Monday, March 12, 2018

Alan Watts talks about god and us too....



Another good typist is now putting in written form an Alan Watts' talk ... mostly verbatim here but not all exactly as uttered then whenever that was, so many years ago: 

As the tapes are copy-written by his sons who are in business with his legacy, audiotapes they sell and want to control his thoughts, maybe in audio form but probably in any form, dead man held tight for some gains or profits ? 

So do not copy or paste please unless you do ask permission from the Alan Watts organizations that let KPFK replay their tapes - in return for the blurb of where they are borrowed for play and thus like Sounds True too gets heard...otherwise maybe hardly NOT heard.

It is here too a trade-publicity-promo always. 

The inheritor-owner [of father's audio tapes, after he died, not before, we presume ] desperately tries to hold on to their stuff  - as if it were all so original, words were invented  by orator or recorder of talks, and as if the thoughts Alan Watts said were ONLY HIS OWN, not borrow, repeated and translated by him, as written, told by many before his birth too..

So these 'new owners' after Watts died in 1976 made a business in order to maybe properly control their father's inheritance to not be freely available to be used, or to be educational, for FREE and easy and made popular-use, and they can be contacted for their aims, and stated-motives,too. 

Tho we doubt anything but altruism is ever stated as the reason why copy-writes or claiming-'rights' = claimed by governments,or  samplers, or repeaters, and all who claim to be 'artists' or 'inventors' or such people who enjoy claiming Total Originality ! huh?

And then they deny where they learned and gained information, hints, thoughts, teachings, words from all those who shared those same ideas and interpretations BEFORE these utterances, maybe in a different language, or a few words turned, slanted, spun differently but all the message &  info are essential THE SAME, just pretending to be "MY OWN" by owners, of 'legal rights' for their own gains. 

Gains can be status, imagined property-ownership-rights, or even images long dead and gone and no longer able to say these grasps are what the speaker/ writer/ artist/ entertainer intended or would agree to in this day & age.  

Thus the owning of dead people's articulations, as if this could  really ever be OWNED at all anyhow.  Words in lectures, then recorded and the recorders given equal profits/benefits too?
or the "entertainer" as Watts claimed to be, no longer doing business, certainly was not on internet then to be revealed, as his words are here anyhow. 

This is for PUBLIC INFORMATION DISSEMINATED FOR FREE AND WITH NO RETURN NOR BENEFITS in return, here. This is not a  'disclaiming" anything, but a statement of what is happening, here, now. duh....

[please ignore any punctuations disarray or words left out or whatever is imperfect in the attempt to share some interesting ways to think.Or buy a tape from the "owners" and type it up to share further, unless that is already available and FOR SALE ? ]

And understand what religions love to claim is ONLY their domain, their expertise, their connection as dispenser of godly favors, and all they claim to "own" too, or threaten death and suffering, of course !


 So.Who.is.god. ?      

if you are using images of god at all, you cant go higher than protestations that any other image falls below image of man…becomes compost of tapioca or jello…

only 1 exit from this predicament. if one tries…to use images

it is necessary to go beyond Images ! but if one uses images, cant go beyond man cuz we don’t know of anything more evolved than ourselves

and even if there were anything, I. e. dolphins, we don’t know dolphins more than we know ourselves

everywhere else we see things from surfaces, from outside, but you know yourself from Inside. so have advantageous situation, have a  deeper view than anywhere else.

now then, if dissatisfied and cannot stand image of GOD as personal, as a religious man, the only way open, if you still use images, you have an Incomplete image of man too.

most extraordinary thing, as in arts – what happens to image of man in arts and what happens in contemporary art to that image?

contemporary artist have cut adrift from representation of humans or anything else at all, as we used to regard as realistic terms.   theologian  Nicholas……wrote about disappearance of humans in the arts.

that is sinister & destructive. but he missed point because when some contemporary artists draw a man, they don’t want to represent human as he appears from Outside, but experiment themselves as they really feel to be themselves…and when do that comes up that doesn’t look-like man as we know him….

