While Watts’ thoughts seem closer to the mark on actual Eastern religious viewpoints, I think it’s also clear that this isn’t how most of those religions are widely practiced in Asia. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. That is the truth of the inter-pervasion of opposites, the inner mutual alliance of all opposing forces, ideas, concepts. He warns about the ever-quickening pace of society, brought on by technology, and how it takes us further away from our authentic experiences and more into planning and scheming for the future, which never ends.

Nothing wrong with that, really, but it’s certainly not on everybody’s list of go-to occupations anymore. Our descriptions, measurements and science are an attempt to translate reality into terms we can deal with in our brain.

A few friends recommended I read this book , because of my budding interest in Buddhism and Eastern religions. From my limited appreciation of both Watts’ views and cognitive science, I see nothing so glaringly contradictory that it would undermine one or the other. A number of very interesting insights, unfortunately couched in an overwhelming amount of unfounded speculation, illogical and mystical concepts, and baseless assumptions. To remain stable is to refrain from trying to separate yourself from a pain because you know that you cannot.

I don't think it would do the book justice to summarize but I will do my best to give you an idea of whether or not you should read this book. But we've already covered that I've been feeling pretty shot and my brain is no longer working as well as it once did. Conversely, one of the greatest pains is to be self-conscious, to feel unabsorbed and cut off from the community and the surrounding world.

This insight is may seem like a technicality, until it is applied to some of the concepts we believe are central such as time and the self. But any nascent belief has its rocky beginnings, and my own early Christian leanings were no exception to this. When each moment becomes an expectation life is deprived of fulfillment, and death is dreaded for it seems that here expectation must come to an end.

While this puts Watts’ on better grounds for arguing the truth of this approach, I’m not convinced it creates entirely separate magisteria, cutting off the possibility of scientific investigation into any of these approaches. It's still a bit of a must read though, because Watts isn't trying to sell us on anything, instead, he seems truly invested in helping us reach the next realization. We can practice imagining the future, but when it finally comes it often doesn’t feel much like our imaginations and once it has been dealt with it is quickly replaced with a new hope or worry.Watts feels many religions are equally obsessed with the future (eternal life in Heaven) and the past (dogma handed down over the generations). And I've been in a lot of pain, not from my philosophical and religious drifting but a medical condition beyond my control.

Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. The problem of happiness is simply that, if we are rational creatures trying to maximize our subjective conscious experience, we do a spectacularly bad job of it. A focus on security is a desire to be separate from life, a separateness that in turn only makes us more insecure. But the thought, “this living in the present sounds like something I’d like to have, how can I get it?The book also has an open/non-judgemental tone about it that sees the beauty and the divine in every man-made religion. Only by being paradoxical and confusing, will the student surrender, admit there is nothing to intellectualize and become enlightened.