[AudioBook] Alan Watts: Out Of Your Mind

Alan Watts: Out Of Your Mind: ~ Audio Book ~

12 CDs, 14.25 hours

Description

In order to come to your senses, Alan Watts often said, you sometimes need to go "out of your mind." Perhaps more than any other teacher in the West, this celebrated author, former Anglican priest, and self-described "spiritual entertainer" was responsible for igniting the passion of countless wisdom seekers to the spiritual and philosophical delights of Asia and India. Now, with Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives, you are invited to immerse yourself in twelve of this legendary thinker's pinnacle teaching sessions on how to break through the limits of the rational mind and begin expanding your awareness and appreciation for "the Great Game" unfolding all around us.

Out of Your Mind brings you six complete seminars carefully selected from hundreds of recordings by Alan Watts' son and archivist Mark Watts that capture the true scope of this brilliant teacher in action. On these superb, digitally restored recordings, you will delve into Alan Watts' favorite pathways out of "the trap of conventional awareness," including:

� "The art of the controlled accident"what happens when you stop taking your life so seriously and start enjoying it with complete sincerity

� How we come to believe "the myth of myself" that we are "skin-encapsulated egos" separate from the world around us and how to transcend that illusion

� Why we must fully embrace chaos and the Void to find our deepest purpose

� Unconventional and refreshing insights into the deeper principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Western philosophy, plus much, much more.

Whether you're completely new to Alan Watts or familiar with his work, here is a rare opportunity to experience him at his best improvising brilliantly before a live audience on Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives.

The Nature of Consciousness (CDs 1, 2) Have you ever seen an "inch" or touched an "hour?" Alan Watts reveals how our idea of the "self" is no more real than these abstract concepts and how to "untrain" ourselves from its limitations.

The Web of Life (CDs 3, 4) The universe is an infinite and intertwined tapestry of phenomena, yet most of us experience only a few spare threads. Look more closely at the "warp and weave" of creation, suggests Watts, and you may discover an astonishing wealth of meaning.

The Inevitable Ecstasy (CDs 5, 6) Pleasure and suffering, fear and exuberance Watts explores the surprising relationships among these universal experiences and the "inevitable ecstasy" they lead to.

The World As Just So (CDs 7, 8) "Any lecture on Zen will always be something of a hoax," begins Alan Watts, "because it deals with a domain of experience that by nature cannot be talked about!" Watts then proceeds to offer us a remarkably lucid and immediate explanation of this enigmatic "pathless path."

The World As Self (CDs 9, 10) At the heart of Hinduism, India's expansive spiritual world view, is the idea that we are all manifestations of one Actor "playing hide and seek" with Itself. Here, listeners explore the great unfolding drama we've cast ourselves in, and where the plot may be leading.

The World As Emptiness (CDs 11, 12) This third offering in Alan Watts' celebrated "World As" series invites us to face our fears about death -the Void that we normally run from-to discover that "we are as much the ocean as we are the individual waves on the water."

# Original Release Date: February 1, 2005
# Number of Discs: 12
# Label: Sounds True
# ASIN: B000QZSRSQ

Reviews
I don't mean to be irreligious with this title, obviously Alan Watts' CD's are not to be put on the same level as "The Bible" but as someone who has sought answers for most of my life, the set of CD's came as something of a godsend.

This collection does an excellent job of covering the essentials of Watt's philosphies. Most of his books (if you get them) are more detailed reiterations of his lectures here (or more correctly these lectures are synopsese of his books).

If you enjoy having "mondo" or enlightening dialogue - these CD's are for you. In them Watt's personality comes across clearly and his philosphy rolls from him naturally. If you're not already familiar with Watts its hard to describe what you're missing. What I can say is this collection is worth the cost. In it Watts speaks in a manner that is recognizably truthful and attempts to present a new 'mythology' by which we can see the world as it really is.

I can not recommend this too highly - I have listened to the entire 12 CD set more than 10 times. If nothing else it will help you sleep at night.
After reading the transcripts of his talks, I wanted to hear Watts' voice. There had to be more to what was being said than what could be seen in the page. With my assignments on Watts in college three decades ago, I had just given them a cursory reading for classes on Zen and Taoism. I never gave a lot of consideration about them until recently. Having listened to the CD's and my readings, I was surprised at how much my view points on life were either shaped by those writings or helped along.

Like him, I was raised a Protestant. I was felt comfortable about Zen Buddhism because of Watt views. His Buddhism, though, is his own form of Buddhism because down to his bones Watt really is quite the Anglican. You won't understand that until you hear him lecture, his inflections or his jokes.

