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Welcome to the Resilient Mind Podcast.

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In this episode, you will be listening to

0:37

You Are Not Your Mind, returning to the

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power of now with Alan Watts. Get

0:42

access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking

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the link in the show notes. Enjoy.

1:00

people who think all the time, the constant

1:03

chit -chat of symbols and

1:05

images and talk and

1:07

words inside your skull. Now,

1:10

if you do that all the time, you'll find

1:12

that you have nothing to think about except

1:14

thinking. And

1:17

just as you have to stop talking to hear what others

1:19

have to say, you have to

1:21

stop thinking to find out what life is

1:23

about. And

1:25

the moment you stop thinking, You

1:27

become into immediate contact with

1:30

what Korzybski called, so

1:32

delightfully, the unspeakable world, the

1:35

nonverbal world. Some

1:37

people would call it the

1:39

physical world, but these words, physical,

1:42

nonverbal, material, are all conceptual,

1:45

and is

1:48

not a concept. So

1:51

when you are awake

1:53

to that world, You

1:57

suddenly find that all the

1:59

so -called differences between

2:01

self and other, life

2:04

and death, pleasure

2:06

and pain, are

2:08

all conceptual and they're not there. They

2:11

don't exist at all. When

2:14

the old master

2:16

Yakujo was asked what is then, he

2:18

said, when hungry eat, when

2:20

tired sleep. But

2:23

they said, well, isn't that what everybody does? Aren't

2:25

you just like ordinary people? Oh, he said, no,

2:27

they don't do anything of the kind. When

2:29

they're hungry, they don't just eat. They think of all

2:31

sorts of things. When they're tired, they

2:33

don't just sleep, but dream all sorts of

2:35

dreams. We

2:38

have been running around far too

2:40

much. It's all right. We've

2:42

been active, and our action has achieved a lot

2:44

of good things. But

2:46

as Aristotle pointed out long ago, and this is

2:48

one of the good things about Aristotle, He

2:51

said the goal of action is

2:53

contemplation. In

2:55

other words, busy, busy,

2:57

busy, busy, busy, but what's it all about?

