Skip to main content

Commemorating 100 years of Alan Watts

Written by Juliet Bennett
2 Comments

Today marks the 100-year birthday of Alan Watts. While Watts’ “came out of this world” on 6 January 1915, and “returned to the world” in 1973 (far too young, at 58 years old), his legacy continues and expands in influence and appreciation.

Alan Watts

Alan Watts was a polymath of spirituality, religions, mysticism, philosophy, psychology, phenomenological, among his many disciplines. Though he tried to prevent labels, he was an expert in Zen Buddhism, Taoism, had a stint as an Episcopal clergyman, and a professor and dean of the Academy of Asian . He called himself a “philosophical entertainer”.

Watts was a man before his time, he had visions of the future that have come true, he was a man outside of time, using psychedelic drugs to understand that space beyond, he was a man of ancient wisdom, and a voice of the future who people in millennia ahead are likely to see to be one of the most transcendent and illuminating of all.

Watts is most famous for his influence in bringing Eastern thought to the West. He had a unique ability to make the complex simple, and to make the serious fun.

He describes himself as a ‘sedentary and contemplative character, an intellectual, a Brahmin, a mystic, and also somewhat of a disreputable epicurean who has had three wives, seven children, and five grandchildren’ to which he says he ‘cannot make up my mind whether I am confessing or boasting’ (Watts 1972: x).

He recalls that he has ‘come to see that my own “sins” are as normal and as boring as everyone else’s … beyond boasting on the one hand, or confessing or apologizing on the other, I find my life intensely interesting’ (6).

Watts is a living example of his philosophy, to the extent that even his autobiography does not follow a ‘linear dimension,’ since he explains that ‘I do not subscribe to the chronological or historical illusion that events follow one another on a one-way street, in series… the world itself isn’t strung out; it exists in many dimensions.’

His purpose is to entertain the reader, and perhaps even more so to entertain himself. Instead he tell his biography starting from the present, ‘from which the past rails and vanishes like the wake of a ship.’

He admits to accusation of critics of his repetition, explaining that ‘varied repetition is the essence of music.’ He says: ‘Each of the twenty books I have had published arrives at the same destination from a different point of departure, … Taking the premises of Christian dogmatics, Hindu mythology, Buddhist psychology, Zen practice, psycho analysis, behaviorism, or logical positivism, I have tried to show that all are aiming, however disputatiously, at one center. This has been my way of making sense of life in terms of philosophy, psychology, and religion’ (4).

Watts’ influence is widespread and still unfolding: in our culture, in academia, and in the world.

Peter J. Columbus and Donadrian L. Rice collected essays Here and Now explore Watts’ contribution to contemporary academic literature in psychology, philosophy and religion, pointing to many areas yet untapped.

Watts was involved in setting up (what is now called) the California Institute of Integral Studies, which continues to offer university courses in the interdisciplinary fields that Watts explored. Ralph Metzner, Brian Swimme and Charlene Spretnak are among its esteemed professors.

Watts had a significant influence in counterculture movement of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, that started in San Fransisco and spread across the world. The Occupy Movement and many environmental and social movements to advocate its values.

Watts’ lectures, many recorded on his home on an old ferry boat S. S. Vallejo in Sausalito, California, uplift the moods of millions of people every day: http://www.alanwatts.org/collections.php

Watts books have influenced writers such as Deepak Chopra (see his Introduction to The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety), Spike Jonze (hence Watts’ cameo appearance in the movie Her) and the animators of South Park Trey Parker and Matt Stone- see their videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YgEhvZDZVg

A new film by his son Mark Watts, who is now building The Alan Watts Mountain Center north of San Francisco, was released last year: http://www.alanwatts.org/news.php

You’ll never regret getting his books, downloading his lectures, or now the Apps… here are some links to his books on Amazon:
In My Own Way: An Autobiography
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
This Is It: and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience
Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
Tao: The Watercourse Way
Psychotherapy East and West
The Supreme Identity
Myth and Ritual In Christianity
Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion
The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
Nature, Man and Woman
Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives
Does It Matter?: Essays on Man’s Relation to Materiality
You’re It!: On Hiding, Seeking, and Being Found

 

What I like most about Alan Watts is the way that he tackled the myopia of modern day society, that is, the short-sightedness that leads to a lack of care for the long-term well-being of our planet, an onslaught of alienation and anxiety associated with the future of “me” and what happens when “I” die, that makes it difficult to really enjoy life.

