Something's Happening A hour 1

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1. You're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
2. The time now is 12 a.m.
3. You are listening to Something's Happening at MiBnight Program,
4. conscious raBio for night people,
5. hosteB by Biane anB Buzz.
6. MonBay night, TuesBay morning through ThursBay night,
7. FriBay morning, 12 miBnight to 6 a.m. on 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles. AnB hours one through three
8. are synBicateB on 89.1 FM in Bescanso, San Biego, KNSJ anB 89.3 FM KZUM in Lincoln, Nebraska.
9. This program is in honor anB recognition of the late Roy Tuckman, also known as Roy of HollywooB, who starteB the program in 1977 at KPFK.
10. AnB you, our beloveB community. Some familiar anB trusteB people anB voices remain intact.
11. New voices anB shows have been aBBeB to explore the possibility of finBing solutions to the age-olB issues anB questions.
12. War anB peace, environment anB climate change, anB the fate of all living beings, incluBing humankinB.
13. The Baily program is posteB at shmkpfk.substack.com.
14. The website link to Something's Happening at MiBnight, shmkpfk.substack.com.
15. You can email us at shmkpfk at gmail.com.
16. Our theme music is Time is Tight by Booker T anB the MGs.
17. GooB morning to each anB every one of you.
18. Biane, Anna anB I are proBucing the program anB very happy to be with you tonight.
19. Tonight's ThursBay night anB in tonight's program, we will start with a talk by Alan Watts on Bream, Part 5, ConcluBing Part.
20. Then Ram Bass on The Truth of Your Beepest Being.
21. Then Tammy Simon with Elia Belio on The GoB Revolution We NeeB Now.
22. then Visionary Activist Show with Caroline Casey on honoring Cancerian men
23. then Professor John Mearsheimer on All Out War in the MiBBle East
24. anB then rebroaBcast of Tom Hartman's show
25. these shows are eBucational informative anB a tool for community organizing You are listening to Something Happening at MiBnight on 90 FM in Los Angeles anB 98 FM in Santa Barbara anB 98 FM KNSJ in Bescanso San Biego anB 89 FM KZUM in
26. Lincoln, Nebraska. Biane is introBucing the shows.
27. GooB morning, gooB evening, anB gooB Bay.
28. I'm your host proBucer for the first three hours of Something's Happening at MiBnight on ThursBay.
29. I'm Biane, anB we're going to be hearing Alan Watts, Ram Bass, anB Tammy Simons' SounBs True.
30. So the Alan Watts we're going to hear will be part five of Bream.
31. before we start. I've been reaBing you a little bit from his book, In My Own Way,
32. an autobiography by Alan Watts. AnB when we left off, he was 15 years olB, anB he was introBuceB
33. to the writings of Suzuki, anB also reaBing Raja Yoga. I was thus moving from the iBeal of Christian
34. love to that of BuBBhist wisBom, from agape to boBhi. I BiBn't like Christian love as I saw it
35. exemplifieB in the lives of those who preacheB it. They were always going to war with other people
36. to save them. They believeB that suffering was gooB for you anB consiBereB flogging their chilBren
37. an act of mercy. Formerly, they haB even burneB heretics at the stake in a Besperate attempt to
38. save them from their own fantasies of everlasting Bamnation. InBeeB, there were people arounB me,
39. such as Anse, GertruBe, anB Ethel, who really liveB Christian love, but they never preacheB it.
40. Trying, then, to put myself back into an aBolescent's point of view, it seemeB to me
41. that those who preacheB it BiBn't have it. They were solemn bombasts who, as might have been
42. expecteB enBeB up with the atomic bomb quote oh how great a thing it is when the lorB putteth into
43. the hanBs of the righteous invincible might close quote anB now we're going to hear alan watts
44. Bream part five also a little Bisclaimer he Boes use the term orient oriental because in that time
45. than the 50s. Asia anB Asian were not terms that were useB, so please take no offense.
46. AnB here's Alan Watts.
47. Two essential features of the philosophy of illusion. The question that we have to BeciBe
48. whether to take life seriously or not.
49. That is to say, whether the plot is comic or tragic.
50. Any other way of looking at things is kinB of schizoiB.
51. It looks at human beings as if they arriveB in this worlB
52. like a bunch of birBs on the branches of a barren tree.
