The practitioner of Tao has no attachment, no desire, and thus is able to experience full awareness of the moment, of the emptiness - empty of "busyness" as the speaker points out. The usefulness of anything is possible only because of the emptiness. This wisdom is understood from within. You are Tao.
well, but even then it would have a purpose of being what it is, of being enjoyed for its so-called uselessness, so after all, it is not meaningless at all. So, one apparently must understand that meaning is created by the one who gives meaning. The same way, when someone says there is not absolute truth in life, in the universe or wherever, that again would be an absolute truth. So the mind creates all sorts of meanings and truths. Therefore create meaning! and look if it is useful for human,
We should recognize that there are buddhas and christs and zoroasters and mohammeds today. They just stand on cardboard boxes in crowded city streets.
or, in watts' day, lived on houseboats.
times change and people change. following the norms of the past is the zombification of all ideologies. we need to devote our love to living humans (not politicians and businesspeople) if we want a change that matters, our religious superheroes arent here to save the day.
Taoism confuses even the most intellectual among us. Taoism isn't about promoting ideas that say everything is useless, meaningless and empty. That is absolute HOGWASH. Much of humanity is filled with triviality. Novelty. Nature is NOT. The taoist realizes this and derives the entire philosophy from this meaning and usefulness in nature. Humanity is not nature. Humanity is something we perpetually create.
Taoism confuses even the most intellectual among us. Taoism isn't about promoting ideas that say everything is useless, meaningless and empty. That is absolute HOGWASH. Much of humanity is filled with triviality. Novelty. Nature is NOT. The taoist realizes this and derives the entire philosophy from this meaning and usefulness in nature. Humanity is not nature. Humanity is something we perpetually create.
i think you're misunderstanding his use of the concept of "usefulness" here.
watts is right when he says that the universe doesn't have a point, or a use. unless we can suppose a creator, or some other cosmic reason for the existence of the universe, what other conclusion may we reach? and indeed, why is it that we feel the need to explain the universe, or explain existence?
to explain is a human idea, and it seems that here we cannot explain what is inexplicable. the universe just is.
@CptCrash21 HAHAH When you talk about Taoism, you can't "wing it" and sound good. LOL Watts really doesn't understand what he's talking about when he talks about the Tao Te Ching or any true Taoist. I think it is beyond where Watts feels comfortable going. The only thing that makes Watts look foolish, here, is that he chooses to try and make sense out of it. Unfortunately, for him, it is a task unaccomplishable.
Us and them perception, Mr. Watts himself said that there are 2 types of people in the world, that of prickles and that of goo, the prickles are the mathematicians and those who hope the ultimate constituent of the universe is particles and the gooey people are the peots and those who are prone to romantic fantasies and who also hope the ultimate foundation of matter are waves, but he goes on to say that the world is not just prickles and not just goo, its gooey prickles, i wonder why he forgot.
I see what he is trying to say, but he emphasize the meaninglessness of it more so than the meanfulness, its a kind of dogma for him, im just pointing out that saying its all 'meaningless' is focusing on Up rather than Down it would be more accurate to say its all a 'meaningful meaningless' and this is not purley philosophical talk this is direct experience, meaning and meaningless are not independent they compliment eachother to make a continuum that is beyond description, and this is the truth
Life has as much"meaning" as you give to it. That is the truth. Not the ultimate truth, but the truth of "meaning." The ultimate truth is, there is not "good" or "bad(evil)" our minds just create this delusion. And "mind" is a delusion. pure truth, just "is."
And there is a "power" when living life without "mind" and living what "is." Stress and all other problems come when you create "mind(delusion.)" You can always experience "truth" when living completely in the present(before mind)(what "is") or in other words non-reacting to what is and just accepting.
The reason people miss out on this simple truth is because it seems so simple that people think "how can it be true." But it is. The more you "think" about it, the farther you get from it. You can fill up many pages and write many books on "the one truth" but it only can "describe" it, that isn't it. The best I have ever read was "the tao te ching" by Lao Tzu.
