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From: markwatts02
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  • Did you produce this video? It is superb

  • There is nothing better in life before you are about to go to sleep, have a nice joint, stick your headphones on and listening to Alan speak.

  • Anyone out there know of anyone who's writings are similar to Alan Watts'(same philosophy different way of putting it)...I love reading Alan's books but have read everything he has ever done including listening to all his lectures. I'd appreciate it.

  • how does a knife cut itself?

    where is the border between knife and knife wielder?

    broken token jokin smokin

    shed the bread of the dead lead

    on mockery of sanity i am fed

    senseless menses macerate my head

  • so he was right. it is now known that even we come from nothing. everything comes from nothing

  • Wiggles! :P

  • Nice to see more people watching the Alan Watts. Ive been watching them all for a couple months now and ive learned so much.

  • Nothing is so beautiful :)

  • a 7:58 min video took me an hour to watch

  • what's the music around 2.30?

  • @NinjaJesusDisco cinematic orchestra i beleive.

  • I freaking love this guy!

  • smokin smokin weed!

  • What are we all doing????? I'm looking forward to going OFF for a while because life sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Just wondering if someone could help me out here. At about 1:00-1:20 he refers to the circular symbol on the paper as "Ta Gung" and "The Great Emptiness" but as far as I knew, this symbol is "Ensō"... where does this Ta Gung name come from? Is it his interpretation of it or something completely different? Cheers

  • Nothing does not exist without something.

  • i really like the first musical part, its really sincere and deep.

  • I like to remix alan watts with delta beats by opening two youtube videos at once :D

  • LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR, LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR, LET THE SOUL ARISE FROM THE WHORES.

  • well it's actually kinda pointless to listen to him, if you hadn't gave any thought on emptiness before. because it would lead you to misunderstand or get emposed by his ideas. it's not that his ideas are wrong or anything, but in philosophic topics it is important to first think about the topic for years, really really understand it and really really be there and then sit and listen to others or share yours with others. in short you really have to feel what you are talking about.

  • I understand

  • I never realized how sexy he was. Hmm! Oh Alan, take me down to Druid Heights, and we'll expand our consciousnesses and learn what it really means to be human!

  • 2540 people know nothing, and 39 people think they know everything.

  • @bobbytmathew bitches know nothing about nothing.

  • @bobbytmathew that was awesome :)

  • yeeeeeeee.

    

  • whats that cool organ music at the beginning?

  • @shrapn0 neil young organ solo. its in a film with johnny depp in it. i cant remember the name of the film though...

  • @MightyMiguel Thanks :D

  • @MightyMiguel The name of the movie is Dead Man.

  • Only one type of person can imagine nothing, a dead person. Yet they know nothing, but to "know" there must be understanding. So by "not knowing anything", is the best way to explain it. Therefore knowledge of nothing can't exist, because an understanding must not exist.

  • Idk. I think that things come into perspective b/c they are easily contrasted with the things that they are not. But that's not the same thing as saying that a thing is being contrasted against nothing. Even space, the void, is something and not nothing. If anything its stage that all the other somethings play out their role. I think I may have to disagree with watts here. I still believe that ex nihilo, nihil fit

  • Thanks Alan.

  • I agreed with him up to the conclusion.

  • @Morffin92 consider the fact that dude died in 1973...  He was no messiah nor a prophet... He was a simple philosopher who based his everything upon observations and extrapolations... So, yeah, he was wrong on many things... But he was right about much more than he was wrong...

    *wink* "agreed until conclusion" *wink*

  • Radiohead

  • @Piannnnnno i thought it was radiohead playing at the start aswell. motion picture soundtrack remix?

  • @Piannnnnno ohh and nude towards the end.

  • starfucker

    

  • freemo kunts

  • Interesting.

  • Dark matter is something....

  • It's all zeroes and ones... the very song of the universe.

  • yin and yang got it.

  • The isolated moon lighting up the galaxy,

    even though a dim moon compared to the sun

    It stands alone, but is a part of the entire galaxy.

    just like the moon,

    He is apart of all that surrounds him,

    yet remains merely a part of it all.

    “All are but parts of the one stupendous whole!”

    you are a Be in part of the Being..

    just Love.. if your hating on love, your hating on your very existence, and the existence that lives outside of you.

