A spiritual polymath, the first and possibly greatest' Deepak Chopra What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously Too often we fall into the trap of anticipating the future while lamenting the past and in the midst of this negative loop we forget how to live in the now. In this iconic and prescient text, pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts shows us how, in an age of unprecedented anxiety, we must embrace the present in order to live a fulfilling life.