Was Alan Watts Enlightened?

[Dan Arnautu]

I"ve heard him talking about psychedelics and altered states of consciousness but I can't figure if he achieved enlightenment or not.

What are yout thoughts on this?

[Prabhaker]

1 minute ago, Dan Arnautu said:

if he achieved enlightenment or not

Alan watts is man who was unenlightened; hence it is more appreciable. When you are enlightened, whatsoever you say is beautiful; it has to be. But when you are not enlightened and groping in the dark, and yet can find a window of light, that′s tremendous, fantastic. Alan Watts was a drunkard, but still he was very close.

[Dan Arnautu]

@Prabhaker I don't know too much about him. I remember him claiming that his life purpose was to bridge eastern spiritual teachings with the west.

I really like the way he talks. I might look more into his teachings

[Dodo]

Alan Watts is just another avatar of God, like the separate you and the separate me.

So Alan watts as the avatar was not enlightened,  but Alan Watts as the Self behind the avatar was enlightened. No avatar can be enlightened,  because enlightenment is transcending the avatar.

Oh and it's funny when I see people discussing the understanding of people based on what they shared with the public.

If a Bentinho Massaro or a Rali are believed to be enlightened avatars, then Alan Watts has to be superenlightened.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Dodoster

[Dan Arnautu]

@Dodoster @Prabhaker Found something interesting .

Quote

“There is, as I have often noted, a widespread and wrong impression that anyone who sees through the illusion of the ego must become a self-effacing and anonymous personality, whereas my own feeling has always been that in order to be a real person you have must know how to be a genuine fake. In other words, only those who can accept their own annihilation can have the courage to be true individuals (Watts 217).”

Quote

When the “true mystic” sees flies and disease as translucent forms of the divine, that does not abolish them. I - making no hard-and-fast distinction between inner and outer experience - see my quaking mess as a form of the divine, and that doesn’t abolish it either. but at least I can live with it.

 

[cetus]

Allen watts considered himself a "spiritual entertainer".

[Dan Arnautu]

@cetus56 Interesting. Can you expand on that?

[Prabhaker]

39 minutes ago, Dodoster said:

If a Bentinho Massaro or a Rali are believed to be enlightened avatars

Read my discussion with Rali.

 

[cetus]

15 minutes ago, Dan Arnautu said:

@cetus56 Interesting. Can you expand on that?

My view is he didn't want to be considered a "Guru" or anything formal.

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by cetus56

[Hsinav]

1 hour ago, Dan Arnautu said:

I"ve heard him talking about psychedelics and altered states of consciousness but I can't figure if he achieved enlightenment or not.

What are yout thoughts on this?

Maybe he was not totally liberated but definitely he had peaks like only a few people had.

[Shin]

Whether someone is enlightened or not isn't important.

What someone enlighten in you is.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Shin

[Hsinav]

 

1 minute ago, Shin said:

Whether someone is enlightened or not isn't important.

What someone enlightened in you is.

So true! You are the only one that can confirm that someone is enlightened.

[Hsinav]

My favourite video suits this topic.

[Russell Parr]

IMO, Alan Watts was enlightened. Let's just say he used alcohol as a tool to enhance his awareness in a similar way that some of us around here use psychedelics. His addiction to it will of course detract respect for him in the eyes of others. Addiction is, of course, unfavorable, because of the crippling and demanding effects it normally has, but it doesn't necessarily stifle enlightenment.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Russell Parr

[pluto]

If someone can change peoples lives just by listening to a short video or lecture of his/her wisdom is enough for me.

Enlightened or not does not matter.

[Green]

With my own experience  to Alan Watts's material, which is quite extensive, I find that he never actually perused enlightenment in the manner or attitude as most of us here. He didn't take enlightenment as a goal, or at least not very seriously, for because of his vast experience in zen, I think he found that [enlightenment] "can take" as the famous quote goes, "thirty years, or just three minutes". Realizing this you see that chasing enlightenment or any desire as @Hsinav shared a video above, is to be as useless as forcing yourself to remember someone's name. I am pretty sure Leo has as well used the same quote. Also Alan Watts didn't advise us to follow a daily meditation habit. This is because he considered formal meditation to just be the enlightened experience sitting down. Leo has said in his guided meditation , "every experience is the enlightened experience". I also think @Leo Gura would agree that you can build a great self awareness with formal meditation, but Alan Watts's  attitude towards enlightenment was more developed than most may consider. 

Edited June 9, 2017 by Green
Grammer, spelling, general flow, and gender courtesy.