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Review of The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966) by Alan Watts
People often ask me what Alan Watts book they should read.
In my humble opinion, having read every book he’s published, The Book is his magnum opus.
Reading it feels like being let in on a secret you’ve always known to be true, but never heard articulated before. It changed my life, and is the book that pulled me out of atheism.
This is where Watts delivers his most profound insight, which is the core insight of Zen, with unmatched clarity: “You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” “You are it.” “That art thou.” “Tat tvam asi.”
His other works are all phenomenal, but many are collections of essays. This one is a single, fully realized idea taken all the way to fruition.
This is it.
Published at
2026-04-25 15:12:07 UTCEvent JSON
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