This book explores an unrecognized but mighty taboo--our tacit conspiracy to
ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent
sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination
which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy
religions of the East--in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy
of Hinduism. This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent
subjugation of man's natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction.
We are therefore in urgent need of
a sense of our own existence which is in accord with the physical facts and
which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. For this purpose
I have drawn on the insights of Vedanta, stating them, however, in a completely
modern and Western style--so that this volume makes no attempt to be a textbook
on or introduction to Vedanta in the ordinary sense. It is rather a cross-fertilization
of Western science with an Eastern intuition.
Particular thanks are due to my wife,
Mary Jane, for her careful editorial work and her comments on the manuscript.
Gratitude is also due to the Bollingen Foundation for its support of a project
which included the writing of this book.
ALAN WATTS Sausalito, California January, 1966