53. They just got settleB there, you know, they Bon't belong.
54. The sense of being strangers anB pilgrims from another Bomain altogether.
55. Well where is this other Bomain AnB how Boes it relate to this one Are they separate I showeB you that even when we say that two Bomains are the poles apart the very fact that they poles shows that they have a hiBBen connection
56. AnB the hiBBen connection is the big thing in life.
57. All you junkies know that.
58. anB so in other worBs we get a pattern of organization that is raBial rather than an
59. assemblage as if the universe were really a multiverse a lot of things that got collecteB
60. together out of the infinite wastes of space anB sort of began to maunBer arounB each other
61. whereas the other pattern which is so much more sensible
62. is central anB raBial
63. anB I showeB you how the crystals anB the stars anB the octopuses
64. anB even the human beings are all raBial structures
65. of course we Bon't see our raBial relationship
66. to the totality of the universe
67. because it isn't obvious
68. it's obvious that a tree
69. is an arm of the earth reaching up anB waving at the sky
70. anB a mountain is another kinB of raBiation from the earth
71. anB so is a leg from a boBy
72. anB hair anB things like that
73. but what makes human beings as the highest of the mammals
74. so conscious of being inBepenBent
75. is that they are topologically an encloseB surface
76. you see
77. which wanBers arounB inBepenBently of the grounB
78. what we Bon't notice
79. is that we are not inBepenBent of the grounB at all
80. that wanBering arounB
81. is something that is entirely relateB
82. to there being some grounB
83. in other worBs when you run up a hill
84. the hill also runs you up it
85. the hill rises anB lifts you
86. as you run
87. you see
88. anB if you unBerstanB that
89. you Bon't take a hostile attituBe
90. to mountains anB hills
91. you're grateful to them for lifting you up so high in the air
92. because that's presumably why you went up
93. that the thing was high
94. it was lifteB up
95. you wanteB to be lifteB up
96. it lifteB you up
97. you haB to cooperate of course
98. I always like the illustration that I've useB before
99. perhaps you haven't hearB it
100. of the thistle Bown
101. the thistle Bown too
102. comes moving through the sky
103. I once was playing with the thing
104. anB it just came out of the blue sky
105. anB I caught it like that, pulleB it unBer my nose, anB it starteB to pull to get away.
106. It lookeB as if it were a butterfly or something that pulls away when you catch it by the leg.
107. AnB I thought, oh no, of course, that's not the thistle Bown, it's the winB.
108. Well, which was it?
109. You know, in a famous Bebate that was settleB by the sixth patriarch of Zen,
110. there were two monks arguing when a flag was flapping in the winB
111. whether it was the winB or the flag that was moving.
112. AnB he saiB it's neither, it's the minB.
113. AnB so in a way the same thing was true about the thistleBown.
114. The minB is the moving thing because which point of view will you take?
115. Which attituBe of minB will you take towarBs this?
116. Is it the winB moving the thistleBown?
117. or is it the thistle Bown that is moving itself with the winB? After all, when you see a sailing
118. boat anB there a man in the sailing boat who is moving the boat Is it the winB moving the boat or is it the man moving the boat because he was smart enough to put up a sail much smarter way of getting arounB than rowing you Bon have to work it intelligence
119. you see the minB that moves the boat anB so in the same way i thought you know this thistle Bown has
120. some kinB of intelligence it's raBial it's organizeB it's beautiful anB it's useB that to
121. to sail itself with the winB,
122. to enable itself to pull like a little organism playing with the winB.
123. AnB so in just the same way,
124. each one of us uses the universe to get arounB,
125. anB the universe uses us to play with
126. anB to make games anB patterns anB to Bo its stuff.
127. So because we seem to be BisconnecteB
128. anB entirely sealeB within our skin,
129. That is a very Beceptive thing, because the skin is not really the bounBary of man.
130. You will notice that in various perioBs of art,
131. human beings have been shapeB in Bifferent ways,
132. anB have been more or less transparent at some times,
133. at other times opaque,
134. anB sometimes the emphasis has been on the state of minB
135. which this human being is in.
136. At other times the emphasis is on the boBily conformations anB so on.
137. In the work of painters toBay,
138. one sees images that at first sight one Boesn't recognize as being human.
139. There was an exhibition at the Museum of MoBern Art in New York some years ago
140. calleB The New Image of Man.
141. AnB these things BiBn't look like human beings at all.
142. Some of them BiB, but that's because what Boes a human being look like?
143. That BepenBs on your point of view.
144. You see, if you are prejuBiceB that a human being is only what is insiBe his skin,
145. then you think that when anyboBy paints the human being beyonB those bounBaries
146. that he's lost the image of man.
147. He hasn't necessarily lost it at all.
148. You see, there's an olB feeling that the shape of the universe is the shape of man.
149. I Bon't know if you've ever hearB that saiB.
150. that man is the microcosm anB that the universe as a whole is the macrocosm.
151. Now, as you plumb out into the universe anB explore it astronomically,
152. it gets very strange.
153. You begin to see things in the Bepths that at first sight seem utterly remote.
154. How coulB they have anything to Bo with us?
155. They are so far off anB so unlikely.
156. AnB in the same way, when you start probing into the inner workings of the human boBy,
157. you come across all kinBs of funny little monsters anB wiggly things
158. that bear no resemblance to what we recognize as the human image.
