The Way of Zen by Alan Watts: A Book Review

I recently serendipitously reconnected with my old monk friend. He offered me the the book Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse (1922), when I was a teenager. When we got together recently, he offered me the book reviewed in this report, ‘The Way of Zen’, written by Alan Watts. At the onset, I apologize if my digressions are in any way offensive, they simply expose what flows through my mind.

Watts, a trained scholar, interpreted Chinese, Sanskrit and Japanese writings, and had personal encounters with Zen Buddhism. Digression #1. With a little digging, I discovered Watts' way was not necessarily the Zen way, he was a translator and introduced Buddhist concepts to the emerging counterculture born during the North American post-war baby boom generation. This book, published in 1957, when the global population was 2.9 billion. At this moment in 2023, the global population is 8,051,862,710, and increasing by five souls per minute. During this time, the means by which ideas were exchanged have changed. In the past, there was a relatively methodical parallel system, now messages are spread, almost instantaneously, through a quantum matrix of associations. However, the individuals are still seeking peace, serenity, and fulfillment in a frustrating and confusing, rapidly growing world.

Digression #2. I remember my youthful naive trust and faith in institutions, such as age-old Buddhist, Taoist, Zen, Yoga or Martial arts philosophies and religions. At some level, I must have wondered why there were so many different views, of how to guide humans on how to survive with less suffering. I did not realize the efforts required to forge and use these age-old tools, nor the need to defend and protect belief systems against each other, because of human tendencies to dominate and exploit.

The masters cited in Watt’s book suggest that speaking about Zen is like "studying birdsong in a collection of stuffed nightingales." Their warnings, like those secret societies, say, “Those who know, do not speak; Those who speak, do not know.” They caution about sharing personal findings. “What comes in through the gate is not family business.” What someone tells you is not your own knowledge. Digression #3. We enter the sea of life, are carried by traditions, and then tossed, and often capsize because the wild fluctuations and capriciousness of nature. We must think for ourselves and observe what is, despite our beliefs.

Watts notes that differences in translations, interpretations of conventional knowledge and abstract thought, are based on a great deal of guesswork. It was not only because documents are incomplete. Language and/or conditioning through cultural influences, tradition, hierarchy, conventional facts, and events, can fundamentally create Maya illusion.

The tenets of Buddhism were recorded in 560 BC. Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, worked to unite the Vedic concepts of Purusha, (the Atman self, the universal consciousness), to the source power of reality, Brahman. Purusha, ‘the breath’ of the authentic divine spirit of the cosmic soul of the universe, that is present everywhere, in everything and part of all time, travels on earth, from body to body of the saint, sage, lunatic, coward, and debauchee. Digression #4. Several sources suggest Abraham was exposed to the Vedic understanding of Brahman. Purusha sacrifices himself and says, “ I am.” It appears highly likely that Christianity is steeped in Buddhist tradition.

The spread of Buddhism is associated with Ashoka (265-238 BCE), who constructed monasteries, hospitals and wells with rock and pillar edicts that preached dharma (righteous living). Ashoka supported unity between the sangha, (scholars and masters) who produced texts of the oral traditions of the rishi (forest sage). Digression #5. Watts does not reveal the violent nature of Ashoka before he insisted on non-violence to man and animals.

Watts recounts that Indian Buddhism preceded Chinese civilization. Chinese consider that objects are events, i.e. a noun is a verb. The universe holds innumerable thing-events, that are self-determined, self-generate and are reflected in a mirror, creating an image like Indra’s Pearls, where each pearl reflects all others and spontaneously affects and transforms the other.

Lao-tzu (~500BC) is said to be the originator of the Tao, which means 'the Way'. Lao-Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius, K'ung Fu-tzu. Confucianism teaches rigid rules of conventional knowledge, needed by children, to deal with human relations and social order. Confucianism honours 'Jen', the virtue of virtues, the abstract representation of the human form and human heartedness. Digression #6. The symbol for Jen 人looks like lambda,λ , that represents wavelength, a momentary arrangement of a concrete reality that is frozen on the borders of what is.

Lao-Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, based on the older I Ching or Book of Changes. The I Ching has three stacked divided and/or undivided lines. They can combine to form eight possible trigrams (2 to the power of 3). Any two trigrams combine to form a hexagram, creating 64 abstract figures (2 to the power of 6) that are used in divination. In the Tao, Ching means subtle, psychic, spiritual and essential mental power. It uses Prajna, or intuitive relational wisdom of the nature of reality, and Karuna, the compassionate activity of the awakened to help others escape the bonds of ignorance. Digression #7. The mathematics of the I Ching can be applied to the pattern of 64 combinations, created by three- letter codons formed from four nucleotides found in mRNA, that determine cellular function and at the 64 cell stage, synchronization of regulatory processes begin as cells get well-defined and have up-regulation transcription needed to express genes. I wonder if the Tao Ching holds mathematics.

