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I don't think Eastern spirituality is strictly impossible for Westerners. I can't even see how that judgment could be made assuming the truth of the judgment. lol French, I guess. Anyway, there was a time that I was interested in investigating Eastern spirituality, but what I found was, for the most part, disappointing. What was interesting only buttered me up for Heidegger, who I'm more and more coming to consider a dead-end. I'm beginning to suspect Asian exceptionalism at play.
As for Alan Watts, it wasn't merely that he was a popular philosopher. I also got the sense that he served as fashion fodder for pretend spirituality. For example, he's the kind of guy I imagine the millionaire CEOs with the Zen garden in their office would listen to commune with the "Tao" of the free market. I had a business major friend who told be that he was both a Buddhist and an Objectivist. He never mentioned his philosophical beliefs after my extensive verbal critique. He was the first to introduce me to Watts, by the way.
And Nietzsche explains himself: Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. This was always a spiritual aphorism.
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