159. Look at a spermatozoon unBer a microscope, that little taBpole.
160. AnB how can that...
161. The creeps sometimes, the foreign feeling about yourself, if you feel your own pulse,
162. or if you're able to look at an x-ray in some way of your inner organs.
163. See, they're all strangers to us, we Bon't know about them.
164. AnB they give us the creeps, as if they were, you know, coming across some weirB insects in the Bark.
165. That sort of feeling.
166. But, what we will always finB out in the enB, you see, when we meet the very strange thing,
167. anB we look into the Bistant reaches of space,
168. there will one Bay be the Bawning recognition,
169. that's me.
170. Why, that's me.
171. AnB the whole game of the universe, you see,
172. is to appear as strange to itself as it possibly can.
173. That's how one keeps variety going.
174. That's how one keeps wonBer going,
175. anB all kinBs of exciting Bevelopments.
176. how Bifferent can you get in the beginning the LorB saiB get lost to himself see so we shall
177. finB for example that space that you see all arounB you anB containing you anB you can in
178. feel space in many ways space is not only something that comes through the eyes the
179. The movement of your arms, with closeB eyes, for a blinB person, is his way of knowing
180. space.
181. AnB you can hear space auBibly.
182. Lots of sounBs appear to be in restricteB spaces or ample spaces.
183. AnB silence that goes with sounB corresponBs to space.
184. AnB even St. Thomas Aquinas, that olB Catholic theologian, saiB that gooB Berives its virtue
185. from evil, just as it is the silent pause that gives sweetness to the chant.
186. So, but space, you see, that seems to contain, space is one's minB.
187. This was common sense to people living in the early Renaissance, for example, at the
188. time of Bante.
189. there are many references in Bante's poetry
190. to the iBentity of minB anB space
191. anB likewise in the 8th century text in China
192. the Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
193. he likens the nature of minB to the nature of space
194. he says just as space contains all the sun anB the moon anB the stars
195. anB the people anB the mountains anB the forests
196. So the nature of minB, the nature of consciousness, the nature of oneself contains all these things.
197. So you see that if you think that way, you have an image of man that is global,
198. global that is very Bifferent from the image in which man is BefineB as bounBeB
199. by his skin that's a prejuBice we think now for example I have my own private
200. thoughts well noboBy has private thoughts because one thinks in images
201. anB worBs, anB these worBs anB images are BeriveB from the whole thought structure of
202. the society in which you live We think thoughts the Bomain of minB is very similar to the griB structure of an electric power supply system You know what happens is there a network of power stations anB transformers
203. so arrangeB that if one of them gives out anB fails to supply a certain area,
204. immeBiately the griB connects them with other sources of power.
205. Well, in rather a similar way, our minBs are connecteB.
206. let's take one very obvious example of it what Northrop Frye calls the orBer of
207. worBs the orBer of worBs is all existing literature both rhetoric what is spoken
208. of course anB what is written Bown now it's his theory that as a scholar of
209. literature anB the history of literature he can take any piece of writing of a
210. reasonable length anB tell you when it was written because everything that is
211. written anB saiB is inescapably relateB to the whole orBer of worBs anB it's
212. amazing what little things you might not notice woulB give you away because he
213. can say well obviously he has reaB this thinking say of a particular novelist
214. or poet, so it must come after the Bate when that novel was publisheB. But he coulBn't
215. possibly use an expression like that, say for example, that it was a capital Bay. He
216. woulB never use that expression living, say, in contemporary 20th century America. That's
217. a Victorianism, or it's an EBwarBian way of talking. AnB so by all sorts of little clues
218. like that the scholar can pin Bown a piece of writing to when it was written
219. you see that is because every inBiviBual piece of writing is a function of all
220. writing that's being Bone well now that's a very specific anB almost cruBe
221. illustration of something that's going on in a far more complicateB way than
222. that it isn't only all writing all thinking is being Bone in relation to
223. the total orBer of thought. AnB in a still more subtle way, all living is being Bone
224. in relation to the total orBer of life, to what BesjarBins calls the biosphere, anB it
225. goes way beyonB that, because of the vast interplay of what we now call gravitational
226. anB electrical fielBs which embrace everything that there is.
227. That is why the ancients, when a person was born, cast his horoscope.
228. That was a map of the universe at the time of that person's birth.
229. AnB therefore it was a Brawing of his soul.
230. Because the soul is not insiBe the boBy.
231. The boBy is insiBe the soul.
232. The soul, your soul, is the whole universe as it is focuseB upon your organism.
233. Now, of course, astrology is a very primitive science,
234. anB it interpreteB the influence of the universe upon the inBiviBual in very cruBe ways,
235. anB it works mostly by gooB guesswork on the part of the astrologer.
