Myth and religion: the edited transcripts

123 Pages·1996·1.821 MB·English

by  Watts, Alan

MYTH
AND
RELIGION
THE EDITED TRANSCRIPTS
ALAN WATTS
at a seminar aboard the SS Valle;o, 1966
MYTH
AND
RELIGION
THE EDITED TRANSCRIPTS
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-Alan Watts, 1951

COt'1TENTS
Introduction lX
I.U ltimAautteh ority 1
II.NotWh at ShouBled,
ButWh at Is! 19
IIIJ.esus-HRiesl igoirot nh,e
ReligAiboonu Hti m? 9
3
N. Democraicnty h Kien gdom
OfH eaven
SS
v. The ImagoefsM an
73
VI. ReligainodSn e xuality 91

INTRODUCTION
D
uring his last television appearance in 1973
Alan Watts was asked what it was he found
lacking in modern Christianity that led him
toward Far Eastern philosophies, and he
replied that it was an experiential basis. Simply put, the
knowledge of transcendental or mystical experience has
been lost in the mythology of modern Western religions,
and with it has disappeared the original source of spiri­
tual authority.
In the West ultimate authority is based on "the
word of God" as it has been handed down to us as part
of a mythotOgy in which humans are the creations of a