You Tube works in mysterious ways. After I started listening on my iPhone to a video of Robert Sapolsky talking with an interviewer about how the brain constructs emotions, I noticed that an Alan Watts talk had popped up in a list of supposedly related videos.
Okay, I thought, I like Alan Watts, and the title sounds intriguing, "Alan Watts: Live Without Worry or Fear." Wow, all I have to do is spend 53 minutes listening to an Alan Watts talk, and I'll be worry and fear free.
Of course, that didn't happen, unless there's a delayed reaction after hearing what Watts said. But I really didn't expect anything different. I just hoped to enjoy the talk and get some fresh insights into the philosophy Watts espoused with such clarity and wisdom.
That did happen.
Watts gives away the secret to living without worry and fear early on in the talk. Basically it is to not fight life but to flow with life. Hard to argue with that, for we make life more difficult when we strain and struggle to control the uncontrollable.
Problems always will be with us. However, we make matters worse when we view life itself as a problem to be solved, as opposed to dealing with problems that arise within a nonproblematic life.
Religion, mysticism, and many forms of spirituality are all about viewing life itself as a problem. When we go along with this, Watts says that we fall prey to a trap. We create an illusory problem, then we want that problem solved.
There are lots of religious leaders, gurus, masters, and such who are happy to help with this. Salvation, enlightenment, God realization -- these and other wares are offered in the religious/spiritual marketplace as solutions to the illusory problem of life not being what life actually is.
Actually, we die. Actually, our knowledge of the cosmos is limited. Actually, happiness doesn't exist without sadness. But not being content with the actual nature of life, many people seek out a "guru" who will fix them by making their life into something that isn't an actual life.
Zen, says Watts, attracts some of these people. Traditionally, it was difficult to be accepted as a student by a Zen master. They'd tell the would-be student, "I have nothing to offer you. Go away."
Viewing that brushoff as an invitation to try harder, the person who wants to be fixed by Zen makes an even stronger effort to be accepted as a Zen student. Sure, the Zen master knows that there is nothing wrong with the person that needs to be fixed. However, the only way to lead the person to that realization is by playing along with their illusion.
Watts likens this to someone who believes the Earth is flat. They can't be reasoned out of this false belief. So a wiser person says to them, "Lets go together to the edge of the world and peer over it."
Moving in a single direction along a certain latitude, eventually they will return to the place from which they started, demonstrating that the Earth is circular in two dimensions. If they repeated this exercise by traveling along a certain longitude, they'd experience Earth as the globe that it is.
Watts shares a William Blake quote: "The fool who persists in his folly will become wise."
Likewise, a teacher of Zen indulges a student by pressing them to find the nature of themselves that is having the problem they want fixed by Zen. Typically this is done rather indirectly through statements such as "Show me the face that you possessed before you were born."
Of course, being steeped in the Zen form of Buddhism, the Zen teacher knows that the student doesn't have a self that is separate from the life they are living now. But just as a flat-earth believer needs to experience the roundness of our planet to break free of their illusion, so does a Zen student need to expend much time and energy searching for the illusory self, or ego, or soul, that doesn't exist.
Eventually they will recognize that the search is useless, because there is nothing to be found but the life they're already living. A Donovan song comes to mind: "First there is a mountain, then there isn't, then there is." Wikipedia explains:
The lyrics refer to a Buddhist saying originally formulated by Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D. T. Suzuki in his Essays in Zen Buddhism, one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US:
Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters.
Now, this paraphrase of the talk by Watts doesn't do justice to what he said. It's simply my way of expressing some key points that I recall from the talk.
Near the end of the talk Watts says that a Zen student is brought to the realization that the ego is phoney, not genuine, so it is impossible for the student to either act or to not act, since who they think they are isn't the reality of who they are.
For another way of expressing what I've said here, check out my 2014 post, "Watts: Wanting to clean up the messiness of life IS the mess." It includes a quotation from one of Watts' books on the same theme as the talk I've trued to describe. The quotation ends with:
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.
Easier said than not-done.
Posted by: umami | December 04, 2023 at 05:42 AM
I got the following from some of my old notes, not sure if it was a quote from some source or whether it was from some of my ponderings from looking into Ch'ing-yüan Wei-hsin’s saying on mountains and rivers: -
“Mountains are the rocks, trees, grass, snow, water, rivers, ponds, lakes, insects, birds, animals, etc., etc., etc., and all of these things are made up of other things. So, there are no mountains and no rivers. However, we deeply understand that both “mountain” and “river” are merely words that we use to describe the conditioned phenomena in front of us. Neither phenomena are a fixed nor permanent entity that exists in and of itself and possesses inherent existence as “mountain,” or “river.”
Just as mountains and rivers have no inherent existence as “mountain,” or “river,” being ever-changing processes, the same applies to us in that there is no inherent self. What is referred to as a ‘self’ is a construct, and a dynamic one at that. As Brian Lowery describes in his book Selfless: “The concept of self is not static, but rather constantly evolving through social interactions and the ongoing construction of our identity.”
Emptiness being a main tenet of Chan (or Zen) is obviously important to understand. Anatta," "no self" or "not self." This basic teaching is accepted in all schools of Buddhism, including Theravada. Anatta is a refutation of the Hindu belief in atman – a soul; an immortal essence of self. Mahayana Buddhism goes further than Theravada. It teaches that all phenomena are without self-essence.
Emptiness then is the realisation that there is no inherent, permanent self, whether it is us or any of the phenomenon about us. Once mountains and rivers are seen initially as not mountains and rivers, then: “. . .after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters.”
The discerning separative thinking mind can then relax and enjoy just being.
Posted by: Ron E. | December 04, 2023 at 08:18 AM
"Mountains are the rocks, trees, grass, snow, water, rivers, ponds, lakes, insects, birds, animals, etc., etc., etc., and all of these things are made up of other things..."
