These ruminations, assembled in the form of a journal and here published in paperback for the first itme, are written at Alan Watts' retreat in the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, California. Many current themes are discussed, including meditation, nature, established religion, race relations, karma and reincarnation, astrology and tantric yoga, and the nature of ecstasy, but the underlying motif is the art of feeling out and following the watercourse way of nature, known in Chinese as the Tao. Watts suggests a way of contemplative meditation in which we temporarily stop naming and classifying all that we experience, and simply feel it as it is.

'Although the general thrust of the material is philosophical, there is a wide variance in approach and subject...The mature Watts has a genius for expressing things Oriental and ecumenical in a way that is economical and precise, yet interesting and often amusing.'-Library Journal

Contents

Preface
The water
And the mountain
The watercourse way
Flowing with the Tao
The future of ecstasy
The reality of reincarnation
Implications of karma
Spectrum of love
Black and/or white
Consider the lilies
What on earth are we doing?
Incantation of the stars
Was Jesus a freak?
What shall we do with the Church?
Do you smell?
On the tantra
The art of contemplation
The zero-one amazement
Protogenesis