hey! Alan Watts was an incorrigible drunk and womanizer but he's pretty cool and just the right level of blasphemous for my tastes
Kerouac was also a performer. Watts was also a practicioner. Watts' remark seems like a reference to Bodhidarma's dharma transmission and I wouldn't read that as an insultpic.twitter.com/hQZjKJZM9A
-
-
It certainly was. And yes, Watts was referencing that passage. Kerouac was a writer...but one that was uncomfortable with fame. "I am not a Zen Buddhist, I am not advocating Zen Buddhism, I am not trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell. I'm an entertainer." Watts
-
a much more respectable position than that of an itinerant preacher, which he was assiduously trying to avoid. I don't see why any of this causes you to judge Watts poorly.
-
Basically, and I have thought long and hard about *why* it sets me off the way it does (bc Buddhism lol), and I'm thinking it's because some upper-class lecturer was putting down a working class person who was genuinely trying to practice the dharma bc of his suffering.
-
again, I just don't see it as an insult. Was Bodhidarma insulting Zong Chi? I interpret it as a comment about the nature of practice. Watts would probably say of himself that he only had Zen Skin.
-
In the case of Bodhidharma, we've got an advanced practitioner choosing his successor among very advanced practitioners. A crucial moment in Zen. In the case of Watts and Kerouac it was a guy in a magazine talking smack using Buddhist jargon.
-
Dan, it is perfectly okay if you like Watts. Lots of people do. I just don't, and I'm not going to. Did he lie in his lectures? No. Was he a bad man? Not particularly. Was he a jerk? That's subjective. I say yes, but it's not holy writ.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.