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Our scientific rational mind gives us the impression everything can be labelled. And that with enough understanding we keep things under control. But the universe is infinite in size and complexity. And we are part of that vastness. There is no ultimate categorisation. There is no control.
We are not a smart mind trapped in a dumb body. We are one thing and peace can only come by valuing our intuition and instincts the same as rationality.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Watts was deeply influenced by Taoism and Zen. The attributes of reality for him are represented by:
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It’s not just that we are trying to find security in an ever-changing universe. Is that to achieve it means we separate ourselves from the world. It’s trying to hold our breath to preserve it forever.
We have to understand there is no security. No permanence. But to truly understan...
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The problem with Christianity is that it turned into dogma: focusing on symbols and idols. The ultimate reality is acknowledging that truth lies beyond words. Imaging God as an old man sitting on the throne is nothing but silly, however we tend to personify deities and make ritua...
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Say you listen to the song, while suddenly being asked the question above. How would you answer it?
If you stop and think, anything you will tell me about you would be about your past you. But who are you now?
In reality the you who was listening was...
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804 reads
We live in an age of unprecedented anxiety (uncertainty, information overload, social comparison etc). Historically, religion used to ground people by giving them a set of rules and making them part of a divine plan.
Allan Watts observes the fading of Christianity in the West, but instead o...
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Unlike animals who live in the present, we poses brains who can memorise and make predictions.
Our ability to be conscious of our self on a timeline took as at the top of the food chain. It also made us miserable. Because our fixation on the past or our obsession for the f...
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Fought in the real of facts, religion is loosing the fight against science. This widening gap leads people to look for instant gratification from addictive behaviours like drugs and alcohol to make up for the lack of purpose or meaning in life.
We are all chasing pleasure in all sorts of wa...
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We are obsessed with rationality. We label things, we define, we catalogue. However by doing this we are trying to contain a reality which in reality is interconnected and always in flux.
Our obsession to analyse is like trying to save the river in a bottle. A word is a ver...
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Believing in a God may have lots of benefits. Atheists may be more neurotic compared to theists. But this, Watts believes, is not an argument for God. Because the lack or neuroticism does not prove the God hypothesis.
Another way to look at it is to say that “If ignora...
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CURATED FROM
IDEAS CURATED BY
Life-long learner. Passionate about leadership, entrepreneurship, philosophy, Buddhism & SF. Founder @deepstash.
Alan Watts at his best, making a strong case for Taoism as antidote to meaning gap created by Christianity.
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Other curated ideas on this topic:
SF, the good SF at lest, is working on the same big questions we keep asking as human beings, but from a place of scientific understanding rather than assuming everything is God-made:
Stoicism is generally understood to be detached and non-reactive towards any of life’s adversities.
In the words of the philosopher William Irvine, the ultimate goal of Stoicism is ‘tranquillity’ or the avoidance of ‘spikes’ in one’s state of mind. The things that are in o...
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