6/9/11 * Alan Watts *

This funny little book, called "OM," appeared seemingly out of nowhere on my bookshelf in April, and I have become entranced by its teachings. They are transcriptions of talks given by Alan Watts, a formidable philosophical and spiritual thinker, obviously an enlightened meditator, and quite the droll Englishman. One passage I like so much, after dog-earing the page and reading and re-reading it, I have it committed to memory:

the universe is a self-surprising arrangement, so as to avoid the monotony and boredom of knowing everything in advance. And you and I have conspired with ourselves to pretend that we are not really God. But of course we are. We are all apertures through which the universe is looking at itself. 

Mr. Watts has a lot to teach us. He cautious against fashions in the intellectual world, and our need to be "tough thinkers," who reject optimism and wonder. He skewers Freudianism, which is quite salacious to this Upper West Side child, born of a lovely diaspora who claim atheism quite enthusiastically, but funnily enough seem to worship the prophets Darwin and Freud as virtual Gods, and uses the couch as its church. Thankfully education and reading was embraced with equal aplomb, and as a pilgrim of consciousness, a reject of talk- therapy, and an enthusiast of Yoga and Eastern spirituality, I found my way to a rich tradition of un-thinkers, and I am quite comfortable letting my brain drain of its concepts, the need to constantly create language and symbols to cover over reality. Watts says that for the very preservation of intellectual life, we must spend some time, every day, un-thinking. And so there you have it. 

I invite all students and teachers, people and gurus, anyone who wants to get to the bottom of this thing called life, to spend at least 1/2 hour, before the hustle and bustle of the world takes over, just sitting and being. Watch the mind think, but don't assign language to it-- if you catch yourself doing so, pretend you don't understand English (or whatever language you think in), and observe those impulses as pure blah blah blah vibration. Let go of who you think you are, and begin to integrate your mind with all the wavelets and particles of which we are comprised, and pulsating, and commingling with, 'the works,' as Mr. Watts encourages us to do. Then go out and get the book-- or stay in and order it from Amazon. OM: Creative Meditations, by Alan Watts. 

Jai Alan Watts, wherever you are sparkling. And thank you.

Namaste.