r/AlanWatts

I recently had the pleasure of reading Alan Watts' "The Book". To sum it up (far too) briefly, it compiles a lot of his main philosophical themes to support the overall thrust of the book-that we are not separate from the universe.

I had heard him talk about this a lot in his recordings, a primary example is how he would say the "world peoples like a tree apples". We are the Earth, we come out of it, not into it. I have known this intellectually for a long time, but somehow when I read the book it really hit deep. I really felt it and saw it. It's not that now everything is different with me, or how I act, but there was definitely a shift. When I think about it, I can still see this aspect to the nature of existence.

I was just feeling it when I was putting my son to bed, lying there talking to him. There is this separateness between us. He is him, and I am me. But he is also me, and I am also him. It just occurred to me, Alan Watts talked a lot about how our separateness from the world is something we are taught, and is an illusion. I don't know that I have ever heard him say it was a mistake, or wrong, though.

It seems like you can feel the separation of things, and the connection with everything, at the same time. The story he gives is that the creator (whatever he/she/they may be) made existence for the separation itself, to know itself. So, my son I can only know through my separateness from him. And that is beautiful. The other side of that is that it's beautiful to see my oneness with him.

So, to me, the takeaway is that the feeling of separation is an inherent trait of how things are, but it is possible to see behind the curtain. If you never take a second to realize it is all a game, or a dance, or a song, you might take it a bit too seriously. Games stop being so much fun when all you care about is winning. There is no winning at life, just like there is no winning at singing or dancing. There is just playing, and the players. When you can see these things, life takes on a different, more lighthearted quality. Life is meant to be played.

And I think that's lovely.

"To have no hang up, that is to say to be able to drift like a cloud and flow like water. Seeing that all life, is a magnificent illusion. A playing of energy, and there is absolutely nothing fundamentally to be afraid of. Fundamentally. You will be afraid on the surface, you will be afraid of putting your hand in the fire; getting sick. But you will not be afraid of fear. Fear will pass over your mind, like a black cloud is reflected in the mirror." - Alan Watts