{"id":152316,"date":"2024-03-05T14:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152316"},"modified":"2024-03-05T14:56:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:56:02","slug":"the-benefit-of-living-with-no-purpose-alan-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152316","title":{"rendered":"The Benefit of Living With No Purpose – Alan Watts"},"content":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dx4yW0mjezw<\/div>00:00:11<\/a>So then, here is a conception of\u00a0 nature as something you must trust;\u00a0\u00a0 outside nature \u2013 the birds, the bees,\u00a0 the flowers, the mountains, the clouds,\u00a0\u00a0 and inside nature, human nature. Now\u00a0 nature isn\u2019t trustworthy, completely.\u00a0\u00a000:00:37<\/a>It will sometimes let you down with a wallop, but\u00a0 that\u2019s the risk you take, that\u2019s the risk of life.\u00a0\u00a0 What is the alternative? \u201cI\u00a0 do not trust nature at all.\u00a0\u00a0 It has got to be watched.\u201d You know what that\u00a0 leads to? It leads to 1984 and Big Brother,\u00a0\u00a000:01:03<\/a>it leads to the totalitarian state\u00a0\u00a0 where everybody is his brother\u2019s policeman,\u00a0 where everybody is watching everybody else\u00a0\u00a0 to report them to the authorities. Where\u00a0 you can\u2019t trust your own motivations,\u00a0\u00a000:01:21<\/a>where you have to have a psychoanalyst\u00a0 in charge of you all the time to think,\u00a0\u00a0 to be sure that you do not think\u00a0 dangerous thoughts or peculiar thoughts. \u00a0 And you report all peculiar\u00a0 thoughts to your analyst\u00a0\u00a000:01:33<\/a>and your analyst would keep a record of\u00a0 them and report them to the government.\u00a0\u00a0 And everybody is busy in\u00a0 keeping records of everything.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s much more important to record\u00a0 what happens than what happens. \u00a000:01:47<\/a>This is already eating us up, it\u2019s much more\u00a0 important that you have your books right\u00a0\u00a0 than that you conduct your business in a good\u00a0 way. In universities it is much more important\u00a0\u00a0 that the registrar\u2019s records be in order than\u00a0 the library be well-stocked. After all, you know,\u00a0\u00a000:02:04<\/a>your grades are all locked up in safes,\u00a0 and protected from thievery and pilfering,\u00a0\u00a0 and they are the most valuable property that\u00a0 the university has; the library can go hang. \u00a0 Then further more, the main functioning of a\u00a0 university is, as a sensible person would imagine,\u00a0\u00a000:02:24<\/a>to teach students and to do research. So\u00a0 the faculty should be the most important\u00a0\u00a0 thing in the university, on the contrary, the\u00a0 administration is the most important thing.\u00a0\u00a0 The people who keep the records, who\u00a0 make the game rules up. So the faculty\u00a0\u00a000:02:43<\/a>are always being obstructed by the administration\u00a0 and forced into irrelevant meetings,\u00a0\u00a0 and to do everything but scholarship. Do you know what scholarship means, or what\u00a0\u00a0 a school means? The original\u00a0 meaning of schola is leisure.\u00a0\u00a000:03:02<\/a>We talk of a \u201cscholar and a gentleman\u201d because a\u00a0 gentleman was a person who had a private income\u00a0\u00a0 and he could afford to be a scholar. He did\u00a0 not have to earn a living and therefore he\u00a0\u00a0 could study the classics and\u00a0 poetry and things like that. \u00a000:03:15<\/a>Today nothing is more busy than a school. They\u00a0 make you work, work, work because you have to get\u00a0\u00a0 through on schedule. There are expedited courses,\u00a0 and you go to school so as to get a union card,\u00a0\u00a0 to get a Ph.D. or something you could\u00a0 earn on living. So, on the whole, it\u2019s a\u00a0\u00a000:03:32<\/a>contradiction of scholarship. Scholarship\u00a0 is to study everything that is unimportant,\u00a0\u00a0 not necessary for survival, all the\u00a0 charming irrelevancies of life. \u00a0 So you see, the thing is this, if\u00a0 you do not have room in your life\u00a0\u00a000:03:50<\/a>for the playful, life is not worth living. All\u00a0 work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but if the\u00a0\u00a0 only reason for which Jack plays is that he can\u00a0 work better afterwards, he is not really playing.\u00a0\u00a0 He is playing because it is good for him,\u00a0\u00a000:04:11<\/a>he is not playing at all. You have\u00a0 to be able to be a true scholars,\u00a0\u00a0 you have to cultivate an attitude to life in which\u00a0 you are not trying to get anything out of it. \u00a0 You pick up a pebble on the beach: look at it,\u00a0 beautiful, don\u2019t try to get a sermon out of it.