Alan Watts Being in the Way

In this new, technological age, Alan Watts explains how seeing reality via only one perspective can lead to a fragmented view of the world; instead, he encourages listeners to adopt both the analytical and the organic.
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.
Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.
In this episode, Alan Watts dives into:
Living in an age of technology in a culture obsessed with rational control
How someone can easily be obstructed by their own cautiousness
The problem of human ecology and how one should best relate to their environment
Considering what our idea of heaven is and what desires we truly want
The western model of the universe (intellectual, architectural, mechanical)
Reductive thinking: seeing the world through a net and making everything into a comprehensible, geometrical unit
The fundamental difference between a mechanism and an organism
How understanding the world through only conscious attention can lead to seeing everything as parts rather than the whole picture
Combining the academic, analytical mind with the organic, ‘gooey’ mind
“Go to the science of medicine. You get a specialist who really understands the function of the gall bladder. He studied gall bladders ad infinitum, and he really thinks he knows all about it. But, whenever he looks at a human being, he sees them in terms of the gall bladder.” – Alan Watts
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Diving into the cosmic drama of reality, Alan Watts describes the world as a divine dream which is poetic, playful, and only sometimes serious.
Being in the Way is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.
On this episode of Being in the Way, Alan Watts:
Exploring how we get caught in the cosmic game and drama of life
Seeing the universe as the playful expression of divine energy
Questioning identity: the tension between acting and simply being.
Confronting the spiritual taboo of realizing the self as God—tat tvam asi.
Indirect awareness of the networks and systems in the physical world
Music and the pure delight in complex orders of sound
Embracing the paradox of existence as poetic, musical, and playful, while still being serious.
Considering all of the senses as forms of one, larger sense of touch
The oneness of up and down, black and white, being and non-being
Complexities of human culture that arise out of duality
Today's podcast is sponsored by Betterhelp & Dharma Seed:
Being in the Way is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.
Join Krishna Das, the most well-known voice of Bhakti chanting (Kirtan) in the West, and David Nichtern - a senior Buddhist teacher, founder of Dharma Moon, guitarist in Krishna Das’ band, and producer of several of his albums - for a warm and engaging conversation about these two paths, their shared roots, and how they intersect in contemporary spiritual practice. Learn more about this FREE online gathering - THE HEART & MIND OF PRACTICE: BUDDHISM & BHAKTI
"The real taboo is 'that art thou'. You, lurking behind the mask of being an impermanent human person, are really responsible for the whole thing. If anybody claims that in our culture, we put them straight away into an asylum. That is the very hallmark of insanity. But, in India, if someone suddenly wakes up one morning and says 'My goodness, I'm God', everybody says, instead of you're crazy or blasphemous, they say 'Congratulations, at last you've found out'". – Alan Watts
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Breaking free from cause-and-effect and the formal ideas of Confucianism, Alan Watts describes mutual arising as the key idea of the Tao.
Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts describes:
Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism
Our roles in social life and Confucianism as the way for people involved in the world
Taoism as the way for those who do not prescribe to formal patterns
How the Taoist goes with nature rather than against nature
Ideologies of God as a ruler or a lord versus the Taoist perspective
Experiences in terms of their polar experience (loud vs. soft)
Mutual arising as they key idea of the Tao
Man as being within nature rather than dominating it
How Taoism gets rid of karma without challenging it
The Chinese philosophy of time
Sensing the flow of the present and flow of the Tao
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.
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Re-familiarizing us with Zen traditions, Alan Watts inspires listeners to move beyond going through the motions of practice.
Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.
In this episode of Being in the Way, Alan Watts explains:
Our lack of awareness of the basic structure of the world
The world itself as meaningless (non-symbolic)
Realizing fundamental energy and Zen as the religion of no religion
The metaphysical in terms of the everyday
The composition of Zen practice
How westerners are bothered by ritual and splendor
How Buddhism has degenerated over the years
A re-familiarization with Buddhism for modernity
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.
“There is this tremendous problem, unless the Buddhist tradition is to go down the drain completely, of re-familiarizing the Japanese with what it’s all about. Over the years it has degenerated into going through the motions and into being something which is just a kind of magic.” – Alan Watts
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Focusing on cosmic balance, Alan Watts outlines the fundamentals of Taoism and how to skillfully interfere with our environment.
Find the full Zen and the Art of the Controlled Accident series of talks at play.alanwatts.org.
Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts shares a lecture on:
The philosophy of Taoism
Taoism as the flow of things / the course of nature
The pervasive illusion of separateness and seeing it within our language
How we only experience the world bit-by-bit
A transformation of our everyday consciousness into oneness
How we are all indestructible beyond the ego
Life as a game of yin and yang, crests and troughs
The fundamental idea of mutual arising
How everything we do interferes with our environment
Learning how to interfere skillfully
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.
“We are not ordinarily aware of how we’re aware, and as a result of that, we don’t understand our connection with the world, and we don’t understand what our real self is. We get anxious; we’re afraid that death may be the end of us. This is, of course, the purest superstition, because everybody is indestructible.” – Alan Watts

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