In My Own Way

Alan Watts is, arguably, the most influential philosopher of the 20th century. 

When I make such a statement to my friends who contemplate these things, the question most frequently proffered in opposition is “What about Ken Wilber?”

Granted, they are both autodidacts with impressive spans of knowledge about the philosophies of both East and West.

Among their many other similarities, they both refused to allow school to interfere with their educations and each has authored an extensive body of articles and books to share their learnings and to pay their bills. They both founded alternative graduate schools, Watts the American Academy of Asian Studies (now California Institute of Integral Studies), and Wilber the Integral University. Each is more a storyteller than a scholar, which has led to them both being largely ignored by traditional academia or angrily criticized by those with territorial claims to the knowledge bases in question.

While Watts is less didactic than Wilber, had he lived to be 100 he would surely have been either a member of Wilber’s Integral Institute think tank or one of its major constructive critics.

But Wilber’s work is only now beginning to be applied in practical ways by others. His Integral University in Colorado is only a few years old and only a handful have referred to Wilber’s work as an underpinning for their own. Wilber will likely have his day, but it will be located in the 21st century.

Watts’ 1972 autobiography In My Own Way, re-released this summer, provides a renewed opportunity to examine the contributions he made to the cultural transformations so many take for granted today.  The writing, teaching, and institutional experimentation that he engaged in during his life have served as an inspiration for millions worldwide.

For more than forty years, Watts earned a reputation as a foremost interpreter of Eastern philosophies for the West. At age sixteen he wrote an essay for the journal of the Buddhist Lodge in London and by 21 he published his first book The Spirit of Zen. His cumulative works developed an audience of millions and continue to inspire to this day. In his lifetime, he wrote 25 books and entertained thousands through radio and television broadcasts, public lectures and workshops, and audio recordings of these.

His works present an evolving worldview of a personal philosophy of individuality and self-expression that can be matched by few and which he shared with all in complete candor and joy.

Since his death in 1973, his eldest son Mark Watts has acted as curator of his works keeping many of them in print and bringing forth new compilations from Alan’s lecture notes and workshop recordings. Many can be found on the Alan Watts website (www.alanwatts.com) or on YouTube.

In My Own Way exhibits the same personal and engaging style of most of his writing. He tells the story of a free thinker who gradually becomes unencumbered by traditional world views and, thus, over time, becomes an increasingly mind-expanding teacher and exemplar challenging his readers to work out their own salvation as well. Watts was a philosophical renegade with equally joyful engagement with his fans and exuberance towards his critics.

Watts’ autobiography speaks of many things, personal and public. His account of gurus, celebrities, and psychedelic drug experiences make for colorful reading. He had a wry sense of humor, oftentimes ironic in context.