    It all stems from love brah

  • I have found 2 good practices when watching Allan Watts videos.

    1. taking notes, because I have such a short term memory and writing things down helps the point stick

    2. Close your eyes and watch the video a second time trying to visualize characters and objects he discusses.

  • @NoProofOfHell Feel ya brother. My first experience/exposure to Watts was totally random... My computer decided to navigate its way to a video while I was lying in bed falling asleep. Odd...

    I highly suggest obtaining the hours of audio recordings... *coughtorrentcough*

  • @NoProofOfHell looking back at this you kinda laugh at it don't you?

  • @verifymyageful I don't quite get the gist of your question. Looking back at the video, looking back at my comment, looking back at life....... I guess I can look back at anything and laugh at it, it would be much better than looking back at something and regretting , fearing, hating, or despising it.

  • @NoProofOfHell well this is one of the first videos of his i watched and i remember how serious i was about trying to understand and untangle myself from a mess but now when i came back to this video i just found the situation rather hilarious and im not sure why.

  • @verifymyageful I don't think A. Watts intentions are for you to take him seriously , 'subscribe' to his ideology or even understand him.. Maybe ur onto s/thing by looking back and finding it hilarious.

    For me, if I watch an A Watts video like a commercial, it becomes an after thought, I get nothing from it. I go about my business as if I never seen it. Now, if I focus a little on the message, relax, take notes, and actually listen, the thoughts spring forth in my daily life.

  • @NoProofOfHell ya i wasn't saying those were his intentions, i understand where you are coming from though

  • @NoProofOfHell well said. Separate oneself from the saturation.

  • @NoProofOfHell Nice practices. :) 

  • -( (( (((-(-(-(-(-(-(((0)))+)+)+)+)+­)+))) )) )+

  • but the white iPhone does´t contrast the black iPhone with interconnected absence *headscratch*

    or does it mean, one has either a white iPhone OR a black iPhone, but never both?

  • Just my opinion, but my conclusion to the Philosophy of this video is that the Universe is the product of a constant, constant mathematical Contradiction between Existence(+) and Non-existence(-) with you Self-Awareness(0) in the Center of it all experiencing everything

  • Alan Watts and Radiohead. Two of the greatest things to come of this earth.

  • Around 3:15 I start to feel my mind blowing. 

  • i disagree you can see something if it's got a background of nothing. i sort of know what he gets but because if there wasn't anything between the earth and the sun we'd all be fried!

  • song list?

  • Comment removed

  • @youtlubesuxxxxxxxxok Awesome explanation, dude.

  • @SewerCorn

    you mean the explanation which was flagged?

    smiling.

    "Nothingness" is a very very scary idea. What if Nothingness does not have any meaning whatsoever. If it had any innate meaning or relatable characteristic it would be "something". Yet what does it mean to exist by not existing?

    What if YOU exist by not existing? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? And yet how could it be any other way?

    Existence is nothingness.

    So there is nothing to do in life, nothing to achieve? Nothing to fix?

    SCARY!

  • radioheadd

  • fuckers let people enjoy the video! u dont like it fuck off!

  • whoa, that really tripped me out when the instrumental version of Radiohead's song "nude" kicked in :D

  • this is exactly what i wrote in my collage finishing paper, there is no space without no-space , the NO-space and Space define each other

  • "And so all that side of life that you call unconscious, unknown, impenetrable is unconscious and is unknown and is impenetrable because it's really you!" WHAT DOES HE MEAN?

  • @heyfkldsm "The deepest you is the nothing side, is the side which you don't know."

  • @youtlubesuxxxxxxxok I hate to sound paranoid, but someone flagged your comment as spam and Youtube is censoring some of my fucking comments.

  • @MONSQUEEKY

    to be censored is to speak freely.

    to be flagged is to be free.

    If all is one, then in fact all is NONE and diversity is an illusion.

  • @youtlubesuxxxxxxxok If diversity is an illusion well then so is unity for unity cannot exist without the contrast of diversity and division. It's a constant contradiction. And it's that constant back & forth contradiction between the two dualities that keeps the Universe in a constant flow of change.

