• The Way Of Zen
• The Spirit Of Zen
• "This Is It" And Other Essays On Zen And Spiritual Experience
• The Modern Mystic: A New Collection Of Early Writings
• Talking Zen
• Buddhism: The Religion Of No-Religion• Zen And The Beat Way
• What Is Zen?
• The Meaning Of Happiness
• The Wisdom Of Insecurity
• The Philosophies Of Asia

Philosopher, writer, speaker, expert in comparative religion, an interpreter of Asian religion and philosophies

Read Alan Watts for interpretative work on Zen.

• Born in England in 1915 and attended King's College School Canterbury.

• Watts felt forced to decide between the Anglican Christianity he had been exposed to and the Buddhism he had read about in various libraries. He chose Buddhism, and sought membership in the London Buddhist Lodge and run by the barrister Christmas Humphreys. Watts became the organization’s secretary at age 16. Thereafter, he read widely in philosophy, history, psychology, psychiatry, and Eastern wisdom, and associated with many eminent spiritual writers, both within and without Buddhism.

• In 1936, at 21 years old, Watts got his first book published The Spirit of Zen. He served on the Council of the World Congress of Faiths (1936-38) and left for United States in 1939. Watts entered an Anglican (Episcopalian) school (Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, in Evanston), where he studied Christian scriptures, theology, and Church history. He attempted to work out a blend of contemporary Christian worship, mystical Christianity, and Asian philosophy. Watts was awarded a masters degree in theology in response to the thesis which he published as a popular edition under the title Behold the Spirit.

• Became an Episcopalian priest (1945) but later left the ministry (1950). Joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies, in San Francisco (1951) till mid 1950s. He published The Way of Zen (1957). He was engaged in broadcasting and lecture tours for a few years. He continued with his explorations, interpretations and cross-cultural experimentation. In the mid-sixties he traveled widely with his students in Japan, and visited Burma, Ceylon, and India.

• As an author he wrote more than twenty-five books, both Zen Buddhism and others, and recorded hundreds of lecture and seminars, all building toward a self-expressed and personal philosophy.

• He died in 1973 at his home in California.