Please do not make the mistake of imagining that it
needs some special mystical insight to perceive the tao in and around you.
(Alan Watts)
Somewhat more accessible than
Krishnamurti, Alan Watts explored Eastern religion for most of his adult
life.
With his unique humour and style, Watts wandered through the topics of art,
psychology, religion and philosophy.
Alan Watts and tai chi
There are dozens of Alan Watts books available to buy.
Watts worked closely with
Chungliang
Al Huang in discovering the relationship between reality,
tao,
zen and tai chi.
His books offer a relevant insight into how the principles of taoism operate
in everyday existence.
Enjoyment and spiritual discovery
Watts had found the balance between spiritual discovery and
enjoying the world:
Krishnamurti showed that all people who seem to be very good and have the
highest ideals are really motivated by the same sort of desires as people
who rob banks.
Only they give their desires a more noble name, so as to better conceal
them.
(Alan Watts)
The sense of being at ease with the world leaves one free to contemplate and
enjoy things which the terribly serious and earnestly seeking religious state
of mind considers too trivial.
People whose minds are in this condition are so taken up with
"the search" that they have neither the time nor the taste for ordinary
human pursuits.
They enjoy no other conversation than that of the "higher things," and find
it so hard to unbend,
to chatter about nothing in particular for the sake of
being sociable,
to roll about on the floor and play with children,
to go about and gape at wonderful things,
at landscapes, waterfalls,
crowds, circuses, thunderstorms,
and curious people,
to enjoy a good dinner,
to lie on one's back in the sun
and think about nothing except chewing a piece of grass,
to sing, dance, tell stories,
or to stroll aimlessly around Central Park in the evening,
watching the lights of the big city.
Spiritual insight reveals a mystery and magic in these things
which no one should be ashamed to feel.
(Alan
Watts)
In learning to play music, we
must of course acquire techniques,
but real mastery depends upon what we do with that technique.
A person who is sufficiently motivated, who is fond of music,
will study techniques because they interest him and he wishes to master the
instrument.
Soon, however, the schools and systems begin to rely entirely upon
techniques,
because technique is the only thing you can teach.
You cannot teach the thing itself.
(Alan Watts)
The planning we do might just as well be left to the tao,
just as the cats and birds appear to leave everything to tao.
But we argue, "Well, we can foretell the future and make plans,
and therefore we can control our lives better than the animals can, and
survive longer,
as individuals. We can live more elegantly, and we have greater control."
However, we pay a price for all that control, and the price is anxiety.
(Alan Watts)
Insofar as names were concerned,
the taoists always laughed at the idea of the rectification of names.
They said, "Now look, when you compile a dictionary,
you must define your words with other words.
But with what other words will you be able to define the words you used in
the first place?"
(Alan Watts)
If it is true that the tao is that from which nothing can deviate,
then it is also true that the distinction between the artificial and the natural
is an artificial distinction.
(Alan Watts)
Page created 3 March 2000