More Amazing Words of Wisdom From Alan Watts

 

On the Eternal Now

The only place to begin is now because here is where we are...so why put it off? 

Instead of dragging up the past and projecting into the future any desire for fulfillment, we would be better off settling into the present moment, being here and now. 

On Spiritual Pride

Wouldn't it be great to be a mystic? To have no fear? No attachments? No hang ups? To be as free as the air? .... but if you  look into  yourself honestly you will see that you are nothing more than a quaking mess and this desire to be a great mystic is nothing more than a symptom of your quaking mess. It is self defense. ...running away from the quaking mess...escaping...you never can...You are stuck with it. There is nothing you can actually do to transform your own nature into unattached selflessness. ...because you have a selfish reason for wanting to do it. ....  

I often dream about being so enlightened that I am free of all my hang ups, my suffering...that I am completely selfless and altruistic.  The problem with that is ...it is "I" that wants to be enlightened and free.  "I" that wants to be selfless and detached.  As long as it is an "I" goal generated by this "little me" I identify as I am attempting to defend and preserve this version of "I". There is no "I" ...there is no "me" ...that is just a concept or a thought. Mystics...have no "me" sense...they see beyond it to the truth.  So "I" could never be a mystic. 

On the Illusion of You 

...The reason you can't do anything about it is because you don't exist. That is, as an ego, as a soul, as a seperate will...it just isn't there.  And when you understand that you are liberated. 

Freedom comes when we can see the Truth beyond the ego.  There is no seperate little self.

The unattainable, intangible Awareness

They say in Zen...that you cannot take hold of it nor can you get rid of it. In not being able to get it, you get it. When you are silent it speaks and when it speaks you are silent. 

What there is is awareness...but that awareness can not be reduced to a tangible and attainable  symbol or concept.It can only be experienced in the eternal now. 

"You" are not being pushed around by Life

There is the happening...but it is not pushing you around because there is no "you" to push around. ...This illusion of the persecuted ego that is pushed around by fate is altogether disappeared and so in likewise the illusion of the ego that also pushed fate around is also disappeared. By dying to yourself...you become reborn...you become everything.

 This reminded me that there is nothing personal in Life challenges...they are just happenings. I am not being pushed around because there is no "me" to push around.  I can not control and fix Life because there is no "I" to do that.  I am not seperate from Life...I am Life.  Once I give up the ideas of who I think I am...die to this illusion of "Me"...I will see that. 

Hmm!  All is well. 

Alan Watts/Simple Art ( July, 2021) The Universe Grows I-Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkiyqrnAh0Q