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[Music] 00:00:00
[Music] welcome to the reality revolution I'm 00:00:00
your host Brian Scott today we're going 00:00:08
to return to Alan Watts I found another 00:00:11
lecture it was a text edition of some TV 00:00:17
program he was on I haven't been able to 00:00:19
find it 00:00:19
I'm sure it's somebody can find it 00:00:22
somewhere on the internet but it was 00:00:24
very powerful the words were I 00:00:27
absolutely love Alan Watts he was an 00:00:31
amazing philosopher his point of view 00:00:33
with everything was so profound 00:00:37
he can make concepts seemed so easy to 00:00:41
understand and really unveil aspects of 00:00:44
reality that you never consider and he 00:00:47
was a terrific meditator and I learned a 00:00:51
lot about meditation from Ellen Watts 00:00:53
and one of the key components that I 00:00:55
learned from him is that meditation is 00:00:58
supposed to be fun it's not a punishment 00:01:01
that you're putting yourself through it 00:01:03
is fun and that has been the primary 00:01:06
goal of all my meditations on this 00:01:08
channel there sometimes they're a little 00:01:09
bit different but I just want to make it 00:01:11
fun and once you actually get into 00:01:14
meditation you'll find your own path but 00:01:16
as a mentor Alan Watts is the best to 00:01:19
listen to on how to meditate and so I 00:01:23
wanted to read you his art of meditation 00:01:26
Alan Watts on meditation 00:01:26
the art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality 00:01:42
and the reason for it is that most 00:01:49
civilized people are out of touch with 00:01:54
reality because they confuse the world 00:01:57
as it is with the world as they think 00:02:02
about it and talk about it 00:02:04
and describe it for on the one hand 00:02:09
there is the real world and on the other 00:02:14
a whole system of symbols about that 00:02:18
world which we have in our minds these 00:02:23
are very very useful symbols all 00:02:25
civilization depends on them but like 00:02:29
all good things they have their 00:02:31
disadvantages and the principal 00:02:34
disadvantage of symbols is that we 00:02:36
confuse them with reality just as we 00:02:39
confuse money with actual wealth and our 00:02:44
names about ourselves our ideas of 00:02:48
ourselves our images of ourselves with 00:02:51
ourselves now of course reality from a 00:02:56
philosophers point of view is a 00:02:59
dangerous word 00:03:01
a philosopher will ask me what do I mean 00:03:04
by reality am i talking about the 00:03:07
physical world of nature or am I talking 00:03:12
about a spiritual world or what and to 00:03:18
that I have a very simple answer when we 00:03:21
talk about the material world that is 00:03:25
actually a philosophical concept so in 00:03:28
the same way if I say that reality is 00:03:31
spiritual that's also a philosophical 00:03:35
concept and reality itself is not a 00:03:40
concept reality is 00:03:44
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and we won't give it a name now it's amazing what doesn't exist in the real 00:04:01
world for example in the real world 00:04:08
there aren't any things nor are there 00:04:14
any events that doesn't mean to say that 00:04:17
the real world is a perfectly 00:04:20
featureless blank it means that it is a 00:04:24
marvelous system of Wiggles in which we 00:04:30
describe have n same way as we would 00:04:36
project images on a Rorschach blot or 00:04:38
pick out particular groups of stars in 00:04:41
the sky and call them constellations as 00:04:45
if they were separate groups of stars 00:04:48
while their groups of stars in the 00:04:50
mind's eye in arsenal of concepts they 00:04:52
are not out there as constellations 00:04:52
already grouped in the sky so in the same way the difference between myself 00:05:02
and all the rest of the universe is 00:05:08
nothing more than an idea 00:05:11
it is not a real difference and 00:05:15
meditation is the way in which we come 00:05:17
to feel our basic inseparability from 00:05:22
the whole universe and what that 00:05:27
requires is that we shut up that is to 00:05:33
say that we become interior silent and 00:05:37
cease from the interminable chatter that 00:05:42
goes on inside our skulls because you 00:05:44
see most of us think compulsively all 00:05:48
the time that is to say we talk to 00:05:51
ourselves and I remember when I was a 00:05:54
boy we had a common saying talking to 00:05:57
yourself is it the first sign of madness 00:06:00
now obviously if I talk all the time I 00:06:06