He counters this myopia with a holistic view of the self as the world, both which are involved in an ongoing cosmic process of creation and appreciation. In this view “You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are.”

I will continue to share his insights on this blog, as Watts’ writings continue to inspire and ground my own philosophy of life.

 

References:

Alan Watts, 1972. In My Own Way: An Autobiography. California: New World Library.

Random Life Stuff

Retreat from the city: Watts’ mountain cabins and old ferry-boats

Written by Juliet Bennett
8 Comments

My partner, a sculptural artist, and I, with my love of writing, have been thinking about ways we might create some sort of retreat from the city. As I read Alan Watts’ biographies I have been curiously uncovering his two most unusual abodes: a communal mountain retreat with Gary Snyder, Catharine A. MacKinnon, Elsa Gidlow and others at Druid Heights, and an old ferry-boat named SS Vallejo with artist Jean Varda and other party-goers in San Fransisco Bay.

Druid Heights, Mount Tamalpais

“What do you get when you bring together a groundbreaking lesbian poet, a famous Zen philosopher, the founder of a prostitutes’ union and the inventor of the self-regulating filtered hot tub?” writes .

“The answer: Druid Heights — a once-thriving Bay Area bohemia deep in the forest, now moldering despite the best efforts of its residents, a few hardy holdovers from the counterculture, to maintain it.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Secreted away one and a half miles down a dirt road, Druid Heights is unknown to thousands of tourists who flock to the misty redwoods of Muir Woods, even as it comes under review by the National Park Service for recognition as a historic or culturally significant site.

nmij0818filmfest

The philosopher Alan Watts, who died here in 1973 in the Mandala House, a circular work of architecture resembling a spinning top, wrote of this community’s “numinous, mythological quality,” which drew artists, writers, musicians and hedonists from 1954 through the early ’70s.

Among them were the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder; Margo St. James, who organized the union for prostitutes; Catharine A. MacKinnon, the feminist law professor who advises the International Criminal Court in The Hague on gender issues; and the lesbian poet Elsa Gidlow, whose ashes reside near the Moon Temple. Her guest room and meditation cabin still exude an otherworldly goddess aura.”

Druid Heights was once a five-acre ranch formerly known as Camp Monte Vista Sub One. It was set up by Elsa Gidlow and carpenter Roger Somers. According to wikipedia: “Somers, influenced by Japanese architecture and American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, built many of the structures with unique furniture designed by Ed Stiles.[5] Gidlow was fond of organic agriculture and grew vegetables for the people in the community.[6]

Druid Heights was acquired by the National Park Service in the 1970s[2][3] and is currently under review for a proposed listing on the National Register of Historic Places.[4]
Watts wrote these journals on this mountain:

Check out the photos: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/25/us/MUIR.html

S. S. Vallejo ferryboat in Sausalito

Built in 1879, and out of service after WW2, this old 37m x 9m ferry boat was bought by artist Jean Varda, surrealist Gordon Onslow Ford, and architect Forest Wright in the ’50s. Wright sold his share to Ford, and they turned it into a houseboat, art studio and party place for the likes of Jack Kerouac among others.

Watts bought Ford’s share of the houseboat in 1961. Varda’s parties and salons continued. The most famous party, thrown in 1967, was known as the “Houseboat Summit”, and featured  Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Watts discussing LSD. Many of Watts’ lectures were recorded on this boat: http://www.alanwatts.org/collections.php

kiddo

This aerial photo was taken by Ted Rose [owner of the white octagon houseboat] and Ford Kiddo.