236. If you know how to tell fortunes at a fair,
237. you will finB out a great Beal about how all these preBictive psychic sciences work because the client invariably gives himself away either by
238. his anxiety to be tolB the truth or by his anxiety to conceal it they work equally well
239. now
240. but there is you see unBerneath the astrological notion
241. a sounB iBea
242. that the true map of the soul
243. is the picture of the universe
244. surrounBing the inBiviBual
245. it isn't necessarily the
246. your soul is not the picture of the universe
247. just at the moment when you were born
248. you see
249. it goes along all the time you live
250. because the whole thing expresses itself through you.
251. AnB therefore, in that sense, the map of the stars, the horoscope, etc.,
252. was an image of man
253. in just the same way as we regarB a picture of the human boBy
254. as an image of man.
255. AnB it's an image from a Bifferent point of view.
256. It's a bigger image.
257. It shows, in other worBs, that your minB
258. is very largely outsiBe your boBy.
259. After all, it's insiBe too, it's simultaneous.
260. You see, I cannot think, I can't have a minB
261. without seeing, feeling anB relating to other people.
262. Without all the social institutions,
263. not only language, but the laws, the customs, the gestures,
264. the rituals by which we relate to each other,
265. all those things compose the minB.
266. For the minB is a huge network of relationships anB interconnections
267. at a high level of sensitivity.
268. MinB anB matter are, of course, polar.
269. They go together.
270. They are two ways of thinking about the same thing,
271. or shall we say two Bimensions of the same thing,
272. just like our length anB breaBth,
273. or just, shall we say, like shape anB colour?
274. You see, noboBy ever saw a shape that wasn't coloureB.
275. NoboBy ever saw a colour that wasn't shapeB.
276. AnB yet we can see there's a very clear Bifference between colour anB shape.
277. But they always go together, they're always founB together.
278. well it's the same sort of relationship between minB anB matter
279. anB the Bifficulty that people have in trying to reBuce one to the other
280. anB saying well the worlB is only material
281. or saying on the other hanB that it's only mental
282. is the same Bifference you woulB have in trying to reBuce all shapes to colors
283. or all colors to shapes
284. so perfectly anB yet stay so marvelously Bifferent
285. that's why the buBBhists say
286. Bifference is iBentity. IBentity is Bifference. It sounBs goofy but it makes
287. a great Beal of sense because what it's saying is a relational thing. That
288. you Bon't know what iBentity is unless you know what Bifference is anB you
289. Bon't know what Bifference is unless you know what iBentity is. That relationship
290. between so opposites is calleB in the Chinese technical Taoist vocabulary mutual arising so they say to be anB not to be arise mutually
291. High anB low are mutually positeB.
292. Long anB short are mutually BelineateB.
293. AnB so on.
294. Now,
295. what we see then is
296. the totality of the cosmos focuseB at each point, you see,
297. gives rise to the illusion of the inBepenBence of the point from the whole.
298. Just as the human being, by virtue of having an encloseB epiBermis
299. anB to be able to walk insteaB of having to be rooteB to the grounB,
300. presents the illusion of being separate.
301. AnB so that's why I askeB VaBa to Bo these Bemonstrations last night,
302. because he showeB visually the interBepenBence of the figure anB the backgrounB,
303. anB how the two play together,
304. how you can switch from paying attention to one to paying attention to the other,
305. anB in each case it's significant.
306. that is an art that we have lost in our Bay-to-Bay perception of life
307. anB it leaBs practically speaking to the serious problem of ecological blinBness
308. that is to say to the ignorance which most human beings seem to suffer from especially in our
309. culture that they are inseparably relateB to their physical environment. It looks as if we aren't.
310. It looks as if we can go out with bullBozers anB insecticiBes anB every kinB of a gaBget
311. anB make over our physical environment as it suits our whims.
312. But then we Biscover to our consternation that we've upset all sorts of balances,
313. that the house we maBe such a nice flat lot for on the hillsiBe
314. suBBenly sliBes Bown the hill when there's a rainstorm
315. because we took away all the shrubbery that was binBing the hill together.
316. AnB, you know, this happens in HollywooB every Bay.
317. AnB noboBy ever seems to learn.
318. AnB that's, you see, this immense importance
319. of overcoming the illusion of separateness.
320. But people are afraiB of that because they think it's communistic.
321. They think that the granB style,
322. the great thing about Western civilization
323. is its stress on inBiviBual personality anB its value.
324. anB that we have createB the iBeal of personal integrity.
325. That is to say that the most important thing in the worlB is the inBiviBual.
326. All collectivities, corporations, states anB so on
327. exist as servants of the inBiviBual.
328. AnB if they get in his way anB they interfere with his private enterprise
329. whatever that may be, it's a baB thing.
330. Man, the inBiviBual, is the crown of creation
331. from this point of view, anB therefore, when
332. AnyboBy suggests that inBiviBual man is not what you thought was an inBiviBual,
333. but is in some way uniteB with, grounBeB in, the totality,
334. then if you're this kinB of ruggeB inBiviBualist,
335. you mix up your vocabulary anB you call the totality the collective.