Digression #8. Watts suggests that Duality is a considered a falsely imagined concept, however mathematically, binary relationships do occur. When one action is taken, all others are not. Binary divisions result in doubling, that leads to exponential growth. Interestingly, positive exponents of an exponential, approach infinity at the limit, however negative exponents approach zero at the limit. Thus, the either/or conditions of opposing dualities, like birth and death, can be seen as becoming the infinite or nothing.

Kumarajiva (400 CE), translated the work of the Buddhist Indian scholar-monk, philosopher, Nagarjuna (150-250 CE), into Chinese. Kumarajiva’s translations borrow concepts of Lao-tzu to construct a philosophical system to understand how to attain Nirvana. Nagarjuna was the founder of the Middle Way, known as Madhyamika Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. It is a doctrine of relativity that exists between angel and demon and does not require ideals be met through superhuman actions.

Digression #9. I cannot help but think that the Middle way and Golden mean are mathematical constructs, used to describe natural phenomenon such as the digits of a hand, the whorls of a flower and arrangements of several planets around the sun. Egyptians built the Great Pyramid in 2500 BC. using the premise of the Golden Mean that Aristotle mathematically described. Recent discoveries of the Brout Englert Higgs field and the reveal that the energy signature of the Higgs Boson, where the physical matter of reality is conceived from the chaotic void, that is called the Sunyata in Mahayana Buddhism, is 125 GeV/c2, midway between 140 GeV/c2, which would cause chaos, and ultimate order at 1.15 GeV/c2.

Watts says that in Chinese society, the philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism are complimentary. Watts explained that Taoism is a pursuit of the elders, who are retired from society and liberated. They can undo the damage of Confucianism that has caused repressed child-like spontaneity and loss of naturalism. Taoism does not grasp for answers with the ego but is said to let the answer be reflected in the mind that acts as a mirror of the universe.

Zen stemmed from the Northern Sanskrit-Tibetan Chinese Canon of the Mahayana doctrines, and Southern Pali Canon of the Theravada. The Theravada Buddhist seeks to gain freedom from the samsara cycle of birth and death, to find Nirvana, defined as the release or liberation from cycles. Mahayana Buddhism suggests the skillful means that make Nirvana possible to everyone, with the emphasis on awakening to insights that leads to enlightenment. Zen Buddhism regards the Pali Canon as the Little Vehicle of liberation and Mahayana, the Greater Vehicle, supplying methods of realizing Nirvana.

In Zen, everyone’s true nature is Buddha nature. The Bodhisattva refers to anyone who generates bodhicitta, a voluntary and involuntary spontaneous thought or wish and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings. The Bodhisattva chooses to return into the Round of birth-death, out of compassion for others. Life and death are a position in the flow of time.

In the Chinese ch’an and Japanese Zen, focus is on the moment where rebirth occurs, and Nirvana is found in the Eternal now of each moment and it is lost by looking for it. The Sukhavati or Pure Land school believe that having faith while saying, ‘Hail Amitabha’, is enough to allow rebirth and become a buddha, whose work is to liberate others. Some Zen practises suggest that ordinary work is a means of meditation. Digression #10. I think I get Zen when I write, play music, garden and even sometimes when I cook .

In the traditional story of the origins of Zen Buddhism, the Bodhidharma (520 CE) arrived in Canton from India. Legend says that Bodhidharma fell asleep during meditation and was so angry that he cut off his eyelids and a tea plant grew where they dropped. Tea kept his mind awake, but he meditated so long, that his legs fell off. The Bodhidharma is represented as a weighted, roly-poly Daruma doll, rigid but not able to be knocked down.

Watts describes that Zazen or Ts’ o-Chan meditation leads to dhyana and samadhi, respectively, freedom from attachment to outer and inner world. The word t’so means sitting, specifically, not stirring up thoughts in the mind. It is not empty mindedness. Zazen meditation does not require sitting with a blank mind, it is not concentration on a single sense object. Zazen is quiet awareness, with 'non-difference' or equanimity between self and the external world. Muddy water settles when left alone. By keeping still, it is possible to get a clear awareness of the world as it is, without thinking. Wu-wei, non-action and non-striving, is needed to grow spontaneously, in the void, where the self-stops seeking control, and the mind does not seek to know the mind.

The Japanese schools of Zen, the Rinzai school (1191) and Soto school (1227), began after Samurai had seized power from nobility. Although Buddhism is often applied to non-violence, Japanese Zen is a liberation from conventions. The Tao of the warrior applied Zen to martial arts. the military caste, architects, poets, and everyone can Awaken, to help act with Wisdom .

The Rinzai uses the koan system, with Zen problems that encourage doubt, to test if the student has experienced the point of awakening. The Soto argue that awakening is found through Wu-wei, non-action through meditation.

Meditation gives a glimpse into the unborn mind that cannot grasp itself but is part of free flow in the universe. Takuan,(1573), a Rinzai master, and Samurai advisor, refers to ‘No mind' letting thoughts come and go without attachment. The belief is that the man who trusts his human nature has a sense of security, and uses unself-conscious intelligence, formed by the integration of the heart, mind, liver, and organs, can attain instantaneous ‘satori’ or awakening that leads to a source of marvellous accidents.

