Born in January 1915, Alan Watts was a philosopher and writer who had a significant impact on the West's view of Eastern spirituality and philosophical thinking in the mid-twentieth century. As a writer, he produced over two dozen books with some notable titles such as, 'The Way of Zen' becoming a best-seller after it was first published in 1957. One of the key points of his writing was to interpret Buddhism in a way that had more in common with psychotherapies than a religion, the way that many Western thinkers continued to regard it at the time. Alongside Buddhism, Alan Watts wrote extensively on the subjects of pantheism, Hinduism and traditional Chinese philosophy.
The spiritual leader of the Tibetan form of Buddhism, known as Gelug, the term Dalai Lama is an honorific title. In Tibetan, Dalai means oceanic or expansive, and Lama means master or guru. The Tibetan way of writing Dalai Lama is ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Dalai Lamas who were spiritual leaders also headed the Tibetan government as regents. Various degrees of Chinese control, notably under the Qing dynasty, have been established over Tibet since then. The Dalai Lama continues to advocate for Tibetan people and Buddhists more generally since the People's Republic of China took over Tibet in 1951. However, he wields no direct political power. In terms of his spirituality, the Dalai Lama teaches Lamrim, the stages towards Enlightenment, and Sunyata, a word that relates to meditation, meaning openness or emptiness.
Born in 1928, Maya Angelou was a prolific writer but also a singer, a stage performer, an academic and a civil rights activist. Her writing is often pigeon-holed as autobiographical fiction in which the novels and poems she produced are based on her own real-life experiences. That said, Maya Angelou was also a very experienced non-fiction writer. Particularly so when she worked as a journalist in the middle of the twentieth century, covering the decolonisation of both Egypt and Ghana for the American press. As a civil rights activist, she worked with many of the important leaders of the time, including Malcolm X and Doctor Martin Luther King. In her work, there are several recurrent themes which include identity, travel, racism, gender politics and the role of the family.
