Alan Watts, who died in 1973, used to call himself a "philosophical entertainer." He introduced millions of Americans to Eastern religions. This book consists of lectures recorded on his tour of Japan in 1965 and a 1969 seminar. Watts in a lively and accessible style talks about Zen as a practical, nonintellectual way of life. With its lack of emphasis upon institutions and belief systems, it stresses instead the transformation of consciousness and the mutual interdependence of all things. In a companion volume, Myth and Religion, Watts reflects upon the mystical origins of Christianity, the teachings of Jesus, and the inadequacy of the image of God as a severe patriarch. The iconoclastic author prefers the Hindu views of the world as play. In both of these edifying volumes, Watts comes across as a spiritual trickster whose enthusiasm for religion is contagious.