The Way of Zen

Alan Watts's 1957 book, published by Pantheon Books, a two-part introduction to Zen Buddhism for a general Western readership: the first half traces its historical development out of Chinese Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, the second explains its principles and practice, including wu-wei, the Middle Way and anatman. It was a bestseller and is widely credited with introducing Zen to a mass Western audience more than any other single book, doing more than any other single work to carry Zen vocabulary into 1960s counterculture; it is also the book Zen teachers most often cite when arguing that Watts explained Zen fluently as a synthesist without having undergone the sitting practice or lineage training the tradition itself requires of a teacher.