/lit/'s thoughts on Alan Watts? Is he worth reading

he is entry level. but good at it.

skippable imo but not useless.

>>8778960
Anything you recommend with similar philosophy that's not so entry level? Listened to his lectures since yesterday but wasn't sure if his books holdup as well.

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Bullshit.

>>8779008
His entry level status is what makes him good imo
You get to that entrance way peer in and get the surface wisdom that the ancients had to offer but identify the rest as bullshit so you can move on.
He's great, but if you're looking to turn Buddhist or something...

His books are better than his lectures. I recommend This Is It. Also, the closest religious tradition to him is advaita Vedanta so you might wanna check that out.

I had him in high regard until i actually started listening to him.
It's straight pseudoscience combined with pseudophilosophy

>>8779008

His books are definitely worth a read. Just found an original Wisdom of Insecurity yesterday.
He often gets shit on like

>>8780913 and
>>8778960

, but no "advanced level" alternatives are ever offered, unless it's Joseph Campbell or Eckhart Tolle, who are more entry level imo.
Also, Watts has a lot of less well-known books that shouldn't be overlooked.

Started listening to his lectures while on a 500uq LSD trip, nearly drove me insane. He'd say some shit and I'd get 10 layers deep into my imagination thinking about it, snap out of it after half an hour and realize I was still in my room, he'd say some more shit before I could stop the video and it'd happen again.

Fucking hours like that.

The Wisdom of Insecurity is one of my favorites of Watts. His books are better than his lectures imo, but both are useful. Watts to me is existential heroin. He doesnt need to make a dense 500 page philosophical manual to communicate his simple and profound ideas and thats why i like him.

"What you are basically, deep deep down, far far in, is simply... the fabric and structure of existence itself."

Well, those old radio programs of his are definitely fun to listen to. That's just beyond debate, in my opinion. But I think the degree to which one will actually profit from them kind of depends on how interested in mysticism one is. Remember, too, that he was a legit Anglican priest before he went rogue, so I think his foundation was really solid. I haven't even read him, by the way, but his radio shows conjure up the image of an especially intelectual and well-read person with a very pronounced streak of mischievousness, who dropped acid and for the rest of his life just had a flood of interesting ideas.

if most orators were only as clear and well-spoken and pleasurable to listen to as watts. chomsky and zizek I'm looking at you... buuutttt, uuuuuuhhhhhh, aannddd, uuuhhh... sniff sniff

>>8781774
not that anon but campbell more entry-level than watts? I think not. a good route would be watts -> campbell -> jung

>>8783016
Considering Campbell is largely a commentary on Jungian theory, I don't see why you would put the former before the latter.

What are some Watts lectures I can listen to ?

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>>8783026

Just search YouTube for "Alan Watts Lecture" and follow the links from one to the next. They tend to be fairly long, an hour or so each, and there are more than a hundred of them. If you like to draw or make stuff, he's good to listen to while you're working. I also listen to him at night sometimes, just laying in bed in the dark.

http://deoxy.org/watts.htm

>>8783020
true, perhaps man and his symbols before any general campbell, then more jung. he is more vast (and dense) and what campbell touches on and should be read more in depth after

>>8779008
Buddhism, thats basically all he is

>>8783096
agreed

>>8783095
thank you. Also holy shit where is that picture from, it is incredible

>>8778928
he's a cultist

>>8783241
Its an illustration from My Diary Desu

>>8778928
Empty feelgoods dressed in eastern terminology. Just another burnout capturing the wishful thinking of the other burnouts. Telling them what they want to be told in exchange for guru status.

No. He is not worth reading. There are infinite other philosophers who more carefully choose their words, more thoroughly scrutinize their points and opinions, and more boldly define their terms and cite their sources and risk stepping out of ambiguous interchangeable terminologies into the possibility of being wrong.

>>8783251

rude