Well, said, Ron E! I never thought of it quite that way.
Posted by: umami | December 04, 2023 at 11:21 AM
Can you please explain Zen Buddhism in a nutshell?
Posted by: Smart Squirrel | December 04, 2023 at 05:44 PM
“Easier said than not-done.” 😂
Thanks for that comic relief.
Posted by: not-Sirius | December 04, 2023 at 10:01 PM
"not-Sirius," good pun!
Posted by: umami | December 05, 2023 at 08:57 AM
Building on Ron E's theme, we humans excel at making things out of other things. We assemble every kind of structure from houses to Rubik's Cubes to locomotives to sewage systems to cell phones to whole societies and tributary institutions. And we use every kind of material from physical to intellectual to emotional.
Anatta is like saying nothing is greater than the sum of its parts. A mountain is not a mountain except in how we relate to it. However, an automoble is greater than the sum of its parts, because it's purpose built. Humans are extra powerful at creating assemblages greater than the sum of their parts.
Institutional religions are such assemblages, and that's the trap. They're purpose built by humans for humans. Many condemn idolatry, failing to include the mental idolatry of worshipping the belief structure in itself. For that reason, in pursuit of The Big Truth there's a lot to be said for abandoning the constructed for the innate.
But what is most innate? That's the question! The Void or The Endless Party? I wish I knew.
Posted by: umami | December 05, 2023 at 08:59 AM
There are lots of religious leaders, gurus, masters, and such who are happy to help with this. Salvation, enlightenment, God realization -- these and other wares are offered in the religious/spiritual marketplace as solutions to the illusory problem of life not being what life actually is.
Radha Soami and Gurinder Singh Dhilion baba teaches this exactly and hasn't a clue of reality about life. If we look closely at Gurinders it's a mess as we see today a treacherous little man tripping over the mess he has made in his, it teaches us anything but never to follow as so called Baba who hasn't anything to teach us and nothing to show in his
He has ruined many lives and his own too.
Recent articles everywhere show us how EXPOSED he is now as he's always hidden from every one every where now we know why
Radha soami is finished and so is Gurinder Singh Dhilion.
Posted by: Trez | December 05, 2023 at 01:08 PM
Sorry to strike a contrarian note, but I'm not buying this. This specific thing, I mean. This seemed to me obscurantist bull when I first read it, and commented on it; and it still does.
If these Zen types did clearly realize the no-self idea, and were clear that that was all to it, then why wouldn't they clearly communicate that, in so many words, crystal clear, sans the BS riddling? (Like I said before, I understand the role of koans in Zen pedagogy. But I don't see why that faux profundity must permeate everything they say, particularly where a short sentence or two in introduction might suffice.)
For instance, their protestations that "I have nothing to teach." That sounds exactly like GSD's "I'm not God" shtick, while battening off of folks' devotion. Why not, instead, say clearly, "There is no self. We emerge from physical sources, a chimerical illusion, and disappear when that physical basis is no longer tenable. And that understanding is all I have to offer. And nor will that understanding help you with anything, beyond that understanding itself. ...If you insist on an experiential understanding of that simple idea, while putting in a great deal of work, and for no benefit beyond that understanding itself: then sure, come along, I'll help you. That much I do have for you, but only that much, and nothing else."
That there is clarity. That there is honesty. Simply saying "Go away, I got nothing" ---- while living off of disciples' largesse, and pretending to profundity, and teaching elaborate Zazen and whatnot --- that's dishonest, that's basically GSD's "I'm not God and won't come for you at death" disingenuous shtick, while battening off his dupes' largesse.
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | December 05, 2023 at 06:18 PM
AR,
To confound the mind. Miiiiind. Mi-yi-yinnnnddd.
Posted by: umami | December 06, 2023 at 07:07 AM
Appreciate the humor! And also, I appreciate we're clearly on the same page here, umami.
But to repeat what I'd said, if I may: I'm happy to grant them the validity of that pedagogic technique, of confounding the mind, absolutely. What I object to is their carrying their wise old man on the hill persona with them when speaking also to prospective students and general enquirers, as opposed to only their students. That's BS. That tells me they're simply putting on airs, and probably don't know what they're gabbing on about. That's Deepak Chopra BS right there.
A for-instance from my personal experiencee: Tantric teacher. Old man, flowing white hair and beard. Clutch of new students, including yours truly. Asks us all what we're there for. Every time one of us speaks, he tells us we won't get what we want, and to take back our money, that he's willing to refund, and go back. To stay only if we have no expectations.
I speak last. I tell him I'm aware of his tradition, its broad teachings, techniques, aims. I tell him I'm there to learn the techniques of his tradition from him. I do have expectations, which is authentic teachings re. those techniques. I respectfully tell him I certainly WILL take my money back if he isn't going to give me what I came for. (What I didn't say then, but think appropriate to add now, is that only a fool does things with zero expectations. What is wrong is incorrect expectations, not expectations per se. To quash all expectations is a nonsensical idea. Only a charlatan claims not to sell anything while elaborately setting up shop, and only a fool submits to that blatant charlatanry.)
To his credit, the old man did appreciate my point, even though it disturbed the flow if his first-day spiel. Like I said, I was respectful throughout, my intention wasn't to challenge him but only to ...get to where I was headed, is all, and I suppose he ...well, appreciated that point.
Likewise. I'm not saying Zen's nonsense. But this constant endless speaking in riddles, and invoking mountains that are mountains, and chopping wood, when what is called for is a few short clear sentences of prose not whimsical poetry; or saying "Go away, I've nothing here", while elaborately setting up shop to sell their wares: that is where I call BS, that specific part of it
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | December 06, 2023 at 05:34 PM