Point Epithetical Books The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Title:The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Author:Alan W. Watts
Book Format:Mass Market Paperback
Book Edition:Anniversary Edition
Pages:Pages: 163 pages
Published:August 28th 1989 by Vintage (first published 1966)
Categories:Philosophy. Nonfiction. Spirituality. Psychology. Religion. Self Help. Buddhism
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The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 163 pages
Rating: 4.27 | 14749 Users | 804 Reviews

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Alan Watts asks what is the cause of the illusion that the self is a separate ego, housed in a bag of skin, and which confronts a universe of physical objects that are alien to it. Rather a person's identity (their ego) binds them to the physical universe, creating a relationship with their environment and other people. The separation of the self and the physical world leads to the misuse of technology and the attempt to violently subjugate man's natural environment, leading to its destruction. Explaining man's role in the universe as a unique expression of the total universe, and interdependent on it, Alan Watts offers a new understanding of personal identity. It reveals the mystery of existence, presenting and alternative to the feelings of alienation that is prevalent in Western society, and a vision of how we can come to understand the cosmic self that is within every living thing.

Mention Books Conducive To The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Original Title: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
ISBN: 0679723005 (ISBN13: 9780679723004)


Rating Epithetical Books The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Ratings: 4.27 From 14749 Users | 804 Reviews

Evaluate Epithetical Books The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
This book really started everything for me. I read it when I was nineteen (I'm thirty-nine now). I still can remember things from it very clearly. The idea that we are not separate egos walking around in bags of skin; the skin is permeable, and we're connected with everything. There is a confluence in this book of Native American tradition and the consciousness which expanded in the American 60s. If you've ever dropped acid, ate shrooms, been stoned, then this book will be very accessible. Even

Do you sometimes get the feeling that there is an unwritten taboo written all across the faces of the faceless crowd around you? That they're all walking on EGGSHELLS? If you've ever thought that, says Alan Watts, you're right!It's the taboo against knowing who you REALLY are. It's the "unbearable lightness of being." The impossibility of getting any real answers. The immense difficulty in getting to the bottom of yourself. Or even finding a secure foundation for an endless stream of very random

The core of his argument is that Western society is plagued with an overabundance of ego. Which is not to say that we are overly full of ourselves (OK, that is kind of what it says), but that our confusion, frustration with life, and overall isolation from one another stems from this cultural meme that the individual exists wholly separate from everything else.Watts finds the Hindu/Buddhist notion of a "ground of being" in place of God to be helpful in dispelling this notion of ego. If we accept

I think there is something to be said on the nature of 'dated philosophy'.While Watts makes some valid points in terms of the ego, the id and the ever present "I", I still think his philosophy is somewhat flawed. Not only that, but this book (perhaps the edition I have as it was an old library copy" suffers from somewhat antiquated analogies in publications and books that no one reads anymore.. or in fact even knows.I did appreciate that the book was an attempt to get the average person out of

This is basically another one of those ecstatic proclamations made by a western intellectual (read: grown up among Transcendent religions, the extreme form of which being christianity) upon 'discovering' eastern, more Immanence-based traditions. At the time, the book might have had certain claims to progress -- especially considering how, half a century later, the world's consciousness is still enslaved by colonialism and the industrial west -- yet the cause of the book is lost early-on, when on

Another Eastern-Western fusion philosophy book, with the characteristic mixture of profundity and cruelty. No, let me be more clear: I get easily seduced into the ontology that shows the ego as a naughty trickster, and troubles the boundaries between bodies and worlds. But the moment all human suffering and evil is written off as illusion I start to get embarrassed for the author. A bold move for a white man to make in 1966.This isn't to say he's not right. What do I know?(Just as a heads up:

Watts says humans are connected to everything around us so that we and the universe are one. The goal of Eastern thought is to tap into that oceanic feeling and love and harmony will result. This perspective he contrasts with Western thought, which is atomistic and ego-based, leading to competition, domination and conflict. Watts has an interesting writing style. Points and themes fade in and out, like a smooth power point, and he takes the reader along for an almost mesmerizing ride until one