Three pearls of wisdom from one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.
There are days when having no children, no partner, and no responsibilities feels fantastic.
On other days, you feel lonelier than the little prince on asteroid B 612, and you’d give anything to have a fox for a friend.
Seriously, there are levels of loneliness that only those who have failed sentimentally time after time until they turn forty can experience.
There comes a point when you no longer have the desire to give love another chance, nor the innocence necessary to trust people.
When that happens, I turn into Batman, go into my Batcave, and start reading Alan Watts.
I do it because it works. After all, his thoughts help me regain faith in life, humanity, and the world and reduce my anxiety about the subjects that most often rob me of sleep: money, goals, and change.
Here are three of those thoughts
On money anxiety
“A chest full of gold coins or a wallet full of bills won’t do a sailor alone on a raft any good.” — Alan Watts.
I currently have two years of financial freedom. That is, I have money to live without working for two years. It doesn’t sound like much, but in 2017, I was living paycheck to paycheck. So, for me, that’s a significant accomplishment.
The point is that when I managed to amass that little bit of capital, I discovered, to my horror, that what they say about money not bringing happiness is true.
That’s why I no longer worry about money more than necessary because I know very well what it’s like to have money in the bank and still feel so much anxiety in my chest that all I want to do is lie down in the fetal position and make that horrible feeling stop.
Lesson: A small degree of economic adversity — and any kind — is necessary to feel happiness. Without challenges, life is meaningless, and it’s only one step from there to depression. Be grateful for your adversity; don’t feel bad about having problems. Having problems means you are alive. There is no life without problems. There is no happiness without problems. That is the price of being alive.
The anxiety produced by goals
“Zen spirituality is not confused or found by thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is precisely peeling potatoes.” — Alan Watts.
In the introduction of the Japanese Buddhist monk Shoukei Matsumoto’s book, Soji, we can read that a disciple of Buddha, Suddhipanthaka, attained enlightenment while sweeping with a broom and praying, “Sweep the dust, clean the dirt.”
Which is intimately related to Watts’s phrase.
The goal is only helpful because it points us in the right direction. Reread it.
- What matters is not leaving the house clean; it’s cleaning.
- What matters is not eating an omelet; it’s cooking.
- What matters is not succeeding in life; it’s living.
Lesson: The process is what matters. The goal is just the direction we put in the GPS of life to live one kind of experience or another. Anxiety about reaching one goal or another becomes irrelevant when you understand that goals are static. Life is dynamic; therefore, the only thing you can do is enjoy the path: live.
The anxiety produced by change
“We keep reactivating the past in the hope that History will guide us to where we should go; but this is like driving a car with your eyes glued to the rearview mirror.” — Alan Watts.
There is a phrase by the Spanish poet and philosopher Jorge Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana written in block number 4 of the Auschwitz concentration camp that says, “He who forgets his history is condemned to repeat it.”
And it is true. But there is a big difference between remembering to avoid making the same mistakes and living obsessed with the past, as Alan Watts suggests in his phrase.
In life, change is the only constant thing, whether we like it or not.
- What worked a few years ago does not work today.
- What made you happy a few years ago does not make you happy today.
- People in your life a few years ago may not be with you today.
Lesson: Living comparing your present with your past (which is always subjective because you romanticize and idealize it) is like crossing the road looking at your smartphone; sooner or later, the bus of life will run over you. Stop looking back, and be present so that you can overcome the curve balls that chance will send you, and you will minimize your anxiety.
A virtual hug
AG
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