don't hear what anyone else has to say 00:06:10
and so in exactly the same way if I 00:06:15
think all the time that is to say if I 00:06:18
talk to myself all the time I don't have 00:06:20
anything to think about except thoughts 00:06:22
and therefore I'm living entirely in the 00:06:26
world of symbols and I'm never in 00:06:29
relationship with reality 00:06:29
all right now that's the first basic reason for meditation but there is 00:06:35
another sense and that is going to be a 00:06:40
little bit more difficult to understand 00:06:42
why we we could say that meditation 00:06:44
doesn't have a reason or it doesn't have 00:06:48
a purpose and in this respect it's 00:06:51
unlike almost all other things that we 00:06:53
do except perhaps making music and 00:06:55
dancing because when we make music we 00:07:01
don't do it in order to reach a certain 00:07:04
point such as the end of the composition 00:07:08
if that were the purpose of music to get 00:07:12
to the end of the piece then obviously 00:07:14
the fastest players would be the best 00:07:17
and so likewise when we're dancing we 00:07:21
are not aiming to arrive at a particular 00:07:23
place on the floor as we would be if we 00:07:26
were taking a journey when we dance the 00:07:30
journey itself is the point when we play 00:07:35
music the playing itself is the point 00:07:39
exactly the same thing is true in 00:07:42
meditation meditation is the discovery 00:07:46
that the point of life is always arrived 00:07:50
at in the immediate moment and therefore 00:07:55
if you meditate for an ulterior motive 00:07:58
that is to say to improve your mind to 00:08:02
improve your character to be more 00:08:04
efficient in life if you've got your eye 00:08:07
on the future and you're not meditating 00:08:10
because the future is a concept 00:08:10
it doesn't exist as the proverb says tomorrow never comes there is no such 00:08:20
thing as tomorrow there never will be 00:08:26
because time is always now and that's 00:08:31
one of the things we discover when we 00:08:33
stop talking to ourselves and stop 00:08:35
thinking we find there is only a present 00:08:39
only an internal now so it's funny then 00:08:45
isn't it that one meditates for no 00:08:47
reason at all except we could say for 00:08:50
enjoyment of it and here I would 00:08:52
interpose the essential principle that 00:08:57
meditation is supposed to be fun it's 00:09:01
not something you do as a grim duty 00:09:05
the trouble with religion as we know it 00:09:08
is that it's so mixed up with grim 00:09:09
duties we do it because it's good for 00:09:14
you it's kind of a self punishment while 00:09:18
meditation when correctly done has 00:09:20
nothing to do with all that it's kind of 00:09:22
digging the present it's a kind of 00:09:25
grooving with the eternal now and brings 00:09:30
us into a state of peace 00:09:35
where we can understand that the point 00:09:38
of life the place where it's at is 00:09:43
simply here and now well now in the art 00:09:49
of meditation 00:09:50
there are various props supports one 00:09:56
thing that we're going to use as a means 00:09:58
of sitting chatter in the mind is pure 00:10:01
sound and that for this reason I use a 00:10:07
gong this is a Japanese Buddhist gong 00:10:13
made of bronze and shaped like a bowl if 00:10:16
you don't have one of these you can get 00:10:18
the rounded end of an oxygen tank have a 00:10:22
machinist saw it run off roughly into 00:10:24
the shape of a bowl and use that or you 00:10:28
can use your own voice chanting another 00:10:33
prop in meditation is the use of incense 00:10:37
and that is because the sense of smell 00:10:41
is our repressed sense and because it's 00:10:45
our repressed sense it has a very 00:10:47
powerful influence on us and therefore 00:10:51
we associate certain smells with certain 00:10:53
states of mind and so the smell of 00:10:56
incense is associated with peace and 00:10:58
contemplation and so it's advantageous 00:11:01
to burn incense in meditation 00:11:06
the other prop is a string of beads and 00:11:09
these beads are used in meditation for 00:11:13
an unconscious method of timing yourself 00:11:16
instead of looking at a watch you move a 00:11:19
bead each time you breathe in and out so 00:11:23
that at a certain rate you see there are 00:11:25
always 108 beads on a rosary and when 00:11:29
you have to get slow your breathing 00:11:31
around the rosary is about 40 minutes 00:11:33
and that is the usual length of time for 00:11:37
which one sits in meditation because 00:11:40
