The wave that knows it is ocean
Alan Watts
1915 – 1973
A voice that made the East audible in the West without turning it into a souvenir.
English-born, Episcopal-trained, then a translator of Zen, Vedanta, and Tao for a culture drowning in its own seriousness.
The Wisdom of Insecurity remains a letter to the anxious age: you cannot hold the river.
You are not a stranger in the universe; you are what the universe is doing here.
His lectures still wander through rooms at 2 a.m.
because they refuse to be homework.
In this grove he is the one who laughs the ego out of its costume and then offers it tea.
In the library
Alan Watts
The wave and the ocean
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing. You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself. The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real, deep-down you is the whole universe.
Lectures
Alan Watts
The phantom of security
It must be obvious, from the start, that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present. To pursue security is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs ahead.
The Wisdom of Insecurity
Alan Watts
The menu is not the meal
The menu is not the meal. We have confused the world of words and ideas with the world they point toward, and then we wonder why we are still hungry. You cannot get wet from the word water. This is why spiritual book-collecting becomes its own appetite. The grove is not a bibliography. Sit down. Taste.
Lectures
Alan Watts
Muddy water
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. The mind that tries to force itself clear only stirs the silt. This is cousin to Baba’s instruction: do not fight the disturbing thought; let it die of neglect. Cousin also to Nichtern’s spaciousness. You are not corked and you are not a project. Sit. The sediment knows how to fall.
Lectures
Alan Watts
Completely engaged
This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. Not play as escape. Play as the universe doing what it does, through these hands, without the extra job of being a stranger in the scene.
Lectures