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Decorative; adjacent title and creator provide identity.Book

BOOK · L2 · INNER ATLAS REVIEWED

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

1966; exact edition represented by linked catalog record where available

STARTING FRAMECross-traditional — popular nondual philosophy
EXPLORESConsciousness & Reality
ENGAGEMENT EFFORTApproachable
HOW IT MAY HELPExplore thoughtfully

A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION

What this book explores

A playful argument that the isolated ego is a social fiction and that persons belong to a larger field of life and reality.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Why it’s in the Library

It makes relational identity vivid without demanding technical philosophy. The book is especially useful as a bridge from individualism toward ecological and nondual imagination, provided its cross-traditional claims remain open to scrutiny.

Good starting place if…

The isolated individual self feels increasingly implausible and you want a playful argument that persons belong to wider biological, social, and cosmic processes.

Know before you begin…

Watts combines Asian philosophies, ecology, and Western critique into his own popular synthesis. His metaphors are philosophical invitations rather than empirical proof, and similarities among traditions should not erase their different accounts of self and reality.