"Everything disappears into nothing at all, but out of that same nothing at all come all the new things, forever and ever." —Alan Watts

Watts' teachings during an era of turmoil and political strife are as timely today as they were over 50 years ago. The fascinating essays in this collection include:
●"The Beat Way of Life" How the Beats lived an uncomplicated Zen life and despite being denigrated as worthless slackers, like Eastern thinkers, they actively pursued "an arduous course of spiritual and psychological discipline"
●"Return to the Forest" How the popular works of the writer Joseph Campbell influenced the earliest Beat traditions by advocating the internal search for individual truth over learned schools of thought
●"The Democratization of Buddhism" How Buddhism is actually a "religion of no-religion," that conveys the spiritual through the everyday and the ordinary and recognizes no division between the two

This book is an engaging introduction to Watts' fascinating and enduring Zen teachings.

禅とビート・ジェネレーション
アメリカのカウンターカルチャーの源流を作り出した、「ビート・ジェネレーション」を象徴する人物の一人、アラン・ワッツによる禅の入門書。ワッツは、古い価値観からの解放を目指したビート・ジェネレーションの哲学と禅が共鳴した時代に、西洋の聴衆に向けて初めて、ラジオや著書を通して禅を語りました。本書では、禅仏教の教えをはじめ、ビートニクたちの簡素な禅生活や神話学者ジョーゼフ・キャンベルによる影響を紹介します。