Alan Watts produces vague nonsense

[Flyboy Connor]

I never heard of Alan Watts before; this game was my first encounter with him. While I don't know yet if I really like the game, I definitely like the soothing voice of the narrator, but what he is spouting is, as I see it, vague nonsense. I suspect that even Alan Watts himself thinks so, considering that he has written a book titled "Nonsense" and produced an audio recording titled "On Being Vague". I have some appreciation for Zen Buddhism, but half of what Watts says is completely meaningless. And I suppose that is the point.

[xxkaikaifilu]

They're vague and stretched out but not nonsensical to me, just very basic in essence..in a way you wouldn't really think of it normally. Idk I would explain some but that seems like a loot of typing

[Cydonia]

There is no correct interpretation for a Kōan. But if you find the answers you are seeking, it will help you immensly to deal with the pain, when it is your time to die.

[Fizzipop]

Meaning is what you want it to be.

[Flyboy Connor]

Ah, a postmodernist.

[Rominvictus]

While I wouldn't call it nonsense per se, Watts' lectures are a free-flow mish-mash of eastern philosophy and an emergent new age spirituality that prevailed in the 70's. There is nothing new in the philosophical side of his musings, they are often repeated in different words. But he delivers it with a side of new age spirituality that people really ate up back then, and to some degree, still do today. I agree that it is fairly wishy-washy, for lack of a better term. At times he draws near to concepts that even theoretical physicists cogitate over, but mainly he regurgitates maxims that he heard from Buddhists (All Thing is No Thing, etc.) and wraps it in a veneer of spirituality and magical connectedness that speaks to the religious questioners. Was he a two-bit shukster like Crowley? Not quite as overtly plagiaristic as Crowley, and Watts' intentions seemed benevolent compared to Crowley's orchestrated malevolence, but they are very much the same type of thinker, albeit obverse sides of the spectrum. So, nonsense? Maybe. But if people find value and self affirmation in it, why not? Is it "deep"? Well, I don't think so. Theoretical physics is deep. This is a new age guru. And the best advice I can give is "Beware the Guru".