"The Mind" - Alan Watts

[drokhole]

Created by the YouTube channel Tragedy & Hope and featuring 20th-century philosopher Alan Watts' words, it digs deep on the phenomena of worry and distraction.

Watts begins:

"So then let's consider first of all what is a mind in the grip of vicious circles. Well, one of the most obvious instances that we all know is the phenomenon of worry. The doctor tells you that you have to have an operation. And that has been set up so that automatically everybody worries about it. But since worrying takes away your appetite and your sleep, it's not good for you. But you can't stop worrying and therefore you get additionally worried that you are worrying. And then furthermore because that is quite absurd and you're mad at yourself because you do it, you are worried because you are worried you are worried. That is a vicious circle."

[cantbeserious]

1. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[drokhole]

3. My pleasure! Thanks for taking the time to watch

[Mr.Bill]

2. Thank you for reminding me about Alan Watts.

Many years ago I used to listen to his lectures on the radio. They got me through some tough times. He was a brilliant man.

[drokhole]

4. Still helping me out, can take a long time to digest...

He may not be that well-known but he is one of the very best philosophers of the 20th century, in my opinion.

[Warpy]

5. He was on Boston PBS radio on every Sunday morning

His books had been my gateway to being a bad Buddhist. I'd already learned to tune out the babbling idiot in my left brain and switch to the right side in deep meditation, it was the only way I had to deal with pain when no one would believe a teenager had arthritis.

I especially loved his description of philosophers as yokels who gawped at things that sensible people took for granted.

Thank you for the blast from the past.

The book I'd recommend for beginners is called "The Book: On the Taboo against Knowing
Who You Are." You're in luck, it's online in PDF: http://www.leary.ru/download/watts/Book%20On%20The%20Taboo%20Against%20Knowing%20Who%20You%20Are.pdf It's a quick, easy read that whets your appetite for some of his less accessible works.

[PDittie]

10. Absolutely on The Book

I posted downthread before I saw yours here.

[valerief]

6. and if you're a Murcan, you worry about not being able to afford the operation. nt

[freshwest]

7. K&R

[Johnny Noshoes]

8. Back in the late 70's

I worked as a security guard at a chemical plant. The guard house was at the main gate. I had my radio and on Sunday mornings - very early - WNEW-FM used to play Alan Watts lectures. I got interested and read several of his books and that led me to reading more on Buddhism. Now I'm not a Buddhist per se but it makes a lot more sense to me.

[PDittie]

9. I read 'The Book' as a teenager

It is subtitled: 'On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are'. It was seminal.

Later on when I did est in my thirties (it wasn't called 'the Forum' then) I better understood how accurate Watts was.

[tea and oranges]

11. I always wanted a bumper sticker that said

I'd Rather Be Here Now

[polynomial]

12. Thanks for the introduction to Allen Watts

The philosophy of the mind and life has always been a compelling subject for me in the way of searching the unknown for the truth in life.

To unlock the secrets seeming like a mystery. My own studies find rare blogs or very well written PDF files that are essays about the divine nature of life and the actions.

One of my most important self-discoveries is to fathom the depths of the mind to help channel to a better future then share it with everyone.

For that silly reason calling my-self polynomial keeps the mental portals opened. The polynomial is a wave function in mathematics which spirits my mind to that ether to unlock the quantum world.

To see what a physicist thinks like. Or wander in the mind of Einstein because he was self-taught. Actually most University students know the real deep education is self-taught.

Discovering that Newtonian mathematics breaks down at the Quantum level gives way to new mathematics. The students of the new millennium are so lucky to be able to view and learn mathematics in a computer generated dimensions that Newton could not conceive of.

But, even the University systems are finding difficult understand this energy or figuring which way to teach it. It is mathematical reasoning that is the language of nature or God’s gift to man-kind.

For America to be lagging in mathematical training shows the enormous vacuum that has been a deliberate obstruction in the past century. Anyone that prohibits the learning process needs to be banished from leadership positions in society.

[DeSwiss]

13. K&R

- It's the Dream that's real. Reality's the illusion.....

Human Species Are The Entertainment Division - Alan Watts

[KG]

14. AutoAlanWattsDURec