Nature, Man, & Woman

by Alan W. Watts

Book Overview

A provocative and enduring work that reexamines humanity's place in the natural world -- and the spirit's relation to the flesh -- in the light of Chinese Taoism. That human beings stand separate from a nature that must be controlled, that the mind is somehow superior to the body, and that all sexuality entails a seduction -- a danger and a problem-are all assumptions upon which much of Western thought and culture is based. And all of them in some...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394705920
• ISBN13: 9780394705927
• Release Date: April 1970
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Astonishing...

This is a beautiful and truly enlightening book. I read it in less than a week because I couldn't put it down. I bought about 9 other copies and passed them out to my professors and my friends in the Christian ministry. The only regret I'll ever have about my life is that I didn't get to meet this man in person to express my gratitude.

Nature is a Seamless Unity, Whole.

For a more formal account of the Chinese philosophy of Nature you may want to look to Mr. Watts book, "The Way of Zen", or to Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilization in China". This book is about the problem of man's relationship with Nature. A problem that gives rise to the problem of man's relation to woman and to himself. This book was published in 1958. I am certain that today Alan would have taken a more egalitarian approach to the subject of Mankind's alienation from Nature. Even our sages are to an extent the product of their immediate environment. Nurture is the yang to Nature's yin. In my opinion this book should be read by every High School student in America,.. by everyone. The Taoist philosophy of Nature is more than a theoretical system, it is primarily a way of life in which the original sense of the seamless unity of Nature is restored without the loss of individual consciousness. To follow the watercourse way of Taoism is like a hand that has been reunited with its body. It is still a hand, but now it is part of something bigger than its narrow sense of self. For the Taoist the mystery of life is not so much a problem to be solved intellectually as it is a reality to be experienced intuitively. Intuition is of a higher order because it includes the rational mind. Synthesis is the product of the whole person. The left and right hemispheres of our brains working as one. Nature is a synergetic whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, a synergetic organic unity. Nature, though it has mechanistic characteristics, is not a machine. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm, Nature in miniature. Nature is not made up of space and matter. Nature is an energy field of varying density. Nature is whole, more a volume than a line. The Taoist comes out of Nature, not into it. We are not strangers in a strange land, we are home, Heaven is beneath our feet. We do not need to try and control Nature, we need to go with the flow of the grain of reality. To recognize the yin/yang polarities of life as being two sides of a unified whole. Day without night is meaningless. Each pole contains the seed of its opposite pole, it is darkest before the Dawn. The Thread of Life has two ends, birth and death, and yet the thread is whole. Our world is not an illusion, maya. Life matters. If there is a bias to Taoism, it is an optimistic one. It is the thinking that anything is separate from the whole that is illusion, that is pessimistic. The inside of the inside of all outsides is the same inside. The eternal Tao is omnipresent. There is a grain to reality that is the path of least resistance, the Way of ways. For the Taoist "Nature" is a guide book, the lone book written solely by the hand of Providence. "Nature" is a manifold collection of parables. The Sun shines on good and bad alike. God, the eternal Tao by another name, is impartial. God's love shines on everyone for God's love is whole. It is we that divide with our rational minds. We have

Another classic

Using some of the basic principles of Taoism, Alan Watts is able to explain to us the true meaning of life, love, and simple existence in an astonishingly simple way. This book is both creative and enlightening. It provides a fresh new perspective on Western culture and how we have sent ourselves to purgatory by developing a certain type of consciousness emphasized in Western culture. If you read another exceptional book called "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato, you will also learn that this is part of the process of both life and evolution. These are the kind of teachers we truly need more of in this age of chaos and confusion. Highly recommended!

One of my favorites ever, and one of Watts' favorites of his

This is possibly my favorite of all Watts' books, and according to his autobiography In My Own Way (another of his best), he considered this one his best-written (not that he was putting down the content, either).

Taoism applied to Life and Love

Although clearly directed to a male audience, I as a woman found much of interest here -- in the application of a Taoist/Zen approach both to love and life in general. A deeply thought and well-articulated book, the scope of Watts' topic is wide but well-supported both logically and factually. A deeply satsifying read with profound implications.