Elsa Gindler gave problem to class – a large paper – draw a pix of yourself as you see yourself to be and student with conceit who had studied movement, and know all about construction of her organism, Charlotte drew complicated muscles, bones, but when all students arranged drawings with Gindler making comments, Charlotte was astounded at what else others drew….

Charlotte could see more from their strange drawings – a blob -   Elsa had not drawn as she Felt herself but as she had learned from physiological textbooks but not as she really Felt about herself.

[see google if this is the same person:

if we can make attempts of how to represent our self as ‘being’ – which will not be representation conventional of how we ‘look’ – worth thinking about – how artificial our conception of ourselves is – but even Camera is trained to see things conventionally. The lens we put in camera to not distort things but it Does Distort as we manufactured  lens to make a distorted image of how we look like  - and we call that “real”.

but when we show a foto of a Bedouin chief and show it to him, he cant recognize himself !
because he will turn foto around and look at back and not see himself…! 

distance shows him smaller in perspective and he says ‘tree is not shorter than I am, why show it smaller?”
we depict ourselves in prejudice.

Chinese shows faces w/o shadows – everything is w/o shadows. Emperor shown with shadow considered inauspicious – ½ his face black implies it is dirty – a shadow was cast over his life. He is insulted.  

do look  “Art & Illusion” [book a study of optical problems in western art.

how lots of contemporary art considers problem of how we see from how we are Suppose To See. that’s how Cezanne shocked everyone, to how world says I am suppose to see it, as leaves are green, but are there ? 

people draw blk outline and fill it in w/green, but leaves are a multiplicity of colors w/o blk outlines in reality. When artist says “I don’t now whether how I see the world is thrust upon me, how I am suppose-to see world or how it IS, how I do see it ?”

other influences tell me what to See !   like in sculpture – we can get in touch w/ subtle body distinct from physical body.

physical body can be described as conventionally seen – as you see someone else. But surgeon or other can see other body. but SUBTLE BODY is how you see yourself...as in adv shows distorted foto of person with swelled head showing headache visually [exaggerated, artistically]

as in a cartoon showing airplane overhead and animal saw himself twisted looking up at it, like the subtle-body, not conventional but as it felt to him.

to represent facts how it feels inside your head is different from what is expected representational. To feel out vision, what appears outside in front of eyes is state of affairs in your brain.  that means if you draw that, you’ve got to draw what is Inside your own head. That alters our images, of man.

One thinks of one’s head as Blank, colorless, neither dark nor light is behind our eyes – external world begins here and goes on out-   in here is unseen recipient – where optical nerve centers are…but that is difficult to Feel that… but can do so. 

you can come to feel that with all senses, hearing, touch, to see that whole external world is literally YOUR BODY.

and corollary of that is that external world is your body ! there are 2 different ideas involved, external world IS your body and not ‘out there’ differently. You have arbitrarily drawn line of where I begin & end, as if at your skin.

but know skin is in relation to pressures, electronic relationships that go thru you and rest of universe so why draw external world at your skin ? that is a game.  know external world as YOURSELF…your organism is inseparable from yourself.

your deepest inside is as much external world as anything else. your external is same as mine is. each of us knows external world in terms of himself !!! I am aware of me so that’s how I am aware of you !

if you begin to feel that too, when I draw my eyes, I don’t draw conventional eyes but also things that are ‘outside’ my eyes to express what my eyes FEEL like.  if feel eyes with fingers then have to draw fingers too, the state of fingertips, feel eyelids and draw that, if eyes are totally open, how does that feel ? feel temperature of eyes, twitches, and how else do eyes fee?

my goodness ! they feel like you !

now extend that…how you FEEL -?  like the universe is how you feel.

this way image of man alters. no longer bag of skin inside it. He is relationship between bag of skin and everything and NOT APART FROM THAT BAG OF SKIN.

