Summary of Alan W. Watts's The Way of Zen EPUB

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Zen Buddhism is a way of life that is not affiliated with any of the formal categories of modern Western thought. It is not religion or philosophy, and it is not a psychology or a type of science. It is an example of what is known in India and China as a way of liberation.

#2 The task of education is to make children fit to live in a society by teaching them to accept its codes, which are the rules and conventions of communication. The child must learn how to speak, understand, and accept many other forms of code.

#3 The conventional self or person is made up of a history of selected memories and past events. We learn to identify ourselves with this view of ourselves, for it is far from adequate but it is also far from incorrect.

#4 The linear, one-at-a-time character of speech and thought is especially noticeable in alphabets, which represent experience in long strings of letters. It is not easy to say why we must communicate with others and with ourselves by this one-at-a-time method.