Alan Watts - Is Life Serious? (Part 2)

Old Alan tells it like it is.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• alan
• watts
• life
• game
• philosophy
• anxiety
• worry
• stress
• relax

[sd62t833]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 You're talking about an instinctive reaction

This video is about going beyond psychological fear and becoming the love that you are seeking...and enjoying life as a game.

Power is sought out of a psychological need for love.

Try loving yourself and the pursuit of power over others becmes irrelevant. You might do it for fun, but it won't be a psychological need. Also, seeing others as an extension of yourself would make the need to control them pointless.

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

@NIETZSCHEAN14. Yes, I know, I did not spell it right (lol). POUR, not "poor". :o)

[Donsknotts]

I came on this myself.

God wants TV?

[tobo86]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 Wrong! Life is partly war. You've used a metaphor that looks at only a portion of life. The other part is far more forgiving. Power rules but depending on definition, there are forms of power other than coercion, authority and expertise. There is also referent power, which basically means affection for another. To be more accurate, life is love and war.

[dukenotes]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 I'll bite; what are the "laws" of nature? By the way, nice meeting you/talking with you. Funny thing I forgot to mention earlier is when you say that "life is war and we should embrace it" it sort of sounds like you don't think life is any more serious than Watts does, and it seems to me he's mostly asking questions and not making definitive statements. "Serious" to me is thinking things are tragic or possibly turning into a tragedy.

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

@dukenotes. Tough self-control deserves respect. Friedrich Nietzsche writes positively about some elements of Buddhism.

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

@dukenotes. The laws of Nature control life - totally.

[dukenotes]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 In the 1900's Zen Monks/Buddhists were presented to the West as something like Nietzsche's "Supermen" who could put up with any pain, overcome any emotion, etc., but that's really not the point. It's true many were very tough ascetics and put their bodies through all sorts of deprivation. You can watch the Monk burning himself alive in South Vietnam and he looks as calm as can be 'til he drops dead, but most Buddhists have accepted the "middle way."

[dukenotes]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 These millions of operations taking place right now in our organism are either voluntary or they are involuntary. Either we have some sort of "omnipotence" in our own bodies, but have delegated the authority to "subordinate" organs, glands, etc. or it's totally involuntary and we have no choice in the matter. Breathing is obviously both voluntary/involuntary because we can take charge of how we breath, yet it goes on even when we don't think about it. But are we still in charge?

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

@dukenotes. You said, "And perhaps to get overly fascinated with that battle going on in your bloodstream, or to take sides in it would be fatal." I do not understand what you mean with that statement. Please explain it to me. I understand and agree with the rest of what you said.

[dukenotes]

@NIETZSCHEAN14 You know; there's a big fight going on inside your bloodstream right now with micro-organisms chewing each other up. If that wasn't happening you wouldn't be healthy. In other words, what is discord at one level is harmony at another level. And perhaps to get overly fascinated with that battle going on in your bloodstream, or to take sides in it would be fatal.

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

@sd62t833. I do not have a belief in a god. Man is not Being - man is Becoming. I understand the idea of the Tao, that one is all and all is one, but the one is MANIFEST in many becomings, all making up the Being of the one. Man is one of those becomings.