#4. “The greatest obstacle to objective knowledge is our subjective presence.”
The first time I heard Alan Watts, I didn’t understand a shit.
He said, “If you think you’re just inside your skin, you define yourself as a very complicated little curvature on the edge of that explosion. In space and in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big explosion, but now you’re a complicated human being.”
But something hypnotic in his voice resonated with my heart and calmed it. So I began to listen to Alan like one who puts on a meditation for sleep.
Then I started reading his books, and even though I still didn’t understand shit, something magical happened: some phrases stayed in my subconscious and came to my mind whenever life put me in a difficult situation.
I started to write down those phrases and the mini-lessons I extracted from them to keep a record in an old notebook.
And today, I want to share five with you.
1. Muddy water cleans itself better — Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)
Give time to time.
It’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason: it works. — Most of the scary movies we make up rarely happen in reality.
Besides, some bad things are better with the time.
Remember that for every little tragedy that clouds your mind, there is a minor miracle capable of settling all the mental sludge so that you get your mind back to being crystal clear like a lake instead of dirty like a swamp if you focus on it.
Lesson: don’t stir the shit, let the waters calm down, and remember to focus on the good things each day brings you whenever you have a setback.
2. It’s not what you do but how you do it; it matters less what happens than the decision and attitude you adopt. Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)
My grandfather always said, “Whatever you do, do it well. As one does the insignificant, one behaves toward the important.”
If you are responsible in little things, you will be responsible in big ones.
As Watts said, it doesn’t matter what happens or what you do; the important thing is our attitude towards life and the decision that moves our actions, which says who we are.
Lesson: winning or losing is not as decisive as doing your best, working excellently, and having noble motives that benefit others to do what we do.
3. Ephemerality is depressing to those minds who want to understand everything. — Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)
When something ends, we spend our days analyzing what went wrong when nothing went wrong.
It just came full circle.
Many things in life have an expiration date. Many things in life have to disappear for us to grow.
That excellent relationship may have ended for you to achieve spiritual awakening. Think about it.
An ex once told me, “Everything is eternal while it lasts,” I didn’t understand it until it was over. But I promised myself to enjoy the next relationship I had day by day instead of obsessing about future plans.
And I am happier because, as Watts also said, “Music is a delight in its cadence and rhythm. However, the rhythm is destroyed when it prolongs a note or a chord beyond its due.”
Lesson: What lasts longer than necessary degenerates, stinking and leaving a bad taste in the mouth.
4. The greatest obstacle to objective knowledge is our subjective presence. — Alan Watts (In My Own Way)
When we have too much to lose, we get too involved; when we get too involved, we lose perspective.
We need to take distance.
We can only get a bird’s eye view of where we’re headed by practicing detachment from the character we play in life.
(Maybe that shiny new job that consumes all your time and energy is taking you on the road to divorce instead of Beverly Hills.)
Lesson: Learn to look objectively at your life from the outside, or you’ll pay for it.
5. True religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter. — Alan Watts (Tao: The Watercourse Way)
Religion comes from the Latin religare, which means to gather.
Therefore, whatever generates discord in your heart does not come from God/the creative source/the universe/[Insert the name you feel most comfortable with].
A priest once told me, “If something takes away your joy, it is not from God.”
He was right. As Watts points out, no spirituality makes you feel worse; if it doesn’t relieve your anxiety, it’s not spirituality.
Lesson: if your beliefs or the church environment you attend make you live always on alert, full of guilt and insecurity, you are probably looking for salvation in the wrong place.
A virtual hug
AG
Leave a Reply