Watts: wanting to clean up the messiness of life IS the mess

I don't believe life is a problem. Sure, there are problems in life, lots of them. Each of us is continually dealing with differences between the way we want something to be, and the way it is.

But this is much different from considering that there is something wrong with life itself or with ourselves as a whole. 

I've talked about this before.

Believing in problems may be our only problem
Is there anything wrong with life?
When did humans start making life itself into a problem?

A few days ago I discovered an Alan Watts book sitting on a shelf that, shock!, I realized I hadn't read. Here's some excerpts from "Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation." It consists of transcriptions from talks Watts gave in his later years.

After giving examples of life's problems, Watts says:

Over the years I have begun to wonder if there is another way around these problems. Perhaps instead of resolving these issues at the technical level, we could solve them at the psychological and spiritual levels by disciplining ourselves so that we wouldn't be afraid of them anymore. 

And so, in accord with that motivation, we seek out spiritual and psychological teachers.

We wonder if we could somehow be made over so that we would not have to worry about our problems. But if you examine the desire to overcome this mess through a spiritual discipline, you will see that this wanting to overcome the mess and not to have it anymore is precisely the mess.

The thing that we object to about ourselves is precisely what we continue to do in our attempts to overcome it; in other words, the activity that we employ in overcoming the mess is the mess that we object to.

It is very important to realize this, and if you do realize it, it raises the question "Then what can I do? What can I do to transform this quaking mess into the state of mind of the true mystic?"

Now, if you are the mess, there is obviously nothing that you can do to transform yourself into the state of mind you idealize as that of a true mystic, a saint, or even the Christ. But by pursuing this line of thought you may realize that all your ideals are simply manifestations of the mess trying to get away from itself.

You are put in the position of feeling that it is absolutely necessary to be different from the way you are, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it because being the way you are, you can't be different from your self.

It's as if one were to say, "I know that I shouldn't be selfish, and I would very much like to be an unselfish person, but the reason why I want to be an unselfish person is that I am very selfish. And really, I would love myself far more and respect myself far more if I were unselfish."

...Sometimes life is telling you that the course you are on is not the way to go, and the message underlying all of this is that you cannot transform yourself. Life is giving you the message that the "you" that you imagine to be capable of transforming yourself does not exist.

In other words, as an ego, I am separate from my emotions, my thoughts, my feelings, my experiences. So the one who is supposed to be in control of them cannot control them because it isn't there. 

And as soon as you understand that, things will be greatly improved.

Comments

[vinny]

If any mystical being comes & gives us enlightenment on a platter , Would that make us happy?? No , We would still want immortality of body over obscurity of awareness/ consciousness. After years of research & initiation by one of the masters of sant mat lineage I've come to conclusion that God/Universal spirit has same limitations like any other human being. Saints body is as mortal as any other human being. We all experience consciousness in state of wakefulness/even in sleep or dreams. Many actual proofs on reincarnation are there , Dr Ian Stevenson has done path breaking research on it. During surgeries many patients give accounts of out of body experience & tell how the doctor performed surgery including instruments he used.Many documented cases by surgeons are already there , just google it. United Nations launched human consciousness project in 2008. In quantum physics wave function collapses merely by the act of observation called observer effect.Even Albert Einstein said that there is universal spirit pervading the universe. If tomorrow scientific research proves beyond doubt the existence of consciousness after death of body , Would it change anything regarding happiness or peace in our lives ?? There are thousands of people who don't even worry about these questions of existence and those who worry about these questions would still continue to do so. Who knows ,So called God might be exploring this universe through all the life forms , fears , phobias ,seeking & rediscovering.

[cc]

If ultimately there is no problem other than the human perception thereof, human perception is the problem. Therefore, a reasonable human is mindful that his/her perception is always biased, suspect, questionable, dubious.

So never forget, dear fellow human, that humanity is even more likely to become extinct than the dodo...a bird that never had a problem until humanity showed up.