Alan Watts, potential dude?

Gustaf · March 17, 2011, 06:58:24 PM

I believe this thought to weigh heavily upon many more dudes than myself. I consider -and have so for quite some time- Alan Watts as one of the Greats, one of the pioneer dudes. If you are not familiar with the great Alan Watts, google him as you see fit, or perhaps enter the words; Music and Life - Alan Watts. Into the search bar at the top of Youtube. What you will find is a video containing some words of his, followed by an illustration, illustrated by the dudes behind South park.

So, Alan Watts. Dude or not?

DigitalBuddha · March 17, 2011, 07:15:56 PM

Fucking eh, a very dude like person. Check out............

http://www.alanwatts.com/ (complete with a zen bowling ball on his front page

)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXmz605GAnc (very cool video)

Alan Watts - Time and The More It Changes 1 of 6...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QW2lTAZmA

Gustaf · March 17, 2011, 07:36:22 PM

You agree to this proposition? Tossing him in there with the other great dudes of history?

Quaker Dude · March 17, 2011, 07:49:27 PM

Absolutely! Both he and Terence McKenna should be placed high in the runnin' for Dudeliest philosophers of the 20th century.

Banjo Dude · March 17, 2011, 08:02:01 PM

Thumbs up to Brother Watts, most definitely. I read his "Beyond Theology" way back when I was sixteen or so, it really made an impact on me. I think I'll have to go to the library and find me a copy of it, 'cause I can remember nothing at all about it but for the vaguest of impressions.

McKenna, I will not weigh in on; since I don't eat tons and tons of psychedelics anymore, the whole "machine elf" thing (which, I freely confess, is about the sum of what I recall of McKenna's writing) gives me way too much of the ol' Spock-eyebrow there. Heh, heh. "Machine elves," riiiiight...

Fascinating, Captain.

(I did get a kick out of McK. back in the day, though.)

DigitalBuddha · March 17, 2011, 09:04:01 PM

Quote from: Gustaf on March 17, 2011, 07:36:22 PM
You agree to this proposition? Tossing him in there with the other great dudes of history?

Does the pope shit in the woods? Fucking eh.

cckeiser · March 17, 2011, 10:36:15 PM

Quote from: Gustaf on March 17, 2011, 06:58:24 PM
I believe this thought to weigh heavily upon many more dudes than myself. I consider -and have so for quite some time- Alan Watts as one of the Greats, one of the pioneer dudes. If you are not familiar with the great Alan Watts, google him as you see fit, or perhaps enter the words; Music and Life - Alan Watts. Into the search bar at the top of Youtube. What you will find is a video containing some words of his, followed by an illustration, illustrated by the dudes behind South park.

So, Alan Watts. Dude or not?

And a fine choice he is dude!
Welcome to the beach community dude!

Looks like you are in the right place!

meekon5 · March 18, 2011, 07:29:29 AM

Alan Watts was one of my first experiences of Taoism, I progressed from his writings on Zen. a brilliant man.

the first book by him I read was The Wisdom of Insecurity, (Vintage ed. 1968, ISBN 0-394-70468-1).

Rev. Ed C · March 18, 2011, 03:24:57 PM

Wow, new shit has come into my light! Born in Chislehurst, eh, a Kentishman, not too far from me. Great caves down there

Definately part of our Dudearchy. I shall make a note for inclusion

DigitalBuddha · March 19, 2011, 04:40:14 AM

Dudes, you can hear Alan Watts here...

http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/

Do a page search for Alan Watts and click "Play" on the right hand side of the row his shows are in. He is in a couple of places in the KPFK 90.7 FM Archive show schedules.

venicer · March 20, 2011, 06:54:15 AM

He had some good moments, but he also thought he was a god. Very undude, that part.

Banjo Dude · March 20, 2011, 12:54:14 PM

Venicer, brother ... um, no offense, but I think you might be misinterpreting what Watts was saying there...

Mind you, I haven't read much of his stuff, and what I have read was quite a little while ago.

QuoteIn several of his later publications, especially Beyond Theology and The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Watts put forward a worldview, drawing on Hinduism, Chinese philosophy, pantheism, and modern science, in which he maintains that the whole universe consists of a cosmic self playing hide-and-seek (Lila), hiding from itself (Maya) by becoming all the living and non-living things in the universe, forgetting what it really is; the upshot being that we are all IT in disguise. In this worldview, Watts asserts that our conception of ourself as an "ego in a bag of skin" is a myth; the entities we call the separate "things" are merely processes of the whole.

[yoinked directly and unapologetically from th' wikipedia, emphasis mine.]