Marian Saltman, who had begun living on Vallejo in 1971, arranged for its purchase in 1981, and began to restore the boat. She said, “I hope she will continue to be the home of remarkable people and ideas, and I wish her to serve the creative and artistic needs of Sausalito and the Bay Area.”[3]

In 2001-2002 Vallejo was restored by Kiwi’s and privately owned by someone who is now collecting its stories! http://www.vallejo.to/

photo by Heide Foley

I believe Watts recorded Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives on board Vallejo.

References:

Brown, Patricia, Oasis for Resisting Status Symbols Just Might Get One, New York Times article published January 25, 2012

Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid_Heights

Stories on Vallejo http://www.vallejo.to

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallejo_%28ferry%29

Also note: if I have not credited the photographer/source it is because I have not been able to locate – please do contact me if any issues re copyright.

Adventure

A Wattsian Message of Happiness for 2015

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

In 1940, as the Second World War began its violence, a 25-year old Alan Watts published a book called The Meaning of Happiness. Its subtitle was the quest for freedom of the spirit in modern psychology and the wisdom of the East.

Meaning of HappinessThis book shares the same essential message of  countless books, articles and lectures that followed: you are not only what is inside your “bag of skin”, you are what is outside of it too. To kick off the new year, let me explain what this means and how it relates to happiness…

Watts ([1940] 1968: ix) points out that generally there are two types of books on happiness:

  1. ‘those which tell us how to become happy by changing our circumstances’
  2. ‘those which tell us how to become happy by changing ourselves’ (emphasis mine).

Yet he points out that his book does neither. Instead, his book points out that ‘it is possible in a certain sense to become happy without doing anything about it’ (ix).

The Meaning of Happiness offers a means of becoming happy without changing anything. He leads readers through a process of acceptance of self—where you are and as you are. If you cannot be happy in this moment, then you will never be happy, because life is a series of moments.

In an age that tells us happiness will come if we try harder, if we do more, if we get better grades, if we buy that dress, car, or house, score that chick or marry that man, get that job, have that much money, then and only then we will be happy. In such a culture, is it really possible to accept our selves and be happy now?

Watts says yes we can. None of these external things will actually bring us happiness.

Watts points out that happiness of the deepest kind is found through ‘a conscious harmony with life and nature both in external circumstances and in oneself’ (xvii).

This is not so say we should become lazy and do nothing. Watts points out that even thought ‘happiness is associated with relaxation,’ it is possible to be happy whilst being challenged or ‘in the midst of strenuous effort’ (xxi). Paradoxically, Watts goes on to point out that happiness, like relaxation, is not something we can try to achieve. Neither are obtained by effort.

The more you try to relax, the more stressed you are likely to feel. Instead we have to let go of the effort, stop trying!

Stop. Look.

Look at yourself—what lies inside your skin and what lies outside it—and observe your intimate connections, the relationships, the processes.

See that You are always in process with everything else. Let go. Relax into the harmony of the process.

Watts goes on to say that the greatest freedom does not come from an ego’s ‘conceit of personal freedom and self-sufficiency’ (xviii). When ‘that conceit is abandoned an altogether new and more powerful freedom is known—the freedom of union or harmony between human and life’ (xviii). [1]

When you realise you are one with everything else, many of the fears that haunt our narrowly defined self disappear.

If you are everyone else, then rather than envy others’ achievements you can rejoice in them. If you are everything else, then rather than fear death you can feel comfort in knowing that you will live forever in all your other forms.

Watts says that in the face of violence, a Hindu philosopher might say “Sarvam kalvidam Brahman”—“This, too, is Brahman” (2). [2]

Life and death, young and old, joy and sorrow, are like two sides of one mountain. Being cannot exist without non-being.

The meaning is found in the whole process, all of which is You.