  • @MONSQUEEKY

    Diversity is an illusion... all is none. As in, all is nothing.

    Nothingness is not a concept like "unity " or "division" or "contrast" or even "change".

    when words fail, as they must if we wish to truly communicate anything, we are left with NOW.

    NOW IS NOTHINGNESS AND NOTHINGNESS IS NOW.

    Think quietly on this. How can it be any other way? How can this moment exist without NOT existing simultaneously. How can existence exist without simultaneously NOT existing?

    Scary huh?

  • @youtlubesuxxxxxxxok "How can it be any other way? How can this moment exist without NOT existing simultaneously. How can existence exist without simultaneously NOT existing?"

    That's the Point I was trying to make. but you can't have Nothingness without the contrast of Somethingness and you cant have similarity without the contrast of diversity. Even Your own logic says so...

  • @youtlubesuxxxxxxxok I think what your really trying to say is that diversity is an illusion in the sense that, as different as we all seem to be on the surface, at the core of our being we are all literally the same, or one...

  • @MONSQUEEKY

    Are you sure we are all one? What exactly does that mean to you?

    If all is one and all is literally the same, then "you" are just as much the feces of a dying flea as you are the explosive brilliance of a dying star, right?

    At your core, are you as much hitler as you are buddha?

    All is one and right now Monsqueeky is hitler and flea feces and star explosions!

    Is that the oneness "you" "are"?

    Who is this "you" anyway?

    When you say "oneness", do you mean the word "is"?

  • the truth lies in the Quran, I accepted islam 7 years ago and the book answers all my questions and provides what every human needs, forget the media, Islam is the straight path and all other paths are destruction, read the Quran and open your eyes, this world is only a deception and brief enjoyment,

  • @chekdamize7 Truly you can't believe that, Islam's path from start, in between, and from what things seem to be going to will only end up in destruction. Islam is in absolutely no position as the rest of religions to be sources of the truth.

  • @chekdamize7 Fuck off.

  • @chekdamize7 You don't ever find ALL the answers in anything. If you think you really know ALL the answers then the chances are that you're probably involved in some sort of mind control thing that's happy to just lump everything you don't understand into the 'it's gods will category' and not really question anything in any real depth.

  • A very famous physicist once said 'Space is merely the construct which provides the illusion that all things are seperate' !!!!

  • @dividebyN Who?

  • @CymroGoch : One-german-beer !!! ;)

  • Alan whats is miraculous

  • Hahah I love the description

  • i fuckin love this man

  • whats the music in the background? i wanna listen to more like it

  • he would have been an active and brilliant youtuber had he lived a few more decades. at least he lives on via this. 301,000k + views....great! :)

  • i love his voice. like a 19th century british colonialist or something

  • I would have to disagree. You could have black with out white. Black is not contingent on white.

  • @Jamesuni You are here severely narrow minded. Please think about this in absolute terms. You cannot have love without fear, as each is only a contrast to the other. Both are part of the same singular nature. As is black and white.

    You can of course have a black crayon with no white crayon but white crayons still exist!!!

  • @david18861886 Couldn't find your last post but you said there could be no universe of me with out women. Possibly. But there could be a universe of women without men. And there definitely could be a universe of dark without light.

  • @Jamesuni ye sure you got it. Nail on the head. Well done.

  • @Jamesuni If there was no white to contrast black with, both white and black would disappear. Just like in a world full of people who were all 4 feet tall, the concept tall and short would mutually vanish, because there would be no tall people to compare them too. If there is no pain then the concept of pleasure would vanish. If everything was always pleasurable that would be considered normal and the concept of pain wouldn't be concievable. Same for up, down, left, right etc.

  • @JarethGT Here you show how you know the difference between up is because you understand opposites. . However, is there an opposite of red? With out the color white there could be a color black. Was the concept of white the cause of the concept of black? I can understand the analogy with heights but not with colors. Darkness, sure the absence of light.

  • @Jamesuni 2nd rply - @Jamesuni Opposite of red? Red is on the color spectrum between black and white. White is all colors, black is no colors.

    No, you coulden't have darkness without light, just as you said, darkness IS "The absense of light" if there is no light to be absent then the definition of darkness would be something like "the absense of ????" since there is nothing to be absent the whole concept of darkness would be useless and make no sense, ergo it woulden't exist..

