Allen Watts Youtube videos

[Mobilesport]

Anybody else ever watch this guys videos , I watch them and he talks about some pretty deep stuff but some parts of it hes talking over my head and then I end up falling asleep .
Hes got alot of videos and I have yet been able to watch one to the end without falling asleep. 
At the end of every video I think I don't have a clue of what the hell he was talking about? LOL
I wanted to see if anyone else could decipher this video

 

[KASibson]

I have a degree in Philosophy (would like fries with that?). I'm familiar with Alan Watts I've listened to a few of his lectures on my phone.
This sort of thing is my idea of fun.
Is it the content you find confusing or were you having trouble with the accent?

 

[KASibson]

Double post and I couldn't figure out how to delete it.
Sorry!

 

[KASibson]

Over simplifying it a bunch, but if you are familiar with yin/yang it's that sort of idea that you can't have light without darkness, That it's a matter of degrees and how you look at things.
At the very end, he's talking about music and how your preconceived ideas of what music "IS" will color your interpretation of what is being presented to you as music, like discordant notes or the sounds of the city around you (rather than the piano that's sitting on the stage and not being played.)

I think that particular recording ended before the lecture did.

 

[Mobilesport]

I think it's that he keeps going on and on and I don't have much patients I guess.

 

[KASibson]

I think it's that he keeps going on and on and I don't have much patients I guess.

That he does.
He doesn't stay on topic either.
One of my college professors used to call it "hunting rabbits", when he'd go way off on some tangent before eventually coming back to the original topic.
It's definitely not intro level stuff lol.

 

[RVTravel]

flight of ideas..lol

 

[BradKW]

My first exposure to Alan Watts was watching a themed YouTube video, with him talking and the video creator adding images and music...and his narration probably wasn't linear from his recorded speeches.

I felt very interested in finding out more about him, and reached the same conclusion you did...I can't pay attention through his actual lectures/speeches.

But I still find the YouTube shorts to be worth watching, I can sit through them...  Why Your Life Is Not A Journey

 

[WriterMs]

Oh my gosh! I had not thought of Watts in years.. decades. BUT I'm quite sure that back in the late 70s, he was the first author I read on Zen.

Mobilesport -- you must be intrigued truly on some level to try more than one of his videos. I did not look at the whole range of what he has up on YouTube, but I did find one short piece only 5 minutes long that sums up in a very general way what he wants to communicate to you:



And when you hear him speak about a person's life is meant to be play... that we too often miss our playtime by following the goals society tells up we must meet... well, you might think he was Bob Well's guru! LOL

Seriously, it is much the same was what Bob preaches about using the nomadic life to step off of the hamster wheel.

Also, Watts has written books for decades. You might find it easier to stay awake reading rather than listening.

 

[Mobilesport]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...x28jtvfnGP_UlkifA&sig2=e_DRBqrvgTt8mVgdaG3Hpg

Heres a deep one , he talks about what's after death , 
First of all I know for a fact that there cannot be simply nothing after death , we will be born again , as what I don't know for sure , but life could be all about experiences, you live your life and then you die and your reborn as a new baby ,  think about how many baby's will be born. They keep being born forever and so theres that many experiences. 
 every baby in the world is me , every baby in the world is you , Its like every human experience In the world wether good or bad we will experience it.
Its like when they say do on to others as you would want be done to you , if you do something bad to somebody its not like your doing it just to them but also your self , because someday you actually be experiencing that experience , that may explain deja vu .

 

[MrNoodly]

...we will be born again , as what I don't know for sure...

I think it's just that our matter and energy get recycled by natural processes. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, molecules to molecules. The "self" is just a creation of the brain. When the brain shuts down there is no "self." The "self" won't be around to be upset that it no longer exists.

 

[Svenn]

Not to be that guy, but it's 'Alan' not Allen

A truly remarkable person and one of the most original thinkers I've ever come upon; been listening to his lectures for years over and over, and I still learn something new. Perfect for vandwellers as he cuts effortlessly through the BS of every social pressure that might keep you off the road.

One of my favorite concepts from him, when life gets dark, is to ask yourself the questions: 'does it matter?' and, if it does, 'is it serious?' His lectures on the notion that life is not serious, but rather a game, might sound trivial on the surface but is actually one of the most powerful antidotes to every depressive or anxious tendency a person might have.

While he might not have had an understanding as thorough as the great D.T. Suzuki, I still consider him as one of the last true philosophers before the coming of the modern self-help yahoos.

 

[Canine]

Sounds like a nut to me,but I've been wrong before.I'll check out a couple of his videos.