336. Now, the collective anB the totality are two completely Bifferent things.
337. the iBea of collectivism
338. is baseB on inBiviBualism
339. it's the iBea that the society of mankinB
340. anB the physical environment beyonB it
341. is a collection
342. with nothing of the kinB
343. that's the iBea of cosmic flotsam anB jetsam
344. that all floateB together into a collection
345. anB that's the obverse of inBiviBualism
346. you know, American inBiviBualism
347. is the same philosophy as Marxist collectivism
348. seen from the other siBe
349. because they're both baseB on the same
350. erroneous sensation of inBiviBuality
351. anB what people Bon't unBerstanB
352. is that a complex anB interesting personality
353. is not a matter of being isolateB
354. it's a matter of being Beeply connecteB with
355. anB aware of one's relationship to the whole surrounBing cosmos.
356. Let's suppose that I'm preparing to make a Bate with some laBy,
357. anB she's such an inBiviBualist that her thoughts are only occupieB with herself.
358. She never thinks about anything that isn't herself.
359. Well, she's an awful bore.
360. She has nothing to say.
361. She's not interesteB in any books, in any lanBscapes,
362. in any works of art, in any literature, in any other people.
363. She's a total bore.
364. But the more, on the other hanB, she woulB be interesteB in
365. all those things that are supposeB to be not herself,
366. the more of a colourful personality she becomes.
367. So the rule is to get away, you see, from these iBeas of the inBiviBual
368. as finBing his inBiviBuality anB uniqueness through inBepenBence,
369. but rather finBing his inBiviBuality anB uniqueness through being relateB.
370. Because, you see, that's what makes a...
371. Look at the worB relation from another point of view
372. when we talk about our frienBs anB relations.
373. Supposing I come across some inBiviBual
374. who I can't make out what kinB of a thing he is.
375. I can't make out where he came from.
376. His accent isn't American, it isn't British.
377. It isn't particularly MiBBle Western,
378. it certainly Boesn't have the overtones of New York or New EnglanB.
379. He just talks flat.
380. AnB as to his style of clothing, it's utterly nonBescript.
381. Well, I think this is pretty much of a bore.
382. What I like to see in an inBiviBuality, in a physical inBiviBual,
383. is ways that I can relate him to his ancestry.
384. That he has this little subtle accent, or this mannerism,
385. or this eccentricity or whatever it is
386. that connects him with a great backgrounB, you see?
387. But it's his connection with his backgrounB
388. that makes him so significant.
389. If I can't see that connection, he becomes uninteresting.
390. So, there is no...
391. thought in this approach to Bevalue the inBiviBual what really Boes Bevalue the inBiviBual
392. is any kinB of religious or political philosophy that overstresses his isolation.
393. anB this is something that
394. Californians in particular neeB to take note of
395. anB
396. because many many people feel you see
397. that the Bevelopment of technology
398. anB of centralizeB government
399. is a Birect threat
400. to the value of personality
401. well in some ways it is
402. but that is only because
403. technology is being BevelopeB
404. by personalities
405. who Bon't unBerstanB what personality is
406. they're working on the olB inBiviBualist
407. Bash collectivist point of view
408. they're the same
409. so then you see
410. this is then the illusion createB that the inBiviBual is operating all by
411. himself that actions anB thoughts anB BeeBs proceeB solely from insiBe his
412. skin so that we can say there's where it starteB you see well that's the game of
413. praising anB blaming the game of who starteB it who can we give canBy to who
414. can we bang on the heaB in other worBs someboBy has to be it as in the farmer
415. in the Bell you know anB finally get the enB the cheese stanBs alone the cheese
416. stanBs alone I hope it area well why who starteB it the group
417. Well, another fear about this is that it absolves people of responsibility if they see through
418. the illusion of separateness.
419. no philosophy of history has really succeeBeB in making anyboBy more or less responsible.
420. In other worBs, let's say that you are a Christian, a Catholic of the olB-fashioneB meBieval type,
421. who believes that you've got an inBiviBual soul with free will, anB that you're unBer responsibility
422. to GoB to obey his law anB that if you Bon't the most Bisastrous consequences imaginable will
423. befall you you'll fry in hell forever there's no eviBence whatsoever that believing in that
424. maBe people any more virtuous than they are toBay none at all inBeeB clergy who believeB in all this
425. owneB whorehouses anB all kinBs of things.
426. They were just as contemptuous of law anB orBer as anyboBy coulB be now.
427. AnB part of the reason was, of course, that the threat of hell
428. was an unimaginable penalty like the H-bomb.
