He never claimed to be anyone else. Never had any followers, never claimed to have the answers, never left a dharma heir or whatever the hell that is. He wrote, he talked, people could read or listen, their choice. He travelled the world, got piss drunk in the south of France with Aldous Huxley, married five different women and had umpteen children....
I think a better representation of who Watts truly was is found in his autobiography, "In my own way". He played down the drinking a bit, but it's mostly "I did it for the experience of seeing a whole lot of interesting things, learning a whole lot of interesting lessons, and meeting a whole lot of interesting people". He would have had nothing to do with this "Zen/not Zen" non-sense other than maybe a simple exercise as part of one night's conversation. He probably agreed with most of the folks more often than disagreeing especially when it comes to sitting. He would become annoyed with the ring leader's pompous attitude, ironically recommend him a good psychotherapist, call a cab and leave.
No, Watts does not belong in r/zen except very rarely as a representation of someone that popular culture referred to as Zen, or as someone who furthered the idea of Zen in the common consciousness.
U/ewk can make his disclaimer and be rude to the OP asking them to "name three zen masters" and eventually "high school book report, ama, troll, zen masters, etc." it will continue to turn off "new age" "wattsian" types, whatever the hell that is (here are more labels for you so you can over generalize about people, btw), turn them off from r/zen or from understanding the true nature of what is trying to be done here. But then again, if you're not willing to wait outside the gates for three days in the cold, and cut your arm off and present it to dear leader when you get here, you weren't worth it to begin with.
It's both perturbing and joyful that Alan's words get used over and over again, over shitty music or not, to prove points he never would've agreed with or not. But I'll take it, because I sincerely think a world with Watts is a better one, and though he may not be Zen with a capital Z, he awakens something in people, he puts a smile on their face and starts the turning in their minds towards the ideas of non-duality, interconnectedness, the dissolution of the ego, a brand new perspective that many of us have never been taught in our rural public schools, lackluster universities, and uninspired churches.
This is the last I'll ever speak of Watts in this forum, probably the last I'll even post here for a long time. I wish you all much success in codifying your Zen properly, so that no one may make any mistake as to what one means when one utters the word "Zen". A word translated from Chan, translated from Dhyana, which meant meditation. Is dhyana necessary to attain Samhadi? Is satori attainable? Can one be as the Buddha was? Is one already a Buddha? Is this entire religion just waves crashing against the coast?
Probably.
Is the main character of this forum (a role I'm sure he relishes every second he gets) like a modern day Bodhidharma, sitting in his dark cave, staring at the wall, but instead of being quiet for nine years, simply repeating the same futile, uninspired, trolling comments to everyone who has the poor luck to venture in here, imagining that doing so will change the course of Zen history, "not these old men, ThEsE OLD MeN!!"
Watts, Kapleau, Suzuki big and little, even the Dalai Lama, will determine the future of Zen and Buddhism. A small fringe group will argue that Zen is not part of Buddhism, they will most likely be right, but in the same way the Mormons are often lumped in with Christianity, Zen will continue to be lumped in with "Buddhism", "Eastern Philosophy", "New Age", "Meditation". There will be no r/zen category.
Goodbye, good luck arguing over dead Chinese men. Eek, I hope you find peace, wherever it may be, and I hope you find a job and possibly a girlfriend or boyfriend, or some kind of happiness. Maybe you'll become an accomplished author one day, I'll be proud for that.
I'm going to visit r/Buddhism, they're much more pleasant there; then maybe I'll watch a vlog post from Brad Warner, leader of the Dogen Sangha death cult, who will surely corrupt my mind with his insane and historically, embarrassingly inaccurate ideas.
I know I'm not the first to write such a diatribe, throw a hissy fit as I stomp out of the room, hear the whispers of "he just couldn't cut it" on the way out. That's fine, I join a proud tradition, one that in the pursuit of discussing something I enjoy, encountered a person so relentless, so unpleasant, so unwavering in his harassment of other people, and decided it wasn't worth it.
This place has become a true bastion of religious fundamentalism, and for those of you who can't see it, and enjoy the conversations here, have a blast! But don't be surprised to see more and more of the same.
And ewk, congratulations, next to the president of the United States, you have earned the title of most incessant internet troll of the last decade. I hope it was worth it.
Warmest Regards, Stay Safe All,
Zendub; Wattsian, reader of Hui Neng, Dogen, Gautama Buddha, and my main man, Bankei. I've also begun reading about Stoicism, more on the Taoists, and the Transcendentalists.
There's also one book id like to recommend to u/ewk, Mark Manson's "The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck".
Submitted May 05, 2020 at 04:35PM by Zendub https://ift.tt/2YC6vyU
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