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Wandering Nowhere

A Personal Journal for Everyday Inspiration

Author Alan Watts
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Hardcover
$20.00 US
Knopf | Pantheon
On sale Nov 28, 2023 | 256 Pages | 9780593317518
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A guided journal for practical wisdom and self-reflection—featuring insightful quotes, sage advice for a life well-lived, and charming illustrations—from acclaimed philosopher Alan Watts. Whether you are familiar with his work or new to it, these inspiring messages will guide you in the mindful practice of journaling.

From the quotidian to the profound, these ideas touch on themes such as:
  • Living for the present moment
  • Liberating the mind from patterns of anxiety and self-consciousness
  • The oneness of the material and the spiritual
  • Finding the playfulness of day-to-day life

Alan Watts spent a lifetime bringing ancient wisdom and spiritual revelations of Zen Buddhism to Western readers. Having written more than twenty-five books, his work represents a treasury of enlightened personal thought, compassionate disruption of convention, and warm encouragement. 

In this journal, readers will discover some of Watts’ most salient and pithy philosophical observations, from seeing through arbitrary separations prescribed by language and society to leaving behind assumptions to see things as they truly are: fleeting, yet everlasting—simple, but wondrous.
Sorrow can only be compared with the memory of joy, which is not at all the same thing as joy itself.
 
*
 
If the ego were to disappear or, rather, to be seen as a useful fiction, there would no longer be the duality of subject and object, experiencer and experience. There would simply be a continuous, self-moving stream of experiencing, without the sense either of an active subject who controls it or of a passive subject who suffers it. The thinker would be seen to be no more than the series of thoughts, and the feeler no more than the feelings.
 
*
 
One who talked incessantly, without stopping to look and listen, would repeat himself ad nauseam. It is the same with thinking, which is really silent talking. It is not, by itself, open to the discovery of anything new, for its only novelties are simply rearrangements of old words and ideas.
 
*
 
To be forever looking beyond is to remain blind to what is here.
 
*
 
So long as one thinks about listening, one cannot hear clearly, and so long as one thinks about trying or not trying to let go of oneself, one cannot let go. Yet whether one thinks about listening or not, the ears are hearing just the same, and nothing can stop the sound from reaching them.
 
*
 
The more we try to live in the world of words, the more we feel isolated and alone, the more all the joy and liveliness of things is exchanged for mere certainty and security.
Copyright © 2023 by Alan Watts. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
© Courtesy of Joan and Anne Watts
The philosopher ALAN WATTS (1915‒1973) is best known for popularizing Zen Buddhism in the United States and Europe. During his lifetime he wrote more than twenty-five books, including the bestsellers The Way of Zen and The Wisdom of Insecurity. Born in England, Watts immigrated to the United States in his twenties. His colorful and controversial life, from his school days in England, to his priesthood in the Anglican Church as chaplain of Northwestern University, to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs, made him an icon of the 1960s counterculture movement. Millions of followers continue to be enlightened by his teachings through his books, which have been published in twenty-six countries, and his lectures, which are found worldwide on the internet. View titles by Alan Watts

About

A guided journal for practical wisdom and self-reflection—featuring insightful quotes, sage advice for a life well-lived, and charming illustrations—from acclaimed philosopher Alan Watts. Whether you are familiar with his work or new to it, these inspiring messages will guide you in the mindful practice of journaling.

From the quotidian to the profound, these ideas touch on themes such as:
  • Living for the present moment
  • Liberating the mind from patterns of anxiety and self-consciousness
  • The oneness of the material and the spiritual
  • Finding the playfulness of day-to-day life

Alan Watts spent a lifetime bringing ancient wisdom and spiritual revelations of Zen Buddhism to Western readers. Having written more than twenty-five books, his work represents a treasury of enlightened personal thought, compassionate disruption of convention, and warm encouragement. 

In this journal, readers will discover some of Watts’ most salient and pithy philosophical observations, from seeing through arbitrary separations prescribed by language and society to leaving behind assumptions to see things as they truly are: fleeting, yet everlasting—simple, but wondrous.

Excerpt

Sorrow can only be compared with the memory of joy, which is not at all the same thing as joy itself.
 
*
 
If the ego were to disappear or, rather, to be seen as a useful fiction, there would no longer be the duality of subject and object, experiencer and experience. There would simply be a continuous, self-moving stream of experiencing, without the sense either of an active subject who controls it or of a passive subject who suffers it. The thinker would be seen to be no more than the series of thoughts, and the feeler no more than the feelings.
 
*
 
One who talked incessantly, without stopping to look and listen, would repeat himself ad nauseam. It is the same with thinking, which is really silent talking. It is not, by itself, open to the discovery of anything new, for its only novelties are simply rearrangements of old words and ideas.
 
*
 
To be forever looking beyond is to remain blind to what is here.
 
*
 
So long as one thinks about listening, one cannot hear clearly, and so long as one thinks about trying or not trying to let go of oneself, one cannot let go. Yet whether one thinks about listening or not, the ears are hearing just the same, and nothing can stop the sound from reaching them.
 
*
 
The more we try to live in the world of words, the more we feel isolated and alone, the more all the joy and liveliness of things is exchanged for mere certainty and security.
Copyright © 2023 by Alan Watts. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

© Courtesy of Joan and Anne Watts
The philosopher ALAN WATTS (1915‒1973) is best known for popularizing Zen Buddhism in the United States and Europe. During his lifetime he wrote more than twenty-five books, including the bestsellers The Way of Zen and The Wisdom of Insecurity. Born in England, Watts immigrated to the United States in his twenties. His colorful and controversial life, from his school days in England, to his priesthood in the Anglican Church as chaplain of Northwestern University, to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs, made him an icon of the 1960s counterculture movement. Millions of followers continue to be enlightened by his teachings through his books, which have been published in twenty-six countries, and his lectures, which are found worldwide on the internet. View titles by Alan Watts

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