you are not ‘in this world’ like pea in pod or penny in piggy bank but part of it.
the organism is in a polar relationship to everything else, so any full account of that organism is takes all else to that you feel,…because your feeling of others is a feeling of yourself at same time/in same perception.

otherwise you have weird conclusion of who you are. I don’t control your movements but I see your movements as movements of me. when you lift your hand it is in my BRAIN that I am aware of so it is my movement too…I have to keep track of what is yours and mine and suddenly I might feel that in a state of conscious – we are part of everything is happening…. that you are controlling what everyone else is doing !

all voluntary actions are part of involuntary actions.

other people are part of you. as your heart beats are you , tho you don’t feel them, consciously. you don’t control other people’s behavior but that/they are also you, as your heart is, tho you don’t think of that.

as you find  the WHOLE WORLD IS YOUR BODY TOO, both translated in your nervous system and your objectively being a physical organism – a process inseparable from all other processes that are ‘outside’ of you, you are part of external world you think is ‘outside/around’ you. you cant set it aside as if something ‘different’ than you.

world is full of lines, boundaries, spaces…. it is there…but the outline of bodies is inline of what surrounds bodies at same time…we move together as one.

even if one is taught to think they move ‘independently’ of one another.

as you become aware of that  that the WHOLE WORLD IS YOUR BODY too,

so universe is the shape of man, not like having a head, 2 arms, a truck, but that man is more than that shape. we have the shape of whatever universe is, tho we don’t know all that it is.
so immense and in more dimensions.

it too feel like itself is surrounded by other galaxies, surrounded by other bodies, who knows?
all you know of US is having a map of Kansas so think if expand that map it will cover the whole world, but it doesn’t.

You cant judge from what you see that the rest is just a continuation of that ltd vision. So whatever shape Universe is, that is our shape and not what we “think” we have as a shape.

that is shape Chinese of have Tao…the course of nature is a conception of world as an organism. that involves thing peculiar to us that all particular parts arise together …. the organization of an organism is non-political, it is not ruled by a governor…

look at a ….. we can see head and tail, but the high doesn’t come Before the Low. They need each other… they come in together and are together.

people say ‘brain feeds stomach’ but can say ‘stomach serves the brain’ keeps it going but they serve each other mutually. brain would be nowhere without stomach….if limbs all got together and said ‘we do all the work and stomach is lazy and doesn’t do anything !’ so mouth, hands, brain didn’t do anything went on strike but realized w/o stomach they could not survive. 
                                               

                                                  Image result for stomach[google image shared here]

All had to work in unison. All parts come to being together and relationship is all mutually advantageous to each other.

to not be operating in a chain of command, in a pecking order, but in unison. To assume the pecking order, top down, is looking only from an Analytical process, looking at piece by piece, start somewhere and end elsewhere to analyze assume that is how nature starts. to start with head and goes on down to feet, but it is all combined, united. like kids draw figures. Could start with feet first and move to arms, or head.

how could head be going around unless firmly grounded with feet ? how can feet on ground w/o all starting on head, the ctr of intelligence ? but cant work that way. that is how we learn to draw, to begin somewhere and then move pencil further. but you were not drawn as that in mothers’ womb.

an organism comes to birth is more like image develops on photographic plate, all in one …the whole image comes to being – like fetus grows – so who is boss of that being ? the chemical in developing foto tray or the plate ? no , all together brings being image come to fore.

so image of world there is NO top process, but all comes emerging together, in mutual relationship to all processes in it.

because of this, every and all parts, there are NO PARTS, we just call ‘things’ as if there were separate parts, but all is essential to the whole.

all parts disappear when you drop dead, so parts are not essential, the whole is.
all begin and end in course of time.

they have essential parts are temporal limits and special limits, a significant feature of universe that Socrates did exist. the world in which there was Socrates is different than one in which there was none. 

