Wisdom Of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety - Softcover

Watts, Alan W

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712695885 ISBN 13: 9780712695886

Publisher: Rider, 1987

Synopsis

A classic look at man's search for certainty from the acclaimed expert on Eastern philosophy

In this fascinating book, Alan Watts explores man's quest for psychological security, examining our efforts to find spiritual and intellectual certainty in the realms of religion and philosophy. The Wisdom of Insecurity underlines the importance of our search for stability in an age where human life seems particularly vulnerable and uncertain.Watts argues our insecurity is the consequence of trying to be secure and that, ironically, salvation and sanity lie in the recognition that we have no way of saving ourselves.

Alan Watts was the foremost Western expert on Eastern thought, specialising in Zen Buddhism. He was the author of a number of books on the philosophy and psychology of religion, which have continued to be in popular demand over the past forty years.

About this title

Review:

Reading Alan Watts challenges us to explore new avenues of thinking, inspires us to lead more fulfilling lives. His legacy lives on in The Wisdom of Insecurity, a work that energetically displays Watts s piercing intellect, razor-sharp wit, and winning grace. For the clarity and wisdom with which it engages timeless concerns crucial to us all, it is unmatched. An important book.
Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea
Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Watts had the rare gift of writing beautifully the unwritable.
Los Angeles Times
The wisdom of insecurity is not a way of evasion, but of carrying on wherever we happen to be stationed carrying on, however, without imagining that the burden of the world, or even of the next moment, is ours. It is a philosophy not of nihilism but of the reality of the present always remembering that to be of the present is to be, and candidly know ourselves to be, on the crest of a breaking wave.
Philip Wheelwright, Arts and Letters
This book proposes a complete reversal of all ordinary thinking about the present state of man. The critical condition of the world compels us to face this problem: how is man to live in a world in which he can never be secure, deprived, as many are, of the consolations of religious belief? The author shows that this problem contains its own solution that the highest happiness, the supreme spiritual insight and certitude are found only in our awareness that impermanence and insecurity are inescapable and inseparable from life. Written in a simple and lucid style, it is a timely message.
Book Exchange (London)"

"Reading Alan Watts challenges us to explore new avenues of thinking, inspires us to lead more fulfilling lives. His legacy lives on in The Wisdom of Insecurity, a work that energetically displays Watts's piercing intellect, razor-sharp wit, and winning grace. For the clarity and wisdom with which it engages timeless concerns crucial to us all, it is unmatched. An important book."
--Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea

"Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Watts had the rare gift of 'writing beautifully the unwritable.'"
--Los Angeles Times

"The wisdom of insecurity is not a way of evasion, but of carrying on wherever we happen to be stationed--carrying on, however, without imagining that the burden of the world, or even of the next moment, is ours. It is a philosophy not of nihilism but of the reality of the present--always remembering that to be of the present is to be, and candidly know ourselves to be, on the crest of a breaking wave."
--Philip Wheelwright, Arts and Letters

"This book proposes a complete reversal of all ordinary thinking about the present state of man. The critical condition of the world compels us to face this problem: how is man to live in a world in which he can never be secure, deprived, as many are, of the consolations of religious belief? The author shows that this problem contains its own solution--that the highest happiness, the supreme spiritual insight and certitude are found only in our awareness that impermanence and insecurity are inescapable and inseparable from life. Written in a simple and lucid style, it is a timely message."
--Book Exchange (London)

Book Description:

A classic look at man's search for certainty from the acclaimed expert on Eastern philosophy

About this edition

• Publisher: Rider
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0712695885
• ISBN 13: 9780712695886
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144