These words and beautiful animation might help bring this message of happiness to life:

Alan Watts would turn 100-years old on 6 January 2015, so stay tuned for more enlightening Wattsian philosophy 🙂

Notes:

[1] I changed ‘man’ to ‘human’, to meet new language norms.

[2] Brahman refers to ‘that divine Being of whose Self each single thing is a changing aspect’ (Watts 1968: 2).

References:

Alan Watts [1940] 1968. The Meaning of Happiness London: Village Press. Original edition, Harper & Row, New York.

Academic, Peace,

2014 in review

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

SIMG_3450eptember 2014 marked the five year anniversary of this blog and I didn’t even notice. My adventures with ideas haven’t stopped, but unfortunately I’ve been out of the habit of sharing them online.

I went to Istanbul in August to present a paper at the International Peace Research Association (IPRA)’s 50th anniversary conference. My talk was on the Global Ecological Crisis: A “New Story” to Address Structural Violence.

graduationThis was a slice of my MPhil research, which I graduated from in November. You can download this 58,000 word thesis here: sydney.academia.edu/JulietBennett/.

As a result, I finally received a PhD scholarship!!! It was the fifth time I’d applied, each time with a few more points (from publications and presentations), so I was over the moon… This means I can continue my research at an intersection between process philosophy, ecology and peace.

Alongside my research, I’m also continuing to facilitate the awarding of the annual international Sydney Peace Prize. This year was most enjoyable with Julian Burnside AO QC, an Australian barrister and human rights advocate, presented an inspiring speech about why we should care for vulnerable people seeking refuge in Australia. You can watch his City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture online from anywhere in the world: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2014/11/21/4133386.htm

This year I have done trips to Melbourne, Brisbane, Fraser Island and Tasmania. I’ve spent quality time with my partner’s folks, out from England, and have been mulling over and over buying a slice of land in Wisemans Ferry.

jonny bdayIt was a big year for birthdays with members of family and best friends turning the big 18, 30, 40 and 60.

A couple of months ago I was reintroduced to Ryoho Yoga, an incredible way of resetting brain and body and conquering your perceived limitations. I’m excited to continue with this and will tell you more about it when I do.

Next year will be even bigger. For over a year I’ve been anticipating a conference in Claremont California called Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization. It will take place between June 4-7, 2015, and with almost all of the people whose books I’ve been reading in 2014 I’m super excited that the time is so near.

Adventures will abound, and I’ll do my best to share more of them then this year here.

My customary end of year posts summary for 2014:

Thoughts on a morning walk

On my walk this morning: –       I realised that truth, reality, and illusion, are completely relative and self created –       the truth of a religion is truth for that person, it is made real by the stories that are told, and because each moment is in a way timeless, these truths are eternally real –       yet when truths are examined from different layers, from groups, from societies, from species, from planets, different truths, realities and illusions are illuminated. –       Read more […]

Thoughts, actions, habits, destiny

In yoga last week my teacher drew attention to our thoughts. She said something along the lines of “our thoughts become our actions, our actions become our habits, our habits become our character, and our character determines our destiny.” This related to my current research project that is looking at connections between narratives and peace (which I have been madly trying to finish for the last year, hence the lack of blogging…) Our thoughts are made up of narratives. Because we live in Read more […]

The end of a world, and the start of a new one

After four years of reading, writing and scratching my head, and a last min cram, I have submitted a 60,000 word thesis on “Narrative and Peace: a ‘New Story’ to address structural violence”. During those years I have also presented papers in India, Krakow and Sydney, travelled around Europe and had a horrible scooter accident, taught two undergraduate courses at a university in North Carolina and visited Chicago, New York, and Seattle, spent three weeks with friend in Vancouver, taught yogalaties Read more […]

