Alan Watts "being in the way" Series

In the premiere episode of Being in the Way – an Alan Watts podcast – Mark Watts and Raghu introduce a dharma talk on Taoism, the interdependence of nature, and dropping out of karma.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Discussion with Mark Watts & Raghu Markus (0:00)
Eastern Philosophy: Taoism & Confucianism (10:40)
Mutual Arising: Polarity, Nature, & Interdependence  (24:32)
Dropping Out From Karma: The Way Through Now (33:16)

"The world is a system of interrelated components, none of which can survive without each other. Just as in the case of bees and flowers, you will never find bees around in place where there aren't flowers, and you will never find flowers around in a place where there aren't bees. What that tells us secretly, is that although bees and flowers look different from each other, they're inseparable. To use an important Taoist expression: they arise mutually." – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 1 – Following the Taoist Way: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-1-following-the-taoist-way/

Alan Watts: Following the Taoist Way – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 1 – Hosted by Mark Watts

Uncovering how we arise mutually with all things, Alan Watts examines our place in the universe and how very natural it is to be human.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Patterns of Energy: Being in the Way Pt. II (0:00)
It Takes Two: You Arise Mutually with the Universe (16:30)
Our Place In The Universe: Each One Contains Everything (28:35)

“The world that you see outside you is a state of your own nervous system. In other words, it is because you have senses and a nervous organization of a certain particular structure, that the sky is blue, the sun is light, and vibrations in the air are sound. You turn them into color, light, sound, etc.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 4 – Our Place In The Universe: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-4-our-place-in-the-universe/

Alan Watts: Our Place In The Universe – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 4 – Hosted by Mark Watts

Can you get mysticism in a bottle? Alan Watts explores the drug question, in this psychedelically infused episode of Being in the Way.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Mysticism in a Bottle // The Smell of Burnt Almonds (0:00)
Psychedelics, Mystical Experiences, & Western Culture (28:18)
Psychedelics as Instruments // Set & Setting (45:35)
Morality & Legislation // Policing, Preaching, & Hypocrisy (49:25)

“Lo and behold, I had what I simply could not deny being an experience of cosmic consciousness, the sense of complete fundamental total unity forever-and-ever with the whole universe. And not only that, but that what this thing was fundamentally—despite every thing and every kind of appearance in ordinary life to the contrary—that the energy behind the world was ecstatic bliss and love.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 7 – Drugs: Turning the Head or Turning On: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-7-drugs-turning-the-head-or-turning-on/

Alan Watts: Drugs: Turning the Head or Turning On – Being in the Way Ep. 7 – Hosted by Mark Watts

In this intimate session, Alan Watts shares distinctive philosophical vantage points outlining humankind’s relationship to nature.
Welcoming listeners into a seminar session from SMU in 1965, Mark introduces the pivotal Alan Watts lecture, ‘Man and Nature,’ which he describes as one of his father’s most engaging talks, positively focused on ecology and our relationship with the natural world and ecosphere.

Alan Watts' Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 8: Man and Nature

Ram Dass joins Alan for a look at the tools that the Bhagavad Gita offers us to face life's most difficult challenges.

This episode of Here and Now is a primer for the upcoming course, Finding Harmony in Today’s World: Ram Dass on the Mystical Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. This is a 6-week course reimagined from Ram Dass’ 1974 Naropa University Course. 

Sign up today: https://www.ramdass.org/gitacourse/

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 11 – Essential Teachings from the Gita w/ Ram Dass

This time on the Being in the Way podcast, Alan Watts explores the concepts of identity and consciousness, looking at the role we play in the greater ‘Cosmic Drama’.
Before the talk from Alan, we invite you to listen to an insightful conversation between Mark Watts and his guest, Cory Allen, about getting in touch with the core ideas of Alan Watts’ teachings.

Cory Allen is an author, mindfulness teacher, and music producer. He uses his podcast The Astral Hustle to ask leading experts in mindfulness, neuroscience, music, and philosophy to share their wisdom. Check out his book titled Now Is the Way and his online meditation course called Release into Now.

Alan Watts on Our Role in the Cosmic Drama - Being in the Way Ep. 12 with Mark Watts & Cory Allen

In this recording from 1972, Alan Watts lectures on mystical vision via art, aesthetics, and Buddhist and Daoist philosophy.

Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan

“You and I have all conspired with ourselves to pretend that we are not really God, but of course we are. That is perfectly obvious. We are all apertures through which the universe is looking at itself. Only it is so arranged that we don’t know that in exactly the same way as we don't look at our own eyes.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts: Aesthetics and Mystical Vision – Being in the Way Ep. 14

In the second episode of Being in the Way – an Alan Watts podcast exclusively on the Be Here Now Network – Alan’s son, Mark Watts, shares background on Alan’s early life, before introducing two of his father’s specially curated dharma talks: Taoist Way of Dropping Out From Karma (Part III), and Wisdom of the Ridiculous.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Beginners Mind, Zen Mind (0:00)
Taoist Way of Dropping Out From Karma (7:40)
Wisdom of the Ridiculous (34:45)

“The whole conception of nature is as a self-regulating, self-governing, democratic organism. But it has a totality; it all goes together. This totality is the Tao.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 2 – Dropping Out From Karma: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-2-dropping-out-from-karma/

Alan Watts: Dropping Out From Karma – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 2 – Hosted by Mark Watts

Alan Watts illuminates the connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and seperation, Saints and rascals, you and not-you, as well as difference and unity.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Taoism & Relativity, Technology & Human Evolution (0:00)
Seperation & Culture, Saints & Rascals (15:25)
You & Not-You, Difference & Unity (28:10)

