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There are a few that ring a bell.
He also has one somewhere about cave/pearl divers having to swim deeper into an underwater cave hoping their is an air pocket. Then there's one about rip tides pulling you out and eventually pushing you back to shore.
I need to re-listen to the "out of your mind" series for the 50th time.
I started with The Book and I think it is as good as any place to start: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Taboo-Against-Knowing-Who/dp/0679723005
Then I would suggest The Watercourse Way and The Way of Zen.
There are also many great things on YouTube.
Enjoy! And remember not to take it all too seriously!
That would be Alan's "I told you so" book:
The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects
by Alexandra David-Neel (Author), Lama Yongden (Author)
The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Hardcore Zen - Brad Warner
The Accidental Buddhist - Dinty Moore
Dharma Punx - Noah Levine
Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing - Jed McKenna
In Watermelon Sugar - Richard Brautigan
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind - Shunryu Suzuki
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book - Daniel Ingram
Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines - Nic Sheff
100 Selected Poems - E E Cummings
I read this book, A Mantra Way To Better Living, and I found this guy's process interesting. He basically says you write down your own positive statements then revise them over time. While I definitely see how this could be used as a crutch, I must admit that do still jot down inspirational reminders, and some cards that I made a few years ago are really interesting to see again.
If you’re trying to ease them in to Alan Watts, which I presume you are, I think you would be wise to take a look at this book: https://www.amazon.com/Abandonment-Divine-Providence-Jean-Pierre-Caussade/dp/1420926586
Watts mentions it in his autobiography “In my own way” and though it is not written by Watts itself of course, it sort of bridges the idea of the eternal present and Christianity in a very appealing way.
Maybe it would be a good place to start. I guess throwing a Christian into the deep end of the pool of Watts might make them drown, metaphorically speaking.
The name of the the book is actually "The Book" - https://www.amazon.com/Book-Taboo-Against-Knowing-Who/dp/0679723005.
I definitely understand the feeling of knowing the right place to stand. The truth is, there is no right or wrong place to stand. Just standing. It gets really messy when we are trying to work things out when we also try to figure out the right and wrongs of it all. There may be right or wrong ways to act out how we feel, but there are no wrong feelings per se. The spinning compass could indicate there is nowhere to go, you're exactly where you need to be at this time. Maybe it isn't pleasant, but it's also not forever.
Also honorable mention:
Steven Levine Gradual Awakening &
Neale Donald Walsh Conversations With God
Watts has a few guided meditations available but if you get the impression that practicing daily means having a special outfit with a special place to sit for special time than the message is lost in the affectations of gurus.
Practice for 10 minutes everyday. Guided meditations are very helpful for this.
headspace and waking up are two of many great guided meditation apps.
Glad you liked it ! You mean underwater bubble sound ? The sound was recorded with the footage though. https://www.pexels.com/video/turtle-underwater-1456996/
Also type underwater bubble sound on YouTube. You will find quite many. :)
Dostoyevsky's realest moment was in a dream where he killed himself, and was revitalized as he awoke back into his formerly miserable life.
Not sure about Watts, but check out "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis. That one helped me after losing my dad.
https://www.amazon.com/Grief-Observed-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652381
> Commonalities between dreams and everyday life provide clues as to how our consciousness operates.
Possibly.
> During dreams we experience an awesome occurrence: the ability of the mind to turn pure information into a dynamic multidimensional reality.
Possibly.
> During dreams and waking hours we actually create space and time, not just operate within it like a character in a video game.
Verifiably incorrect.
When Alan Watts said this, it was an example of how you are already living the life you want to live if given the chance to, always ask for an interesting surprise.
I'm all for advancing humanity in fulfilment and creatively lived experience, but this is snake oil.
The reference for this article is a book: https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Biocentric-Design-Creates-Reality/dp/1950665402/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
And one scientific study: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/05/048
The word dream does not come up once in this study. When you read the word observation, they mean by a sensor, not just a human looking at a table.
Quantum mechanics is not an unending source for which we can "prove" any passing idea you have, by your vague understanding of it.
It’s not really about disillusioning your faith, but rather cutting through to the heart of what it is... Campbell is far easier to digest than Jung.
What’s to cope with? Life is horrific and beautiful. It just is what it is. Let me ask you: at what point in our development did we cease being ‘instinctual’ creatures and become agents of evil and good? The fight between good and evil is in part a conceit of humans as ‘better’ than animals and in part a way that our delusion of separation can exist with the truth of unity.
This is a zero stakes game. The paradoxical nature of it all is that the moment you let go you can have it all. Alan Watts, for all his faults, served humanity by sharing his teachings.
I would highly recommend watching The Power of Myth as an intro to Campbell. If you’re already steeped in mythology, which is what Christianity is, it’s a good step. Also this book, which is specifically about Christianity by Campbell:
https://www.amazon.com/Thou-Art-That-Transforming-Religious/dp/1608681874
Religion is all the same shit in different clothing. I know you asked for Watts, but check out Thou Art That by Joseph Campbell if you want something along the lines of what you’re talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Thou-Art-That-Transforming-Religious/dp/1608681874
Yep. Here's a link to an online version of the autobiography: https://archive.org/details/inmyownway00alan
I read it for the first time a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, especially the parts about his youth. It gets a bit boring in the middle and the end, when he begins just namedropping all the people he met and what barely interesting things they did. At times he gets into long paragraphs of just this: "I met ABC, who was a DEF, who was the relative to GHI, who I had met at JKL, after doing MNO, where I met PRQ with whom I did RST" etc.
But overall I loved the book and it's full of his sly humor - well recommended.
There's also a biography called "Genuine Fake" by Monica Furlong, that is more critical of Alan's life, taking the point of view of the effect of his actions on his friends and immediate family. It's a lot drier and boring than the autobiography though, as it tries to be objective and scholarly. I don't have a link for it, but I'm sure it's online somewhere.
I'm a little late to the discussion but am really enjoying this thread. I've been listening to the Out of your Mind series off and on for several years and have read a couple of his books. It's challenged me in the best way, and provided answers I've always hoped were out there.
An example I'd give of giving up control in order to gain it would be in regards to creativity. For instance, music walks a fine line between forcing melodies on the listener, and having the melodies unfold rather naturally. In my experience creating music, it is much more enjoyable to be surprised by your own creation than to force a repetitive feeling into a mold. Jazz improvisation can be sublime at this, as it constantly breaks its own mold.
Another example of creativity is from Stephen Kings memoir, On Writing. He describes the process as digging out a story, and says that all the authors he knows don't "create" stories, they find them deep inside, pull them out to their own surprise, then polish. So once again, I think the point is realizing how much is out of your control that you can't do anything about, being okay with that, and then flipping the coin, realizing there's so much depth to "you" that is automatic... your heartbeat, bodily processes of growing hair/teeth... that simply giving up conscious control can result in extraordinary new things you'd only dream of
Yeah I'm honestly Finding Jung kind of boring and at times super connecting with me.. but overall kind of just tedious and too abstract.
I wish he put it more plainly.. because putting it in a more artistic way, in how he does it, is kind of boring and rigid imo haha.
This book:
http://www.amazon.com/C-G-Jung-Psychological-Reflections-Anthology/dp/0691017867
I would love to know more about Jung in more digestible chunks.
You recommend I read that?