Zen and the Beat Way

“It’s easy to see why…his influence remains strong, not only in the Buddhist sanghas mushrooming across America but throughout popular culture…” —The New York Times“One of the best chapters in this book is “Zen and the Art of the Controlled Accident” where the author explores indirection and the Eastern view of the floating world that vanishes. Oddly enough Zen and the Beat Way is thoroughly Western Zen — it is testament to the enduring impact of Alan Watts on contemporary spiritual seekers.” —Spirituality & Practice

Alan Watts (1915-1973) was a former Episcopal priest, born in London in 1915. He came to the U.S. in the 1930s, where he would become a scholar of Eastern religions. He moved to San Francisco in 1951 where he began teaching Buddhist studies, and in 1956 began his popular radio show, Way Beyond the West. By the early 1960s, Alan’s radio talks aired nationally and the counterculture movement adopted him as a spiritual spokesperson. He went on to write more than twenty other books. He died in 1973.