Alan Watts

>>1494019
Pretty good for a general outlook at eastern philosophy.

He's also one hell of a public speaker. I don't think I've ever heard anyone express himself so well in public, with such clarity. And given the length and quantity of speeches he did, I'm pretty sure it was all out of his head.

>>1494019
Okay introduction to Eastern philosophy, but more effort is needed if you actually want to understand what he's talking about because Eastern philosophy is very reliant on experience rather than theory.

>>1494019

Pretty cool bro

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I think he's a very... kind of figure that stands out in a room like a new piece of furniture. Or an OLD piece of furniture that gets moved around. You'll say, "When did we get this"? but of course it was always there the whole time, and you only cared to notice it when it was placed in your way.

Now the Daoists have a saying, that goes something roughly like: In the beginning the mountains are mountains, in the middle they are not mountains, and the enlightened man at the end sees the mountains as mountains again. It's just like with the furniture piece you see. Even though you've moved it, it still occupies the original place to you. That's why you make such a big deal of bumping into it and hollering: "Since when did we get this thing?". But it was always there the whole time.

Now what does "there" really mean to us. The sanskrit word for there...

>>1494019
I don't know about /his/ but i fucking love him.

>>1494019
I think that his way of thinking makes perfect sense, but I can't help but notice that it cannot help anyone.

Basically, Alan Watts thinks that the enemy is planning, judgment, caring about things. I definitely agree that it's an interesting spiritual discipline to find a moment of pure indifference and joy.

But then I have to go shopping.

It's like he's saying that life is inherently awful. He draws attention to the pure suffering that makes up 99% of life.

>>1494019
A sophist. voodoo nonsense

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I love his game.

>>1498159
And you have just stated the problem with Plato, Schopenhauer and almost every major Eastern philosophy: namely, fine, we get it that matter is not the means to achieve happiness and is in a certain sense unreal. But you gotta wake up and go to work tomorrow morning. Not every person can be a NEET monk as even monks depend on donations and alms giving from lay persons who produce food, etc. If everyone was a Buddhists monk, we would either starve to death. Now f this is true of the most basic like food and work, what of art, science, culture, civilization... In short everything that makes humanity seem vaguely worth it?

>>1498277
I really think that most ascetics are really depressed antinatalists at heart. But they have a way of framing it, which really does make it have a sort of sad beauty.

It's funny because "spirituality" nowadays is associated with "self-help" and "success". But if you listen to good spiritual teachers, they are really saying that there is no help. And nothing to succeed at.

>>1498159
I don't think he promotes indifference and apathy. Of course, if you are in a problematic situation, you have reasons to worry, you are still human and alive.

But what his lessons and a great part of eastern philosophy comes to say is that, fundamentally, inherently, there is absolutely no reason to worry. Like, sure, it's annoying if you are poor and starving, but there is nothing cosmically wrong with that, in a sense. At least, that's how I understand it.

When you'll be dead, there will be absolutely nothing.

If you are hurting, do your best, and don't try so hard that you lose yourself completly. If you have no problems whatsoever, calm down, enjoy the ride, and take the time to realize what you really are, don't get lost in your ego.

>>1498318
>it's annoying if you are poor and starving, but there is nothing cosmically wrong with that
You mean, it's not against the laws of nature. Well, sure! But isn't that part of what makes the universe so horrifying, that the laws of nature naturally create poor starving people?

>>1498341
The laws of nature are indifferent to our suffering. It reminds me of the presocratic gods and lovecraftian old ones. What if the most powerful principles of the universe are not benevolent beings like the Christian God, but unintelligent and destructive?

>>1498386
Your conditioning causes you to see it as 'unintelligent and destructive'

Ruined his legacy with his alcohol addiction

seems like he says a whole lot of nothing