Nature, Man and Woman, Alan Watts
Nature, Man and Woman, Alan Watts
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Nature, Man and Woman

Author: Alan Watts

Narrator: Jeremy Stockwell

Unabridged: 8 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/30/2022


Synopsis

From “perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West—and an author who ‘had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the unwritable’” (Los Angeles Times)—a guide that draws on Chinese Taoism to reexamine humanity’s place in the natural world and the relation between body and spirit.

Western thought and culture have coalesced around a series of constructed ideas—that human beings stand separate from a nature that must be controlled; that the mind is somehow superior to the body; that all sexuality entails a seduction—that in some way underlie our exploitation of the earth, our distrust of emotion, and our loneliness and reluctance to love. Here, Watts fundamentally challenges these assumptions, drawing on the precepts of Taoism to present an alternative vision of man and the universe—one in which the distinctions between self and other, spirit and matter give way to a more holistic way of seeing.

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 Greg on August 15, 2007

Can't go wrong with Alan Watts. Can't go right either. Opposites implied and all.......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on August 20, 2013

Damn--over too soon. Watts describes and explains the alternatives to our often utilitarian, puritanical, guilt-ridden (and anything but spiritual) ways of thinking about love-making, and considers that, contrary to popular opinion, sex, the natural world, and spirituality need not be mutually exclu......more

Goodreads review by Amy on November 29, 2020

Very easy to read contemplative chapters on Zen Buddhism, nature and sexuality with a non judgmental but definitely a 60’s era heteronormative point of view. Recommended, if you are into this kind of thing.......more

Goodreads review by Gusmenary on September 09, 2008

Buddhism isn't for everyone. I recently began working at a temple out west (in chicago) and so my interest in this subject has resurfaced. My family converted (as much as one can convert to a non-religion) to buddhism when I was about twelve. Church on sunday immediately ceased and we were all a lot......more

Goodreads review by Lucian on October 26, 2022

Mi-a plăcut mult. Savurez ocaziile de a-l citi sau de a-l asculta pe Alan Watts. Vorbește „pe limba mea”, ca să zic așa. Nu prea rezonez cu filozofia europeană (cu excepția celei din Grecia și Roma antică), probabil în primul rând pentru că este tributară unei viziuni asupra lumii cu care nu am sufici......more


Quotes

“Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Watts had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the unwritable.’”—Los Angeles Times