Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

Top positive review

Heal and improve your mind and life

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019

I was raised in a cult for half my life. When I woke up and left in my early forties it was a deeply difficult and painful process. I read many many books to help me heal and formulate a new world view and this book is one of the most important and most meaningful to me in that process. It is in my top 3 of MUST READ life changing books to improve our minds and life. I love love love this book!

117 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

Puppy Mama

It’s ok

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2021

Bought this because I was curious, however, while I agree with Watts, nothing written in this book is groundbreaking or new, and he definitely borrows a lot from similar thinkers. I think he also has a tendency to use a lot of jargon and unnecessary analogies for the sake of it.

3 people found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

3,365 total ratings, 647 with reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

MountainManCO

Heal and improve your mind and life

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

117 people found this helpful

Helpful

Patrick F

You Are the Moment

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Alan Watts writes with simple, lucid logic that is nearly impossible for me to summarize. His argument holds together like a long string of connected puzzle pieces and to take any out is to lose the impact of his philosophy. I would thoroughly recommend reading Watts’ work, but would recommend against trusting me to accurately convey his system of thought aside from this one major point: live in the present.

Watts begins right at the heart of the matter by emphasizing why it is illogical to live for the future or to dwell on the past. He writes, “If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish into the abyss of death” (15). He takes time to explore how the modern western mind is plagued by anxiety and hope for the future while forgetting that the future is an eternally moving goalpost. While some of his ideas certainly buck the prevailing mindset--especially that held by wide swaths of Christians--Watts proceeds graciously and with respect to the difficulty some will have with digesting the idea that we ought not be fixated on heaven but experience the eternal in the present moment alone.

Watts continues with some linguistically based logical arguments exploring the concepts of faith, belief, God. He peppers in difficult concepts and then immediately explains them with such clarity that his system of thought is obviously in concert with the workings of the universe. Watts’ next chapter argues for the need of accepting both pleasure and pain in the present moment and to avoid chasing the future as it invalidates the present. In writing about the pursuit of financial stability, he notes, “Instead of earning a living [many people] are mostly earning an earning and thus when the time comes to relax they are unable to do so” (36).

Change, Watts proclaims in his next chapter, is an unchanging reality of life. Everything changes and “when we fail to see that our life is change, we set ourselves against ourselves and become like the Ouroboros” (43). Watts argues that words cannot capture reality, but are only symbols representing parts of the infinitely complex, interconnected universe. He takes time to explore the inadequacy of both science and religion in grasping reality through defining it--a slippery and unsatisfying pursuit. So, what is reality? It is “this ultimate something which cannot be defined or fixed [and] can be represented by the word God” (55).

Some more interesting ideas:
“Since what we know of the future is made up of purely abstract and logical elements--inferences, guesses, deductions--it cannot be eaten, felt, smelled, seen, heard, or otherwise enjoyed. To pursue it is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs ahead” (60-61).
“The brain can only assume its proper behavior when consciousness is doing what it is designed for: not writhing and whirling to get out of present experience, but being effortlessly aware of it” (73).
“A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet” (78).
“The craving for security is itself a pain and a contradiction...the more we pursue it, the more painful it becomes” (78).
“To be aware of reality, of the living present, is to discover that each moment the experience is all. There is nothing else beside it--no experience of ‘you’ experiencing the experience” (89).
On being the present moment (Watts says we are not to live in the present moment so much as to realize that we inescapably are the present moment) and experiencing pain: “Seeing that there is no escape from the pain, the mind yields to it, absorbs it, and becomes conscious of just pain without any ‘I’ feeling it or resisting it. It experiences pain in the same complete, unselfconscious way in which it experiences pleasure. Pain is the nature of this present moment, and I can only live in this moment...pain and the effort to be separate from it are the same thing” (97-98).
“Realize that you live in, that indeed you are this moment now, and no other, that apart from this there is no past and no future, you must relax and taste to the full, whether it be pleasure or pain” (115-116). While some of these notions may seem so abstract, Watts takes time and care to illustrate how Western religions have put forward the same ideas couched in different language and distorted by time.

If I keep writing quotations, you’ll eventually read the whole book. Much of the power of Watts’ thought, I’m realizing, cannot be captured in soundbytes, but must be considered in context. I would encourage any reader seeking to find simple fulfillment in the present moment to give Watts a chance. I will certainly return to this book in the future and I look forward to reading more of what Watts has to say.

A-

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Szafranski

"It Is Finished"

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Maybe the single best Alan Watts book. If you get this book, and really get "It", and you will know if you really got "It", your search for "It" will be finished. For you will have realized that you are "It". Always have been, always will be.

119 people found this helpful

Helpful

Paul Larcombe

Beautiful playful thoughtful dance of philosophy

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Alan Watts writes a wonderful view of life. Touching on the understandings of Christianity and Zen Buddhism and how they approach the understanding of human life. Of particular interest to me was the philosophy of I and Me. Thinking about thinking is so fun too..... A book that is wonderful to understand nature and appreciate adventure in life inspirational. Dance like no one is watching and enjoy this book a wonderful read dont think too hard on it and its a fun insighful beautiful book some real key thoughts on leading a beautiful life.

