Hudson Honeybone, 26
Who Is Alan Watts?
Alan Watts was a 20th century British philosopher who blended Eastern buddhism with western life, highlighting a radically different approach towards our Western world that challenges our most enduring life “truths.” Among his works, The Book on The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is his most popular and digestible work. Watts acknowledges that a complete upending of the Western world is a difficult nugget to swallow whole, so he often employs analogies and metaphors to help his followers visualize. In The Book, Watts not only wants his audience to understand his message but more importantly to “feel the facts.” So then the question follows, what are those facts?
The Ego Illusion
The central pillar of Watts Ism is the rejection of egocentricity, which is the prevailing Western understanding that each human is a separate center of being contained within a “bag of skin.” Egocentricity alludes that we as humans are born into the universe and confront the forces of nature in a grand battle of survival in which we try to conquer the natural world. In truth, humans are simply manifestations and extensions of the universe and are not “born into it” but rather “come out of it.” Humanity is like an ocean. The sea produces waves, each a unique manifestation of the ocean; however, one cannot isolate a single wave from the ocean. You cannot capture a wave and pluck it out of the water, because it is inseparable from the larger ocean. This applies to humans as well: we are manifestations of the universe, but are inseparable from it.
“In the same way the oceans waves, the universe peoples.”
However, one can still distinguish between waves– some are violent, some are gentle, and others are perfect to ride. Likewise, one can still differentiate between humans despite their collective intrinsic connection in the larger universe. Differentiation is not separation– that is the truth that eludes our Western-wired minds and anchors us to egocentricity.
Casting aside egocentricity would end the hate and alienation that ignites our wars and disputes. The notion that each human is a separate ego removes our inherent connection to the rest of the human race. Human consciousness blurs individualism with isolationism, thus creating the instinct that everything apart from the self must be tamed and conquered to serve our interests.. This alien world includes nature, space, mountains, bacteria, and even other humans. In truth, the universe is a great tree, and we humans are the leaves of that tree– extensions of the tree itself. What leaf would ever harm the wellbeing of the tree and attack its fellow leaves and branches? That is how silly human hatred and conflict is.
QFW (Question For Watts): What if one of those leaves is actively hurting the tree, or for a more concrete example, one of your cells has mutated into a cancerous tumor and is attacking the body? Is it then valid to kill that leaf or that cell? If a human is undermining the harmony of the universe, is it then appropriate to attack that aggressor?
The Deception of Black vs. White
Our mind has been conditioned to interpret the world through the lens of “ons” and “offs”-- light vs. dark; objects vs. space; silence vs. noise. However, in categorizing and compartmentalizing the world into ons and offs, we overlook their fundamental unity. See, it was never good vs. evil simply because there is such distinction as good and evil– they are one. This connection even transcends what we call time. For instance, in normal schools of thought, cause chronologically precedes its corresponding effect, and we can neatly sort historical events into a cause and effect web– high colonial taxes caused the American revolution; the 1929 stock market crash caused The Great Depression. In truth, however, the cause and the effect are inseparably one. In the words of Watts:
“The essential trick of the Game of Black-and-White is a most tacit conspiracy for the partners to conceal their unity, and to look as different as possible. It is like a stage fight so well acted that the audience is ready to believe it is a real fight. Hidden behind their explicit differences is their implicit unity of what Vedanta calls the Self.”
QFW: In personifying the Black and the White as engaging in a conspiracy, you depict them as partners in crime scheming toward some ultimate goal? What is that ultimate goal? Why would the fundamental forces of the Whole work against us?
As is, we are peering into the universe through a slitted fence. If a cat were to walk past this picket fence, we would see the “components” of the cat– first his head, then his midsection, and finally his tail– but never the whole cat. Likewise, we only ever see bits of the universe, but never the Whole.
Who's Responsible For The Division of the Universe?
There are two accomplices that are to blame for the division of the universe, and our subsequent ignorance of its inherent oneness, the first being ourselves. Our very own conscious attention is hardwired to hone in on specifics; we laser our focus onto certain bits– maybe a math problem, a text message, or a particular movie– of the universe at a time. This creates the misconception that the universe is simply a random assortment of these bits, rather than an inseparable whole with unique, yet indivisible manifestations of itself. The second accomplice is man’s greatest invention: science, which is our attempt to “impose order on chaos.” Science seeks to compartmentalize the natural world into quantifiable mechanisms and laws. Thus, we incorrectly assume the universe is the culmination of these individual mechanisms and laws. In the realm of science, humanity isolates and analyzes various types of matter, but in doing so, we lose the vital context in which that matter existed to begin with.