3:00

Especially when people are busy because

3:02

they think they're going somewhere. And

3:07

they're gonna get something and attain something. There's

3:11

quite a good deal of fun to action if

3:14

you know you're not going anywhere. If

3:16

you act like you dance or like you

3:18

sing or play music. Then you know

3:20

you're not going anywhere. You're just

3:22

doing pure action. But

3:25

if you act with the thought in mind that

3:27

as a result of action, you were eventually going

3:29

to arrive at some place where everything will be

3:31

all right. Then

3:34

you are on a squirrel cage, hopelessly

3:37

condemned to what the Buddhists call samsara,

3:41

the round or rat race

3:43

of birth and death. Because

3:46

you think you're going to get someone. You're

3:48

already there. But

3:51

the point is

3:53

that one cannot

3:56

act creatively except

3:58

on the basis of stillness, of

4:02

having a

4:04

mind that is from time

4:06

to time capable of stopping

4:08

thinking. And

4:11

so this

4:14

practice of sitting

4:16

may seem very difficult

4:18

at first because it If

4:21

you sit in the Buddhist way, it

4:23

makes your legs ache. Most

4:27

Westerners start

4:29

to fidget. They find it very boring to

4:31

sit for a long time. But

4:33

the reason they find it boring is that they're

4:35

still thinking. If you weren't

4:37

thinking, you wouldn't

4:39

notice the passage of time. And

4:44

as a matter of fact, far from being boring,

4:46

the world, when looked at

4:48

without chatter, becomes amazingly

4:51

interesting. The

4:53

most ordinary sights and sounds

4:56

and smells, the

4:58

texture of shadows on the floor in front

5:00

of you, all

5:02

these things without being named

5:04

and saying, that's a shadow,

5:06

that's red, that's brown, that's

5:08

somebody's foot. When you don't name

5:10

things any longer, you start seeing

5:13

them. You

5:16

see, if you force, sound

5:18

into five tones. You force color

5:20

into five colors. You're blind and

5:22

deaf. The world of

5:24

color is infinite, as is the world of

5:26

sound. And it is

5:28

only through stopping, fixing, conceptions on the world

5:30

of color and sound that you really

5:33

begin to hear it and see it. So

5:37

this, shall

5:39

I be so bold as to

5:41

use the word discipline of meditation

5:44

or zazen, lies behind

5:46

the extraordinary

5:48

capacity of

5:50

Zen people who develop

5:52

such great arts

5:54

as the

5:57

gardens, the tea

5:59

ceremony, the calligraphy,

6:02

and the grand painting of the

6:04

Sun dynasty and of the

6:06

Japanese sumi tradition. They

6:08

found in the very simplest things of

6:10

everyday life, magic.

6:13

In the words of the poet Hokoji, Marvelous

6:18

power and supernatural activity.

6:22

Drawing water. Carrying

6:24

wood. The

6:27

easiest way to stop thinking

6:29

is first of all to think about something that

6:31

doesn't have any meaning. Or

6:34

listening to a sound

6:36

that has no meaning. Because

6:38

that stops you thinking because you become

6:40

fascinated in the sound. Comes

6:43

a point when the sound is

6:45

taken away and you're wide open. Now,

6:49

at that point, there will

6:51

be a kind of preliminary,

6:53

so -called satori, and

6:56

you will think, wowee, that's it.

6:59

You'll be so happy you'll be walking on

7:01

air. When Suzuki Daisetsu was

7:03

asked what is it like to have

7:05

satori, he said, well, it's like

7:07

ordinary everyday experience, except about

7:09

two inches off the ground. From

7:12

this standpoint of Buddhism, there

7:14

is no fundamental difference between... the

7:18

transcendental world and this everyday

7:20

world. The

7:22

Bodhisattva, you see, who doesn't go

7:24

off into a nirvana and

7:26

stay there forever and ever but

7:28

comes back and lives ordinary

7:30

everyday life to help other beings to

7:33

see through it too, he

7:35

doesn't come back because he feels he

7:37

has some sort of solemn duty to

7:39

help mankind and all that kind of

7:41

pious can't. He

7:43

comes back because he sees the two worlds are

7:46

the same. He

7:49

sees all other beings as

7:51

Buddhas. He sees

7:53

them to use

7:55

a phrase of G .K. Chesterton's, but

7:58

now a great thing in the street seems

8:00

any human nod where move

8:02

in strange democracy the million

8:04

masks of God. The

8:09

world has seen in

8:11

an ordinary everyday

8:13

state of consciousness to

8:15

find out that that is really no

8:17

different from the world. of supreme

8:19

ecstasy. Because here is

8:21

the light, that brilliant,

8:23

blazing energy, brighter

8:26

than a thousand suns, which is locked up

8:28

in everything. Now imagine this. Imagine

8:31

you're sieged. Vivid,

8:33

vivid light, so bright. It's

8:36

beyond light. It's so

8:38

bright. And you

8:40

watch it receding from you. And

8:43

on the edge is like a great star

8:45

that becomes a rim of red. And

8:49

beyond that, a rim of orange,

8:51

yellow, green,

8:55

blue, indigo, violet.

8:58

You see this great mandala appearing, this

9:00

great sun. And beyond

9:02

the violet, there's black, black, like

9:04

obsidian, not flat black, but

9:06

transparent black, like lacquer. And

9:09

again, blazing out of

9:11

the black as

9:14

the yang comes from

9:16

the yin, maurite. going,

9:19

going, going. And

9:22

along with this light, there

9:24

comes sound. There's

9:27

a sound so tremendous with the white light

9:29

that you can't hear it. So

9:33

piercing that it seems to annihilate

9:35

the ears. But

9:38

then along with the colors, the

9:40

sound goes down the scale

9:42

in harmonic intervals, down, down, down,

9:44

down, until it gets to a

9:46

deep, thundering bass. which

9:49

is so vibrant that in turn it

9:51

turns into something solid, and you

9:53

begin to get the similar spectrum of

9:55

textures. Now

9:57

all this time you've been watching a kind

9:59

of thing radiating out, but

10:02

it says, you know, this isn't all I can do, and

10:05

the rays start going yo -ee,

10:07

yo -ee, yo -ee, yo -ee,

10:09

dancing like this, and naturally

10:11

the sound starts going waving too

10:13

as it comes out. And

10:15

then the textures start varying

10:18

themselves. And they say, well,

10:20

you've been looking at this thing as I've been

10:22

describing it so far in a flat dimension.