Other people’s shit is other people’s shit

Language warning: there is a lot of “shit” in this post. People are constantly dealing with shit. Sometimes people feel like shit, they treat others like shit, they spread shit all over the place. The arrogant kid on the street, the snickering old lady in a shop, the road rage, people with bad attitudes, negative energies, people who think that dreams are not possible. 99.999999% of the time, other people’s shit is all about that person, and nothing to do with the people that surround them. It Read more […]

The pain of remaining tight – uniting and relaxing through yoga and meditation

“The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” —Anais Nin Throughout my yoga class on Wednesday my teacher repeated the quote: “The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”… Yoga is not about stretching and fitness, although these are nice side effects. Yoga is about opening the body, the mind and the spirit—but most of all it is about connection. The Sanskrit word yoga Read more […]

Accidentally on Purpose

Stumbled across this poem by Robert Frost and thought I would share. It’s called “Accidentally on Purpose”: The Universe is but the Thing of things, The things but balls all going round in rings. Some mighty huge, some mighty tiny, All of them radiant and mighty shiny. They mean to tell us all was rolling blind Till accidentally it hit on mind In an albino monkey in the jungle, And even then it had to grope and bungle, Till Darwin came to earth upon a year To show the evolution how Read more […]

Listen to Your Younger Self

I recently watched a show where “Elders” were asked what advice they would give to their 20-year old self. I imagined myself in my mid-to-late seventies being ask that question: what advice might my older self give to my present self? “Listen to your younger self”. By this I do not mean to advise one to listen to that insecure or arrogant version of you, in your teenage years or early twenties, but to listen to the optimism and openness of your earliest years of life, and which sometimes can be Read more […]

Clutter to clarity – using mantras Soham and Humsa

20 Oct ’14 Leave a Comment Written by Juliet Bennett edit
Mantra literally translates to mind (man) vehicle (tra) – intended to transport your mind from the busy clutter to stillness and clarity. It is also translated to mind protector. A “mantra” is essentially a saying – a few words or sentences that you say over and over again in your head. Your mantra might be ‘I am stressed’ ‘I am stressed’. Or it might be ‘I am that’… Soham or its inversion Hamsa. Soham means I am everything that exists, and everything is one. This is the essence of spiritual Read more […]
Random Life Stuff

Clutter to clarity – using mantras Soham and Humsa

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

Mantra literally translates to mind (man) vehicle (tra) – intended to transport your mind from the busy clutter to stillness and clarity. It is also translated to mind protector.

A “mantra” is essentially a saying – a few words or sentences that you say over and over again in your head. Your mantra might be ‘I am stressed’ ‘I am stressed’. Or it might be ‘I am that’… Soham or its inversion Hamsa.

Soham means I am everything that exists, and everything is one. This is the essence of spiritual insight, and science affirms it in that everything can be seen to be connected ecologically and evolutionarily, connected in space and time.

We may feel separate, but with every breath and touch and thought and word, we are connected to our environment, to our society and to our human and biological history. I am that.

The way a mantra works in by repeating it inside your mind.

As a meditation as you breath in think of the sound “sooooooo” and as you breath out you think of the sound “hummmm”.

Or “hummmmm” … “sasaaaa”.

I found it useful to interlace the Sanskrit with English and think:

“I’mmmmmmmmm” on my breath in, and “thaaaaaaaaaaaaat” on my breath out. I’m that.

Do this for five minutes a day and it is said to transform your life. I don’t see why we can’t do it when sitting in traffic, walking or doing other things plotting through life.

It’s a reminder of our connection to something bigger than our selves: the connection of our “self” to our “Self”, or as some may prefer the connection between our “self” and “God”, or between our “self” and the “Universe”.

IMG_4030

This blog entry was inspired by yesterday’s yoga class by Amy at Body Mind Life in Surry Hills. Thanks Amy!

 

Peace

Listen to Your Younger Self

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

I recently watched a show where “Elders” were asked what advice they would give to their 20-year old self. I imagined myself in my mid-to-late seventies being ask that question: what advice might my older self give to my present self? “Listen to your younger self”.