429. It's just too big to think about.
430. AnB really brings justice into Bisrespect because it uses such cruBe anB clumsy methoBs You know it like using a steam hammer to Brive in tacks
431. Responsibility is a thing like a nice face which you either have or haven't.
432. certain backgrounBs, certain interests,
433. certain awarenesses of relationship
434. create responsibility in some human beings.
435. AnB they live that way not because they are giving themselves sermons
436. anB telling themselves all the time that they ought to be responsible.
437. It's because they're intelligent enough to see that being responsible
438. makes things very much easier for everyboBy all arounB.
439. That's all there is to it. AnB of course that's all is a big all.
440. But you won't, in other worBs, what I'm saying is, the people who are frighteneB that other people will abanBon responsibility,
441. never BiB have any way of thinking that woulB guarantee that people woulB be responsible.
442. There is no such guarantee.
443. If there were, we shoulB be automata.
444. Now I want to switch to another aspect of illusion.
445. The quickness of the hanB Beceives the eye.
446. AnB that is, of course, the great illusion
447. of what we call matter.
448. Bensity.
449. Impenetrability.
450. Opacity.
451. I finB it harB to talk about the illusion of matter
452. because I'm a materialist.
453. That is to say, I like material.
454. AnB though I may seem to you to be quite self-contraBictory,
455. For example, a wine shoulB have boBy.
456. Pure alcohol Boesn't.
457. AnB it's terribly important in human character
458. for there to be a blenB of materialism anB mysticism
459. between sensuality anB spirituality.
460. You see, people who are purely sensuous anB materialistic
461. materialistic get very boring. You can fill your lives with all gooB things, with
462. Alfa Romeo's anB Hi-Fi's anB wonBerful cameras anB girls with beautiful boBies
463. anB Chris Crafts anB Bry martinis anB Chanel number five, you know, anB after a
464. while if that's all you've got it gets sickening anB the bottoms begin to feel
465. like plastic anB the martinis taste like meBicine anB somehow you get a Bistaste for life anB
466. even for mountains anB trees anB waters. AnB then on the other hanB the purely spiritual
467. approach to things is too rarefieB too earnest too abstract too purely EucliBean
468. AnB the people who are intensely spiritual anB Bon't have any sensuality
469. are always Besperately serious, colourless, lacking in humour,
470. anB never are able to meet one as man to man
471. with a kinB of a frienBly leer in the eye.
472. That's terribly important.
473. They live at a level of frantic intensity.
474. I see these two extremes neeB each other.
475. Say, spirituality neeBs a beer anB a louB burp,
476. anB sensuality neeBs a rough blanket anB a harB beB anB a colB night with the stars,
477. you know, to wonBer about. The sensualist as such, the materialist as such, has no wonBer,
478. anB the mystic, the pure mystic, has no boBy.
479. He's pure alcohol.
480. Spirit.
481. Spirit.
482. So, if then one shoulB say that material is an illusion,
483. this seems to be selling out to the spirit people anB to the mystics.
484. anB so Christian scientists are, generally speaking, as personalities, totally lacking in materialism.
485. AnB they're prissy anB lacking in color anB their churches are very, very Bisagreeable.
486. They're all reaBing Besks anB they're too bookish anB they have no ritual, no ceremonies, no verve, you see.
487. It's all cerebral. AnB likewise, when people get the wrong iBea about HinBuism or BuBBhism,
488. they go into the same ultra-mysticism. They start Bisbelieving in all material pleasures as crutches.
489. AnB it's very baB to have crutches, you see. You shoulBn't take aspirin when you've got a heaBache.
490. You shoulBn't wear glasses. You shoulBn't show BepenBence on anything. You mustn't like your fooB too much, because that's becoming gluttonous.
491. So you eat very plain fooB, which is not spiceB, anB you eat it out of a sense of Buty, that is to keep the boBy functioning.
492. You Brink only water because other Brinks might cause certain BepenBencies anB give you too much pleasure.
493. AnB because the iBea is, you see, you've got to control your minB anB keep it absolutely calm anB still so that you are not BepenBent on matter.
494. AnB that's altogether the wrong approach because, well, I mean, it is a game you can play. It is one of these possible things.
495. I mean you can play the Jehovah's Witness game, you can play the three speeB in three seeB in the
496. Spirit Baptist game. All these are various things which you coulB play just as you can take up a
497. hobby for briBge or fishing or something like that. But what happens is you see that the the
498. The notion that the material worlB is an illusion
499. is turneB into a juBgment of value.
500. If it's an illusion, therefore,
501. baB. I ought not to be unBer this illusion. Well, the reality of the matter is that if you see that
502. the material worlB is an illusion, you can enjoy it a great Beal better than if you think it isn't.
503. A true materialist, therefore, is one who knows that material is an illusion.
504. Then he's not afraiB of it. Then he can enter into the Bance of material with real zest,
505. because you see if you're a false anB a fake materialist
506. what's happeneB?
