Alan Watts

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOe_zLrpwo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9O03lE8Boc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDNXgrNECw[/youtube]

I'm curious what y'all have to say on these videos.

A. I can't in real time watch such things.

B. I know Isaac Watts, never heard of Alan Watts.

C. [quick look -] if he is the Zen guy [When questioned sharply by students during his talk at University of California Santa Cruz in 1970, Watts responded that he was not an academic philosopher but rather "a philosophical entertainer."! !!] - the bio sunds to me like an all too typical energetic seeker. Likely a little too energetic for me - le us all ponder an energetic Zen guru.. The fact he is critiqued by strict interpretationists is not a problem - hard to avoid unlerss you ARE lacking in imagination. He seems a bit Mertonesque, actually.

My favorite Alan Watts clips are titled

Alan Watts a conversation with myself

and

Music and Life: Alan Watts


The forum won't let me post the links yet so you're going to have to look them up. Unfortunately in his later life he succumbed to alcoholism.

What's an energetic seeker?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opn5iVaRyDU[/youtube]

This one struck me well.

I read On the taboo against knowing who you are in my late twenties, don't recall the content, but do recall it having a great impact on me.

One who seeks [normally understood t mean "seeking the deep truth, the ideal"] energetically. I am a low energy seeker[ Herself is high motivation but uneven energy and intersperses bursts with downtime.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aufuwMiKmE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ8WeLrtFnY[/youtube]

I'm not posting all the parts, but there's some.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeRZKC27RtU[/youtube]

Yes, this is a a good one.

I'm curious, if it had such an impact on you then why can't you remember the content?

I couldn't remember the dead bodies, swore I had told my, then, wife. I hadn't. Had mostly forgetten them, but really hadn't and could see them so plainly yet. I finally cried when I did speak about them for the first time, to others, some 35 or so year later..... Now look at what you wrote and tell me it didn't impact me, then and now, but I, thought?, I had forgotten it.

You are young. That's why you don't understand, yet.

There are many things that float by, fly by, mean something, mean little, but make up the whole. Don't try to pick out the parts, live the whole.

I won't look at the vids, don't need to.

Ya know one of my favorite things to pick out about the human condition is, how do you measure it? And we try so hard, with labels and other stuff. I'm very very anxious right now, pretty damn happy, and probably something else, couldn't put my finger on it, but there are, at least, a couple other things in there and I'm not sure what they are....measure that.

Last edited by postpaleo on 26 Aug 2011, 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I may be young, but I do not lack in experience or understanding in a great many areas. I do understand how deeply something you cannot remember can impact you. All too well, I'm afraid.

I wanted Moog to explain how the book had impacted him. Perhaps I asked the wrong question, though.

Emotional states are complex, are they not? Sometimes it's damn near impossible to understand it, let alone convey it to others.

Oh, I was a little afraid you might take affront with the young thing, I do know better.

None the less, somethings I would prefer you stay naive, in many things I know you're not, just because you are here.

Nice to meet you, I think this is the first time here.

No affront taken. I'm in a reflective mood, and your comment just triggered a train of thought is all.

Nice to meet you, too.

Refreshing reply.

No more side railing the topic from me.

No words but i find it interesting. ive bookmarked this thread if that says anything, ive never bookmarked a wp thread before. I'm just a little emotionally distracted atm though, can't give it my full consideration.

Watts always had an interesting "take" on things. That is Zen for you.

ruveyn