Great advice from Alan Watts: wisdom lies in letting go

I'm a big fan of Alan Watts' "The Wisdom of Insecurity." I've read this book several times and have written about it in numerous blog posts. 

(You can search for the posts via the Google box in the right sidebar.)

Here's an article about a core message in that book, letting go: "Alan Watts: Anxiety, Enlightenment, and the Wisdom of Insecurity." Thanks to a Church of the Churchless visitor for sending me a link to the piece.

Excerpts to whet your appetite for reading it:

Throughout the history of civilization individuals have had access to myths which conveyed the sense that life was meaningful and secure – that human beings have a central place in the universe, an importance in the grand scheme of things.

With the rise of science these myths have been penetrated and dissolved. Fewer and fewer individuals find it possible to believe in them, and thus more and more are left standing alone in the void, facing the abyss – forced to figure out the meaning of life and their place in the universe without any external support.

...He [Watts] proposes another solution to the problem –  a total and comprehensive reorientation in our way of living via “letting go”. We can let go of our need to feel secure, of our desire for life to be meaningful and to make sense. We can “let go” of all our beliefs which keep us confined and chained to a certain limiting worldview. We can “let go” of our attachment to life and death. Doing so is not easy and requires a transformation of consciousness and attitude, but in the eyes of Watts the time is perfect for such a transformation.

“Letting go” is so difficult because we have an innate tendency to grasp onto things. Because we are aware that everything flows and what we have now will at some point in the future be taken from us, we try to turn the things we’re attached to into stone. We hold too tightly to our loved ones and relationships, we do anything we can to retain our youthfulness as we age, and we grasp onto our beliefs as if they foretold the secrets of the universe, and thus remain rigid and closed minded.

This attempt to grasp onto things doomed to fail – for the universe flows on incessantly and indifferently to our wishes. The attempt to grasp on to things, to make the impermanent permanent, therefore goes against the very nature of life itself. Life is always changing and in flux, and any attempt or desire to make it otherwise is futile and foolish.

Comments

[vinny]

" Letting go " cannot happen till mind is finding pleasures in worldly activities. Even the single act of pleasure leaves a deep impression on mind. As Saint Kirpal Singh used to say , go anywhere people are talking about women or money. Myron Phelps notes on sant-mat , it takes years of depression , hardships & character to make the mind insensitive to pains & pleasures. Mind becomes numb and samadhi / trance is experienced , that happens in " unified field " " atomic energy " pervading the universe.

[Spencer Tepper]

Letting go is as natural as grasping.
It's an invention to presume you are letting go, when in truth you are just grasping some other notion.

Grasp truth.

[Spencer Tepper]

The author writes
“Letting go” is so difficult"

It's impossible. We don't let go unless we find something more attractive to grasp. Or what we hold is torn from us.

We do not let go.

The author continues

"We hold too tightly to our loved ones and relationships, we do anything we can to retain our youthfulness as we age, and we grasp onto our beliefs as if they foretold the secrets of the universe, and thus remain rigid and closed minded."

We let go easily and immediately when given a greater pleasure. Then letting go is so easy we hardly think about it.

And sacrificing our life in service, in the battle field, in the operating room, among the poor, disabled, it is living in bliss.

A pauper clings to pennies .

Simply saying "just let go" of temporary things without a shining eternal truth to grasp is unnecessary and unsustainable poverty.

Allen Watts never advocated that.

Neither did Buddha.

Eternal truth.

Seek that. Grasp that...
Or let it grasp you.

Either way.

[Jen]

Letting go is about making inner space within. Nothingness. Emptiness. The pure energy can flow into our inner being.

[Spencer Tepper]

"The common error of ordinary religious practice is to mistake the symbol for the reality, to look at the finger pointing the way and then to suck it for comfort rather than follow it."

"The extraordinary thing about this revolution is that it reveals the truth behind the do - called myths of traditional religion and metaphysic. It reveals, not beliefs, but actual realities corresponding - in an unexpected way - to the ideas of God and eternal life. "
Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity.

Find that reality.

[Spencer Tepper]

"The discovery of this reality is hindered rather than helped by belief, whether one believes in God or believes in Atheism."
Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity.

Brian, do you remember reading this?

Belief in Atheism is a hindrance to discovering the reality around and within us. It's not about belief. Not about religion, including the religion of Atheism.

It is the experience of the divine. Which is the entire creation.

Beyond thought or argument, or any mental comprehension. But it isn't nothing. Just nothing the mind can manipulate.

[Jen]

Alan Watts quotes:

Existing in the present moment...

“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.”

“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality."

Love this quote...

“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” 

[Spencer Tepper]

Hi Jen
Beatiful citations.

This one caught my attention

"We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. "

When we are caught up in thoughts how can we experience this moment? We have in our minds a running critique of this moment, a filtered, twisted biased crayon drawing of what we think actually happened. But not the real and direct experience of this moment without opinion, without judgment. Watts was not a fan of mind.

In Zen flesh Zen Bones he gives the story of two monks wasting their day arguing about a flag waving in the wind. They go to their Master and one says "I say the wind is moving, he says the flag. Which is it?" Their Master replied, "Neither. You are both wrong. It is the mind which is moving."

Still the mind, experience the Infinite now, beyond time and thought. It is joyous.

[Dungeness]

Still the mind, experience the Infinite now, beyond time and thought. It is joyous.

Beautiful.

For those of us struggling with the mind, a modern mystic clarifies
that the mind can't really be stilled. Thought is the heartbeat of
the mind. Thoughts come 24x7 in a continuous stream. Sometimes
you're conscious of them; mostly not.

You can however withdraw from the mind and its "noise". With a little
guidance and discipline, you remain absorbed inside to such an
extent, you don't hear a word. You've turned on, tuned in and
dropped out.

Timothy Leary had it right. With help and time you can succeed.
You'll stop hearing the "voices". You'll never see men in white coats...

[Spencer Tepper]

Hi Dungeness
You wrote
"For those of us struggling with the mind, a modern mystic clarifies
that the mind can't really be stilled."

So true. The mind is a machine. But there is a nominal frequency we can help to bring it, with the practice of focused repetition, the assistance of the divine audible spirit, and the presence of our Master. Then our consciousness can naturally slip away. In the absence of Shabd we slip into the Astral of some other region within the realm of mind. Higher mind. But in the case of Shabd / Holy Spirit practice, we are raised by the Spirit of Christ. Then there are no thoughts, simply direct experience. That's the third region where Master meets us. The mind in the body is still thinking, though Largely at rest, and our consciousness has left that filter, that symbol making machine, along with the body, and has stepped outside into the bright blue sky.

Thanks the correction/ clarification.