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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Alan Watts will reconfigure your mind, rewire your brain and set your thoughts to reboot. “Know thyself” is the beginning of all wise pursuits. But how many of us are truly willing to take a long hard look at ourselves, confront ourselves and learn ourselves?
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What worked for me: This book is persuasive and uses scientific analogies to highlight its points.
Quoting Alan: Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown.
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What worked for me: This book is persuasive and uses scientific analogies to highlight its points.
Quoting Alan: Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
My mind is absolutely blown. This is a witty deconstruction of exactly how and why we experience the universe—as a soul or ego in a bag of skin. It then examines why Watts believes we should look at it from a different perspective: we're not fundamentally separate from the universe, we grew out of it, and we are therefore fundamentally connected to everyone else. Watts argues that the ego is an illusion, strengthened by the way humans approach and describe things. We are really a manifestation of the universe: we're essentially the neurones forming the universe's consciousness.
Watts cautions against confusing our invented system of symbols with the universe as it stands: we think of things as separate, because it is useful to describe them that way, but we then overlook the fact everything is connected: "The universe is the one true atom." We think of the present moment as "an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future"; Watts argues that time is essentially a useful fiction, but the present is all we have. There need not be any consistency between myself, and myself five seconds ago.
So the key idea here is to stop thinking of yourself as a soul trapped in a box of bones and flesh, who "came into this world" and who will eventually leave the world forever. Watts wants you to think of yourself as a manifestation of that world. The snuffing-out of your consciousness isn't the end of all consciousness, and therefore neither is it the end of you; "every [baby] is ... the 'I' experience coming again into being". You may feel as if you're inhabiting and controlling a body like a vehicle, but Watts suggests this is all part of the fun of forgetting who you really are. "You are an aperture through which the universe explores itself."
If you know Watts' beautiful and funny talks are mostly available on Youtube, you'll hear this book in his voice, which adds a touch of humour and matter-of-factness to the text.
Watts cautions against confusing our invented system of symbols with the universe as it stands: we think of things as separate, because it is useful to describe them that way, but we then overlook the fact everything is connected: "The universe is the one true atom." We think of the present moment as "an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future"; Watts argues that time is essentially a useful fiction, but the present is all we have. There need not be any consistency between myself, and myself five seconds ago.
So the key idea here is to stop thinking of yourself as a soul trapped in a box of bones and flesh, who "came into this world" and who will eventually leave the world forever. Watts wants you to think of yourself as a manifestation of that world. The snuffing-out of your consciousness isn't the end of all consciousness, and therefore neither is it the end of you; "every [baby] is ... the 'I' experience coming again into being". You may feel as if you're inhabiting and controlling a body like a vehicle, but Watts suggests this is all part of the fun of forgetting who you really are. "You are an aperture through which the universe explores itself."
If you know Watts' beautiful and funny talks are mostly available on Youtube, you'll hear this book in his voice, which adds a touch of humour and matter-of-factness to the text.
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Many reviews I read prior told me to listen to his lectures instead, and while the book The Book is great, he has an amazing cadence and humor that can’t be captured through his writing. I’m glad to have the information for reference, and I’m happy to have read it.