By this I do not mean to advise one to listen to that insecure or arrogant version of you, in your teenage years or early twenties, but to listen to the optimism and openness of your earliest years of life, and which sometimes can be found later on too.

As children it is easy, we do not yet know the world’s ills. As we get older, the state of the world can appear less changeable, less malleable, more violent and depressing…

But dig deep enough, somewhere inside many of us, is a voice of hope, of openness, and of unconditional love. That big-hearted you, who found joy in learning the colour of the sky and playing in the grass, is still you. I would advise my present self to seek that feeling, that openness, that optimism and to hang on to it for all of my life.

Surely there is a way to reconnect with that self? To open our selves up and let go of that which brings us down?

I have been browsing through my reflections, dreams, plans and notes to self, written in my mid-twenties. Almost seven years have past, but the words of advice from my younger self to my present self are ones that I will hold on to. Words inspired by books I was reading at the time and by my travels in my very early twenties.

Words such as:

  • The world is your mirror: if you are angry, you will see anger. if you are fearful, you will see fear, but if you are loving, you will see love.
  • You control nothing but your perceptions. Nothing can hurt you unless you give it power to.
  • Disconnect from the worry about what others’ will think or say. Have own rhythm. No need to stress or worry. Do own thing and let everything else flow from there.
  • Never assume anything.
  • Don’t take the little things in life seriously.
  • Have a strong mind and know that you can achieve any goal. Make goals. Don’t let anything or anyone get in the way of achieving them.
  • Relax, laugh, don’t stress or worry. Be organised – it will make it easier to do these things.
  • Be flexible in mind and heart. Follow the wind.
  • Life really is short. You can be in a car crash tomorrow. Therefore treasure and make the most of every moment of every day.

I am not sure what to do with the rest of these writings, dreams and ideas, but I think a few new blog posts are a good place to start…

IMG_3028

My cute li’l sister and I in our smugly ignorant optimistic past.

Note: You might also be interested in some of the advice that came from the panel of Elders: “If you want to be in touch with your humanity, you have to be outraged about injustice because the alternative is indifference” from Stuart Rees; to “don’t be put off by put-downs” from Betty Churcher; “follow your star. Don’t do what your mum and dad say, don’t do what the market says, don’t do what society says but follow your star” from Peter Coleman and from Jane Goodall, a piece of advice that her mother gave her at ten: “If you really want something, you are going to have to work hard and take advantage of opportunity and never give up.”

The challenge is to put these encouraging pieces of advice into practice in the present…

Random Life Stuff

Accidentally on Purpose

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

Stumbled across this poem by Robert Frost and thought I would share. It’s called “Accidentally on Purpose”:

The Universe is but the Thing of things,
The things but balls all going round in rings.
Some mighty huge, some mighty tiny,
All of them radiant and mighty shiny.

They mean to tell us all was rolling blind
Till accidentally it hit on mind
In an albino monkey in the jungle,
And even then it had to grope and bungle,

Till Darwin came to earth upon a year
To show the evolution how to steer.
They mean to tell us, though, the Omnibus
Had no real purpose until it got to us.

Never believe it. At the very worst
It must have had the purpose from the first
To produce purpose as the fitter bred:
We were just purpose coming to a head.

Whose purpose was it, His or Hers or Its?
Let’s leave that to the scientific wits.
Grant me intention, purpose and design –
That’s near enough for me to the devine.

And yet with all this help of head and brain,
How happily instinctive we remain.
Our best guide upward farther to the light:
Passionate preference such as love at sight.

 

Robert Frost, In the Clearing, 1962

 

Beauty

The pain of remaining tight

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

“The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” —Anais Nin

Throughout my yoga class on Wednesday my teacher repeated the quote: “The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”…

Yoga is not about stretching and fitness, although these are nice side effects. Yoga is about opening the body, the mind and the spirit—but most of all it is about connection.

