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Alan Watts

Flickering said:
What you say about his attempts to demystify some ideas is very much in line with some of the recordings I've heard. He described that a spiritual seeker would be initiated into a mystery school by being made to undergo all manner of ridiculous ordeals and trials. It was only when he realised he'd been made to chase himself in circles that he could finally settle down into the real business of things. Which, if the message was true, would universally be about nothing but embracing the moment. So all these teachers - and indeed he even said this about himself - were running a sort of joke, or even fraud, over their students, in the hopes that the student would see that. Very funny way to look at it.
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Watts never speaks about this, but I've heard other writers draw some striking parallels between the little bands children form (think "no girls allowed, keep out the cooties"), and adult fraternal orders. They both deal in:
* pompous and silly titles
* specialized slang (cant, more precisely)
* elaborate and seemingly random traditions
* lurid initiation rituals whose only point is showing how much suffering you're willing to endure for the group's acceptance
* a body of oral history that liberally mixes fact and fancy
* grandiose manifestos and idyllic stated objectives which everyone knows deep down are probably not attainable
* fierce (if sometimes fleeting) loyalty
* rivalries with other similar groups, from friendly ribbing to brutal violence, depending what's at stake

I know that at some point in childhood, it struck me that the only point of putting up with all this mumbo jumbo was to connect with other boys. That was the steak, the rest was all sizzle.

Most modern fraternal orders and civic bodies can trace their influence to underground political movements and occult / mystery religions from centuries past, back when you could easily lose your head for bringing up politics or religion in the wrong company. It's easy to join any institution, really, and get caught up in the little details of how they run, while losing sight of any institution's only real purpose -- to pull people together. Once you've got that purpose habitually in your sights, you don't need all the flaky symbolism anymore, because you've gotten the message it was there to teach you.

I'm not sure if it was Watts, but I once read someone compare Buddhist practice and the entire Buddhist religion to a raft crossing a river. Once you've safely reached the other side, you have no further need for the raft. You can acknowledge the vital role it played, and keep souvenirs of it out of reverence, but you no longer take refuge aboard it for dear life. It has given you what it had to give you and you have received it and moved on a changed person.
 
ive experienced what he teaches , its frightening yet the truth, surrender to the void and let yourself float downstream , it is not dying
 
To OP. I think the "higher self" is what happens when an emotion (anger, jealousy, sadness etc.) is expressed directly (spontaneous). Then you come out into being. At this point the emotion will not be an emotion anymore, but one will go ecstatic. The same with physical pain. At this point one will be in direct relations with the outside.
 
Watts to me seems to make clear to me that the idea we are only lonely, temporary visitors in this universe caught up in cruel fate is just an illusion. We for some reason or another distinguish ourselves as separate "entities" from everything else. And since we classify and labels things we truly believe all these "parts" are truly different things! The ego, our experience of a self, is truly no more than an idea, an idea just like any other. A fictional creation. And that's all that dies, our fictional creation, idea, of some "self" contained in our bodies. Everything comes and goes, comes and goes, the black and white, the yin and yang. As watts said, as people are constantly dying and new people are constantly being born, new sensations of "I" are coming into being. So you see will we always be experiencing this "I" sensation. To me the universe is like the human body, there may be differentiations, but collectively it is all one thing functioning together. You never die because you were never born.
 
And I may have used some of watts terms and phrases but only because they get the point across the best.. Haha.
 
Is this sad, or what..?

Thanks for creating this thread. I have a need to announce my awfully sad addiction to the late, great Alan Watts! Over the last two and a half years I've been cyclically listening to my several gigbytes collection of Alan's (I must be on first name terms with him by now!) numerous talks, on a daily basis. No, that's not the 'sad' and additive bit. Since a spell of insomnia a year or so ago, it occurred to me that not only are Alan's philosophies deeply insightful and moving, but he has the most soothing voice I believe I've ever heard. And so for over a year now, when I'm ready for sleep at the end if the day, I attach my bluetooth earpiece and randomly select a starting point in the Alan Watts playlist on my smartphone. For the rest if the night and into the morning I'm soothed into restful slumber and every so often 'enlightened' by new insights on a semi-subconscious level.

My journey through this addiction is not unlike an dependence to mind and mood altering substances. At first I would get really high within each talk as Alan's wise words evoked deep experiential insights within me. However, I do find myself searching and grasping for newly released recordings, of which there aren't many, to add to my collection. Perhaps, though, it's a testament to my method of immersion in these philosophies that I've been reconditioned, out of conventional linguistic and cultural conditioning, on a deep intuitive level, to see the world as a seemless unity, and feel my sense of 'I'ness as far more than my 'skin encapsulated ego'. I no longer see 'things' or 'events' as such, but instantly recognise the underlying unifying pattern in process before reifying them into abstract "verbs started by nouns", as Alan might say...

I'm sure I can't be the only saddo philosophy geek who has such extreme addictive behaviour in internalising these important philosophies. As has been mentioned in at least one earlier post within this thread, integrating such philosophies into one's basic daily worldview is not automatic upon having an 'A-ha..!' experience of direct knowing, while reading or listening to insightful words. It needs a more repetitive approach, IMO, to bring that kind of knowing down from the head into the heart, and down again into the gut (metaphorically speaking, modelled on the triune brain). Life, for me, is much brighter, clearer and easier as a result.

Well, I've revealed myself, but I shall leave my 'fetish' there. I'm probably not as weird as I might think. Indeed, I'm actually quite fond of my 'addiction' and I'm delighted to have found a space to talk about it. Alan Watts is one of my pillars, and I recommend his entertaining and enlightening recordings to anyone who wishes to enlarge their worldview.
 
You aren't a weirdo, I pretty much agreeded with 100% of what you said. I would say a lot of people feel that way about him! His voice is incredibly soothing, it has soothed many an anxious night and helped me sleep.
 
Alan Watts' teachings are far to awesome to comprehend with words. After listening to his talks etc I always have this creepily eerie feeling.
 
I just listened to the Alan Watts lecture 'Do you do it, or does it do you?' and I was not expecting my mind to be so blown so early in the morning. He never fails to take me to an altered state that feels quite special, meditative, wonderous, and supremely peaceful.

What are some of your favorite Alan Watts moments, revelations, lectures?
 
For some reason Alan Watts was someone who i always intended to look into but have yet to do so. i figured there were multiple threads here regarding him i found this
 
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