Another problem is people are already "lost in thought" and it has become an addiction. They think their "thoughts" are who they are. That is why meditation helps alot. It helps quiet the mind so you can experience truth. It is also why the bible says "sit still and know that it is God." And "God is everything." God is everything without the delusion of Mind.
But even with this understanding of absolute truth, we as human beings need to use our minds to create a "system" that feeds the people. Material things are also enjoyable but create delusion. That is why it is important to balance your life between truth and nontruth. And the most free that the place you live in is, the better.
t preserve eventaully died out but this is a sort of pessimism that does not give full value of the nature of the event as it is "being what it is Now" in that moments somone sacrificed thier life to save anothers, this is what he Meant by his death and it is just as much Naked Existence as a 'purposeless' cloud or wave crashing on the sand, so to get all caught up and on the side of meaninglessness as opposed to meaningfullness is just another separation in the continuum of existence its an
and yet knowing that his own concsiousness was inseparable from the eternal universe he died a fools death from alcohol poisoning, a meaningless death, so was his own philosophy a self perpetuating phenomenon? because we are all aware of people who have died meaningfull deaths, say in battle in an effort to save some comrades or in defense of thier beliefs, while u could say that eventually this meaningfulness fades because the people he saved eventually died from old age or the belief he sought
i think he gets too emphatic on the whole meaningless of the universe, i read a few books of his and he seems to need to chant it to himself, but i cannot agree that everything is perfectly meaningless, because humans being a natural facet of the whole universe can apply meaning to events and relationships, and without meaning the soul seems to wither, now this man was a genius, intellectually and intuitively tho i would say more so intellectually he had had his fair share of unitive experiences
God, Taoism is amazing. Finished reading the Tao Te Ching and Hua Hu Ching just today, absolutely blown away. I have to do a report on it, and then I have to play the part of Lao Tzu after doing a bit of a biography. From the looks of it, it's all going to be pretty darn fun. I mean everything fits together so perfectly!
@cdphatty Indeed, as being one that has studied Tao for over 15 years, I find Chuang - Tzu's supposed teachings, as presented by Thomas Merton, to be way more enlightening than the works Ive seen on Lao Tzu.
past is a memory. but future is just a projection based on memory. both past and future are constructs of the mind. everything that ever happened or will happen, happens now (when it occurs it is occurring in the now).
so NOW is the only reality. past and future are relative to NOW which is all there ever is.
'what u will do' is no more than a thought occurring now. when u get to doing 'what u will do' you will be doing it now
I suppose, the only way we can get a glimpse of the "now moment" is to simply stop what we are thinking and doing and just beeeeeeee! Which is always much harder to accomplish, than it sounds!
When we attempt to do anything, even to just beeee. We are in fact, going against just being.
i think we are speaking of the now as different things.
i was not refering to now as a relative point in time.
NOW is outside of the concept of time. It is not any event that is occuring but rather that in which everything occurs timelessly. no concepts of causality apply.
check out some other videos by Alan Watts on Toaism and Time. He'll clarify what i mean way better than a 500 character text.
Wow I do that too, wonder what precipitated this embellishing buffoonery. My friends have learned to except and appreciate this weird quality. But they also know I can be sincere. Some malfunction in development causes this silly avoidence adaptation. Love Alan Watts.
this video is awesome
gadionson1 2 months ago
love to alan watts. A great speaker,
benangela 8 months ago
Beautiful ending that made me laugh. Thank you.
yabits 9 months ago
Thanks for posting this. The cliffhanger ending is cosmic!
alohaoliwa 9 months ago
The practitioner of Tao has no attachment, no desire, and thus is able to experience full awareness of the moment, of the emptiness - empty of "busyness" as the speaker points out. The usefulness of anything is possible only because of the emptiness. This wisdom is understood from within. You are Tao.