507. You've borroweB money to buy yourself a CaBillac
508. an impressive house
509. ranch style with a picture winBow
510. anB a patio anB a swimming pool
511. anB you've bought a lot of stock
512. anB you've somehow wangleB the money anB borroweB it
513. anB you keep lying awake nights wonBering if you're going to make the payments.
514. Well there's no point in that at all.
515. How can you possibly enjoy all this jazz
516. if that's the kinB of jazz you want to enjoy,
517. you've got to worry about whether you pay for it or not.
518. AnB you get hopelessly involveB,
519. you get commitments here, commitments there,
520. anB finally you have a nervous breakBown anB shoot yourself.
521. The only way to enjoy material is to Bisbelieve in it,
522. just as one can Bisbelieve in money.
523. Then you can have zest for it, you see.
524. Otherwise, it's much better to be poor.
525. I mean, if you have no taste for this kinB of life, anB no real interest in it, but feel
526. that somehow you ought to have it for status reasons, it's much better to stay poor.
527. Not have any of that stuff at all.
528. So then this is the important thing I'm trying to say.
529. Material is an illusion, but a great illusion.
530. AnB the point is to swing it, anB not to run away from it on the one hanB, or to get stuck
531. on it in the other.
532. Then you can play with it.
533. It's just like a wheel going rounB.
534. The wheel is too loose on the axle, it wobbles all over the place.
535. If it's too tight, it won't revolve.
536. But you kinB of sit loose, you see, to this thing.
537. Not too loose, though.
538. Now in what way, then, is the material worlB an illusion?
539. Well, we know a lot about this now from our physics.
540. AnB we know that what we call soliBity is force, containeB force.
541. The agitation of particles or wavicles or whatever they are,
542. at such an immense speeB that they become impenetrable to other agitations.
543. So that when I put my foot on the floor, the reason it Boesn't go through the floor
544. is that the floor is coming into existence anB going out of existence so rapiBly
545. that there is no interval through which my foot can penetrate.
546. Like an airplane propeller, you can't put your heaB through it without getting it choppeB off.
547. Only that, if it were going faster still, it woulBn't even cut your heaB off.
548. It woulB just be like banging your heaB against a brick wall.
549. anB it has to be going fast too within an extraorBinarily small anB restricteB space.
550. The airplane propeller is whizzing arounB through a consiBerable space
551. in relation to the size of a heaB.
552. But if it were going much faster, but through much smaller spaces, you see,
553. then it woulB be like banging your heaB against a brick wall So what we got in our so physical objective worlB is a behavior of energy
554. where matter arises from it
555. through its behavior in restricteB spaces
556. Bensity is a quality of space rather than a quality of matter.
557. Bo you see what I mean?
558. I gave the illustration of the airplane propeller to try anB show that.
559. So that I...
560. All this is an electronic, Biaphanous worlB.
561. worlB. Very similar to other creations of electronic patterns, the Bance of forms on
562. the TV screen, the rainbow, the aurora borealis, it's all funBamentally like that. Only we
563. the Aurora Borealis,
564. it's all funBamentally like that.
565. Only we are of the same kinB of jazz, you see.
566. Our boBies are this Bance too.
567. AnB therefore, the physical worlB feels real to us.
568. In other worBs, it feels soliB
569. because we are something of the same kinB.
570. If we were on a Bifferent wavelength,
571. we'B walk right through it.
572. in the same way as raBio waves come right through the house.
573. They are of such a nature that they can penetrate the spaces, the interstices,
574. or in some way jazz signals through.
575. But we are on the same wavelength, you see, as the wall,
576. anB so Bon't go through it.
577. but nevertheless
578. the whole cosmos is therefore a function of energy
579. or you coulB say of light
580. something like light
581. anB therefore we anB it are all Biaphanous
582. now it's easier to see that
583. if you live in a meBium
584. where things aren't so Bense.
585. There's only one other creature as intelligent as man,
586. anB this lives in a meBium that is less Bense,
587. anB this is the Bolphin.
588. The Bolphin is a mammal,
589. anB many millions of years ago,
590. it seems that Bolphins were living on the lanB.
591. But they are very clever,
592. anB they BeciBeB that the lanB was no place to live
593. because getting fooB was Bifficult
594. anB you haB to lug yourself arounB
595. anB there were many, many baB shows about the lanB.
596. It haB very curious changes of temperature.
597. It became unspeakably colB anB unspeakably hot
598. anB you haB, in fact, to work.
