Alan Watts - Relativity

Everyone has heard the term "Relativity", yet more than a hundred years after Albert Einstein first made the word an everyday phrase; most of us have no idea how astounding these theories actually are. This is why I have chosen this short clip by the remarkable philosopher and communicator Alan W. Watts.

Alan Watts was instrumental in introducing Eastern philosophy to a Western audience in the 1960s until his death in 1973. Watts was a self-proclaimed "Spiritual entertainer with nothing to sell". Although he did publish over 20 books on Eastern philosophy, including his classic, "The Way of Zen".

The modern scientific findings of relativity theory is where the ancient teachings of Buddha, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, meet modern science. For over 2000 years the sages of the Far East have taught that all experiences were merely a function of mind. Time, mass (solidity) and space (distance), are the projections of the mind and not known to a world outside consciousness.

This was also the experience of the quantum physicists when they began to engage with the subatomic world. They found a quantum world where there were no distinctions and just the act of observing changed the very nature of what was being studied.

As Dr Watts explains in this video, all that ever exists is electromagnetic phenomena. As portrayed in the popular 1999 movie "The Matrix", it is our mind that processes quantum energy received by our sensory awareness and then projects these experiences outside ourselves as our physical interactions.

However, if material objects are pulsating energy in vast emptiness, why does it seem we are living in a highly material world? Mass (or solidity) is actually a measure of the energy contained within a substance and the more energy it contains the greater the mass.

Watts often explained mass with the analogy of an electric fan. Although the fan blades have space in between, they are moving so fast that the individual blades behave as a solid disc.

The same is true of seemingly solid objects that are in fact mostly emptiness. Material objects contain so much energy that nothing is able to pass through them, giving the mass the appearance of a solid.

Nevertheless physicists are unable to explain why we see water as transparent and other substances as opaque. It seems that we have evolved to see energy we can pass through, such as air and water, as transparent and everything else opaque. The only exception to this is manufactured glass: nevertheless this does not occur in Nature to the same clarity.

Most of us naturally assume time and space (distance) are fixed and unchangeable. Nonetheless Einstein proved this to be a fallacy and also relative to the individual. The great theoretical physicist combine space and time into a fourth dimension he called the space-time continuum. He then went on to prove gravity was actually caused by the warping of space and time.

Nevertheless Einstein was able to bring relativity back down to earth when he said, "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."

We all have had the very subtle experience of this when we look at the time and are surprised at how quickly it has past. It is in this moment we have had a meditative experience - a reality beyond self, time and place.

Yet how does understanding relativity help us at all? The benefit comes from understanding the world we perceive around us is ultimately a function of our own mind. Material reality is not something that comes from the outside in; it arises from within oneself and is projected out.

Therefore if we make a conscious effort to foster positivity and contentment from within, this will become our projected experience of the world around us.

If you would like to learn more about Alan Watts, relativity, meditation or Eastern philosophy, please visit my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/TaoFAQ

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[LexNao]

Firstly, thank you for the videos.

I am unsure if someone may already have asked this...

if reality is perception and for it to become "positive", the same would be needed to be projected > like equals like:

So my question, if this is, how then is there order in reality, or is this 'experience', lack thereof?

Is this why there are more than one Buddhist doctrine? For, I alone may make a difference, but in unison we change the universe?

[yinyangnature]

@LexNao Thank you. We are surrounded by pulsating energy in vast emptiness. Yet our minds have evolved to perceive this as a material world & label everything as good or bad. Yet material objects are only perceptions of mind, with no reality outside the mind. Since language has come from mind, all religions have struggled to explain something that exists beyond the mind. So all religions use metaphors to explain that which is beyond language. Meditation is the best way to see beyond the mind.

[verifymyageful]

@rog944 oh I understand your meaning, i just wasn't sure what you meant by projection, a sort of nothing exists independently sort of thing you mean? And nothing actually exists without us perceiving it and we don't exist without anything to perceive? I am sure those are truths but I am not sure if thats what you are trying to say.

[rog944]

@verifymyageful It's not an easy question to answer, unfortunately. But, I'll try. What I'm trying to say though, is that our brains have no more basis in reality, than anything else we know about it. EVERYTHING we know about is a projection. But, where is the brain projected? In the brain? It's an endless loop. There's a flaw in the reasoning. But, I'm not trying to discredit Alan Watts, though. He is a brilliant man, and this video does make you think about the nature of "reality"

[verifymyageful]

@rog944 hmm.. I am a bit confused on what you are saying.. it is the light that bounces off an object that our brain perceives.. our brains are projections? In what way? Sorry please clarify I am a bit confused.

[fndngnvrlnd]

Superb. The great Alan Watts puts it so simply.

[rumin001]

love that brain picture at the end: the 2 sides of humans-prickles and goo

[tabletalk33]

Wonderful explanation, the best that I have ever heard. He had a way with words.

[Alexanderisgreat]

relativity is a trap.

[RojitoPito87]

@rog944 He never said the "brain" wasn't a projection or a phenomena. In fact he never used the word "brain". What he means is that this illusion that we call physical existence is a product of the mind and our nervous system (including Brain) is simply a filter by which our physical bodies arrange and process the non physical information we (Our Minds) produce... Therefore we are the projector and the projected all at once.. :)