massage33316 1 year ago
well, but even then it would have a purpose of being what it is, of being enjoyed for its so-called uselessness, so after all, it is not meaningless at all. So, one apparently must understand that meaning is created by the one who gives meaning. The same way, when someone says there is not absolute truth in life, in the universe or wherever, that again would be an absolute truth. So the mind creates all sorts of meanings and truths. Therefore create meaning! and look if it is useful for human,
titurey2 1 year ago
We should recognize that there are buddhas and christs and zoroasters and mohammeds today. They just stand on cardboard boxes in crowded city streets.
or, in watts' day, lived on houseboats.
times change and people change. following the norms of the past is the zombification of all ideologies. we need to devote our love to living humans (not politicians and businesspeople) if we want a change that matters, our religious superheroes arent here to save the day.
mankypancakes 1 year ago
even though it's not much to think about in this short segment, it blew my mind.
cro0zfl3xd3x 1 year ago
zhuang zi, daoist, lao zi, dao de jing
chuang tzu, taoist, lao tzu, tao te ching . . .
risingsun08107 1 year ago
I just lost the game.
TeeAreify 1 year ago
I'm going to show people this clip the next time I'm accused of leading a 'useless life'.
Thank you AW
xmfcnrx 1 year ago
@xmfcnrx Glad to see you've made this clip useful
Dravoth 10 months ago
nothing is useful and only nothing
MidnightDC696969 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Taoism confuses even the most intellectual among us. Taoism isn't about promoting ideas that say everything is useless, meaningless and empty. That is absolute HOGWASH. Much of humanity is filled with triviality. Novelty. Nature is NOT. The taoist realizes this and derives the entire philosophy from this meaning and usefulness in nature. Humanity is not nature. Humanity is something we perpetually create.
Kostly 1 year ago
Taoism confuses even the most intellectual among us. Taoism isn't about promoting ideas that say everything is useless, meaningless and empty. That is absolute HOGWASH. Much of humanity is filled with triviality. Novelty. Nature is NOT. The taoist realizes this and derives the entire philosophy from this meaning and usefulness in nature. Humanity is not nature. Humanity is something we perpetually create.
Kostly 1 year ago
@Kostly
i think you're misunderstanding his use of the concept of "usefulness" here.
watts is right when he says that the universe doesn't have a point, or a use. unless we can suppose a creator, or some other cosmic reason for the existence of the universe, what other conclusion may we reach? and indeed, why is it that we feel the need to explain the universe, or explain existence?
to explain is a human idea, and it seems that here we cannot explain what is inexplicable. the universe just is.
pazomblez 1 year ago
I'm not sure this guy really knows what he's trying to convey.
Kostly 1 year ago
it kinda sounded like he was unsure of what he was saying
hairybalooncabbage 1 year ago
he didn't really plan anything he said ahead of time. He would usually just "wing it" based on what kind of audience he had.
CptCrash21 1 year ago
@CptCrash21 HAHAH When you talk about Taoism, you can't "wing it" and sound good. LOL Watts really doesn't understand what he's talking about when he talks about the Tao Te Ching or any true Taoist. I think it is beyond where Watts feels comfortable going. The only thing that makes Watts look foolish, here, is that he chooses to try and make sense out of it. Unfortunately, for him, it is a task unaccomplishable.
Kostly 1 year ago
@Kostly How didn't he accomplish it? I find this view of the Dao completely acceptable. If it's not, in what way does he/I miss the point?
holm81 1 year ago
Us and them perception, Mr. Watts himself said that there are 2 types of people in the world, that of prickles and that of goo, the prickles are the mathematicians and those who hope the ultimate constituent of the universe is particles and the gooey people are the peots and those who are prone to romantic fantasies and who also hope the ultimate foundation of matter are waves, but he goes on to say that the world is not just prickles and not just goo, its gooey prickles, i wonder why he forgot.
phobosx12 2 years ago
I think you're reading too much into it.... thus, missing the point.