“The principle of relativity is absolutely fundamental to an understanding of Taoist philosophy. That is to say, that wherever you are, whoever you are, and whatever you are: you’re in the middle.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 3 – In Your Own Way: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-3-in-your-own-way/

Alan Watts: In Your Own Way – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 3 – Hosted by Mark Watts

Alan Watts illuminates the nuances of Zen and the Unspeakable World in this dynamic ‘Zen Bones’ talk adorned with Buddhist chanting, chimes, and gongs.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Zen Bones (0:00)
10,000 Things, One Suchness (10:08)
The Unspeakable World (22:22)

“Zen is a way of life, a state of being that is not possible to embrace in any concept whatsoever. So that any concepts, any ideas, any words that I shall put across to you this evening will have as their object showing you the limitations of words and of thinking.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 5 – Zen Bones: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-5-zen-bones/

Alan Watts: Zen Bones – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 5 – Hosted by Mark Watts

In ‘On Being God,’ Alan shares on therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus, before playing the hilarious and light-shedding role of a clinical patient who realizes they’re God.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Mystical Experiences // Humanity & Nature // Psychiatry & Religion (0:00)
Jesus & The Great Heresy // Democracy in the Kingdom of Heaven // Karma & Responsibility (23:23)
On Being God: Alan Watts Clinical Experience (38:38)

“To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely with this universe, you feel profoundly rooted in it and connected with it, you feel that the whole energy which expresses itself in the galaxies, is intimate. It is not something to which you are a stranger, but it is that with which you are intimately bound up, that in your seeing, your hearing, your talking, your thinking, your moving, you express that which it is that moves the sun and other stars.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 6 – On Being God: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-6-on-being-god/

Alan Watts: On Being God – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 6 – Hosted by Mark Watts

This time on the Being in the Way Podcast, Alan Watts delves into questions of identity, purpose and buying into the ‘Myth of Myself’.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan

In this episode, Alan Watts explores:

The question of our own identity and our place in the world
Myths of the self handed down through history
Viewing ourselves and the world with a “floodlight consciousness” – rather than the narrow “spotlight consciousness” we are taught to see the world through
How we are not born into this world, but grow out of it – “In the same way an apple tree apples, the Earth peoples.”
“The most fascinating problem in the world is who am I? What do you feel when you say the word I? I myself?

This problem has fascinated me for many years. Most Western people locate their ego inside their heads. This is the ordinary average conception of what is oneself.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts: Myth of Myself - Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 24

In a lecture on symbolic reality versus real reality, Alan Watts explains the importance of total sensory awareness and looking at our motivations.

You can subscribe to the Being in the Way Podcast with Alan Watts on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app! Proudly presented by the Be Here Now Network, home of official podcasts from thought leaders like Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and more!

"Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality" is part of Flow, a three-part session in the TAO for NOW series of talks that you can listen to in full over at the Alan Watts Streaming Channel: https://play.alanwatts.org/

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts discusses:

Being aware of all sensory inputs while meditating
Allowing oneself ‘to be’ in a non-conceptual way
Confusing the world of symbols for reality
The limits to what we can enjoy in a material sense
The uselessness of guilt
Money, tithes, and western religion versus gurus
Why our motivation and intention matters
Experiencing life naked and directly
The Taoist approach to letting go of your body-mind
Using all five of our senses to witness our surroundings
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“The point is to be wide, wide awake and aware of your total sensory input without confusing it with the symbolic world of words and concepts so that you experience life naked and directly. Experience YOU naked and directly, without having in your head the concept of who you are a a role player, as a personality, as an ego.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts on Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 30

Breaking free from cause-and-effect and the formal ideas of Confucianism, Alan Watts describes mutual arising as the key idea of the Tao.

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts describes:
Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism
Our roles in social life and Confucianism as the way for people involved in the world
Taoism as the way for those who do not prescribe to formal patterns
How the Taoist goes with nature rather than against nature
Ideologies of God as a ruler or a lord versus the Taoist perspective
Experiences in terms of their polar experience (loud vs. soft)
Mutual arising as they key idea of the Tao
Man as being within nature rather than dominating it
How Taoism gets rid of karma without challenging it
The Chinese philosophy of time
Sensing the flow of the present and flow of the Tao
“Confucianism prescribes all kinds of formal relationships; linguistic, ceremonial, musical, in etiquette, in all the spheres of morals, and for this reason has always been twitted by the Taoists for being unnatural. You need these two components, you see, and they play against each other beautifully in Chinese society. Roughly speaking, the Confucian way of life is for people involved in the world. The Taoist way of life is for people who get disentangled.” – Alan Watts

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 34 –Confucianism vs. Taoism

In this new, technological age, Alan Watts explains how seeing reality via only one perspective can lead to a fragmented view of the world; instead, he encourages listeners to adopt both the analytical and the organic. 

Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Alan Watts dives into:
- Living in an age of technology in a culture obsessed with rational control 
- How someone can easily be obstructed by their own cautiousness
- The problem of human ecology and how one should best relate to their environment
- Considering what our idea of heaven is and what desires we truly want 
- The western model of the universe (intellectual, architectural, mechanical) 
- Reductive thinking: seeing  the world through a net and making everything into a comprehensible, geometrical unit
- Alan’s personal definitions of prickly people versus gooey people 
- The science of medicine and how it can make one see things very narrowly 
- The fundamental difference between a mechanism and an organism 
- How understanding the world through only conscious attention can lead to seeing everything as parts rather than the whole picture
- Combining the academic, analytical mind with the organic, ‘gooey’ mind 

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“Go to the science of medicine. You get a specialist who really understands the function of the gall bladder. He studied gall bladders ad infinitum and he really thinks he knows all about it. But, whenever he looks at a human being, he sees them in terms of gall bladder.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts "being in the way" Series

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