The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety 2nd edition

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety 2nd edition

“Anyone whose life needs a course correction would be fortunate to be guided by The Wisdom of Insecurity. My life still is, some thirty years later.” —Deepak Chopra, from the IntroductionAlan W. Watts’s “message for an age of anxiety” is as powerful today as it was when this modern classic was first published. We spend too much time trying to anticipate and plan for the future; too much time lamenting the past. We often miss the pleasures of the moment in our anxious efforts to ensure the next moment is as enjoyable. Drawing from Eastern philosophy and religion, Watts argues that it is only by acknowledging what we do not and cannot know, that we can find something truly worth knowing. In order to lead a fulfilling life, one must embrace the present—live fully in the now. Elegantly reasoned and lucidly written, this philosophical achievement contains all the wisdom and spirit that distinguished Watts’s long career and resonates with us still.

Alan Watts is “the perfect guide for a course correction in life, away from materialism and its empty promise” (Deepak Chopra). Here he shows us how—in an age of unprecedented anxiety—we must embrace the present and live fully in the now in order to live a fulfilling life.

Spending all our time trying to anticipate and plan for the future and lamenting the past, we forget to embrace the here and now. We are so concerned with tomorrow that we forget to enjoy today. Drawing from Eastern philosophy and religion, Alan Watts shows that it is only by acknowledging what we do not—and cannot—know that we can learn anything truly worth knowing.

“Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Watts had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the unwritable.’” —Los Angeles Times