“Any given thing goes with its environment so intimately and inseparable that it is more difficult to draw a clear boundary between the thing and its surroundings.”
This attitude of empiricism has seeped into our overarching perception of the universe. Just as we overlook the environment and context of our studied matter, humanity has also forgotten its own context in the wider Universe. We have forgotten that we exist in the folds of a greater Whole, and have instead been persuaded into believing that we are simply individual compositions of subatomic particles that happen to coexist with other pockets of particles.
QFW: If science seems to have contaminated humanity’s sense of the collective ground of being, do you suggest that we cast aside science and all its innovation? Or is there still a place for science in your worldview?
The Double Bind of Society (pg 70)
“[Society] is our mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but that mirror is distorted.”
From the moment we are born, we are taught how to behave, think, and react by our social environment. Our parents teach us it's respectful to say “please” and “thank you” and that sad movies are something to cry at, while horror movies are something to be scared of. All of our emotional reactions are a product of society at large. Even our own internal thoughts, which remain in the confines of our mind, are not ours by the simple fact that we think in terms of borrowed language and images.
Society exerts such immense power over you as an individual because it's an extension of your mind and body. Ironically, however, that society which we are inseparable from tricks us into believing that we are separate! Our parents remind us to “Be yourself” or be a trailblazer that doesn’t need to conform to the masses. Just the other day, a coach told me to “focus on myself”, when I started bickering with teammates about missed passes, because “focusing on yourself is all you can hope to do.” Social pressures reinforcing the “separatist” narrative take hold of the individual while he is still a malleable infant and cling for life like a parasyte. This paradox is known as a double-bind, in which there are embedded contradictions.
Society tells its members that they must be free and independent thinkers through subtle force and coercion: “an irresistible pressure is being put on him to make him believe no such pressure exists.” It's a glaring contradiction! Are you truly free if you're being forced to be free? Our social environment expects freedom and independence, which are two organically spontaneous ideas, thereby removing all genuine spontaneity. If society says it’s (proper) to love (another naturally spontaneous emotion) your mother, then how can we be sure whether your love is genuine or simply a response to social conditioning. Forcing spontaneity eliminates authentic spontaneity– this is the crux of society’s double-bind. It's like throwing a surprise party when the birthday boy is already aware of the party.
Perspective on Death
“[Death] is the natural and necessary end of human life –as natural as leaves falling in the autumn…Death is, after all, a great event.”
Much modern-day anxiety about death comes from an existential fear of eternal nothingness: no more senses, no people, no consciousness. Because we cannot wholly grasp what “nothingness” is, our imagination panics and delays thoughts of death. In truth, however, death is not something to dread but something to relish. Death is the golden opportunity to shed oneself of the ego prison and finally reach the collective ground of being. When one’s time is blatantly finite, a person may finally discover the essence of the true Self that lay dormant within him and his surroundings.
“In death we doff the persona, as actors take off their masks and costumes in the green room behind the stages.”
In death, just as a wave crests and falls back into the water, the individual merges back into the stream of the Universe from which it pulsated. Instead of postponing our death-related anxiety, we should instead be ever-cognizant of death and its inevitability. Internalizing the truth that death may seize you at any moment will open your eyes to the organic and whimsical nature of the Universe. You, as a human, are not in fact prescribed 80 years of existence simply because you were blessed with the ability to think and reason. You’re just as susceptible to death as the pesky fruit fly you slap around your kitchen. In death, “there is nothing to clutch and no one to clutch it.” Realize this, and you may finally understand the ever-flowing unity of the Universe.
Afterword From Hudson
The philosophy of Alan Watts is polarizing: for one, it overturns our understanding of the universe and our place in it; second, it undermines institutional religion. As someone who appreciates Watt’s work, I will say that simply reading The Book will not immediately convert you into an omniscient zen Buddhist, who senses the oneness of the Universe to its core. To achieve Watt’s vision for his readers, it would take decades of reflection and interpretation to truly internalize and feel Watt’s message. However, I do believe that the casual reader–religious or not– can adapt parts of Watt’s philosophy to their own lives, in accordance with their own core values. The drastic measure of abandoning one’s ego and sense of self may be too demanding for readers like myself. However, adopting a more holistic view of the world as an interconnected and interdependent web of people will do some good. It creates more space for understanding and love in a time when we desperately need it.