otherwise you get uncomfortable and you 00:11:43
get stiff legs and problems of that kind 00:11:47
now that the other thing first of all is 00:11:50
that when you how do you sit in 00:11:52
meditation you can sit any way you want 00:11:56
you can sit in a chair or you can sit 00:11:59
like I'm sitting which is the Japanese 00:12:01
way of sitting or you can sit in the 00:12:03
Lotus posture which is more difficult 00:12:06
which is cross-legged with the feet on 00:12:10
the thighs soles upward and the younger 00:12:16
you start that in life the easier you'll 00:12:19
find it to do or you can just sit 00:12:21
cross-legged on a raised cushion above 00:12:24
the floor now the point of this is that 00:12:27
you could keep your back erect I don't 00:12:30
mean stiff like this or or slumped like 00:12:33
this but just easily erect your Center 00:12:37
and easily balanced 00:12:40
and you have a feeling of being 00:12:43
thoroughly rooted to the ground and that 00:12:50
sort of physical stability is very 00:12:53
important for the avoidance of 00:12:56
distraction and generally feeling 00:12:59
settled here and now 00:12:59
je suis juste a as French say I'm here I'm going to stay well now the easiest 00:13:07
way to get into the meditative state 00:13:12
is to begin by listening if you simply close your eyes and allow yourself to 00:13:28
hear all the sounds that are going on around you just listen to the general 00:13:38
hum and Buzz of the world as if you were 00:13:47
listening to music 00:13:47
don't try to identify the sounds you're hearing don't put names on them simply 00:13:53
allow them to play with your eardrums 00:14:00
and let them go 00:14:08
in other words you could put it let's see your ears hear whatever they want to 00:14:15
hear don't judge the sounds there are no 00:14:26
as it were proper sounds or improper 00:14:28
sounds it doesn't matter if somebody 00:14:31
coughs or sneezes or drop something it's 00:14:35
all just sound and if I am talking to 00:14:42
you right now and you're doing this I 00:14:42
want you to listen to the sound of my voice just as if it were noise don't try 00:14:49
to make any sense out of what I'm saying 00:14:55
because your brain will take care of 00:14:57
that automatically you don't have to try 00:14:59
to understand anything just listen to 00:15:02
the sound as you pursue that experiment 00:15:08
you will very naturally find that you 00:15:11
can't help naming sounds identifying 00:15:14
them that you will go on thinking that 00:15:21
is to say talking to yourself inside 00:15:23
your head automatically but it's 00:15:27
important you don't try to repress those 00:15:29
thoughts by forcing them out of your 00:15:31
mind 00:15:31
because that will have precisely the same effect as if you were trying to 00:15:36
smooth rough water with a flat iron 00:15:41
you're just going to disturb it all the 00:15:44
more what you do is this as you hear 00:15:47
sounds coming up in your head thoughts 00:15:50
you simply listen to them as part of the 00:15:54
general noise going on just as you heard 00:15:59
the sound of my voice or just as you 00:16:01
would be listening to cars going by or 00:16:03
two birds chattering outside the window 00:16:06
so look at your own thoughts as just 00:16:09
noises 00:16:10
[Music] 00:16:12
and as soon as you will find that that 00:16:15
so-called outside world and the 00:16:19
so-called inside world come together 00:16:22
they are happening your thoughts are 00:16:26
happening just like the sounds going on 00:16:30
outside and everything is simply a 00:16:33
happening and all you're doing is 00:16:35
watching it now in this process another 00:16:41
thing that is happening that is very 00:16:44
important is that you're breathing and 00:16:48
as you start meditation you allow your 00:16:51
breath to run just as it wills in other 00:17:01
words don't do at first any breathing 00:17:06
exercise but just watch your breath 00:17:07
breathing the way it wants to breathe 00:17:07
and then notice a curious thing about this you say in the ordinary way I 00:17:16
breathe because you feel that breathing 00:17:26
is something that you are doing 00:17:28
voluntarily just in the same way as you 00:17:32
might be walking or talking but you will 00:17:37
also notice that when you are not 00:17:38
thinking about breathing you are 00:17:40
breathing goes on just the same so the 00:17:45
curious thing about breath is that it 00:17:48
can be looked at both as a voluntary and 00:17:51
an involuntary action you can feel on 00:17:55
the one hand I am doing it and on the 00:17:59
other hand it is happening to me and 00:18:01