  • @Jamesuni The Opposite of Red is Green, and I would say that the Opposite of Love isn't Hate, but Fear. Love is an Expansive emotion (when you love something you reach out to it) Fear is a Contracting emotion (when you fear something, you cringe or hide from it ). I think that saying Hate is the opposite of Love is like saying Blue is the Opposite of Red. Hate may seem to be the opposite of love, but Hate is still an Expansive emotion(when you hate something you push it away) ....just my opinion

  • @JarethGT However,the idea of love and hate. Both of those things are too vague. But lets just say for the sake of conversing they are opposites. A child born in this world could be sheltered from hate and never ever come to know that concept. Therefore, love is not contingent on hates existence.

  • @Jamesuni Let's distinguish concepts from experience. If your parents love you, spoil you rotten, and give you everything you want, does suffering not exist to you? No, a spoiled child will cry like the world is ending if they don't get to eat out at Applebee's, but a starving child who knows nothing but suffering could eat a half eaten corn dog on the street and experience pure ecstacy from eating it. It's relative, but yes they are mutually supportive poles on one spectrum.

  • @JarethGT My only point is that a person could know just a world of love/hate and never know of love/hate.

  • @Jamesuni What just the words? The concept? We can all see light and not know what it is or what to call it. That's obvious.

  • @Jamesuni in absolute terms. black is the absence of light as light is the absence of black. It is one dual nature'd system. like man and woman, positron and electron, up and down. You can have a man in a room and no woman, but you cannot have man in a universe without women. You can have a lit room with no darkness but not a lit universe with no darkness, or a dark universe with no light.

  • - and nonsense needs penetrating brilliance and so on... Alan cracks himself up a lot because he's in the play of nonsense, pitted against or with profound meaning. Play is what it is about, to access the profound 'something' in a cathartic field of bullshit. "That's good shit" has nonsense and pure meaning wrapped together as one! It doesn't need to be a "drug" obviously... just a good, connected conversation is a trip...ya know?

  • Comment removed

  • random comment proving that i totally missed the point

  • Obi Watts canobi...

  • @MrSlipperyfish Look how tall that one is, look how short that one is.

  • @MrSlipperyfish I know right.. meticulous outward thinking is soooo 70's... it's all about those chemtrails nowadays I guess huh?... haha the spice of life!

  • same thing for dinner everyday is zen because if u need to have something differen't to eat everyday then you have an unqeuntchable thirst in the soul a self spiling u can say so wtf is this asshole talking about?

  • @TheShaolinScholar if you are worried about what you are eating you are not in the zen mind. a master would simply be aware that he is eating while he eats, unconcerned with the 'what am I eating'.

  • Alan Watts is a gateway to some very scary knowledge. You think it's all very simple, and that you can just stop? You have no idea... you WILL be afraid. Turn back now, before it's too late.

  • @ChaseManhattan516 it is very scary knowledge and it's too late for me to turn back

  • @ninasamoneemor No it should not be scary. Please carry on, but know that as it makes your life easier, it also makes your life more challenging, but definitely more rewarding. There is no you, and that will one day make perfect sense.

  • @david18861886 I understand it and agree with it, dont know if "I" will let this truth be... does that make any sence?

  • @ninasamoneemor Yes. Consider this. You do not absolutely exist. You probably exist, that is to say you exist in a now-ness, in a now-space, but not in all-ness, or all-space. As part of a singular infinite existence you are only relative, not absolute. Everything is only relative. That is to say a thing 'is' its relationships with all other things, and that all things exist as one in this way, relative to eachother. So to describe a thing absolutely, one finds they must describe everything else

  • @david18861886 if that is the case .... here is an absolute truth.... Everything is spinning

  • @TheIgnoramus ummm... yes. I hope you were not trying to be an ironic hipster douche-bag, because what you said is actually literally true... It just depends on the time period and galactic scale...

    lol

  • @ChaseManhattan516 or take the challenge and dive into the danger :)!