Tho that world disappeared he is still an Essential Feature of our cosmos, or any other person who has lived, or will live. They are all symptomatic of the WHOLE THING.

 in your short span of life the whole universe depends on you as you depend on it all mutual, all of a piece together…

you now have a different image of god, if that image of man is expanded and inclusive ….vs the image we have been accustomed to, limits man by skin and as ‘governor’ of universe or governor of cities, tribes…
it just a copy of what we have seen – a monarchical image of the universe..

as if “1 nation under god” accords god the honor as if he were a king on earth, is a political image, make up story by rulers who like that version, as if organized organically vs. humans’ political interpretation of relationships.

people don’t like rituals in church that look like legal courts, even churches look like judicial courts. how same they are decorated, with jury box for the choir ad judge sits at pulpit, wearing same black gowns as minister wears…both indistinguishable.

Decorating churches began w/ protestant reformation – a bourgeoisie reformation – a city merchant version – emergence of city merchant class over landowner classes, because they had a kings-court version before.

The city court was replicated in churches, chose images of how we govern our selves [ a choice ]
while catholic church was monarchical…and is becoming less by bringing altar to center of church...

but that is dangerous for a king who can be attacked that way, instead of with east wall behind him protecting him with  military [other church people there]…. had to leave swords outside but wore divided skirts that dragged behind them so they couldn’t run in those clothes to protect the king from being hurt  or abandoned by his court.

so when church begins to move altar to center, position of king has been abandoned, and expands from center is a healthier station, mutual trust all around vs. king in defensive stand w/ hidden altar parts in back – pubic not seen – to protect him.

in traditional church stand in row like army on march with god head in front, like on top.
to be walking down long aisle … 
with pews, so not one can turn over any part w/o being stalled.
the TOP ONE is up there, by altar… 
higher up [physically placed higher as if for all to see, and for him to see over them to protect himself ] the old POLITICAL PATTERNS are repeated.

this is the beginning to be aware of the transformation of image of god. 1 facet is image of man  is changing into image of universe. and universe functioning organically vs. being in a chain of command, like kings & their  military were .    

all position below governor are not functional, except to him, barely important, vs. the universe means there is NO CENTER, which is in middle because all are middle ones.

Universe as we know is not like a ball with a middle and the rest if outside. In math terms the whole universe has been distributed over surface of the ball, but it has no center that way…. sphere like as if a black center rotating in front of you but as your shift the sphere it has No inside and No outside, but the totality of a a curved surface, no middle one, anyone can be middle one.

just as you feel you are in middle of the world…
you see same distance all around you even in middle of desert …
same all the time. you see as if a long past behind you and long future ahead. but we are in place called NOW, between then and will be.

you can put people down and say they are not in ctr of world…YOU are center.

when we found out Ptolemaic center of world doesn’t remain, sun is then center of world but then found it is on edge in galaxy and then found millions of galaxy and we found we were small, but didn’t see other side of picture…what a remarkable being man is to realize that at all, to be insignificant solar system of the whole and to be AWARE

as of that reflecting mirror of Buddhist image of Indira’s nest  multidimensional of spiders web in morning dew.
- - - - - - - -                                - - - - - - - -                      - -  - - -- - - -  -            - - - - - -
paraphrasing here:

Watts reminds us also that there is NO SEPARATION ...no "the knower" vs. a separate stuff to be "known..."

the viewer is also the viewed...

and there is no "I" looking at what is "over there"...

because we are all of one, whole, and not as is said in languages, or socially trained, to think : that this is not separated parts or isolated objects as 'individuals'  

the space between words and distances we think we 'see' between this body and that person or object is "empty space" is what we are taught to believe and pretend....

as if from a separate "that" [in time, in space, in perceiving, in the motion of 'knowing']....is "this...

yet, the inside & outside are all of one and not pieced / spliced/ cut apart. 

While this re-cognition is difficult to remember  & hard to recognize in daily life, it just takes another "Wake Up!" reminder for that moment - to real-ize that what we Assume.... and pretend....or define is "them" and "that" is not another or 'other', but all are This too.

like Krishnamurti often said : there is no difference between the observer and the observed.

no (C) on Watts typed words, but on intro and on this blogsite    (c) mj 2018

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