ALAN WATTS

“When we intend to have life without death, pleasure without pain… when we try to win with our cards, anxiety comes to us. When we realize that the polarity of opposites is what we call the true nature of life, rather than feeling anxious, it appears liberation. Incongruity exists, ambivalence is at the deepest root of the world.”

ALAN WATTS

 

I remember, a few years ago, I had this phase of feeling like reading keenly. It arouse in me when I was about fourteen through I reached twenty-eight approximately (now I still enjoy the pleasure of reading, but in a more restrained and selective way). I read every essay (yes, everything ) of that different labels published on philosophy and psychology, and among them I must confess my preference for Editorial Kairós, which, fortunately, continues to offer works of some magnitude.

Out from its authors, I especially enjoyed the works of Alan Watts. This unclassifiable man surprised me for his provocative lucidity, his profound and simple wisdom, his finesse, irony and humour. With Alan Watts everyone can laugh, wonder, we cannot come out of the book just like we entered it.

Of all his books (including his biography), and I still keep and remember with great affection “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, an essay that expresses wonderful truths about this thing we call life. I read and reread, underlined it over, I gave it as a present to several people that I thought would appreciate it. It is a reference book.

This weekend, perusing transcribed texts of his works and enjoying them again, I decided to surf on the Internet to see if I could listen and see this man who made me enjoy his reading so much. And among others, I found this video I want to share with you. It is ten minutes long, but well worth listening to (or reading the simultaneous subtitles, although not very accurate, I can be grateful, very much, for the ones who made the effort to edit it).

I hope you like it and find it inspiring. These ten minutes of contemplative monologue, give us beautiful reflections on how everything is connected, all together, and in being so they open mind and heart.

But before leaving, two pearl-quotes by the Master:

“All men suffer, right now as in the old times, but not everyone is unhappy because unhappiness is a reaction to the suffering, not the suffering itself.”

“The plans for tomorrow may be meaningless unless we are fully connected to the present. Since we live in the present, and only in the present, there is no other reality than present reality.”

Now: kisses and hugs, present and united.

And thanks, Mr. Watts.

 

Álex

Alex Rovira