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From his letters it seems that he made up his mind to enter the Priesthood in 1941 and from that time on became immersed in the various studies necessary before being able to be ordained. Again, his letters on occasion express a dissatisfaction with certain Buddhist metaphysics, or lack of...

I'm more astonished at the content of his letters, particularly of the so called "Priesthood Years" given his reputation as some sort of eastern guru.

Thanks for your post. I'm not sure exactly where I'm "at" with some of my latest posts. I'm actually so astonished by the contents of many of the letters of Alan Watts, the "guru" of making the "eastern" ways of zen and Taoism relevant to todays seekers. Certainly his letters seem to make what I...

Often I have raised the question of the difference in experience between theists and non-theists. Really, I have got nowhere as far as any thread is concerned, possibly because I cannot quite articulate exactly what I am asking. But, whatever, reading through the Collected Letters of Alan...

I'd just like to add that Tradition is lauded throughout Dogen's "Shobo Genzo" (The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye". I now carry this mighty tome around with me and dip into it at random times. I have just finished a long essay where the Kashaya (the Buddhist robe) is revered. But:- The...

Picking up on "Love has no why" as I reread "Beyond Theology", Alan Watts asks the question "Is it Serious", this in relation to "ultimate things." Is it serious? Are we living in a Cosmos where right and wrong are ultimate, where - as a conclusion and consequence - the "lost" and the "saved"...

From an essay on T.S.Eliot's "Four Quartets"- Eliot feels no compunction in alluding to the Bhagavad Gita in one section of the poem and Dante's Paradiso in the next. He neither asserts the rightness nor wrongness of one set of doctrines in relation to the other, nor does he try to reconcile...

Oh yes......I now spot the word "esoteric" embedded in one of the quotes!! After posting this I trawled through the Kindle Amazon Book Store and found "Alan Watts: A Journey Through Cosmic Consciousness" which charts the life story of Alan Watts right into his association with drugs. A snip...

Reading through his Collected Letters is quite astonishing. I knew that at one time he had been ordained as a Priest in the Anglican Church (in the USA) but tended to think that this was all a bit of a game. But the letters suggest and tell a different story. Immense study and involvement in...

I'm reading through - on and off, mainly off - the Collected Letters of Alan Watts. There is one addressed to a lady interested in Gnosticism, which is sometimes associated with some sort of esoterism, at least as a teaching for the "elite". Alan Watts warns her against this, and comes down...

Hello there, when I was here before under another name, Thomas posted this concerning the Catholic understanding of scripture. Very nuanced! To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary forms." For truth is set forth and...

OK. We seem to have our wires crossed - or I have crossed them!

I I'm not a Christian. Converting what I do "follow" into Christian-speak, "works" will inevitably follow from genuine "faith". Or in my own "speak", ethics are a by-product of wisdom. Again, seeking wisdom is not passive and will in some way involve a positive relationship with the world -...

It seems a common theme to consider oneself (and/or one's Church) as being at the hub, at the crossroads of history. I think we have to let go of that and proceed as simply as possible, living in the moment, accepting the gifts of Grace as they unfold.

Yes, I too.

Ah ha! Perhaps difficult to tell the difference between such a "religion" and those who are truly expressing the freedom of the "sons of God"! I'm saying nothing.......

Your post made me think of the words of Thomas Merton, from "Raids on th Unspeakable", where he speaks of the nature of Reality:- But the magicians keep turning the Cross to their own purpose. Yes, it is for them too a sign of contradiction: the awful blasphemy of the religious magician who...

Mostly just mentioned according to my own rather whimsical sense of humour. Then again, Amida is often depicted as looking back, his/her first concern for those who cannot "come" for one reason or another. We tend to become like our Gods, or our lack of them.

Once again you drift, at least from my perspective. You seem to be addressing someone else. My point (!) is that there is no point, which also encompasses and implies that we should have no final conclusions. Your own point is that when we are dead we are dead and therefore that we should live...

Eckhart would answer - from his own perspective and experience of eternity as being the "ground" of linear time, that God is eternally giving birth. You appear to be drifting from the main point (!) in asking your further questions.