Category: reading

I began with a book. It felt intriguing and worth trying: The book on the taboo against knowing who you are, by Alan Watts.

Just a few pages into the book, there was an interesting analogy on Buddhism and Christianity. It also covered the ideology of belief in God.

For a few years, I was fond of following through books related to beliefs and culture. Whenever I see or read through the Bible or Bhagavad Gita, I notice many things are preached similarly. It seems people have understood it differently. However, the ideology behind each is to focus on ourselves. It is not about the myths or stories behind them.

It is crazy, how people interpret things in their own fashion and fight on these aspects. The following ideology which the author says he would teach his kids sounds interesting :

He demonstrated a really effective way of tackling children’s questions about the existence of God.

I researched more about this author. In his later life, Alan Watts was not connected to Roman Catholicism. He was also not linked with Protestantism. He began as an Anglican priest, but later became more interested in Buddhism and Eastern philosophy. He eventually left the Episcopal Church and focused on popularizing Zen and Eastern religious and philosophical ideas.

Everything made sense, how his book leaned towards Vedanta myths and ideologies. Not much people try to compare between these beliefs, since criticism is an easy way in these topics.

I am not sure how the book explores self-discovery. It addresses the taboo about knowing who you are. However, I surely liked the author’s mindset over the beliefs.