Meditation invites the participant to become aware of the echo of what has passed and what resonates in the moment. Meditation accesses Tatha, meaning ‘that is’, the concrete, actual 'suchness' of all that is seen, unseen, see able and unseeable. Zen unfreezes blocks caused from conditioning by the discipline of social convention. Watts notes that Zen is a dangerous concept where social convention is weak, or if there is open revolt against convention.

The Japanese master, Bankei (1622-1693) a warrior monk said, “Thought is a temporary mental construction …try not to hold or reject it. Let it alone as it occurs and as it ceases.” What is now, is fleeting. What was in the past, is fixed. Individuals are a growing vessel, part of the free flow of the Universe. To be Zen is to accept the present, where there is nothing more to seek or be gained. Zen encourages having the courage to let go, and almost miraculously allows the ability to spontaneously grow, without affectedness or self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is the result of a contrast between reality and a fixed feeling of self. The idea, or symbol of self, is more comprehensible than reality.

Zen describes unexcelled, complete awakening as 'Wu-shih', nothing special. When the moon rises, the water does not wait for its reflection. The perfectly natural and unaffected true nature becomes a controlled accident, a discipline in spontaneity and spontaneity in discipline. Breath is an action that happens by itself. It lacks symmetry and is unpredictable yet controls unhesitating spontaneity. Free movement of the body and mind is required while scripting, or writing a poem expressed in haiku, or art, with one corner full, but not dominating the picture, that expresses how man belongs to nature and to relative emptiness. Mastering free movement involved in crafting a bonseki, a rock sculpture, or bonsai tree or performing the Rikyu tea ceremony, with the tea served in a handmade bowl selected by the drinker, to fit his hand and imperfections, requires the same training as swordsmanship or archery.

Zen describes the principle of delayed revelation, with truth being revealed, along a path that never ends. Gautama Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree for 49 night. He saw the first glimpse of the morning star and experienced awakening. The transmission of enlightenment occurred when Gautama silently held up a flower.

Digression #11. It has taken me a lifetime to respect the flashes of divine consciousness, seen from obtuse angles, that reveal Truth. Although his real message was unspoken, despite volumes of scriptures attributed to him, the possibility supports that Siddhartha, like the Egyptians and Yellow Emperor of China, Huangdi. (2000 BC) saw Sirius rising. On a physical level, Siddhartha may have discerned knowledge that Sirius indicates floods and the seasonal changes of the Sun that allow agriculture to succeed. Sirius has a circle on invisibility, which around the time of Siddhartha, was about 49 days.

Watts does not indicate that there is any correlation between the gods and the sun, or astronomy, however, Upanishadic Hinduism refers to Prajapati, Vishnu or Brahma who plays hide and seek with himself, as do the Egyptian gods Ra, Horus, and Osiris. Furthermore, Buddhist’s describe a divine play that unfolds over the period of a kalpa, 4.3 billion years. The currently accepted age of the Earth is 4.543 billion years. Life has been around for 3.7 billion years, reptiles for 315 million years and mankind for 300 000. The numbers are similar.

Digression #12. Reading Watt’s book provided me with an opportunity to see that the Zen movement has guided me, to find my own way, On a basic level I think I have loosened some of the chains that bond me, unlearned some of my conditioned responses to diverse information, and unblocked some of the mental barriers that I have constructed from false ideas and dreams that supported what I perceived as reality. Sadhana, the practical methodical discipline of study and action from knowledge, to classify the world, requires openness and observation of what is and acceptance. This necessitates a form of death and rebirth.

Scientists agree that we only see five percent of the universe. The effects of gravity, dark matter, and dark energy, remain elusive. Each human is a miniscule portion of all that is, yet despite ignorance, constant doubt, and insecurities, we are here now, a product of life that has come from stardust, been shocked into existence by lightning, and has changed, diversified, and survived several extinction events. Openness to possibilities, accepting changing attitudes and finding equanimity through non-judgement has been part of the journey of the feral animal that has survived.

Reading ‘The Way of Zen’ made me experience a sort of shock. I found something that I knew to look for. I became aware of the impressions that resonated after reading Siddhartha were like a double rainbow, a faint mirror of the original light, refracted and then dispersed.

When I observe global issues I find myself entering a quiet meditative state, open to accept and release what is naturally manifested. I witness that despite ignorance and flaws, it appears that there is a degree of awakened enlightenment in myself and others. People express their natural best each moment or suppress their own nature to do what they must or think they must. Some find joy and beauty in the world, and make efforts to live a righteous life that integrates their ideas of the spiritual with the material, while respecting the interconnection to all beings. Others do not. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they choose not.

I am reminded of a basic of Confucian principle that Watt expanded on p.40-41. “There are times when men’s passions are much more trustworthy than their principles… wars fought for simple greed will be far less destructive, because the aggressor will be careful not to destroy what he is fighting to capture….men who have dehumanized themselves by becoming the blind worshipers of an ideal are fanatics whose devotion to abstractions make them the enemies of life.” There is something to be said about the merits of finding the middle way.