  • @remco366 You're right. I'm 21, I live on Long Island. I've got a big family, they're all oblivious to what's coming. I'm the only one who's broken through the illusion. This is the game. I've done my best to prepare myself, I stay positive, but... can I save the people I love? I show them, they think I'm crazy. They've no patience. It's amazing how ignorant people are. I mean, c'mon... just listen to this commercial: /watch?v=k6mQ6VN4Wp8 The dharma wheel in the background... it's right there!

  • Buddhist philosophy is so simple yet so difficult at the same time

  • So when I think of an atom O, is that atom at the same time there and not there, or is it just there because there is also space around it (and reversed, there's space because of the atoms being there)? And is a molecule e.g. H²O at the same time matter and void, because of the space between the atoms and electrons orbiting it? Sorry, got stuck on the atom part, didn't even get to the thoughts yet XD.

  • I don't get it... I want to, but I don't.

  • People who are still living in the realms of the tangible mind think that us being "nothing" or "infinite space" or "awareness" or "the self" it some depressing and boring thing. What Alan is saying is that we are as much the space between our thoughts as our thoughts themselves. That silence of space that is there in every activity we do, no matter how stressful. Underneath all thoughts, emotions, concepts, labels, etc is a "nothingness" that is peaceful and naturally happy. Stay as that.

  • Does anybody know any of the music here? Apart from the Radiohead.

  • @nowthatyourskyhas I'd love to know the track at 0:48. Others are "Organ Solo" Neil Young, "Dawn" Cinematic Orchestra, "Spotless Mind" Jon Brion... I think.

  • @VioletPsychofluid Damn it! That was the song I really wanted to know. Thanks for the others, though : )

  • did i really just scroll down to see kids arguing about alcohol?

  • Nothing really matters but what we choose to believe in through the manipulation of ideas, illusion and truth! Though perception is what molds our beliefs. Can we create something out of nothing? how do we get to a higher plain of existance where we no longer take anything for granted! where we are free from the falacies of exostentialism until the end of time!

  • alan watts is gonna b my baby's dady

  • @BobBurnnquist allan watts is dead as fuck

  • another reason to despise booze, nothing really matters anyone can see. nothing goes here. nothing is real, nothing's going to change my world. "should have stuck with psychedelics" here nothing goes, go hear nothing. up to nothing, nothing special. NOTHING can stand in our way.

  • @kaiagavin Watts was very friendly with Booze but with a certain respect. Its possible to drink and not over consume in the sense that it drowns out and resists what there is. To shift conciousness from a stiff state of thinking this reality I am stuck with and I must drink to shift. Theres a way to see like this that no specific reality was the exact one so he saw no reason what he shouldnt have a sip of wine.

  • @TheDarksterZane justification and rationalizations do nothing to change the effects, can you have gay sex and not be gay? can you smoke pot and not be a pot head? can you smoke crack and not be a crack head? can you use heroin and not be a junkie? but people think they can drink every day and not be an alcoholic. you are playing the "amount" game and thinking that booze is exempt somehow from the same effects. Booze is the antithesis of the psychedelic experience.

  • @kaiagavin Yes you are right. that comment was clumbsy. I had in mind an interview in which he was asked "If Zen is a way of Liberation? Do you consider liquor a way of Liberation?" he replied "No. I regard it as a part of life, like Food or vitamins." Im not saying alcohol is a way of liberation. LSD and Cannabis isnt either. Mind can look back and assume trying that again will attain something but it wont. It felt like you were blaming alcohol for what the mind entertains.

  • @TheDarksterZane dude, i am not blaming alcohol for being a part of nature, i am pointing out some of its many effects and attributes. slowing down or stopping the processes of nature by its ability to pickle, or preserve the state of matter. like refrigeration retards the natural processes of whatever is in it.

  • Comment removed

  • @TheDarksterZane perhaps I should have said the "mystical experience" instead, where there is a dissolving of the ego and a feeling of gratitude for being given this opportunity to experience this. where as booze builds up and supports the ego and the apathetic "who gives a shit" attitude, a false sense of self esteem, and delusions of grandeur. Its really no wonder why some people think this is good for them.

  • I love when the Radiohead song drops! l'm loving Alan Watts too!

  • Can anyone tell me how you spell the word(s) used at 1:05 when he describes the "great emptiness"... it sounds like tah goon, althought I'm aware that's definitely not how you spell it.