The Sanskrit word yoga literally means “to join” or “to unite”. Yoga cultivates mental peace and physical health, but its most essential aim is to bring about a ‘union with the Divine Reality of our being’ (Aurobindo 1996: 280).

Yoga is the process of ‘union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man [sic] and in the Cosmos’ (6).[1]

In my experience, yoga offers a source of inner peace—well-being and mental clarity. Yoga also offers a source of hope for bringing about a more socially just and ecologically sustainable global society—as it works to align one’s own interests with the long-term interests of the Earth community.

Yoga and its principles teach of simple being and living simply, centring the self and reflecting on one’s place in space and time. The opening up of the body, the opening up of the spirit, the opening up of the mind, encourages a letting go of fear and an understanding that you are inseparable from your environment. We are a part of nature, not masters of it.

Sri Aurobindo writes of yoga’s synthesis between ‘on one side the Infinite, the Formless, the One, the Peace’ and ‘on the other it sees the finite, the world of forms, the jarring multiplicity, the strife…’ (414).[2]

This synthesis is you. Or as Alan Watts puts it “you are IT”.

When our mind, our body or our energy, is closed off—held tight like the bud of a flower—we cannot experience the beauty and creative expression that is every one of us.When we close our eyes we cannot see the beauty and creativity that surrounds us.

Abhaya Mudra

Let me illustrate yoga’s synthesis by describing the symbolism of a simple meditative pose. In this pose a person sits, lies or knees with their palms open, forefinger and thumb joined, and chanting “AOM”. The abhaya mudra (hand position) joining the forefinger and thumb symbolizes the connection between one’s transient self and one’s transcendent Self, the connecting of a part with its whole.[3]

The forefinger represents the ego or the temporal sense of the self as separate, and the thumb represents “God” (or “Brahman”, the one non-dual absolute reality or “Ātman”, the “true self” that is ultimately identical with the Brahman). This symbol allows one’s self to feel connected to one’s transcendent Self or “God”. The other three fingers that are stretched out represent the letting go of greed, ignorance and fear.

220px-Om.svg

The chant and symbol “OM”, which is sung “Ah Oh Mm”, is considered to simulate the sound or vibration of our universe as it expands. One’s mouth moves from closed to open to sing “Ah”, representing the beginning of the universe. The tunnel shape of the mouth used to sing “Oh” simulates the expansion of the universe through time, and the closing of the mouth to sing “Mm” symbolises the end of our universe.

These rituals capture the central ideas of what might be thought of as process metaphysics, panentheism, integral thought, creativism , holistic worldview, or a “New Story” (even though it happens to be very very old): the joining of a part (you) with its whole (the Universe, or “God”).

“The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”.

[1] Yoga is also found in non-human forms—in the ‘vast Yoga of Nature’ (Aurobindo 1996: 6).

[2] Aurobindi also includes with the latter the suffering and futility, which is reconciled in the bliss and calm of the One.

[3] I learned this from a yogi in Coonoor, India. (See also Hirschi 2000: 140).

 

 

Peace

Other people’s shit is other people’s shit

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

Language warning: there is a lot of “shit” in this post.

People are constantly dealing with shit. Sometimes people feel like shit, they treat others like shit, they spread shit all over the place.

The arrogant kid on the street, the snickering old lady in a shop, the road rage, people with bad attitudes, negative energies, people who think that dreams are not possible.

99.999999% of the time, other people’s shit is all about that person, and nothing to do with the people that surround them.

It is easy to absorb other people’s shit, and to start to feel shit our selves because of it.

It is easy to let others bad moods bring out down, but it is not helpful in any way.

When I catch myself thinking “what’s their problem?” I try to remind myself that their problem is just that: it’s their problem. Not mine.

Other people’s shit their shit, and it’s up to them to clean it up.

The best thing one can do is take care of one’s own shit, to see the funny side of people’s shit, to hold onto positive energy and humour, and let your good mood trump their bad one.

 

 

Random Life Stuff