Universal Pantheist Society
  • Home
  • What is Pantheism?
  • Key Ideas
    • The Pantheist World View
    • Against Speculation
    • God and Belief - The Pantheist Alternative
    • Earthkeeping
    • Rejecting Anthropocentrism
  • Pantheist Vision Journal
  • Publications
    • The Practice of Pantheist Mindfulness
    • Devotion to Truth
    • Pantheism and Panentheism
    • Chronological Syllabus
    • Anthopocentrism by John Seed
    • Inner Source of Pantheism
    • More Publications
  • About Us
  • Join Us!
    • Membership Application Form
    • Member Renewal
  • Blog
  • On-Line Communities
    • Follow us on Facebook
    • Universal Pantheists Discussion Group
  • Reading List
  • Contact Us

Happy Alan Watts Birthday January 6

1/6/2023

Comments

 
January 6 is Alan Watts Day!

6 January 1915 - 16 November 1973

Alan Watts was a philosopher and popularizer of Eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism, who wrote throughout the Fifties and Xixties. He wanted to bring Eastern ideas to the West, and perhaps did so more than anyone else prior to his time, and perhaps since. Most people associate him with Zen buddhism and other eastern religions, but in his later years he described himself as a Pantheist.
Watts described himself as "an unabashed pantheist" in his autobiography, In My Own Way. He wrote: “We are all unconscious pantheists, trying to grasp the moment, the Eternal Now, in its various forms, trying to identify God with something in the moment.” According to a recent collection of surveys at online pantheism discussion groups, Watts has been considered the favorite communicator and advocate of pantheism, followed closely by Carl Sagan and Eckhart Tolle. Although best known as a Zen Buddhist, his efforts to blend Christianity, mysticism, Taoism, and other Eastern philosophies is actually a form of modern Pantheism.

He said, “The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.... The style of God venerated in the church, mosque, or synagogue seems completely different from the style of the natural universe.”


His views led to a profound ecological awareness. He complained that “Civilized human beings are alarmingly ignorant of the fact that they are continuous with their natural surroundings.” He saw that in the same way that brains, hearts, lungs, and stomachs are our internal organs, the air, water, plants, insects, birds, fish, and mammals are our external organs."

He said, “The sun, the earth, and the forests are just as much features of your own body as your brain.”

Despite his association with Eastern religions, he centered his religious relationships directly in Nature, not with the writings of men. 


He often warned against what he considered spiritual charlatans. 

He said: “I wish that there was a way of putting a time-bomb into scriptures and records — not a time-bomb, but some kind of invisible ink, so that all scriptures would un-print themselves about fifty years after the master's death. And just dissolve.”

 Watts said “if you want to find out what is the spiritual, what is Buddha-nature, what is Brahman, what is Tao, the best way is to go directly to the physical world and find out: the physical world as you are it, and as everything around you is it; the immediate experience.”
​

Read more about Alan Watts in this presentation:

http://www.pantheist.net/uploads/1/8/9/8/18984797/alan_watts_as_pantheist_-_a_presentation_by_harold_wood.pdf

Comments

    Blog

    Our new blog provides insights and news for Pantheists. ​

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Art
    Autumn
    Birds
    Books
    Jane Goodall
    Nature
    Pantheist Holidays
    Pantheist Quotes
    Pantheist Vision
    Peace
    Photography
    Poetry
    Science
    Sky Watch
    Spring
    Thanksgiving
    UPS
    Wetlands
    Wildlife
    Winter

    RSS Feed

"We seek a renewed reverence for the Earth and a vision of Nature as the ultimate context for human existence..."

©  Copyright 1998-2022 Universal Pantheist Society


About Us |  Contact Us   |  Join