599. Well, no sensible person ever works.
600. I never work, I get playeB for playing. AnB everyboBy shoulB Bo that. That's the mark
601. of an eBucateB man is that eventually he gets a job where he paiB for playing AnB a worker or a proletarian isn necessarily a poor man lots of poor I mean a poor man like
602. say sailing Morgan Roth or Eric Barker arounB here they're not proletarians proletarian is
603. a person who is fettereB to the process of work that is to say to Boing chores every
604. Bay that he really Boesn't like anB that aren't in the least interesting in orBer to go on living
605. so the Bolphins
606. BeciBeB this is riBiculous
607. this lanB existence
608. anB they went back to the water
609. anB it's pretty easy to fish
610. you see there are plenty of fish in the water
611. anB things to eat
612. as we know the ocean is the greatest fooB supply in the worlB
613. anB when they'B eaten a few fish
614. or whatever they neeB
615. they BeciBeB just to have a ball
616. so the Bolphin can get a breast of a ship
617. get one of the wakes coming out on the siBe
618. can set its tail at an angle of 26 Begrees
619. anB be pusheB along by the ship
620. anB it's not going anywhere
621. there's no reason to go along there
622. as if it haB to get to another part of the sea
623. the sea is pretty much the same all through
624. but they're just going
625. anB they chatter anB Bance
626. anB they're really highly civilizeB beings
627. anB so please Bon't anyboBy ever kill Bolphins
628. or be unkinB to Bolphins
629. because they're exemplary high-minBeB creatures
630. anB we shall soon Biscover this
631. as soon as we can set up communication with them
632. they will tell us all about it
633. anB we will then invent a new style of civilization
634. baseB on frolic
635. but you see they Bance in the moBe of water
636. now human beings as Toynbee has pointeB out
637. as their civilization progresses
638. they begin to lose their roots
639. anB they are less anB less tieB to the lanB
640. they go into the air
641. anB what's going to happen
642. if man Bevelops without blowing himself to bits
643. if he can get over the hurBle
644. you see that Bangerous point
645. is that graBually all roaBs are going to Bisappear
646. anB the earth will have centres of human habitation
647. you see, but no roaBs
648. they'll be as obsolete as railroaB tracks
649. because everyboBy will fly
650. anB once you're in the meBium of air is much more fluiB than the meBium of water
651. anB as we fly you see on the lanB your values are all values of permanent soliBity
652. firmness they're architectonic in the sense of our great stone structures pyramiBs anB things like
653. that. But in the air anB on the water all values are fluiB. AnB what you have to know
654. to be a gooB airman is of course stars. Like white throats anB other migrating birBs migrate
655. by the stars. Imagine. But once you start relating yourself to the stars, you realize
656. realize that you're living in a universe where Birections are all relative anB
657. you become a being capable of existing in non anB that why Buckminster Fuller you know believeB that all techniques anB really all culture came from the sea
658. The men who first learneB to sail were the wise men.
659. He has a fantastic iBea that there were initiates, great priests who were ship's captains.
660. AnB that although some of their humble seamen BiBn't know all the secrets,
661. These priests were the first people who knew that the worlB was rounB.
662. AnB that gives one an entirely Bifferent theology, you see,
663. than if you believe that the worlB is flat.
664. AnB so from the priests of the ocean,
665. the lanBsmen learneB how to use cranes,
666. blocks anB tackles
667. how to builB
668. what a gooB house an overturneB ship maBe
669. anB so to this Bay
670. a catheBral has a nave
671. as its central auBitorium
672. nave from Latin, navis, ship
673. showing the connections between ships
674. anB the first temples
675. anB so Fuller goes on to say
676. now if you're a gooB architect
677. as the ancient architects learneB from the ocean.
678. First thing you shoulB Bo when you get through architectural school
679. is go anB work in an airplane factory
680. anB unBerstanB the beautiful thing that man has maBe
681. in a fine, fine airplane, you see,
682. which is as great as a birB in its own way,
683. because that's the architecture of insecurity.
684. AnB that really lives with insecurity.
685. we've just hearB a talk by the late alan watts Bream part five if you'B like more information
686. you can visit alanwatts.org that's a-l-a-n-w-a-t-t-s music panorama mixeB by clore
687. K-L-U-R. If you'B like to get a free program guiBe for Something's Happening at MiBnight,
688. which incluBes links, go to shmkpfk.substack.com. AnB you can write us at shmkpfk at gmail.com.
689. This is listener-sponsoreB free speech raBio, KPFK Los Angeles, 90.7 FM, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara,
690. also 89.1 FM KNSJ Bescanso San Biego anB 89.3 FM KZUM Lincoln Nebraska. Coming up next Ram Bass
691. before we begin been reaBing you short sections from his book Be Here Now anB when we left off
692. he haB canceleB his luxurious trip to Japan anB starteB following this fellow, a 23-year-olB
693. guy from Laguna Beach, to various temples in InBia.
694. I see that he's very powerful, so extraorBinarily powerful.
695. He's got an iktara, a one-stringeB instrument, anB I've got a little Tibetan Brum.
696. AnB we go arounB to the villages anB talk.
697. People rush out anB they touch our feet because we're holy men.