The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

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The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by Christine »

---------------> 23 September 2018 I have just noticed that two of the videos on Alan Watts were removed, sign of the times. Fortunately others are putting the lectures up so I've updated the links.

Alan Watts at his finest ...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9UNEKCFJk[/youtube]
Published on Jul 19, 2017
"What I think an awakening really involves is a re-examination of our common sense. We've got all sorts of ideas built into us which seem unquestioned, obvious. And our speech reflects this in its commonest phrases. 'Face the facts' as if they were outside you."
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Re: The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by Christine »

Alan Watts - When You Come Out of the Illusion
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5-7vuhBIYY[/youtube]
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The Brilliant Alan Watts: NATURE OF GOD

Post by Christine »

The story of the astronaut who came back from space and said he had seen god, when asked what god looked like he replied: "She is black."

Alan Watts tells it like only he can, with depth and humor.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLg4AV60uWY[/youtube]
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Re: The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by Fred Steeves »

Ah yes, my old buddy Alan Watts. He was actually the initial catalyst that would wind up compounding on itself, and eventually propel me into the realms we all here share today.

Back in 1998 ish I was eating lunch in my truck one day, got bored with the newspaper and talk radio, and started scanning other channels. Next thing you know I stumbled upon this wise sounding man talking about an interesting thing called Zen Buddhism. I sat captivated, and it turned out this was our local Tampa NPR affiliate WMNF that played a half hour talk of his every Wednesday at 11 AM, and I was instantly hooked.

From then on, being that I was the jobsite radio guy, each Wednesday morning for 30 minutes everyone was grudgingly subjected to an interruption of classic rock FM radio, for a 30 minute talk by Alan Watts cranked up full blast to make sure and try and hear every last tantalizing word over all the noise and racket. There was always grumbling but I didn't give a shit, I was already consumed by a fiery mission of which I was completely unaware at that time.
The unexamined life is not worth living.

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Re: The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by LostNFound »

Fred, so listening to Alan talk about Zen Buddhism, did you walk into that religion and look around? The eastern philosophies were big and quite interesting to the 60's generation, It seems to me that most of the traditional religions had a central creator to form thoughts and actions around. I would say that most folks perhaps choose one philosophy over others and perhaps live their lives in the deeper meanings of knowing that particular name given to the central creator. I am one. I reached into those philosophies, Eastern and western and gathered what I could to walk the way I have. Our belief system is their for a reason to guide us IMO. This all depends on how well suited a belief system is for the individual of course. I am very interested in knowing how Alan's opinions may or may not have effected your young life as you pounded nails for a living. Just an inquisitive mind.

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Re: The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by Fred Steeves »

Hi Steven,

I can't say it comes as much of a surprise that you dipped into the philosophies, both Eastern and Western, it shows in how you carry yourself.

From that very first stumbled upon talk, I found everything that came out of that man's mouth utterly fascinating. LOL it was kind of like the first time I smoked a joint I knew I liked this shit!

So anyway yeah, I dove into it with reckless abandon. First all things Alan Watts had to be investigated, all the talks over and over, his videos, every book he wrote. I also started out straight away with the meditation thing, that fascinated me as well, and before not too long I could lose myself for three hours in it.

That got to taking up too much of my time however, so as a compromise I decided to start practicing walking meditation. Still do to this day to a certain extent.

Later down the road after getting my fill of Alan and the Zen thing, I got into Buddhism proper with books like The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and I was blown away all over again, right down to the depth of my soul. As an aside that seems to be a repeating pattern, get blown away by something, learn it, and move on with that as a new aspect of my being.

So there you pretty much have the nuts and bolts of it. I never actually became a practicing Buddhist, but I gratefully took along with me everything I needed from that deep well. It still forms a good bit of my base life philosophy, or my grounding so to speak.

By the way, the next time I was to start the getting blown away pattern would wait until early 2009, when I brought home two taboo books, one by David Icke, the other by Joseph Farrell. That fateful day, was what started this whole ball a rolling, the next deep dive that would never end.
The unexamined life is not worth living.

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Re: The Brilliant Alan Watts: AWAKENING IS ABOUT LETTING GO

Post by Christine »

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There is so much truth in this single statement that it bears the light of being a continual reminder. A free mind is a free being.

Over the course of my life I have looked for myself, as they say in all the wrong places. And of course that is perfectly "normal" given the circumstances into which we are born, it's also the way our souls challenge us with experiences that help peel away the layers of falsity, societal impediments, false allegiances, etc.

We hear over and over through the writings of sages and if we are fortunate the voice of our friends this single phrase: Know Thy Self. I would venture to guess that while it has a resonant ring of truth it also has become just another phrase that many nod at and move on with their doing or their fretting or their anxiety, or their whatever...

Just a few days ago while washing up a sink full of dishes it occurred to me that Know Thy Self is a choice and not lifetimes of forever seeking. (I am not discarding the seeking aspect for indeed if we sincerely seek we shall find.) What I self realized that I am that which I choose to be, not some mysterious element locked in so many layers of complication that I will forever be bumping into the walls of the maze or falling down rabbit holes that someone else dug.

There is in actuality a reversal of energies that happens in the human form, you can call it alchemical or natural magic. When this happens it can be disorienting and is often accompanied by a great sense of loss for our false identities (things like Alan Watts states that we accept as our most personal and intimate self) are being purged of their iron grip. We then become centripetal in nature not ego-self centered but core eminent.

An example of what I am writing about and something I see with others more frequently is that when the false identity tries to re-establish itself, often through compunctions of family, education, or traditions and usually coupled with feelings of self doubt or fear we easily recognize the source of it and can quickly dismiss it's entry, it's a sneaky bastard and always is nibbling around our edges.

[... back to finish writing this now, lots of energetic swirls that needed to settle. And what better way to center than doing something pleasurable like making polenta! I am getting one of those inner chuckles when I see the perfect metaphor in action. You see polenta takes focus and care, a letting go of anything pushing around the edges one can get rather drawn into the stirring swirls as the polenta slowing thickens, you can't hurry it at all.]

Something inexplicable happen to me, so subtle it could have been missed and would have been if it wasn't repeated many times. Over time my mind is less active though always vigilant if that makes sense, I am sure to some it does. So a week or so ago I heard my mind say "I am happy". It caught my attention since happiness is not something I have actively sought seeing it as an ephemeral state of being. Then a few hours later my mind said it again, "I am happy", it actually seemed like a foreign thought. And then the next day again, "I am happy", well this time I burst out laughing and answered my mind, Yes, I am happy! So happiness found me and I gratefully accepted her.
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