Alan Watts - Atheist Spirituality

Norvu

BE5M8743a1s

I really enjoyed this video, thought I'd share it. I saw, at the end, credits to Trey Parker and Matt Stone who are the south park guys, right?

Andrew

The prickley goo analogy breaks down because as we zoom in it actually becomes more like "goo" and a well defined structure. It's the large celestial movements of large bodies that are well defined and precise, not the minute movement of elections and sub atomic particles.

Apreche

I really enjoyed this video, thought I'd share it. I saw, at the end, credits to Trey Parker and Matt Stone who are the south park guys, right?

The part with the tree appling and the earth peopling is amazing.

Johannes Uglyfred II

Wow, I really liked this. Seriously Norvu, thanks for sharing.

The favorite bit was probably the last part - "Well it was a hoax, a dreadful hoax, because life is music and you were supposed to be singing." It's the myth of the "Real World" (tm) that we're all supposed to reach on some magical, fabled day of attainment. Fuck that! Biggest lie I was ever told. Life is real right now, and never let anyone railroad your life choices because it's what "you're supposed to do." Carpe diem!

Victor Frost

I really like how he points out how, although we consider ourselves as one unit, we constantly refer to our various bits as personal possessions rather than as part of the whole. "My feet" rather than "these feet which are part of me", which probably only sounds silly because of how conditioned we are to consider the former as the correct way of thinking about it.

Conan-San

Am I a goit for laughing at the "Earth peopling" thing?

Apreche

I really like how he points out how, although we consider ourselves as one unit, we constantly refer to our various bits as personal possessions rather than as part of the whole. "My feet" rather than "these feet which are part of me", which probably only sounds silly because of how conditioned we are to consider the former as the correct way of thinking about it.

It's just one of the many examples of how language controls the way we think about things.

Johannes Uglyfred II

I really like how he points out how, although we consider ourselves as one unit, we constantly refer to our various bits as personal possessions rather than as part of the whole. "My feet" rather than "these feet which are part of me", which probably only sounds silly because of how conditioned we are to consider the former as the correct way of thinking about it.

It's just one of the many examples of how language controls the way we think about things.

I agree. How we use language is really telling. The feet example Watts gives is an excellent example, but there are others in our society too. For example, women will say "I am a size five" instead of "I wear a size five." There's a linkage of language, identity, self-perception, and society's values right there that is fucking fascinating.

Norvu

I've only just discovered Alan Watts myself!

Also, for all those who care, someone does a podcast of the guy and the various talks he's had. It's kinda new, too.

a1s

The prickley goo analogy breaks down because as we zoom in it actually becomes more like "goo" and a well defined structure. It's the large celestial movements of large bodies that are well defined and precise, not the minute movement of elections and sub atomic particles.

Wait... so what you are saying is: it's not goo and pricks, it's pricks and goo?
More seriously though, he doesn't say anything about electrons and particles. Instead it's more along the line of if you look at something analytically- it's made of *parts*, and if you look at it holistically (however that is spelled) it will have a *function* that none of it's parts have alone, but that also doesn't define any specific parts.

Victor Frost

I really like how he points out how, although we consider ourselves as one unit, we constantly refer to our various bits as personal possessions rather than as part of the whole. "My feet" rather than "these feet which are part of me", which probably only sounds silly because of how conditioned we are to consider the former as the correct way of thinking about it.

It's just one of the many examples of how language controls the way we think about things.

I agree. How we use language is really telling. The feet example Watts gives is an excellent example, but there are others in our society too. For example, women will say "I am a size five" instead of "I wear a size five." There's a linkage of language, identity, self-perception, and society's values right there that is fucking fascinating.

It is isn't it? We identify ourselves and others as what groups we/they fit in, whether it be clothes size, interests, and many other different groups. Some of these are benign, such as when many of us here refer to ourselves as geeks, but Richard Dawkins brought up a good example in his book "The God Delusion". His example was pointing out how children participating in a nativity scene were labeled by their religions in a local newspaper.