\u00a0\u00a000:04:32<\/a>Sermons-in-stones and God-in-everything be damned\u00a0 \u2013 just enjoy it! Do not feel that you have got to\u00a0\u00a0 salve your conscience by saying that this\u00a0 is for the advancement of your aesthetic\u00a0\u00a0 understanding. Enjoy the pebble.\u00a0 If you do that, you become healthy.\u00a0\u00a000:04:53<\/a>You become able to be a loving, helpful human\u00a0 being. But if you can\u2019t do that, if you can only\u00a0\u00a0 do things because they\u2019re somehow, you are going\u00a0 to get something out of it, you are a vulture. \u00a0 So,\u00a0\u00a000:05:13<\/a>we have to learn, you don\u2019t have, you\u00a0 know, you don\u2019t have to go on living,\u00a0\u00a0 but it is a great idea, it is a great thing if you\u00a0 can learn what the Chinese call \u201cpurposelessness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They think nature is purposeless.\u00a0\u00a000:05:32<\/a>When we say something is purposeless, it\u00a0 is a put-down. There is no future in it,\u00a0\u00a0 it is a washout. When they hear the word\u00a0 purposeless they think that\u2019s just great.\u00a0\u00a0 It is like the waves washing against the shore,\u00a0 going on and on, forever, with no meaning. A\u00a0\u00a000:05:53<\/a>great Zen master said, as his death poem, just\u00a0 before he died, \u201cFrom the bathtub, to the bathtub,\u00a0\u00a0 I have uttered stuff and nonsense.\u201d The bathtub\u00a0 in which the baby is washed at birth, the bathtub\u00a0\u00a0 in which the corpse is washed before burial,\u00a0 all this time I have said many nonsenses. \u00a000:06:12<\/a>Like the birds in the trees go twee,\u00a0 twee, twee. What is it all about?\u00a0\u00a0 Everybody tries to say, \u201cAh, yes, it is a mating\u00a0 call \u2013 purposeful. They are trying to get their\u00a0\u00a0 mates, you know, by attracting them with a song.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s why they have colors, and why butterflies\u00a0\u00a000:06:27<\/a>have eye-like designs on them for self-protection,\u00a0 an engineering view of the universe. \u00a0 Why do we do that? We say, \u201cWell,\u00a0 it is because they need to survive.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 But why survive? What is that for? Well, to survive.\u00a0\u00a000:06:44<\/a>See, human beings really are a lot of tubes,\u00a0 and all living creatures are just tubes.\u00a0\u00a0 These tubes have to put things in one end and let\u00a0 them go out at the other. Then they get clever\u00a0\u00a0 about it and they develop nerve ganglia on one\u00a0 end of the tube \u2013 the eating end called a head.\u00a0\u00a000:07:03<\/a>And that has got eyes and ears, and it has\u00a0 little organs and antennae, thing like this,\u00a0\u00a0 and that help you define things to put in one\u00a0 end so that you can let them out the other.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, while you are doing this, you see,\u00a0 the stuff going through wears the tube out\u00a0\u00a000:07:18<\/a>and so, the show can go on, the tubes\u00a0 have complicated ways of making other\u00a0\u00a0 tubes which will go on doing the same thing,\u00a0 in at one end, out the other. And they say,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWell, that is terribly serious. That is awfully\u00a0 important. We have got to keep on doing this.\u201d \u00a000:07:40<\/a>Then when the Chinese say nature is\u00a0 purposeless this is a compliment.\u00a0\u00a0 It is like the idea of the Japanese word yugen.\u00a0\u00a0 They describe yugen as watching wild\u00a0 geese fly and be hidden in the clouds;\u00a0\u00a000:08:04<\/a>as watching a ship vanish\u00a0 behind the distant island;\u00a0\u00a0 as wandering on and on in a great\u00a0 forest with no thought of return.\u00a0\u00a0 Haven\u2019t you done this? Haven\u2019t you gone on a walk\u00a0 with no particular purpose in mind? You carry a\u00a0\u00a000:08:23<\/a>stick with you and you occasionally hit it\u00a0 at old stumps, wander along and sometimes\u00a0\u00a0 twiddle your thumbs. It is at that moment\u00a0 that you are a perfectly rational human being;\u00a0\u00a0 you have learned purposelessness.\u00a0 All music is purposeless.\u00a0\u00a000:08:41<\/a>Is music getting somewhere? If it were, I mean,\u00a0 if the aim of music or the symphony were to\u00a0\u00a0 get to the final bar, the best conductor\u00a0 would be the one who got there fastest.