**\#️⃣ Tags:** #Person #Philosophy #Wisdom ![[Alan Watts.png|280]] --- Alan Watts wandered into Western consciousness at precisely the moment when it needed him the most. Born in England in 1915 and starting his journey as an Episcopal priest, his curiosity led him beyond the institutions and down a path that would ultimately see him take up a pivotal role in reshaping spiritual thought in America during the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The central question Alan tackles might be phrased like this: "What if our desperate attempt to control life is the very thing that keeps us from living it?", a bit like how [[When we resist our experience, we become the resistance]]. In a modern world obsessed with production, [[Achievement Society|achievement]], fixing and consumption, Watts proposed that there is nothing to fix. Rather the ego, our little internal narrator we take so seriously, is more of a social persona part of a grand play rather than an ontological truth. And behind all that lies our fear of dissolution—a fear of dying, of not being someone (see: [[Narcissistic Wounding]]). Alan had an incredible ability to translate Eastern wisdom into funny and relatable stories without diluting its essence. He would often say that trying to grasp life through concepts is a bit like trying to tie up water in a parcel and then send it to someone, because it would be irritatingly impossible to wrap and tie a pound of water in a paper package. He would remind us that the menu is not the meal to show us that [[The mind can never know reality as it truly is]]. Or he would say trying to improve ourselves is a bit like trying to lift yourself up off the floor by our own bootstraps—it can't be done, because the one that needs to be improved is the one that is doing the improving! He didn't invent these ideas, rather he borrowed freely from Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Western mysticism. With his own joyful and playful spin of course. He would explain that the aim isn't to get somewhere, but instead is to wake up to where you already are. In this way, he championed the message that enlightenment wasn't something to be attained by the special few—it was something that everyone already is, if they were willing to see it. He saw life as not a test, task or something to 'do' but rather as a dance. And the point of dancing isn't to arrive at a particular spot on the floor or to finish, it is simply to enjoy the experience of dancing itself. Despite being the champion of [[Presence]], he struggled with alcohol and often confessed he didn't live out the serenity he spoke of. Many people judge him for this, but even this fits his message. He never claimed to be perfect, or anyone's guru. He was instead a mirror—one that reflected the beautiful and often absurd contradictions of being human. # Library - [[The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts]] - [[Psychotherapy East and West by Alan Watts]]