[purpletoned]

Alan watts' writing is exemplary. The thing I like about his writing is that it's written with an outsider's perspective and critical thinking is never discarded unlike most other books on eastern philosophy. I highly recommend his book "The Joyous Cosmology" where he talks about psychedelic experiences and their effects on spirituality.

[1stop]

That's a pretty broad generalisation. There is A LOT of eastern philosophy, so much so, that I doubt you've read even close to 'most other books' on it.

I'm curious of where in Confucius or Mencius critical thinking is discarded?

Though, ironically, Alan Watts actually has a number criticisms of critical thinking as well (in both article and recorded lectures). Zen (from it's daoist roots) isn't discarding critical thinking, it is pointing out its limitations.

[Wintamute]

He's talking about books written on eastern philosophy, not books of eastern philosophy. Granted, I doubt he's read every western book on eastern philosophy but it doesn't seem an unreasonable statement to suggest that many of them likely do not reach the same level critical analysis that Watts' output did.