\u00a0\u00a0 See, dancing, when you dance do you aim to\u00a0 arrive at a particular place on the floor?\u00a0\u00a000:09:02<\/a>Is that the idea of dancing?\u00a0\u00a0 The aim of dancing is to dance. Is the present.\u00a0 This is exactly the same in our life. \u00a0 We think life has a purpose. I\u00a0 remember the preachers who used to say,\u00a0\u00a000:09:15<\/a>when I was a small boy, I\u2019ve always heard it, we\u00a0 must follow God\u2019s purpose, his purpose for you\u00a0\u00a0 and his purpose for me. When I asked these\u00a0 cats what the purpose was, they never\u00a0\u00a0 knew! They never knew what it was, they had\u00a0 a hymn \u201cGod is working his purpose out as\u00a0\u00a000:09:33<\/a>year succeeds to year. God is working his\u00a0 purpose out and the time is drawing near.\u00a0\u00a0 The time on the earth should be full of the glory\u00a0 of God as the waters cover the sea.\u201d What\u2019s the\u00a0\u00a0 glory of God? Well, they weren\u2019t quite sure. I\u2019ll tell you what it is.\u00a0\u00a000:09:56<\/a>In heaven all those angels are gathered around\u00a0 the glory of God. That is to say the which than\u00a0\u00a0 which there\u2019s no whicher. Catholics call it the\u00a0 beatific vision, the Jews call it the shekhinah.\u00a0\u00a0 There all are angels standing around and\u00a0 saying hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It\u00a0\u00a000:10:14<\/a>means nothing. They\u2019re just having a ball. See, that\u2019s what happened in the beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 When the God created the universe it\u00a0 was created like all star, all planets,\u00a0\u00a0 all galaxies, they are vaguely spherical.\u00a0 He created this and said have a ball.\u00a0\u00a000:10:37<\/a>But before he said that, he said\u00a0 you must draw the line somewhere.\u00a0\u00a0 That was the real thing he said first,\u00a0 before \u2018let there be light\u2019 that came later.\u00a0\u00a0 First thing was you must draw the line\u00a0 somewhere. Otherwise nothing would happen.\u00a0\u00a000:10:53<\/a>You\u2019ve got to have the good guys, the bad\u00a0 guys, you\u2019ve got to have this, you\u2019ve got\u00a0\u00a0 to have that, the black and white, light and\u00a0 darkness. You must draw the line somewhere. \u00a0 Now, here is the choice. Are you going to trust it\u00a0 or not? If you do trust it, you may get let down,\u00a0\u00a000:11:17<\/a>and this \u201cit\u201d is yourself, your own nature and all\u00a0 nature around you. There are going to be mistakes,\u00a0\u00a0 but if you don\u2019t trust it at all,\u00a0 you are going to strangle yourself.\u00a0\u00a0 You are going to fence yourself around with\u00a0 rules and regulations and laws and prescriptions\u00a0\u00a000:11:36<\/a>and policemen and guards \u2013 and\u00a0 who\u2019s going to guard the guards.\u00a0\u00a0 And who\u2019s going to look after Big Brother to\u00a0 be sure he doesn\u2019t do something stupid. No-go. \u00a0 Supposing I get annoyed with somebody in the\u00a0 audience and I\u2019m going to throw this ashtray\u00a0\u00a000:11:53<\/a>at them but I don\u2019t want to hit my friend sitting\u00a0 next to that person. I want to be absolutely sure\u00a0\u00a0 this ashtray hits that individual. And so I don\u2019t\u00a0 trust myself to throw it. I have to carry it along\u00a0\u00a0 and be sure I hit that person on a head. See,\u00a0 I don\u2019t throw it because I can\u2019t let go of it.\u00a0\u00a000:12:16<\/a>To throw it I must let go of it . To live I must have faith.\u00a0\u00a0 I must trust myself to the totally\u00a0 unknown, I must trust myself, to a nature\u00a0\u00a0 which does not have a boss. Because\u00a0 a boss is a system of mistrust.\u00a0\u00a0
Source : Youtube<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dx4yW0mjezw00:00:11So then, here is a conception of\u00a0 nature as something you must trust;\u00a0\u00a0 outside nature \u2013 the birds, the bees,\u00a0 the flowers, the mountains, the clouds,\u00a0\u00a0 and inside nature, human nature. Now\u00a0 nature isn\u2019t trustworthy, completely.\u00a0\u00a000:00:37It will sometimes let you down with a wallop, but\u00a0 that\u2019s the risk you take, that\u2019s the risk of life.\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading The Benefit of Living With No Purpose – Alan Watts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[446],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parents"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1709668563-maxresdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}