 The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work and Art in the Far East
- 1947 Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion
- 1951 The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
- 1957 The Way of Zen
- 1958 Nature, Man and Woman
- 1961 Psychotherapy East and West
- 1962 The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
- 1966 The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
- 1972 In My Own Way: An Autobiography 1915–1965
Books Published After His Death
- 1975 Tao: The Watercourse Way, with Chungliang Al Huang
- 1995 Become What You Are
- 1995 Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion
- 1995 The Tao of Philosophy
- 2000 Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
- 2000 What Is Tao?
- 2000 What Is Zen?
Audio and Video Works
- 1960 Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life, television series
- 1962 Haiku (Long playing album)
- 1969 Why Not Now: The Art of Meditation
- 1971 Alan Watts on Living, 5-part television miniseries
- 2004 Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives
See Also
In Spanish: Alan Watts para niños
Images for kids
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Alan Watts's signature