10:24

Let's add a third dimension. It's going to come

10:26

right at you now, see, this way. And

10:29

meanwhile, it says, it's not just that we're

10:31

going to go ewewewewe like this. We're going to

10:33

do little curly cues. We're going to go,

10:35

could you, could you, could you like this?

10:37

And then suddenly you see in all the little

10:39

details that become so intense. that all kinds

10:41

of little sub -figures are contained within what you

10:43

thought were originally the main figure, and

10:45

the sound starts going all different, amazing,

10:47

complexities of sound all over the place,

10:49

and this thing's going, going, going, and

10:51

you think you're gonna go out of

10:53

your mind, and suddenly it turns into, why,

10:57

us, sitting around here. When

11:00

we say to ourselves, you

11:03

must go up, the reason

11:05

is, you see, that

11:08

we are not living in the eternal now. where

11:12

reality is. We

11:15

are always thinking that the satisfaction of

11:17

life will be coming later. Don't

11:21

kid yourself. Only

11:23

suckers put hope

11:25

in the future. There isn't much

11:27

of a future. You're

11:29

gonna die. So,

11:32

therefore, this hope for

11:34

the future is a hoax. It's

11:37

a perfect hoax. Because

11:40

you're not fully alive now, you

11:43

think maybe someday you will be. Look,

11:47

supposing I ask you, what did you do yesterday? First,

11:51

we will say, well, I got

11:53

up at 7 .30, and I

11:56

brushed my teeth, and

11:58

I read the newspaper over a cup

12:00

of coffee. And

12:03

then I looked at the saw

12:05

and dressed, and... Got

12:08

in the car and drove downtown and did

12:10

this and that in the office and

12:12

so on and you go on and on

12:14

and on and you suddenly discover that

12:16

what you've described has absolutely nothing to do

12:18

with what You've described a

12:20

fleshless list of

12:22

abstractions Whereas

12:25

if you were actually aware

12:27

of what went on

12:29

You could never

12:31

describe it because nature

12:34

is multi -dimensional

12:36

Language is linear. Language

12:39

is scrawny. And

12:42

therefore, if you identify the world as it

12:44

is with the way the world is described, it's

12:47

as if you were trying to eat dollar

12:49

bills and expect a nutritious diet. Or

12:53

eat numbers. A lot of people

12:55

eat numbers. People play the stock

12:57

market. They're doing nothing but eating

12:59

numbers. They're

13:02

always unhappy. Absolutely

13:04

miserable. Because they

13:06

never get anything so therefore

13:08

they always hope more

13:10

is coming Because they

13:12

believe that if they eat

13:14

enough dollar bills eventually

13:16

something satisfactory will

13:19

happen So eating the

13:21

abstractions all the time we

13:23

want more more

13:25

more time Confucius very

13:27

wisely said a

13:30

man who understands the Dow in the

13:32

morning may die with

13:34

content in the evening. Because

13:36

when you understand, you

13:39

don't put your hope in time. Time

13:43

won't solve a thing. And

13:47

the Christian word for sinning in

13:50

Greek is a matani, which

13:53

means to miss the point. And

13:56

the point is eternal life, which

13:59

is here and now. But

14:01

until there is silence of the mind, it

14:05

is almost impossible to

14:07

understand eternal life,

14:11

that is to say, eternal now. When

14:14

you are fully aware

14:17

and not thinking, you

14:20

will notice some amazing

14:23

absences. There

14:26

is no past. Can

14:30

you hear anything past, incidentally? Can

14:33

you hear anything future? They're

14:37

just not there to the plain sense

14:39

of one's ears. Well,

14:42

I remember in the Sermon on the

14:44

Mount that Jesus said that there

14:46

are a lot of things about this. Consider

14:50

the lilies of the field how they grow.