CinematicD 2 years ago
I see what he is trying to say, but he emphasize the meaninglessness of it more so than the meanfulness, its a kind of dogma for him, im just pointing out that saying its all 'meaningless' is focusing on Up rather than Down it would be more accurate to say its all a 'meaningful meaningless' and this is not purley philosophical talk this is direct experience, meaning and meaningless are not independent they compliment eachother to make a continuum that is beyond description, and this is the truth
phobosx12 1 year ago
@phobosx12
Life has as much"meaning" as you give to it. That is the truth. Not the ultimate truth, but the truth of "meaning." The ultimate truth is, there is not "good" or "bad(evil)" our minds just create this delusion. And "mind" is a delusion. pure truth, just "is."
TheROCKandOrROLL 1 year ago
@TheROCKandOrROLL
the mind is meant to solve problems not create them, but the EGO wishes that to be different.
Separartion causes judgement, the egoi is a bilateral comparitor.
Something or someone is either THIS or THAT.
It all move because it all moves and we are part of it.
When you look into the eyes of someone see yourself looking back.
smudge6699 1 year ago
@phobosx12
And there is a "power" when living life without "mind" and living what "is." Stress and all other problems come when you create "mind(delusion.)" You can always experience "truth" when living completely in the present(before mind)(what "is") or in other words non-reacting to what is and just accepting.
TheROCKandOrROLL 1 year ago
@phobosx12
The reason people miss out on this simple truth is because it seems so simple that people think "how can it be true." But it is. The more you "think" about it, the farther you get from it. You can fill up many pages and write many books on "the one truth" but it only can "describe" it, that isn't it. The best I have ever read was "the tao te ching" by Lao Tzu.
TheROCKandOrROLL 1 year ago
@phobosx12
Another problem is people are already "lost in thought" and it has become an addiction. They think their "thoughts" are who they are. That is why meditation helps alot. It helps quiet the mind so you can experience truth. It is also why the bible says "sit still and know that it is God." And "God is everything." God is everything without the delusion of Mind.
TheROCKandOrROLL 1 year ago
@phobosx12
But even with this understanding of absolute truth, we as human beings need to use our minds to create a "system" that feeds the people. Material things are also enjoyable but create delusion. That is why it is important to balance your life between truth and nontruth. And the most free that the place you live in is, the better.
TheROCKandOrROLL 1 year ago
t preserve eventaully died out but this is a sort of pessimism that does not give full value of the nature of the event as it is "being what it is Now" in that moments somone sacrificed thier life to save anothers, this is what he Meant by his death and it is just as much Naked Existence as a 'purposeless' cloud or wave crashing on the sand, so to get all caught up and on the side of meaninglessness as opposed to meaningfullness is just another separation in the continuum of existence its an
phobosx12 2 years ago
and yet knowing that his own concsiousness was inseparable from the eternal universe he died a fools death from alcohol poisoning, a meaningless death, so was his own philosophy a self perpetuating phenomenon? because we are all aware of people who have died meaningfull deaths, say in battle in an effort to save some comrades or in defense of thier beliefs, while u could say that eventually this meaningfulness fades because the people he saved eventually died from old age or the belief he sought
phobosx12 2 years ago
i think he gets too emphatic on the whole meaningless of the universe, i read a few books of his and he seems to need to chant it to himself, but i cannot agree that everything is perfectly meaningless, because humans being a natural facet of the whole universe can apply meaning to events and relationships, and without meaning the soul seems to wither, now this man was a genius, intellectually and intuitively tho i would say more so intellectually he had had his fair share of unitive experiences
phobosx12 2 years ago
it cuts off in the end...... and how did you react to that? :)
planetdarwin 2 years ago
God, Taoism is amazing. Finished reading the Tao Te Ching and Hua Hu Ching just today, absolutely blown away. I have to do a report on it, and then I have to play the part of Lao Tzu after doing a bit of a biography. From the looks of it, it's all going to be pretty darn fun. I mean everything fits together so perfectly!
