Swirling Illusion

According to Watts, our "ego" - how we define ourselves as a distinct mind-consciousness locked up in a bag of skin - is an illusion. The human ego is like the a firey circle appears when one swirls a lit cigarette in the dark. We know that the circle is an impression left on the memory of the eye. We can also know that the ego - which consists of past memories, future predictions, likes and dislikes, etc... - is also an illusion. Connecting with this reality is essential in discovering who you really are.

Who are you? Well, in the same way that a wave is not a wave in its own right, but something that the entire ocean is doing, YOU are not YOU in your own right, but rather something that the entire universe is doing.

Mysterious Spontaneity

"[A]s living organisms grow from within outwards, and do not fashion themselves by standing outside themselves like architects or mechanics, they move according to inner spontaneity rather than objective principle. Inwardness is therefore mysterious and inscrutable but not chaotic and capricious."

From, "Nature, Man and Woman".

A Thought About Eternity

I was laying in bed the other night with my wife, thinking about what I would like to become when I die. I thought to myself, "I would like to live out the rest of eternity as water." And than I realized that my body is already composed mostly of water. So in a sense, I am currently what I want to be in the future. I am already water. I don't know why, exactly... but I found peace in that.

Nature, Man and Woman

I just purchased a used copy of Alan Watts' book "Nature, Man and Woman."In the preface of the book, he compares writing this book to thinking out loud. If you ask me, that is the best way that he could have gone about writing a book like this - seamlessly moving from one thought to another, all the while writing about the seamless interconnection of nature, man and woman.

I'll try and post about what I've learned. Work and school have be pretty busy lately.