14:52

They toil not neither did they spin, and

14:54

yet Soleiman in all his glory

14:56

was not clothed like one of these. And

15:00

if God so clothes the grass of the

15:02

field which today is, and tomorrow is cast

15:04

into the oven, shall he not much more

15:06

clothe you, faithless ones? Wow.

15:10

So do

15:12

not worry about tomorrow, saying what

15:14

shall we eat, what shall we drink,

15:16

or how shall we clothe ourselves, or the

15:18

rabble seeks after these things. Sufficient

15:23

to the day is the worry of it.

15:26

Nobody ever preaches a sermon on that

15:28

text. Never I've

15:31

heard lots of sermons

15:33

And never one on it

15:35

because people say That's

15:38

all very well because

15:40

Jesus was the boss

15:43

his son And and he knew

15:45

you see that he was really

15:47

in charge of the universe and he nothing

15:49

to worry about But

15:51

we have to be

15:53

practical Oh What

15:56

do you suppose the gospel was The

15:59

good news. Do

16:02

you know it never got out? You

16:04

too are the boss's son. That

16:08

was the gospel. Lots

16:10

of people in India know that perfectly

16:12

well. When you get to

16:14

be a certain age and after you've studied

16:17

long enough with a certain guru, then and

16:19

then only, may you realize

16:21

this. If you've put in the

16:23

time, they finally let you in. Here

16:26

you have to wait. until

16:29

dead. The

16:31

only place to begin is now. Because

16:35

here's where we are. So

16:38

why put it off? A

16:41

lot of people say, well, I'm not ready. I

16:43

mean, you're not ready. What do you have to be

16:45

to be ready? I'm

16:48

not good enough. I'm

16:51

perhaps not old

16:53

enough, not mature enough,

16:55

still frightened of pain.

16:57

I'm still dependent on

17:00

material things. I have

17:02

to, you know, eat a lot and drink

17:04

a lot. I better get all

17:06

that under control first. Oh?

17:12

You want to be able to

17:14

congratulate yourself for having gone through

17:16

the discipline, which

17:20

is rewarded with realization. That

17:23

is trying to... Quench

17:26

fire with fire. Wouldn't

17:28

it be great to have no fear? No

17:32

attachments, no hang -ups. To

17:35

be as free as the air. Wouldn't

17:39

it be crazy to have that courage? You

17:41

look at yourself honest. You

17:43

find that inside you're actually

17:45

a quaking mess of sensitivity.

17:47

Running away from the quaking

17:49

mess. Escaping. You

17:52

never can. There's

17:54

nothing. You can

17:56

actually do to

17:58

transform your

18:01

own nature into

18:03

unattached selflessness

18:06

because you have a selfish

18:08

reason for wanting to do it. What

18:11

does it mean that you can't do anything

18:13

about it? Singing

18:16

loud and clear. The reason you

18:18

can't do anything about it is that you don't exist. You,

18:24

as you conceive yourself to be, that is

18:26

your ego, your image of yourself, isn't there? It

18:28

doesn't exist. It's an

18:31

abstraction. Well, when you

18:33

understand that, you're liberated. There's

18:36

the happening, the suchness, yes. But

18:39

it's not pushing you around because there's

18:41

no you to be pushed around. This

18:45

illusion of the persecuted ego,

18:47

who is pushed around

18:49

by fate, it's all

18:52

together disappeared. And so,

18:54

in likewise, the illusion of

18:56

the ego who pushes fate around

18:58

has also disappeared. There's

19:00

a hot thing. By

19:04

dying to yourself, by

19:06

having become completely incompetent

19:09

and found that you don't

19:11

exist, you're reborn. You

19:13

become everything in the words

19:15

of Sir Edwin Arnold, foregoing self,

19:18

the universe grows high.

19:22

Thank you for tuning in. Continue

19:25

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