Subtitles
I've just come back from Los Angeles I 00:00:05
I've just come back from Los Angeles I was down there to meet with a group of 00:00:09
rather important people people in the 00:00:16
movie industry scientists and so on who 00:00:21
were considering calling a congress of 00:00:25
the best minds in the world to meet in 00:00:28
Los Angeles in the near future to be a 00:00:33
kind of planetary alarm conference they 00:00:37
wanted scientists and statesmen 00:00:39
religious leaders and to do something to 00:00:46
impress upon the world through all the 00:00:49
media that we are in very serious danger 00:00:55
of destroying the biosphere that is to 00:00:58
say the whole envelope of living 00:01:00
creatures which covers this planet 00:01:02
through pollution overpopulation nuclear 00:01:06
fallout poisoning of our food and very 00:01:09
lack of food and we met to discuss the 00:01:13
problem of organizing this conference 00:01:15
and here there all these brilliant 00:01:17
people and it came over us that we 00:01:21
really didn't know what we ought to say 00:01:22
I mean you can scream and create a state 00:01:26
of panic but that won't do any good 00:01:26
and when it came down to it we didn't know what we ought to say because we 00:01:34
really don't know what to do some things 00:01:40
that we might do for example to increase 00:01:42
the food supply with high yield crops 00:01:45
maybe ecological mistakes and so the 00:01:50
consensus of almost everybody at the 00:01:52
meeting was that in some way or other 00:01:55
the human race has to learn how to leave 00:01:57
the world alone and let what is called 00:02:00
the natural homeostasis that is the self 00:02:03
balancing process of nature take care of 00:02:06
the mess now how are we going to do that 00:02:06
this is Japanese ceremonial tea it's good on a cold day 00:02:22
see our problem is we don't really know how to stop we've got something started 00:02:29
and we see it's going in a wrong 00:02:32
direction and I think the difficulty is 00:02:35
to borrow an old Chinese saying that 00:02:39
when the wrong man uses the right means 00:02:41
the right means work in the wrong way in 00:02:45
other words there's something wrong with 00:02:46
the way we think and while that is there 00:02:49
everything we do will be a mess now what 00:02:52
is it that's wrong now as far as I can 00:02:58
see the basic mistake is that we've 00:03:03
invented this wonderful system of 00:03:05
language and calculation and that it is 00:03:10
at once too simple to deal with the 00:03:14
complexity of the world and also we are 00:03:18
liable to confuse that system of symbols 00:03:21
with the world itself just as we confuse 00:03:24
say money with wealth a lot of people 00:03:27
are in business to make money instead of 00:03:29
wealth when they make the money they 00:03:30
don't know what to do with it 00:03:30
and so in the same way we confuse happiness with status and we confuse 00:03:41
ourselves as living organisms which are 00:03:48
one with this whole universe with 00:03:50
something we call our personality and 00:03:54
what is our personality our personality 00:03:58
is what we call our image our image of 00:04:01
ourselves and also our thought about 00:04:03
ourselves our idea of ourselves this is 00:04:06
the person in other words what people 00:04:10
meet and understand and what I 00:04:12
understand as Alan Watts is a big act 00:04:16
which is not really me because in the 00:04:21
image of Alan Watts there are not all my 00:04:23
unconscious processes both psychological 00:04:26
and physical the construction of my 00:04:28
brain is not contained in the concept 00:04:30
Alan Watts 00:04:31
and the concept Alan Watts does not 00:04:34
contain the inseparable relationships 00:04:36
which I have with all the rest of the 00:04:38
universe and therefore that concept is a 00:04:40
fraud and when it's mistaken for the 00:04:44
real me there's a confusion because if 00:04:48
somebody says to be Alan Watts do 00:04:50
something about it 00:04:51
the concept Alan Watts can't do anything 00:04:54
in other words because it's only a 00:04:56
concept you can't make it lift a weight 00:05:00
just as three as a concept three the 00:05:03
number you can't make just plain three 00:05:05
