Trust The Universe - Alan Watts On Finding Zen

Summary

In this enlightening talk, Alan Watts explores the essence of Zen, not as a doctrine to believe in, but as a way of life that transcends concepts and ideas. He emphasizes that Zen is about embracing fluidity and the ever-changing nature of the universe, akin to water. Watts dismantles the need for rigid metaphysical constructs, instead advocating for a relaxed acceptance and understanding that all is one great energy without name. This perspective encourages letting go, living in harmony with the natural flow, and finding joy in the energy of life, thereby alleviating deep-rooted fears and anxieties.

Highlights

• Zen is not about intellectual concepts; it's about experiencing life fluidly, just like water. 🌊
• All names for the universal energy fall short, pushing us to find new terms, like 'tatata.' ☁️
• Letting go and becoming one with the universe's energy brings joy and freedom from fear. 🌌

Key Takeaways

• Zen transcends concepts and is a state of being, not a set doctrine or philosophy. 🌱
• The universe is fluid and ever-changing, much like water, and trying to control it leads to suffering. 🌊
• Embracing Zen involves letting go, relaxing into the flow of life, and understanding that all is one energy. 🌌
• Traditional names for universal energy, such as 'God' or 'Brahman,' carry outdated associations, leading us to seek new terms like 'tatata.' ☁️
• Recognizing the illusions of life and seeing ourselves as part of a singular energy can free us from fundamental fears, allowing us to live authentically. 🌟

Overview

Alan Watts begins by debunking the notion of Zen as a mere philosophical or doctrinal belief system. Instead, he's teaching us to view it as a way to embrace the fluid nature of reality, akin to water—always changing and never static. By letting go of rigid ideas and accepting the flow of life, we step closer to understanding Zen.

Watts continues by tackling the linguistic pitfalls of describing universal energy with traditional religious terms. He highlights the need to transcend words like 'God,' which carry outdated connotations, and instead suggests terms like 'tatata' from Buddhist teachings. This focus on new language helps us better grasp the essence of what Zen aspires to share.

The talk culminates with the liberating idea that by recognizing life as a magnificent play of energy, we free ourselves from existential dread and fear. Watts encourages us to let go, flow with life's currents, and embrace our true, unscripted selves—truly living without hangups. Energy, he reminds us, is eternal delight.

Trust The Universe - Alan Watts On Finding Zen Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] once upon a time there was a Zen student who quoted an old Buddhist poem to his teacher which says the voices of Torrance are from one great tongue the lines of the hills are the pure body of Buddha isn't that right he said to the teacher it is said the teacher but it's a Pity to say so
• 00:30 - 01:00 it would be of course much better if this occasion were celebrated with no talk at all and if I addressed you in the manner of the ancient teachers of Zen I should hit the microphone with my fan and leave because Zen is a way of life a state of being that is not possible to embrace in
• 01:00 - 01:30 any concept whatsoever so that any concepts any ideas any words that I shall put across to you this evening will have as their object showing you the limitations of words and of thinking now then if one must try to say something about what Zen is and I want to do this by way of introduction
• 01:30 - 02:00 I must make it emphatic that Zen in its Essence is not a Doctrine there's nothing you're supposed to believe in and it's not a philosophy in our sense that is to say a set of ideas an intellectual net in which one tries to catch the fish of reality actually the fish of reality is more like water it always slips through
• 02:00 - 02:30 the net and in water you know when you get into it there's nothing to hang on to all this universe is like water it is fluid it is transient it is changing and when you're thrown into the water after being accustomed to living on the dry land you're not used to the idea of swimming you try to stand on the water you try to catch hold of it and as a result you drown
• 02:30 - 03:00 the only way to survive in the water and this refers particularly to the Waters of modern philosophical confusion where God is dead metaphysical propositions are meaningless and there's really nothing to hang on to because we're all just falling [Music] apart and the only thing to do under those circumstances is to learn how to swim and to swim you you relax you let go you give yourself to
• 03:00 - 03:30 the water and you have to know how to breathe in the right way and then you find that the water holds you up indeed in a certain way you become the water and so in the same way one might say if one attempted to again I say misleadingly to put Zen into any sort of concept it simply comes down to this that in this universe there is one great energy
• 03:30 - 04:00 and we have no name for it people have tried various names for it like God like Brahman like da but in the west the word God has got so many funny associations attached to it that most of us are bored with it when people say God the Father Almighty most people feel funny inside
• 04:00 - 04:30 and so we like to hear new words we like to hear about da about Brahman about uh shingo and uh paata and such strange names from the Far East because they don't carry the same associations of moish sanctimony and funny meanings from the past
• 04:30 - 05:00 and actually some of these words that the Buddhists use for the Basic Energy of the world really don't mean anything at all the word Tata which is translated from the Sanskrit into suchness or thusness or something like that uh really means something more like d based on the word t which in Sanskrit means that in Sanskrit it is said
• 05:00 - 05:30 that thou art or in modern American you're it but d d That's the first sound a baby makes when it comes into the world because the baby looks around says d d that and fathers flatter themselves and think it's saying Dada which means Daddy but according to Buddhist philosophy all this universe is one tatata that means 10 10,000 functions or
• 05:30 - 06:00 10,000 Things One suchness and we're all one suchness and that means suchness comes and goes like everything else because this whole world is an on andof system as the Chinese say it's the Yang and the yin and therefore it consists of now you see it now you don't here you are here you aren't because that's the very nature of energy to be like waves
• 06:00 - 06:30 and waves have crests and troughs only we being under a certain kind of sleepiness or Illusion imagine that the trough is going to overcome the wave or the crest the yin the dark principle is going to overcome the Yang or the light principle and that off is finally going to triumph over on and we shall I say bug
• 06:30 - 07:00 ourselves by indulging in that illusion gee supposing Darkness did win out wouldn't that be terrible and so we're constantly trembling and thinking that it may because after all isn't it odd that anything exists it's most peculiar it requires effort it energy and it would be so much
• 07:00 - 07:30 easier for there to have been nothing at all therefore we think well since being since the is side of things is so much effort you always give up after a while and you sink back into death but death is just the other face of energy and it's the rest the not being anything around that produces something around just in the same way that you can't have solid without space or space
• 07:30 - 08:00 without solid when you wake up to this and realize that uh the more it changes the more it's the same thing as the French say that you are really a playing of this one energy and there is nothing else but that that it is you but that uh for you to be always you would be an insufferable bore
• 08:00 - 08:30 and therefore it is arranged that you stop being you after a while and then come back as someone else altogether and so when you find that out you become full of energy and Delight as Blake said energy is eternal [Music] delight and you suddenly see through the whole sham of things you real I you you're that we
• 08:30 - 09:00 won't put a name on it you're that and you can't be anything else so you are relieved of fundamental Terror that doesn't mean that you're always going to be a great hero that you won't jump when you hear it bang that you won't worry occasionally that you won't lose your temper it means though that fundamentally deep deep down within
• 09:00 - 09:30 you you will be able to be human so it is then that uh if I may put it metaphorically janga said the perfect man employs his mind as a mirror it grasps nothing it refuses nothing it receives but does not keep in other words this is to be put it very strictly into our modern idiom this is to live without hangup [Music]
• 09:30 - 10:00 that is to say to be able to drift like a cloud and flow like water seeing that all life is a magnificent illusion a playing of energy and there is absolutely nothing fundamentally to be afraid of [Music]