Alan Watts: The essential introduction to his life and ideas

Alan Watts was prolific in the 1950s and 1960s, eventually passing away in 1973. He was a philosopher, writer, poet, radical thinker, teacher and critic of society who popularized Eastern wisdom, interpreting it for a Western audience. His ideas have become widely popular in recent years.

On the Meaning of Life

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”

• You are a function of what the whole universe is doing.
• If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t l*** doing in order to go on living.”

**w to make yourself a better person

Just accept how you are right now

• You are, just what you are
• Once you have accepted that situation, you have an enormous amount of energy available to do things that can be done
• And everybody else looking at you from an external point of view will say, “My god, **w much so-and-so has improved!”

On who you truly are

You don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are meaning.”

On the universe

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, it is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” – “Things are as they are.”

• We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.”
• Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature

A simple trick to meditation

Alan Watts’ approach to meditation is based on his insight that we are all completely connected to each other and the cosmos

• He helps people to get into a meditative state by dissolving the boundaries between the perceiving self and the supposed world external to your body and mind

Alan Watts quotes to understand his key ideas

These are some of the most powerful and surprising quotes from the author’s book, “Infinite Possibilities,” which was first published here

Overview of Alan Watts’ life

Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts

• Four key videos to watch
• 27 of his most powerful quotes
• By the end of this article, you will have a basic understanding of Watts and his key ideas

Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.

We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unl*** almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing

• When we make music, we do it in order to reach a certain point, but in meditation, the journey itself is the point

The real you

At a fundamental level, we are all “I”.

• When you start to see yourself as connected to the whole cosmos, you break down the illusion of being separate from other people around you.
• We tend to overthink many things, yet most of our behavior comes effortlessly.

On anxiety

One is a great deal less anxious if one feels perfectly free to be anxious

• To remain stable, refrain from trying to separate yourself from a pain because you know that you cannot.
• Running away from fear is fear, fighting pain is pain, trying to be brave is being scared. There is no escape.”

On letting go

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab *d of the water, because if you do you will sink and dro. Instead, you relax, and float.

• If we cling to belief in God, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.”

On the present moment

Be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. Realize that the past and future are illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

• The art of living consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

The relationship between you and your mind

Alan Watts changed **w he saw the relationships between mind and body

• He helped him to see that it was time to let go of his thoughts
• By leaving the mind alone, he learned that over time it starts to quiet itself

Potent advice for any creatives

Stop aspiring and start writing.

• Write like you are on death row, on the edge of a cliff, or like you have a message from the king. Tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone.

Why your thoughts aren’t really your own

We think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society

• Our social environment has this power just because we do not exist apart from a society. Society is our extended mind and body.

The life of Alan Watts: A brief overview

Alan Watts was one of the earliest philosophers to interpret Eastern wisdom for a Western audience.

• He moved to the United States in 1938 and became an Episcopal priest from Millbrook, New York
• In 1951 he moved to San Francisco to teach Buddhist studies, and in 1956 he began a popular radio show, “Way Beyond the West”.
• By the early 60s his radio talks were being broadcast throughout the US, and he became known as a counterculture leader. He was a prolific writer and speaker until his passing in 1973.

Source