The Essential Lectures of Alan Watts

While walking in a field above Muir Woods, Alan Watts points to humankind's attempts to straighten out a wiggly world as the root of our ecological crisis. Here in 1971 he predicts the upcoming global consequences of human manipulation of the biosphere and points to a reconsidered way of thinking about our place in nature to avert an inevitable collision between nature and technology when commanded from a dominant point of view.

In common speech we often say that you can't get something for nothing. However here Alan Watts puts for the opposite idea that you can't have something without nothing! Basing his ideas on sensory perception and physical experience, as well as the Buddhist concept of the Void, he makes a compelling argument that everything actually depends upon nothing for its very existence.

Alan Watts was concerned with the way we trap ourselves in words. He considered it unfortunate that we separate the “I” from reality and think of “I” in terms of how others see us or the image that we want to project. What is the answer? How do we escape the “I”? All we can do is to be aware of what we are doing and that we are not the words we use to describe ourselves. You will find yourself more functional and able by realizing that you are not what you think you are!

As Alan Watts explains, “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts and loses touch with reality.” He covers basic mediation techniques, including listening without naming and mantras or sonic meditations.

To many of us the image of God as a gray-bearded omnipotent and omnipresent supreme being has become implausible, yet the common sense notions of divine authority surrounding that image persist. Alan Watts examines the basis of mythic images pointing to the Near Eastern roots of the Western concept and contrasts it with two organic and dramatic divine images of the Far East.

Alan Watts further explores the Hindu dramatic view of the universe, in which God plays all of the parts – all the while pretending not to know who he/she/it is!

Everyone knows what time is, yet it is difficult to explain in words. On one hand we say I don't have enough time and yet we find ourselves perpetually in the present moment. Here Alan Watts points out that our insistence that the past determines the present is as nonsensical as insisting that the wake determines the course of the ship.

Alan Watts swirls an orange on a string and shoots an arrow high into the air before explaining why the art of living is being paid to play – and to the extent that we feel compelled to work and survive, life becomes a drag.

We tend to think of life as a linear happening with a definite beginning and a definite ending. However Eastern models look at life as a circular and recurring event because what happened once will always happen again. Alan Watts comments on the circle of life and our response to the surprising event of being born in the first place.

Alan Watts speaks on our fascination with reproduction through media, and on the far out notion that human beings may just be one star's way of becoming another star!

After talking about growing up near London, Alan Watts demonstrates a variety of cultural garb and points out how each influences the way we live and feel. His choices of attire include a western business suit and a kimono, as well as a sarong topped with a colorful Guatemalan shirt.

Alan Watts speaks about our most repressed sense. Here he introduces viewers to the intricacies of incense in front of a small Buddhist altar, while commenting on the types of incense used in Church rituals and all across Asia.