Working through my third round of the CDs, I'm in awe of him. In these discussions he lays out the philosophical basis for the environmental movement. There is a discussion of Basho's poetry that makes me wonder how much impact he had in shaping Beat poetry then and our poetry now. There discourse on bits, bytes and nets that anticipated our digital world and information technology. He was much ahead of his philosophical contemporaries and spiritually unlike them he doesn't hide anything from his audience.
What a fine mind and spirit he was.

I don't think I could begin too put into words how wonderful these cd's are! If you are a fan of Alan Watts this collection is a must! His books are great, but to hear him speak puts his discourses on a whole new level. ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!

Alan's lectures are at once charming, mind-blowing and gratifyingly substantial. A person like me, trained in Western thought and material objectivity, needs rational exposition on the subject of Zen rather than new age psychobabble. Perhaps it's the high british accent, but Alan delivers the Gospel of Nothingness with commanding intellectualism and endearing modesty. There is just as much bullsh** in Eastern religion as Western; Alan cuts to the chase and finds a Zen ethos that embraces both 'spiritualism' and modern psychology.

Basically, DNA biology and particle physics teach us that we are quite literally one and the same as everything else in the universe. Like waves are 'made of' ocean and 'are' the ocean and return to ocean, we are 'made of' the universe and 'are' the universe - now, before we were born, and after we die. Our apparent individuality is a counterproductive artificial construct. Peace, sartori, enlightenment, whatever you wish to call it, comes when we accidentally happen to see the Matrix - when we suddenly reach an understanding that nothing perceived by our senses is real - when, out of nowhere, we lose all fear of death and all desires and simply exist.

The lessons of this state of being are to fully live every day as a grateful node of sentience belonging to the entire universe and to help others release themselves from desire and fear. There is no winning in life or defeating death; we are natural parts of the universe that arise, form, flourish and are recycled. Since we are the universe we do not perish - if we detached from desire there would be no sense of time and we would not fear anything, including death.

After listening to all of these lectures, I continue to look around for more from Alan Watts. He is jolly and cool and sparkling - he reminds me of a old-style British officer from India regaling us with tales of the Raj and the ways of the strange and wonderful subjects of the Empire!

I first heard "Big Al" listening to Roy of Hollywood play his talks on KPFK 90.7 the Something's Happening late night radio show down in Southern California. Alan Watts changed my life! It broke my heart when I moved away to go to school and could no longer receive the signal. Roy encouraged me to make tapes off the air and I still donate with gratitude! (KPFK is commercial free/listener sponsored.) I can stream the show over the web now and the local public radio station broadcasts Alan now, but finding this deal here blew my mind! Check the price if you were to buy the discs and get this.

After reading the transcripts of his talks, I wanted to hear Watts' voice. There had to be more to what was being said than what could be seen in the page. With my assignments on Watts in college three decades ago, I had just given them a cursory reading for classes on Zen and Taoism. I never gave a lot of consideration about them until recently. Having listened to the CD's and my readings, I was surprised at how much my view points on life were either shaped by those writings or helped along.

Like him, I was raised a Protestant. I was felt comfortable about Zen Buddhism because of Watt views. His Buddhism, though, is his own form of Buddhism because down to his bones Watt really is quite the Anglican. You won't understand that until you hear him lecture, his inflections or his jokes.

Working through my third round of the CDs, I'm in awe of him. In these discussions he lays out the philosophical basis for the environmental movement. There is a discussion of Basho's poetry that makes me wonder how much impact he had in shaping Beat poetry then and our poetry now. There discourse on bits, bytes and nets that anticipated our digital world and information technology. He was much ahead of his philosophical contemporaries and spiritually unlike them he doesn't hide anything from his audience.
What a fine mind and spirit he was.

These CD's are worth the purchase.
I feel in my opinion to find A. Watts as 'one of' the greatest philosophers of our time to be just as plausible to say Quine, Kripke, Russell, or even Ren? Descartes and Goethe to be 'one' of the greatest philosophers of our time (and I assure you I'm not a minority of one to think so).

I have been studying the subjects in which A. Watts has repeatedly referenced from C. G. Jung, Nagarjuna, Sigmund Freud, Descartes, Lao Tzu, and many more in fields such as General Semantics (Alfred Korzibski), Biology, Psychology, Neurology, and fields that are so intertwined that we don't have yet labels, or technical words to sollicite a field of study.

I feel Alan Watts would be regarded today as Carl Jung in his time, but only to discover him decades afterwards. Like Karl Popper for example maybe a few years down the road (though he died in 1994).
As for changing your own perspective of your social culture, Gandhi very rightly put it "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."

CD1

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/126926927/CD1_The_Nature_Of_Consciousness.rar

CD2

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/126928295/CD2_The_Nature_Of_Consciousness.rar

CD3

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/126929476/CD3_The_Web_Of_Life.rar

CD4

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/126930897/CD4_The_Web_Of_Life.rar

CD5