that is why breathing is a most 00:18:04
important part of meditation because it 00:18:07
is going to show you as you become aware 00:18:10
of your breath that the hard-and-fast 00:18:13
division that we make between what we do 00:18:16
on the one hand and what happens to us 00:18:19
on the other is arbitrary 00:18:22
so that as you watch your breathing you 00:18:28
will become aware that both the 00:18:30
voluntary and the involuntary aspects of 00:18:35
your experience are all one happening 00:18:40
now that may at first seem a little 00:18:43
scary because you may think well I'm a 00:18:46
my just a puppet cover happening the 00:18:49
mere passive witness of something that's 00:18:52
going on completely beyond my control or 00:18:55
on the other hand am I really doing 00:18:58
everything that's going along well if I 00:19:02
were I should be God and that would be 00:19:05
very embarrassing because I would be in 00:19:07
charge of everything in that'd be a 00:19:08
terribly responsible position the truth 00:19:12
of the matter as you will see it is that 00:19:14
both things are true you can see it that 00:19:20
everything is happening to you and on 00:19:23
the other hand you're doing everything 00:19:25
for example it's your eyes that are 00:19:27
turning the Sun into light it's the 00:19:30
nerves ends and their skin that are 00:19:32
turning the electric vibrations in the 00:19:34
air into heat and temperature it's your 00:19:40
eardrums that are turning vibrations in 00:19:42
the air into sound and in that way you 00:19:45
are creating the world 00:19:45
but when we're not talking about it when we're not philosophizing about it then 00:19:54
there's just this is happening this all 00:20:01
[Music] 00:20:03
and we won't give it a name now then 00:20:09
when you breathe for a while just 00:20:13
letting it happen 00:20:13
I'm not forcing it in any way you will discover a curious thing that without 00:20:24
making any effort you can breathe more 00:20:30
deeply in other words supposing you 00:20:35
simply are breathing out in other words 00:20:38
and the breathing out is important 00:20:39
because it's the breath of relaxation 00:20:41
when we say and heave a sigh of relief 00:20:47
so when you are breathing out you get 00:20:49
the sensation that your breath is 00:20:54
falling out dropping dropping dropping 00:21:01
out with the same sort of feeling is if 00:21:04
you were settling down into an extremely 00:21:06
comfortable bed and you just get as 00:21:10
heavy as possible and you let yourself 00:21:11
go and you let your breath go out in 00:21:16
just that way and when it's thoroughly 00:21:19
comfortably out and it feels like coming 00:21:21
back again you don't pull it back in you 00:21:25
let it fall back letting your lungs 00:21:28
expand expand until I feel very 00:21:33
comfortably full and you wait a moment 00:21:38
and let it stay there and then once 00:21:41
again you let it fall out so in this way 00:21:46
you will discover that your breath gets 00:21:49
quite naturally easier and easier and 00:21:52
slower and slower and more and more 00:21:56
powerful 00:21:56
so that with these various AIDS listening to sound listening to your own 00:22:01
interior feelings and thoughts just as 00:22:12
if we are something going on not 00:22:14
something you're doing but just 00:22:15
happenings and watching your breath as a 00:22:19
happening that isn't either voluntary 00:22:21
nor involuntary you are simply aware of 00:22:23
these basic sensations then you begin to 00:22:27
be in the state of meditation but don't 00:22:31
hurry anything don't worry about the 00:22:34
future don't worry about what progress 00:22:37
you're making just be entirely content 00:22:40
to be aware of what is don't be terribly 00:22:46
selective particulars say I should think 00:22:48
of this and not of that just watch 00:22:50
whatever is happening now then to make 00:22:56
this somewhat easier to have the mind 00:22:58
free from discursive verbal thinking 00:23:03
sound or chanted sound is extremely 00:23:12
useful if you for example simply listen 00:23:15
to the ohm Oh 00:23:15
and let that sound be the whole of your experience it's quite simple it requires 00:23:28
no effort 00:23:32
[Music] 00:23:32
and then along with it if you don't have a gong you can ohm and what are called 00:23:45
in the Sanskrit language mantras mantras 00:23:52
are chanted sounds which are used not so 00:23:55
much for their meaning as for their 00:23:57
simple tone and they go along with that 00:24:03
easy kind of slow breath 00:24:06