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

applewoodTop Contributor: Blues Music

The Illusion of "I"

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a delightfully fresh and direct book from Watts. I have been reading him on and off for the past 35+ years and this seems to me to be something of a breakthrough for/from him, really expressing a very clear experience of being in the moment. It is easy to read (large print, simple words), but the meaning is deep and profound, and he says it all in a way that is both clearly simple and yet playfully fresh. And he does this without a lot of cultural baggage (East or West), so making it especially powerful and approachable for modern readers (yet also remarkable in that he wrote this in 1951).

Over and over he points out what is real (what we all know), and yet indescribable;

"What is true and positive is too real and too living to be described, and to try to describe it is like putting red paint on a red rose." (p.76)

"Indeed, every experience is in this sense new, and at every moment in our lives we are in the midst of the new and unknown. At this point you receive the experience without resisting it or naming it, and the whole sense of conflict between "I" and the present reality vanishes." (p.94)

"The meaning of freedom can never be grasped by the divided mind. If I feel separate from my experience, and from the world, freedom will seem to be the extent to which I can push the world around, and fate the extent to which the world pushes me around. But to the whole mind there is no contrast of "I" and the world. There is just one process acting, and it does everything that happens.... No one fates and no one is being fated." (p. 122)

And the way he finishes the book is perhaps best of all;

"Discovering this the mind becomes whole; the split between I and me, man and the world, the ideal and the real, comes to an end. Paranoia, the mind beside itself, becomes metanoia, the mind with itself and so free from itself. Free from clutching at themselves the hands can handle; free from looking at themselves the eyes can see; free from trying to understand itself thought can think. In such feeling, seeing, and thinking life requires no future to complete itself nor explanation to justify itself. In this moment it is finished." (p. 152)

And he could just as easily have said, in this moment it begins.

62 people found this helpful

Helpful

David Amorim

Reader beware: This is NOT a PRACTICAL book

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

I know that had Alan Watts been live, and had he seen the title of this review, he would have possible stomped his foot on the ground or even slapped me into my senses while saying: "BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT."

And I understand why he would say that. I understood (albeit not perfectly) the message that he is trying to pass on. Watts is the most Eastern Westerner I know. His philosophies, particularly in this book, can lead into a metaphysical web that could leave you stuck indefinitely. At this same time, if you peel back the philosophical layers, which he helps you do at times, you will notice that the message, at its core, is always simple. He is begging the reader not to eliminate the ego, but to come to a full realization, a hyper awareness of sorts, that there is NO ego - that the ego, or the "I," is simply a figment of imagination. There is no method to achieve this hyper-awareness, no guide, no set of instructions, but only this imperative: "Look!"

I may be just a tad bit too simplistic to fully grasp the significance of this, but I believe that at times I caught a glimpse of the implications of Watt's message. To live perfectly in the moment, to understand that the experience and the "experiencer" are one in the same just as a wave is not part of the ocean, but is the ocean, all of it - I can begin to fathom how one would be able to shed so much pretense and predispositions. Or not, I don't know.

My personal opinion is that there are gems in this book, but as it is with all things, anything in excess is harmful. This book sells Eastern thought in its entirety, and I believe that no, Alan Watt's does not have the answer to the meaning of life (which he would probably agree to me saying) and I don't think you'll find in this book all the answers to your questions. It is a refreshing read though, at least it was for me. I really had to break down my mind, my prejudices, my perceptions and realize that my reality is truly the product of my own mind - and that I can change that, if I want to.

In any case, a worthy read, but definitely not a book if you're looking for "10 Ways to Reduce Anxiety." It is rather an exhortation to awareness.

301 people found this helpful

Helpful

Simon

Book for a people with a very specific mindset

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

Not sure how one can give a bad review to a book. If you did not like a book, it just means YOU did not like a book, it doesn't mean a book is bad. So... I did not like this book, because I just do not like and do not agree with ideas that author expressed in this book. It was neither inspirational, not educational for me. That, unfortunately, was the worst book I read last year. I saw no benefits in reading it. But... I know people who would love it, therefore, it was unregretfully gifted to a co-workers. Although book is not expensive, you may want to read some extracts from it, if you can find, before purchasing

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

Meredith G.

Think Less, Be More

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

A great short book that describes the secret of fulfillment and peace is to think less and be more. Only paranoia and suffering come from over-analyzing our own experiences. Yet even doing that is noble, because it takes us on the journey to <em>know</em> things... until finally we know enough to realize we know nothing, and can, exhausted, open our arms to all of our experience, including what we fear and disdain, and accept ourselves for who, where, and how we are. Then we can get into <em>flow</> with life (and death, all experience, really). And we can just enjoy the ride.

Helpful

Timothy Schosek

more organized than his lectures/speeches

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

If you've heard his lectures on youtube or somewhere, you can hear his voice and laughter in your head as you're reading this. It seemed better than his lectures to me because it was more organized, like a treatise, as opposed to him talking about life and simply sharing his wisdom. I think he was younger when he wrote it, but I'm not sure.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Dianne J. Jones

Intriguing and amazing

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2022

Verified Purchase

It is a challenging book. I will need to re-read it but I am recommending it to my children. It clarifies and challenged me to think and re-read continually to learn and comprehend. I really feel enlightened.

Helpful

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

5 star		82%
4 star		11%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

›

Customer reviews