Unravel the wisdom of Alan Watts as we delve into his perspective on the quintessential lessons of the 21st century. Prepare to be enlightened by his profound insights, which continue to resonate in our rapidly evolving world.
What does a dead Episcopal priest from a small village in South East England know about what’s going on in the world today?
Alan Watts stood out among other 20th-century philosophers because he managed to do three unique things
- Have very differentiated points of view from contemporary Western viewpoints
- Articulate them extremely well
- Do it all in a time when you could record your own lectures
- He was a remarkable teacher during the 50s and 60s who, when questioned sharply by his students about what he was, settled with “spiritual entertainer”
- A prolific writer, publishing over 25 books, most of which were, and continue to be, hugely successful
Lesson #3: On religion & faith
Religions are divisive and quarrelsome. They are a form of one-upmanship. They depend upon separating the “saved” from the “damned,” the true believers from the heretics, the in-group from the out-group.
- All belief is fervent hope, and thus a cover-up for doubt and uncertainty.
- Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
- Faith is an act of trust in the inevitably uncomfortable and uncertain unknown. It is a commitment of oneself to life, to the universe, to one’s own nature as it is, in the realization that we really have no alternative.”
- God can never be captured. Religion and spirituality have thus been separated from the rest of life and become “departments” of their own.
On Taoism & Nature
In Chinese, the word for nature is ziran, which means “self so”, or “so of itself”.
- You live in harmony with the Tao by doing nothing at all.
- The only way to accord with the Way of Nature is wu-wei – non-striving, non-doing, or “action-less action.”
- Everything you do is for its own sake, without doing it to try and achieve some result, outcome, or other thing from doing it.
Lesson #1: On the meaning of life
One can only attempt a rational, descriptive philosophy of the universe on the assumption that one is totally separate from it.
- If you and your thoughts are part of this universe, you cannot stand outside them to describe them.
- This is why all philosophical and theological systems must ultimately fall apart.
Lesson #5: On the Present Moment
The past and the present are illusions, they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is. From one point of view, the present is shorter than a microsecond. From another, it embraces all eternity. But there isn’t anywhere, or anywhen, else to be.”
- In My Own Way: An Autobiography by Alan W. Watts
- Once you recognize the futility of trying to use one part of yourself to change another part, you can then fully immerse yourself in everything from rhythm and melody to discipline and pain, due to the very fact you know it is but a play.
- According to Watts, seeing life as a dance is the secret to living a good life. He believed, we only suffer because we take seriously what the gods made for fun.
Lesson #2: On Uncertainty & Insecurity
“To be secure means to isolate and fortify the “I”, but it is just the feeling of being an isolated “I” which makes me feel lonely and afraid. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. To grasp and try hold onto anything you can in an attempt to find security, safety, comfort, and connection.”
- Alan Watts
- The more we search for these things, the more we only reinforce our own lack of them.
- Calling a desire bad names doesn’t get rid of it. The desire is there for a reason. It is born from the chronic state of contraction or tension that is the root of the feeling we call “ego”.