do anything so also you can't wrap up 00:05:08
parcels with the equator it's a useful 00:05:10
imaginary line but it can't do anything 00:05:14
but we all feel that this concept of 00:05:17
ourselves which we call our personality 00:05:18
or our ego can do something because we 00:05:22
think it really exists and I'll tell you 00:05:23
why we think it exists 00:05:23
what happens when you if I were to say to you 00:05:30
now look hard at the television screen 00:05:32
really look at it what do you do as 00:05:36
distinct from just watching it in the 00:05:38
ordinary way when you say now I really 00:05:39
got to see that what do you do notice 00:05:43
that you tighten muscles all around here 00:05:45
that you frown a little you'll clench 00:05:48
your teeth perhaps now what does that 00:05:50
got to do with seeing anything clearly 00:05:52
there's absolutely nothing to do with 00:05:55
same thing when you listen carefully now 00:05:57
listen catch everything that said will 00:06:00
you start tightening up around your ears 00:06:02
that has nothing to do with hearing 00:06:04
clearly now from the moment we were 00:06:07
little children when teachers in class 00:06:09
screamed at us pay attention we go tight 00:06:12
in various ways either to see or hear 00:06:16
more clearly to concentrate or to will 00:06:19
something which is supposed to be 00:06:21
difficult to do and that constitutes a 00:06:24
habitual tension over the whole body 00:06:26
that's there almost all the time and 00:06:28
that feeling of unnecessary tension is 00:06:32
as it were the material sensation upon 00:06:35
which we fasten this concept of I we 00:06:38
hang it on to that feeling the concept 00:06:42
is not us the feeling of tension is 00:06:44
completely phony it has nothing to do 00:06:47
with success in seeing hearing or acting 00:06:49
and so we get the marriage of an 00:06:51
illusion with a falsehood and that we 00:06:55
call ourselves no wonder we feel cut off 00:06:58
from everything alienated frightened of 00:07:00
life and death so what has to happen is 00:07:05
we have to come back 00:07:08
to a saying view of our own life which 00:07:16
is the way we really are an organism 00:07:20
functioning in terms of the whole 00:07:22
environment with the whole environment 00:07:24
instead of this funny little separate 00:07:26
personality but how are we going to do 00:07:28
that people say you can't change human 00:07:31
nature overnight you're asking us to 00:07:33
give up the ego and that's the most 00:07:36
difficult of all things to do actually 00:07:39
it isn't because the ego doesn't exist 00:07:43
but of course if you try to give up your 00:07:45
ego with your ego then it'll take you to 00:07:48
the end of time because this is the 00:07:51
point you can't transform yourself you 00:07:56
can't make yourself sane you can't make 00:07:59
yourself loving you can't make yourself 00:08:01
unselfish and yet it's absolutely that 00:08:06
necessary that we be that way it's 00:08:09
absolutely necessary if we are going to 00:08:13
hand over the direction of nature to 00:08:17
nature which is what it comes to it's 00:08:20
absolutely necessary that we let go of 00:08:24
ourselves and it can't be done not by 00:08:28
anything that we call doing it acting 00:08:31
willing or even just accepting things 00:08:33
you can't do it why because you don't 00:08:38
really exist as that kind of a separate 00:08:40
ego or personality it's just an idea 00:08:42
based on a phony feeling so when it 00:08:47
comes down to it 00:08:47
it's shocking news for us for the human race for our pride you're only making a 00:08:56
mess by trying to put things straight 00:09:03
they're trying to straighten out a 00:09:05
wiggly world and no wonder you're in 00:09:07
trouble 00:09:09
so you can't do anything so you can't 00:09:12
transform yourself and what can you do 00:09:17
what happens then if you actually 00:09:19
realize you've come to a dead end and 00:09:21
the human race has come to a dead end in 00:09:24
my opinion what then commits suicide or 00:09:24
is there something else what happens when you just wait there's nothing you 00:09:34
can do you watch 00:09:37
and all you see is what goes on that is happening of itself you're breathing the 00:09:45
wind is blowing the trees are waving 00:09:53