  • @GoldiGlockz Watts is using the Cantonese pronunciation, probably, but the Mandarin is "dai kong" (大空) I believe.

  • @wall0645 Thank you I have been asking this many times over the years I have watched this.

  • @wall0645 Thanks pal!

  • I don't understand why even videos like these have so many arguments in the comments.

  • dude so i was like sitting on a hammock and was thinking about "nothing" last night so i got on the youtube and listened to this band called starfucker and it had like like this guy all talking like intelligent and i love just listening to intelligent people and the first thing that came up with nothingness and i was like whoa and he started talking about how people called him weird and in my life people called me weird and i always just sit there and think so i think i am somewhat like alan wat

  • Alan Watts + Radiohead :)

  • "nothing" like a "weird" alan watts vid to create some additional space in my airhead

  • what?

  • @duirc He's a great father and incredibly smart person, he just happens to talk like this when he's drunk. I am not attempting to humiliate him on Youtube :)

  • I love Alan Watts, and enjoy listening to him, but I don't like the editing a number of videos of him have.

  • Thank you for your video. It is always good to stop and think a bit deeper! ;)

  • @LostMyCannon You obviously haven't watched enough of these videos....or you would be more receptive to the ancient source of absolute meaningless dull bullshit.....

    I pity you....

    Hopefully someday you will have the gift of insight into mediocrity, until that time I am sure this guy sells books....

  • @LostMyCannon Your comment gives me an opportunity I've been looking for as of late; I've often wondered why those who make snarky, sarcastic remarks, who take cheap shots at well-meaning individuals for no good reason and without any actual humor behind it, do what they do. I recently decided to start asking some. I was wondering if you cared to tell me why you made the comment you did; this is just for my own personal understanding--it's up to you, obviously, whether to answer. Thank you.

  • @Megaritz He is trying to teach in his own way....the sarcasm comes from frustration of having to endure videos like this one. having standards.......searching for the sublime on the tube.....frustrating.....good luck in your quest to infer meaning within the snarkyness.....

  • hey, can anyone tell me the song at the start of this video? nice bit starts at 1:00

  • I think his comparison of having a background is rather lacking and the logic of it is faulty and not scientific. But perhaps he just tries to point out that matter needs anti-matter, good needs bad etc. But that's hardly new and revolutionary. Not to me anyway...  THen again, I'm a bit wierd.

  • @Andreazor

    go further. go deeper.

    there is nothingness and there is somethingness.

    beyond that is the indescribable tao.

  • Worthy of a billion plays.

  • Boobs at 5:51

  • everything is relative, nothing is absolute

  • What is the song at 2:12?

  • @GreenwooddPop "Dawn" by Cinematic Orchestra

  • nude and videotape by radiohead in the background :)

  • Comment removed

  • @allinthemind2006 and you never will until you become a Christian. Yes, Jesus was a man... That would make God a HE. and furthermore, FATHER, Son, Holy Spirit...

  • @JakeFrierson LOL god was only god, he wouldn't be any gender unless he was born to reproduce with another member of his species which wouldn't make him god at all

  • imagine if space would be nothing. we would lose our minds

  • yeah but he's not actually considering nothing.... just zero, which isn't nothing! he's talking about space, which is still something, death is nothingness, before birth is nothing, time is nothing,

  • For a more scientific explanation of nothingness, read - Aether: The Physicalists' God

  • @withfootnotes God does speak to people and have conversations, but he doesn't do it on our terms. He will not reveal himself to arrogant people who think they have it all figured out, but rather a humble heart who seeks to know Him. He speaks to His children, which are Christians, and he doesn't converse with people who could care less about Him and I can't blame Him... The Bible is controversial, but that all changes after the first time you meet the creator, because when you do meet Him, you

  • He? God has human sexual reproductive organs? What are we really talking about when we say "God"? I dont think its so personal.. Thats a scary idea for person isnt it? that God may not be "personal." If its a scary idea then thats a huge sign of egoism.. I believe there is an intellegent protecting force here guiding us and I pour my faith into that force everyday. but honestly I have never heard it speak to me in human words. Maybe one day