Thoughts about Allan Watts?

[Canadian]

 What is your opinion about the video above? For some reason I keep watching this every day, can't help it. I'm somewhere between getting lost and and the same time I feel like I found myself. Help please, it is very important for me to hear your opinion...(As sarcastic as it might sound)

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Alan Watts is from a slightly different era, but he has great pointers and I find him easy to listen to.

Feeling lost can be part of finding yourself, at least it was for me. Sounds like you're on to something. Who is it exactly who is lost?

[Canadian]

@Koyaanisqatsi  That's the question  ''I'' is trying to EXPERIENCE. It's hard to grasp something which can't be communicated through language, is not it?

[wk197]

alan watts was against self improvement weirdly enough.

[Aaron p]

allan has a particular ability to make things profoundly simple...although, this is an ability that most mystical practitioners obtain. Its weird, its like its not having too little information, that is the problem, its having too much bullshit. Things becomes so simple. Its so powerful. Its like a gun, simple, slick and motherfucking effective. Imagine if you showed up to a shootout with a fucking catapult that launched firing boulders hahhaaha. Bigger doesent mean better. Simple and effective is incredible. Simplicity and power, two of my most favorite things

[Beginner Mind]

Legend.

[ttm]

15 hours ago, wk197 said:

alan watts was against self improvement weirdly enough.

What do you mean by this? I mean, how exactly he was against self improvement / what did he actually say which made you conclude that?

[outlandish]

5 hours ago, ttm said:

What do you mean by this? I mean, how exactly he was against self improvement / what did he actually say which made you conclude that?

I was going to try to explain my perspective on Alan Watt's perspective on self improvement, but then I remembered his words will speak it better:

 

Quote

This is therefore to say that the transformation of human consciousness through meditation is frustrated so long as we think of it as something that I by myself can bring about, by some sort of wangle, by some sort of gimmick. Because you see it leads to endless games of spiritual one-up-manship. And of guru competition. Of my guru being more effective than your guru. My yogas are faster than your yoga. I am more aware of myself than you are. I am humbler than you are. I am sorrier for my sins than you are. I love you more than you love me. There’s this interminable goings on where people fight and wonder whether they are a bit more evolved than somebody else and so on.

All that can just fall away. And then we get this strange feeling that we’ve never had in our lives except occasionally by accident. Some people get a glimpse that we are no longer this poor little stranger and afraid in a world it never made. But that you ARE this universe. And you are creating it at every moment. Because you see it starts now. It didn’t begin in the past. There was no past. If the universe began in the past, when that happened it was now. But it is still now and the universe is still beginning now and it’s trailing off like the wake of a ship from now and as the wake of the ship fades out, so does the past. You can look back there to explain things but the explanation disappears. You will never find it there. Things are not explained by the past. They’re explained by what happens now. That creates the past. And it begins here. 

~Alan Watts

 

[ttm]

12 minutes ago, outlandish said:

I was going to try to explain my perspective on Alan Watt's perspective on self improvement, but then I remembered his words will speak it better:

I did wonder whether wk197 was referring to those kind of lines. Somewhere Watts also spoke something like "self cannot do anything to get enlightened".

But, either I misunderstand badly what Watts meant by those, or what do you and wk197 mean by "self improvement" (or "against"), but I don't view those as "against self improvement". Those things were specifically about meditation/enlightenment and addressed more the question "who is getting enlightened?". And even then wasn't "against it", as in "one shouldn't meditate" or "one shouldn't do anything to improve himself", but more like "if real meditation happens, self is not the doer there."

[Pramit]

I discovered alan watts a long time ago and he has helped shape my thinking about my existence. what is most important is the attitude - sincere but not serious. Then you can just enjoy what life has to offer. It is a simple philosophical attitude that almost no one understands.People who preach acceptance but cannot accept themselves at all. Hypocrisy is the mirror of humanity - we love our words, and we love saying them no matter how removed they are from our actions. And more important, people today just want to consume consume consume. They will eat whatever. "Oh please tell me what to think!", "I am so scared of having the wrong opinion, please tell me what the right opinion is so I can memorize it and spread it". "Mouthing the words". There is only one lesson, and that is to point at your mind. Either you do that and leave, or you admit to yourself what you are and continue with your phony attitude. Just as I admit to myself right now that I am playing the game. Don't give an advanced warning - don't say "Oh now I will begin meditating for 10 days! Watch as I become super enlightened, possibly the most enlightened person ever!". Unless you want to make money of course. 

[Barna]

There was a few weeks of period when I listen to this video every day. 

Later I listen to all his audiobooks and it totally changed my attitude to life. 

If you feel pulled towards his talks then listen to them. You have no idea how transformative can it be.