Alan Watts Quote Triggered Deep Thoughts

[ERD50]

There are a number of Alan Watts lectures (mp3's) located at https://archive.org/details/alanwattscollection

Care to comment on any of them?

Maybe what he's saying is similar to poems. I may have a hard time comprehending the meaning of many of them, but depending upon which state of mind I'm in, I may pick up something. Haiku poems are a good example. I often (every time?) go, "What? This is supposed to be a famous haiku that survived over hundreds of years??" One example:

“The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō

An old silent pond

A frog jumps into the pond—

Splash! Silence again.

You may think the poem lost its meaning when it was translated. I can assure you, it sounds just like that in Japanese as well!

Or abstract paintings. Looking at most of them, I just roll my eyes and go, "What"

Thoughts are subjective. I guess anything that provokes thoughts is fun.

I'm not defending or cutting down Alan Watts. I don't get what he's saying, but his thoughts are amusing and thought-provoking to me (more than reading Haiku or looking at abstract paintings.)

So that's kind of funny, because I don't really care much for poetry in general, but I often enjoy Haiku. I just sort of smile to hear how someone can take such a rigid, limiting structure, and produce something from that. And maybe because I don't take them too seriously, I just think they can be fun.

Your little example - to me it's like a line or two from a good song. A few words that give just enough to let us form a picture in our mind, and not enough detail (you can't in so few words!) to 'force' a scene on us. It's up to us. I read that, I picture a quiet pond, I picture that silence being broken by some activity (a frog, a bird swooping in, a fish jumping), and then.... all quiet again. I think it's cute and kind of serene.

Yes, most modern art and 'performance art' strikes me as a scam of people just too full of themselves. I love Picasso's more realistic works ("The Old Guitarist", etc), so I try to enjoy the modern/cubist ones, but it's still a leap for me. I sort of think it works in "Guernica", since he is trying to convey chaos, and cubism looks pretty chaotic to me.

But I'm just not finding Watts to be thought provoking, or even amusing. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm still with Zappa and the Cosmic Debris view. I have yet to see anyone here explain what they find interesting, it is only being stated (they think it is self-evident?).

-ERD50

 

[tmm99]

Your little example - to me it's like a line or two from a good song. A few words that give just enough to let us form a picture in our mind, and not enough detail (you can't in so few words!) to 'force' a scene on us. It's up to us. I read that, I picture a quiet pond, I picture that silence being broken by some activity (a frog, a bird swooping in, a fish jumping), and then.... all quiet again. I think it's cute and kind of serene.

Yes, most modern art and 'performance art' strikes me as a scam of people just too full of themselves. I love Picasso's more realistic works ("The Old Guitarist", etc), so I try to enjoy the modern/cubist ones, but it's still a leap for me. I sort of think it works in "Guernica", since he is trying to convey chaos, and cubism looks pretty chaotic to me.



-ERD50

See, many people appreciate Haiku and I get your point too. That's why Haiku has survived for hundreds of years. but maybe I'm just too literal when I read poems and Haiku.

As for your art comment, I agree about self-indulgence! I'm sure many people appreciate it, but not me. I had a friend who did abstracts and listening to her talk about her work was like watching her *********.

 

[Koolau]

Not much for poetry or modern art myself. But, occasionally, something grabs me - to my surprise.

A favorite poem:

Fog by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

 

[JeffyD]

I have to admit three things:
1. I really didn’t get much from this video
2. I probably would have thought differently if I was smoking some pot
3. OMY syndrome is the result of my second guessing how much traveling I want to do before I die, and how assured I want to be of getting there.

 

[target2019]

I carved out some time for Alan Watts, and have listened to six or so of the lectures found in the link I posted above.

"And the more we try to elaborate perfectly fool-proof methods of arranging our lives, the more we find ourselves encumbered with impossible details. That's the fallacy of too much law. When we provide for everything in the law, suddenly find you can't move before filling out 300 forms."
Alan Watts

That lecture is about using Zen to liberate from culture, in order to capture the spontaneity of childhood.

I'm not knowledgeable enough about world religions and philosophies. So I listen. I conclude that I'm ok, and you're ok.

In the lectures there are moments when he lets out a good laugh after leading the students down a path with an unexpected twist, and the timbre of his laugh reminds me of Keith Richards. For whatever reason that brought a smile.

 

[ERD50]

I carved out some time for Alan Watts, and have listened to six or so of the lectures found in the link I posted above.

"And the more we try to elaborate perfectly fool-proof methods of arranging our lives, the more we find ourselves encumbered with impossible details. That's the fallacy of too much law. When we provide for everything in the law, suddenly find you can't move before filling out 300 forms."
Alan Watts

...

Is that profound? It sounds like what a lot of average Joes/Jolines would say, w/o the flowery language.

"Stuff happens"

"Don't sweat the small stuff"

"Get big government out of my life".

-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

Is that profound? It sounds like what a lot of average Joes/Jolines would say, w/o the flowery language.

"Stuff happens"

"Don't sweat the small stuff"

"Get big government out of my life".

-ERD50

Yeah, but who's gonna watch that on YouTube? No "click bate" appeal. Also, too direct and not "tastefully obscure."

 

[Running_Man]

Alan Watts was a troubled man with unique thoughts, when challenged by students as a professor of Philosophy about inconsistencies in what he stated from one lecture to the next stated "I am an entertainer philosopher not an philosopher academic." Did extensive drugs and was an alcoholic who died at age 58. As is often the case the carefree live your life style of living and dying young is greatly admired by society and makes for great media and storytelling. It also proves the point that one need not save much for retirement and live in the now. On the other end of the spectrum is Warren Buffet.

I once knew a fellow student, Keith, who was a fan of Alan Watts, shortly after Alan's death while at University of Illinois and had quite an intellectual mind. We liked discussing quite a few things about a wide range of topics over about six months and Keith often spoke of the need to live in the now and stop worrying about the future. I mistakenly let him one night drive my car while I sat in the passenger seat which he proceeded to speed South down 1st street at 90-110 miles per hour corn blazing by without stopping at any stop signs or lights until we came to a T in the road, a single car pulling out would have easily killed us all, but luck was with me that day. While Keith the entire time is exclaiming "Yea! this is living", while drinking the beer in his hand. It was I thought at the time he was pathologically crazy and I never went anywhere near him again.

Five years later while piloting a private plane he was flying right at treetop level in West Virginia, he apparently liked clip treetops to experience nature as close up as possible, while flying a plane with a girl he had just met, he could not elevate the plane up in a timely fashion to avoid a mountain and died smashing into a rocky crag. At age 25 nearly a thousand people attended his funeral saying he lived life to the fullest, I did not attend. He appeared fearless and leading an inspirational life of no worries and adventure to many I suppose.

I found his crazed adventures as indicative of his dissatification with living. I surmise it was a response to offset depression with an inability to find anything meaningful to do with his life. There is a wide market for that mindset in media and it markets well.