Books Written by Alan Watts

More than 20 in his lifetime, plus Tao: The Watercourse Way, completed after his death, and many later collections of his talks. Twelve are the key books on this page, from The Spirit of Zen (1936) to Tao: The Watercourse Way (1975); the rest are listed under Everything Else.

The Spirit of Zen (1936), The Meaning of Happiness (1940), The Supreme Identity (1950), The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), The Way of Zen (1957), Nature, Man and Woman (1958), This Is It (1960), Psychotherapy East and West (1961), The Joyous Cosmology (1962), The Book (1966), In My Own Way (1972) and Tao: The Watercourse Way (1975).

The Way of Zen (1957), which explains Zen from its roots in Taoism and Indian Buddhism to its practice and arts. If you would rather start with his own ideas, read The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), which is short, or The Book (1966).

The Way of Zen (1957), one of the first best-selling books on Buddhism in the West. The Wisdom of Insecurity and The Book are almost as widely read.

That the separation between “me” and the world is a convention, not a fact. In The Book he calls the usual sense of self a “skin-encapsulated ego” and argues that each person is the whole universe expressing itself at one place, an idea he took from Vedanta, Taoism and Zen.

Neither, in the formal sense. He joined the Buddhist Lodge in London as a teenager, later became an Episcopal priest, and never trained as a Zen teacher. He described himself as a “philosophical entertainer” who interpreted Asian thought for Western audiences.

Yes, in two ways. Buddhists including Philip Kapleau and D. T. Suzuki said he misunderstood key Zen ideas, and Kapleau said he dismissed sitting meditation, though Shunryu Suzuki defended him. And his private life was criticised: he resigned the priesthood in 1950 after his wife sought an annulment of their marriage, had affairs and drank heavily from the mid-1950s, which his daughter Anne said disillusioned some admirers.

No. Many lines shared under his name online cannot be found in his books or recorded talks. To check a quote, look for a book title and chapter: “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”, for example, is from chapter 3 of The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951).

Yes. After seminary at Seabury-Western in Evanston, Illinois, he was ordained in the Episcopal Church and served as chaplain at Northwestern University. He left the priesthood in 1950.

On 16 November 1973, in his sleep, at his home in Druid Heights on Mount Tamalpais, California. He was 58.

A British-born writer and speaker (1915–1973) who explained Zen Buddhism, Taoism and Hindu philosophy to Western readers in plain language. He wrote more than 25 books, starting with The Spirit of Zen in 1936, and reached a far bigger audience through his weekly radio talks on KPFA in Berkeley from 1953. He called himself a “philosophical entertainer”.

That the feeling of being a separate self, what he called the “skin-encapsulated ego”, is a habit of thought rather than a fact, and that life works better as play than as a problem to solve. He took this from Zen, Taoism and Vedanta. The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951) is the shortest way into it.

In his sleep, at his home in Druid Heights in Marin County, California, on 16 November 1973. He was 58, had been treated for a heart condition and had been drinking heavily for years. Buddhist monks cremated his body on a wood pyre at Muir Beach.

No. He died in 1973, aged 58. His voice is still everywhere because his radio talks were recorded, and they are still broadcast and shared today.

Not in a God who sits outside the world and runs it. In The Book (1966) he describes the universe as one Self playing hide-and-seek with itself, so that each of us is that Self in disguise. Years earlier, as an Episcopal priest, he wrote Behold the Spirit (1947), which looked for room inside Christianity for that kind of mystical experience.

For part of his life. He became an Episcopal priest and served as chaplain at Northwestern University, then left the priesthood in 1950. After that he wrote as an interpreter of Asian philosophy, though he kept coming back to Christian mysticism, for example in Beyond Theology (1964).

According to his family and friends, yes. He drank heavily from the mid-1950s until his death in 1973, and his daughter Anne said some admirers were disillusioned when they found out.

Not formally: he never joined a tradition as a practitioner, Taoist or otherwise. But Taoism runs through his work, and his last book, Tao: The Watercourse Way (1975), finished after his death by his friend Al Chung-liang Huang, is about it.

Three times: to Eleanor Everett in 1938, to Dorothy DeWitt in 1950 and to Mary Jane Yates King in the 1960s. He had seven children, five daughters and two sons.

Yes. He tried mescaline and, in 1958, LSD in research sessions, and wrote about the experience in The Joyous Cosmology (1962). He called psychedelics “simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones”.

The official recordings are kept by his son Mark Watts, who runs alanwatts.org and the Electronic University archive. Many talks also circulate on YouTube and in podcasts, but the official archive is the place to start if you want the complete talks.