Apr 14 2008
Book Review: The Way of Zen
This morning I finished reading The Way of Zen by Alan Watts during my daily commute. I’ve been reading it for the last couple of weeks, though it’s not that long a book (about 200 pages). I just only have about 15-20 minutes in each direction. It’s been my experience that I can’t read things which require a great deal of concentration because of all the distractions. That being the cast, it would probably seem strange I was able to read a book on a cerebral topic like Zen in that situation, but it worked out just fine.
I’ll admit this is not my first run through on Zen, so it wasn’t really a wholely new subject. That probably made things easier. Even still, The Way of Zen was definitely a mind twister in place. The book first provides a history of Zen’s development as kind of merger of Buddhist and Taoist ideals, then goes on to explain its principles. I think Watts did a great job trying to explain things in a way that was approachable by the Western mind.
Of course my mind probably isn’t strictly a Western one in its thought processes, although certainly that’s been my education a training. I’ve always found Eastern philosophies much more applicable to my own personal view on things – to include trading.
Good stuff!
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