RE: Let's talk about life.
November 3, 2017 at 8:28 pm
(This post was last modified: November 3, 2017 at 8:28 pm by Aegon.)
(November 3, 2017 at 5:38 pm)Hammy Wrote:(November 3, 2017 at 8:22 am)Aegon Wrote: Here I am with my interpretation to convolute it.
I am the most important thing in existence, including everything conceivably contained in the whole universe for that matter, because everything begins and ends with my perception. Even things that my mind cannot perceive or see but we know the existence of cant exist without my being alive. I mean, sure, it does, but im speaking solely from the lens of a sole mortal human being with a beginning and an end, where nothing exists before and nothing after. But because this is true, everybody and everything else is a vital part of me, and therefore everything else has equal value to me. So the conclusion i draw is uh... I am everything. Because I am the most important, but everything else that exists to make up my reality must be just as important because wuthout these things in all their detail my experience would not be. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
So life is me, the universe is me, and so on. See my signature I guess.
I recognize the Alan Watts quote.
He's said some really inspiring stuff. But he's also said a bunch of hocus-pocusy new age bullcrap, unfortunately.
My favorite thing ever said by Alan Watts is the following:
Alan Watts Wrote:There are no wrong feelings.
There may be wrong actions in the sense of actions contrary to the rules of human communication. But the way you feel towards other people: loving, hating, et cetera, et cetera; there aren’t any wrong feelings.
And so, to try and force one’s feelings to be other than what they are is absurd. And furthermore: dishonest.
But you see: the idea that there are no wrong feelings is an immensely threatening one to people who are afraid to feel.
This is one of the peculiar problems of our culture: we are terrified of our feelings. We think that if we give them any scope and if we don’t immediately beat them down, they will lead us down into all kinds of chaotic and destructive actions.
But if, for a change, we would allow our feelings and look upon their comings and goings as something as beautiful and necessary as changes in the weather, the going of night and day and the four seasons, we would be at peace with ourselves.
What is so problematic for Western man is not so much his struggles with other people and their needs and problems as his struggle with his own feelings. With what he will allow himself to feel and what he won’t allow himself to feel. He is ashamed to feel really profoundly sad, so much so that he could cry. It is not manly to cry.
He is afraid to loathe somebody, because you’re not supposed to hate people. He is ashamed to be so overcome with the beauty of something, that he goes out of his mind over this beauty. Because all that kind of thing is ‘not being in control, old boy‘; not having your hands on the wheel.
I think this is the most releasing thing that anybody can possibly understand. That your inner feeling is never wrong. What you feel is never wrong – it may not be a right guide as to what you should do, but it is right that you should have the feeling of hating, or of being sad, or of being terrified. When a person comes to himself he comes to be one with his own feeling, and that is the only way to be in a position of controlling it.
Agreed. I've read several of his writings and listened to all the lectures of his I could find. I'd say I have enjoyed 70% of it. But that 70% has fundamentally changed the way I view myself and the world, and I'm much happier for it.