one of the basic mantras is of course 00:24:09
the sound ohm that sound is used because 00:24:14
if you spell it out a um it runs from 00:24:19
the back of your throat to your lips and 00:24:22
therefore it contains the whole range of 00:24:24
the voice and for that reason it 00:24:27
represents the total energy of the 00:24:29
universe 00:24:31
this word is called the Pranava the name 00:24:35
for the ultimate reality for which then 00:24:39
there is no Witcher and so in this way 00:24:43
then oh if you chant it 00:24:43
[Music] 00:24:58
[Music] 00:25:40
[Music] Oh 00:25:55
and you keep that up for quite a long time and eventually you will find as you 00:26:08
go on chanting the words of the chat 00:26:18
will simply have become pure sound and 00:26:23
you won't be thinking about it 00:26:26
you won't have any images about the 00:26:29
sound going on in your mind you'll 00:26:31
simply become completely absorbed and 00:26:34
sound and therefore you will find 00:26:36
yourself living in an eternal now in 00:26:41
which there is no past and there is no 00:26:45
future and there is no thing called 00:26:48
difference between you are as a knower 00:26:52
and what you are as the known between 00:26:56
yourself and the world of nature outside 00:26:58
to you it all becomes one doing one 00:27:02
happening now in addition to those slow 00:27:07
moving chance you may find it according 00:27:10
to your temperament easier to do a fast 00:27:13
moving one these have a sort of rhythm 00:27:16
to them that is absorbing say a chant 00:27:21
that many of you have heard it could be 00:27:26
Hindu divinities or something more 00:27:30
simple it doesn't matter what your 00:27:33
chanting 00:27:34
[Music] 00:27:34
but that's not the point the point is just to get with that thing that is 00:27:43
running running running 00:27:45
if you're a Christian or a Jew and you feel more inclined to use a meditation 00:27:57
word that is more congenial to you you 00:28:04
can use hallelujah 00:28:04
[Music] oh yeah or if you're a you 00:28:27
can use allah the name of god they have 00:28:37
a way of doing it you know which gets 00:28:38
very exciting you can just repeat the 00:28:41
word Allah for 40 minutes and you'll be 00:28:45
quite out of your mind just repeating it 00:28:48
over and over again 00:28:48
but you see to go out of your mind at least once a day it's tremendously 00:28:58
important because by going out of your 00:29:05
mind 00:29:05
you come to your senses and if you stay 00:29:08
in your mind all the time 00:29:10
you are over rational in other words 00:29:14
you're like a very rigid bridge which 00:29:17
because it has got no give no craziness 00:29:19
in it is going to be blown down in the 00:29:21
first hurricane 00:29:21
and that is another lecture by Alan Watts I hope you enjoyed it he has a 00:29:33
beautiful way of explaining meditation 00:29:40
there is no right way to do meditation 00:29:43
you can have a guided meditation and you 00:29:45
can sit in silence but what we're going 00:29:48
through right now gives you the 00:29:49
opportunity to go within and learn more 00:29:53
about your inner consciousness and your 00:29:58
real self and it's a powerful moment 00:30:01
right now and it's sometimes good to go 00:30:04
back to the basics even if you've 00:30:06
meditated for a long time Alan watch 00:30:09
reminds us of the process of capturing 00:30:12
the moment and being in the eternal now 00:30:15
and I hope you're in the eternal now 00:30:18
right now all episodes of the reality 00:30:23
revolution can be found at the reality 00:30:26
revolution calm by my book the reality 00:30:30
revolution the mind-blowing movement to 00:30:32
hack reality you can find it on Amazon 00:30:34
right now it's being Kindle it's a 00:30:37
beautiful hardcover that's available or 00:30:40
paperback in it I diagram energy 00:30:44
exercises meditation techniques and I 00:30:47
tell my story of my awakening we are 00:30:51
going through a reality revolution right 00:30:53
now we are going through a reality 00:30:56
revolution right now can you feel it how 00:31:00
are you going to maneuver through this 00:31:01
reality revolution I created a manual 00:31:04
for you a way to become a 00:31:07
multi-dimensional super being that has 00:31:10
the ability to quantum jump into any 00:31:12
parallel reality that you want using 00:31:15
techniques from a whole bunch of 00:31:17
different Sciences there's quantum 00:31:20
physics in it check it out right now 00:31:23
thank you for joining me 00:31:28
and welcome to the reality revolution 00:31:28
you 00:31:39