LordofBLTs 2 years ago
@LordofBLTs My way, my way, my way, my way, my way. HAhhaha!
It is pretty darn fun! Read The 'Tao of Pooh.'
cydwatts 2 years ago
What is the name of the man he is talking about?
DermochelysCoriacea 2 years ago
chuang-tzu, probably the greatest taoist philosopher
cdphatty 2 years ago 9
@cdphatty Indeed, as being one that has studied Tao for over 15 years, I find Chuang - Tzu's supposed teachings, as presented by Thomas Merton, to be way more enlightening than the works Ive seen on Lao Tzu.
1spiritualalchemy1 1 year ago
its not what I SHOULD have done,
or what I COULD do,
but what I AAAAMMM doing that is important, ya dig...
here and now is the only reality
MidnightDC696969 2 years ago 3
@MidnightDC696969
Here and Now, are in the past!
Relative only to each individual memory.
What you are doing, is of course what you have done. What you will do, is far more important!
visionsofsilver 2 years ago
@visionsofsilver
past is a memory. but future is just a projection based on memory. both past and future are constructs of the mind. everything that ever happened or will happen, happens now (when it occurs it is occurring in the now).
so NOW is the only reality. past and future are relative to NOW which is all there ever is.
'what u will do' is no more than a thought occurring now. when u get to doing 'what u will do' you will be doing it now
this assuming u are the doer. which u are not
prinzdubs 2 years ago
All thoughts are past events.
What we do now, is only ever thrust into the darkness of the past, by the things we think about and do next!
All time... Past, The Now and Future are relative, not REAL!!!!
visionsofsilver 2 years ago
@visionsofsilver
I suppose, the only way we can get a glimpse of the "now moment" is to simply stop what we are thinking and doing and just beeeeeeee! Which is always much harder to accomplish, than it sounds!
When we attempt to do anything, even to just beeee. We are in fact, going against just being.
visionsofsilver 2 years ago
i think we are speaking of the now as different things.
i was not refering to now as a relative point in time.
NOW is outside of the concept of time. It is not any event that is occuring but rather that in which everything occurs timelessly. no concepts of causality apply.
check out some other videos by Alan Watts on Toaism and Time. He'll clarify what i mean way better than a 500 character text.
prinzdubs 2 years ago
@MidnightDC696969
Now: yes. what u are doing now: no.
it is not what u are doing because u are not the doer ;-)
'i leave my human nature to unfold according to whatever its destiny is. I remain as I AM'
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
prinzdubs 2 years ago
Wow I do that too, wonder what precipitated this embellishing buffoonery. My friends have learned to except and appreciate this weird quality. But they also know I can be sincere. Some malfunction in development causes this silly avoidence adaptation. Love Alan Watts.
jobedied 2 years ago
...that he seeks to emulate it?
PATHOGEN1974 2 years ago
that's deep
DKMAN86 2 years ago
This clip is too short to convey the point, poor edit.
More over, once can stream the game to his or other people's benefit. the complete purposelessness of the game eludes the power we have to Create.
That is our godliness.
superdiza 2 years ago 8
don't diss my friend, asshole
DKMAN86 2 years ago
don't asshole your friends, dissing is missing the point.
Which was my point to begin with.
superdiza 2 years ago 3
Comment removed
topbluffa1 1 year ago
Reality is not busy...
Thank you.
kasuskasus 3 years ago 2
haaha you skipped the end !
it's a great piece though, so thank you
Ameliapaik 3 years ago 2
wheres the end?!?!
devilsanvil 3 years ago 2
re: "where's the end?"
that IS a good question isn't it?
planetdarwin 2 years ago
its...so-so
MidnightDC696969 2 years ago