Watts wasn't saying HE was god. He was saying I am.

And, I suppose, you can be, too.

No, but, actually, I think the argument was that we are all merely facets of the same oneness, and that, therefore, the statement, "I am God," is valid, no matter who utters it.

venicer · March 20, 2011, 01:42:38 PM

Quote from: Banjo Dude on March 20, 2011, 12:54:14 PM
Venicer, brother ... um, no offense, but I think you might be misinterpreting what Watts was saying there...

Mind you, I haven't read much of his stuff, and what I have read was quite a little while ago.

QuoteIn several of his later publications, especially Beyond Theology and The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Watts put forward a worldview, drawing on Hinduism, Chinese philosophy, pantheism, and modern science, in which he maintains that the whole universe consists of a cosmic self playing hide-and-seek (Lila), hiding from itself (Maya) by becoming all the living and non-living things in the universe, forgetting what it really is; the upshot being that we are all IT in disguise. In this worldview, Watts asserts that our conception of ourself as an "ego in a bag of skin" is a myth; the entities we call the separate "things" are merely processes of the whole.
[yoinked directly and unapologetically from th' wikipedia, emphasis mine.]

Watts wasn't saying HE was god. He was saying I am.

And, I suppose, you can be, too.

No, but, actually, I think the argument was that we are all merely facets of the same oneness, and that, therefore, the statement, "I am God," is valid, no matter who utters it.

The theory that we are God is, no matter who holds it in their mind, a ticket to insanity. I'm not saying that people aren't allowed to believe whatever they want to, but the God Complex or Godhood concept will eventually drive someone mad. Watts drank himself to death, for instance, and our looney bins are full of people who think that they are God. Search on the internet for "Alan Watts" + "On Being God", one of his lectures. I listened to it a long time ago and it turned me off of Watts for good.

DigitalBuddha · March 20, 2011, 09:51:35 PM

Quote from: venicer on March 20, 2011, 01:42:38 PM
Quote from: Banjo Dude on March 20, 2011, 12:54:14 PM
Venicer, brother ... um, no offense, but I think you might be misinterpreting what Watts was saying there...

Mind you, I haven't read much of his stuff, and what I have read was quite a little while ago.

QuoteIn several of his later publications, especially Beyond Theology and The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Watts put forward a worldview, drawing on Hinduism, Chinese philosophy, pantheism, and modern science, in which he maintains that the whole universe consists of a cosmic self playing hide-and-seek (Lila), hiding from itself (Maya) by becoming all the living and non-living things in the universe, forgetting what it really is; the upshot being that we are all IT in disguise. In this worldview, Watts asserts that our conception of ourself as an "ego in a bag of skin" is a myth; the entities we call the separate "things" are merely processes of the whole.
[yoinked directly and unapologetically from th' wikipedia, emphasis mine.]

Watts wasn't saying HE was god. He was saying I am.

And, I suppose, you can be, too.

No, but, actually, I think the argument was that we are all merely facets of the same oneness, and that, therefore, the statement, "I am God," is valid, no matter who utters it.

The theory that we are God is, no matter who holds it in their mind, a ticket to insanity. I'm not saying that people aren't allowed to believe whatever they want to, but the God Complex or Godhood concept will eventually drive someone mad. Watts drank himself to death, for instance, and our looney bins are full of people who think that they are God. Search on the internet for "Alan Watts" + "On Being God", one of his lectures. I listened to it a long time ago and it turned me off of Watts for good.

I don't believe that Watts was using the term "god" as Western thinking perceives "god;" a supreme being and the one and only. His concept of "god" was in the Eastern vein of thinking; "god" as ultimate reality which includes every person, all of creation and non-creation. "god" as all that there is or will be, which we are all a part of.

Watts in many of his lectures relates "god" as the unspeakable or indescribably total reality. He often dismissed or expressed his interpretation of Eastern concepts of "god" as allegory and symbols, not actual beings as an example the Hindu god Shiva, the destroyer of the ego and ultimately of the universe, the ultimate yogi, appearing in many infinite forms including all of reality.

Watts never claimed to be "god" more than anything else, or any other person or thing was part of the "god" concept. He was merely saying that we are all part of "god" and are all just as much "god" as all of creation and reality.

I like Watts, but that doesn't mean I have to except everything he says; I find little use in his "god" concepts, theory and observations simply because if all are "god" then perhaps none are "god" and therefore, it doesn't matter. That is not to say that Watts was not worth listening to. He was and still is as a source of an alternative point of view. But then again, isn't every philosopher?

Personally, I would like to be the god of bowling.

That's just like my opinion, man.