Any Alan Watts fans out there?

[Wattsage]

This is an awesome video with audio from the late Alan Watts. He explores ideas about consciousness in a profound manner, at least in my opinion. What do you think? Awesome? Stupid? Don't care?

[Stavros]

As your link indicates, Watts was a wonderfully lucid communicator, someone who cut through what he would call religious bullshit were he not so polite; and who made a strong link between his versions of Buddhism and the liberation of the self, which is why he became something of a cult figure to the cultural alternative movements in the 1960s. This never helped me or anyone else get a job, but then it was, and remains intended to give people a different perspective on who they are/we are and why we are here, which ultimately as a form of therapy does not depend on God or the rules and strictures of religion which Buddhism in some of its variants also has, but in recognising ourselves as who we are rather than as who we want to be. Transexuals have often been drawn to this kind of thinking because it enables them to liberate themselves from the idea that they are ill or have some sort of disorder, whereas in fact they are 'merely' discovering the truth of their transhistorical karma.
The weakness in the concept of karma -to me- is that if you truly believe that you are fated to live this life in this way, then other than negotiating your way through the day-to-day obstacles of life, there is nothing you can do about your condition.

On a more obscure level, a philosopher once tried to persuade me that Suzuki, the zen master Watts once studied with, was writing about the same issues of consciousness as Hegel, that European phenomenology and Asian theories of the self were not so far apart...I suppose the question is, if you do 'liberate' yourself from illusions, reconcile yourself to your place in cosmic time, other than being at peace with yourself, what else is there? There is an English theorist of the self who takes extreme positions and is on YouTube but I can't recall his name right now. Anyway makes a change for someone like Alan Watts to appear on HA.

[Prospero]

I think that one of the contradictory things about the striving to escape the wheel of rebirth at the heart of Buddhism is the conflict/contradiction between the deep seated idea of being free of striving and the idea of striving to be free. I agree. Good to see Watts (and in Stavros' post Hegel) crop up here.

[sukumvit boy]

Hey,Wattsage,Nice to hear from you and welcome to the forum!
Just noticed your Alan Watts post. I'm a big watts fan and have been that kind of Zen Buddhist since I was about 17 years old. I've read all of Watts and even seen him a few times since the 1960's.
Also read all of Suzuki and most related others. Right now reading a new translation of Basho's "The Narrow Road to the Deep North"
Welcome aboard HA and enjoy the ride.