tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post1120119892564000734..comments2024-03-18T19:18:22.082-07:00Comments on RAWIllumination.net: Alan Watts -- A key RAW influenceCleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-79657064933119938682014-11-25T15:05:16.053-08:002014-11-25T15:05:16.053-08:00Alan Watts in love with Jean Burden, the poet, for...Alan Watts in love with Jean Burden, the poet, for the last fifteen or twenty years of his life. She was the ,"important influence, " he speaks of below:<br /><br /><br />Alan Watts and Jean Burden Linked <br /><br /> There is a " cryptographic ," puzzle to solve in his autobiography , "In My Own Way"(footnote, Page297) by Alan Watts.<br /> Alan wrote that when solved it would reveal another influence his life. It is up to you to judge how strong this influence might be.<br /> Writing close to his death , he listed :" Alice Meynell, Walter de la Mare, Emily Dickinson , Kenneth Rexroth, Karl Shapiro, Jean Burden, Eric Barker." He then stated that a "cryptographic study would produce a clue to this important influence." One need study a dedicatory poem ,Alan instructed, found in his book "Nature, Man , and Woman " (published 1958) from which the answer could be obtained. It follows:<br /><br />To the beloved company of the stars, the moon, and the sun;<br />to ocean, air, and the silence of space;<br />to jungle, glacier, and desert,<br />soft earth, clear water, and fire on my hearth.<br />To a certain waterfall in a high forest;<br />to night rain upon the roof and the wide leaves,<br />grass in the wind, tumult of sparrows in a bush,<br />and eyes which give light to the day.<br /><br /><br /><br />The answer takes the first letter from the second word in lines three, four , five and six.<br /><br /> j<br /><br /> e<br /><br /> a<br /><br /> n<br /><br /><br />Jean Burden, the poet , poetry editor of Yankee magazine,(AKA Felicia Ames) ,is the solution to the cryptograph in the "dedicatory" poem Alan Watts wrote for "Nature, Man and Woman."<br />They were lovers for five years. Jean would not have him as he could not be faithful. Alan then married Jano.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08722182016139470318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-26085173177447024932013-11-29T16:40:40.989-08:002013-11-29T16:40:40.989-08:00Terrific piece, although Moses Horwitz had perhaps...Terrific piece, although Moses Horwitz had perhaps an even greater influence of Bob. (Horwitz didn't die until 1975.)<br /><br />I too started reading Watts with The Way of Zen. I read it in 1982 on a trip to New Mexico with my dad. I also had The Eye in the Triangle with Regardie with me. I love Watts's short essay on his relationship with D. T. Suzuki.Eric Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04312033917401203598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-72623224211011922532013-11-29T16:19:48.799-08:002013-11-29T16:19:48.799-08:00I read my first Alan Watts book
(The Way of Zen) i...I read my first Alan Watts book<br />(<i>The Way of Zen</i>) in around 1960, but far more influential were his weekly talks on radio station KPFK in Los Angeles where I lived at the time (they were rebroadcasts of the original talks on KPFA in Berkeley.) Watts' thinking was much more lucid in the talks and covered a far wider range of experience than the books. Mark Watts has gathered transcripts of many of these talks into a number of books (my favorite, <i>What is Taoism?</i>) and I would give my highest recommendation to these.fyreflyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03567375730311004673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-10956765633888373312013-11-29T10:32:13.458-08:002013-11-29T10:32:13.458-08:00Alan Watts had a great influence on me. I read lot...Alan Watts had a great influence on me. I read lots of his books and got ideas like:<br />The environment is our body.<br />Light shines in darkness because what else could it shine in?<br />Police enforcing victimless-crime laws are armed clergymen<br />and lots more.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09185407812378193683noreply@blogger.com