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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4987425 No.4987425 [Reply] [Original]

What /sci/ think of Alan Watts?

He said this that resonated with me: "you yourself are the eternal energy that appears as this universe. You didn't come into this world; you came out of it.

Like a wave from the ocean".

Is the universe and energy infinite?

I use to like Watts until I discovered that he said: "I'm a philosophical entertainer" not an academic. I am disheartened now to listen to any of his lectures.

>> No.4987438

Who?

>> No.4987445

You dislike Watts for not gaining his wisdom from akademia? How about you fuck off and die? Yes.

>> No.4987451

>>4987445
I never said I "dislike" him. But he didn't even get a degree in philosophy or anything.

And when he makes a comment like that, you really question the sincerity of his ponderings.

>> No.4987455

>>4987445
>akademia

>> No.4987458

>>4987451
>DUDE! SOCRATES NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL!

>laughing sophists

>> No.4987463

Why does /sci/ like Watts?

>> No.4987464

>>4987458
b-b-but he's different

>> No.4987469
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4987469

>>4987425
>Studied religion
>Found Buddhism suited him better
>used these to make TV, radio and public appearances to show people what he found
>claimed to be an entertainer for this reason

>> No.4987470

>>4987464
>What do you mean, "nietzschian philosophy"? Everybody knows the man was just a philologist!

>> No.4987473

>>4987469
What?
That's absolute horseshit. He was lecturing at the University of California and students were asking him difficult questions to which he responded: "I'm a philosophical entertainer".

>> No.4987476

>mfw this was my main concern: Is the universe and energy infinite?
>mfw I have no face

>> No.4987502
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4987502

>>4987473
>Studied religion, Catholicism
>Became Buddhist
>Was a public figure
Which part? The sources you can't cite?

>> No.4987507

>>4987476
I don't think he meant it litteraly. That would be a scientific claim. the "eternal" part, I think, is more to be understood like the changing of the universe, how the interaction of universal "energies" or powers, or material stuff, is in eternal flux. Infinite in time, rather than space. At least, that fits more into buddhist beliefs than the other way around. You didn't come "into" the world, no new "energy" was added, the stuff that is you was already there. It just rearanged into you. As the ocean is not eternal in scope, and a wave is not made out of nothing, but parts seawater and currents and gravity and what have you.

But I'm just talking semantics, honestly.

>> No.4987520

>>4987502
>claimed to be an entertainer for this reason
That's wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

>fails to provide sources to back-up his shitposting
>b-b-but wikipedia isn't a source!

Faggot.

>> No.4987524

>>4987507
Thanks. I was turning his philosophical pandering into a scientific question of whether the universe and/or energy is infinite.

>> No.4987526

>Wish I could be like Alan Watts
>bababababa ba ba ba

>> No.4987527

>>4987520
>CTRL+F "I'm a philosophical entertainer"
>0 results
whelp

>> No.4987528

>>4987527
>can't into navigating
>can't into reading

You're a moron. Stop typing.

>> No.4987530

>>4987527
idiot
"When questioned sharply by students during his talk at University of California Santa Cruz in 1970, Watts responded that he was not an academic philosopher but rather "a philosophical entertainer."

CTRL + F that before you embarrass yourself, further.

>> No.4987539

>>4987524
My pleasure. I'll be going, but I think I'll keep the tap open. This thread is going places.

>> No.4987547

>>4987530
>Doesn't know what questions he was asked

>> No.4987548

>>4987526
Did I not indicate that prior to acknowledging that statement I appreciated him?

>> No.4987553

>>4987547
>not reading in context
>not reading the 'critics' heading

Very thing argument you are running, anyway. Just stop being a stubborn turd and go flush yourself.

>> No.4987556

ITT: retarded atheists that don't understand zen

it's ok, if you couldn't handle christianity you definitely won't be able to handle zen

>> No.4987590

I've never been one for Zen. I come seeking information, and Zen is ideologically opposed to giving it. It's aim is to force you to find the information yourself.

I understand that there are some things you have to figure out for yourself, but I don't need an organization to help me. To each their own though.

I'm more of a Falun Gong kind of guy.

>> No.4987596

>>4987590
>zen
>organized religion
pick 1

>> No.4987651

Alan Watts is trying to say what Sagan said so poetically. You are the Universe experiencing itself subjectively. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.

For every inside, there is an outside. Front/Back, Up/Down etc. Although polar opposites, you can't have one without the other. It is only through contrast, you can make a comparison to something else. How can you know happiness without also experiencing sadness?

So in the same way, when you examine who "you" are, you come to realize you can't separate yourself from the "external" environment. You and the environment are one and the same. This is what Alan is talking about.

I dunno how many lectures you've listened to OP, but I dunno why you would be put off by the philosophical entertainer thing. Throughout all his teachings he tries to present an attitude and outlook to life that is not serious. He sees existence, us, the Universe as a "play", a cosmic dance. A wave waving.

I think his response was just his way of saying things. That he doesn't take himself or life seriously. So in this sense, he is an entertainer.

>> No.4987687

>>4987651
This is someone who has truly listened to Alan.

Bravo. Well put.

The lecture he gives once in a while you "What is You?" was absolutely earth shattering to me. The way he always refers to our personalities as chronic muscle tension in the face is awakening.

After making these magnificent points, which seek to tear down the "Ego", he also draws a connection between the english word Person with the greek word Persona, or "big goofy mask".

Alan Watts is necessary. Although he may not be a philosopher by a long shot, he was a translator.

The eastern philosophies have sort of been tucked away, unreachable by those who aren't intimate with the culture of the orient. Then, along comes Alan Watts, a well spoken englishman who is immersed in the philosophy and culture of Buddhism. His eloquent translation of eastern thought acted as the harbinger of non-western philosophy.

>> No.4987692

>>4987651
>>4987687

>Carl Sagan

Stopped reading there. Carl Sagan was an idiot.

>> No.4987743

>>4987596

There are Zen monasteries. While it's not organized like, say, the Catholic church, it's still an organized set of beliefs and rituals.

I'm simply saying that I don't need a larger community to help me gaze at my navel. I'm interested in such communities only if they have something to teach, which Zen really doesn't other then 'Pull my finger.'

>> No.4987760

>>4987687

Yeah, I somehow stumbled onto him through YT and listened to everything I could find. Then one day, I got my toke on, got blazed and listened to this:

Myth of Myself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQoHDXvsvw

TBH, it was absolutely mind blowing. The weed probably had something to do with it but it's still a very powerful lecture. I'd had some Pantheistic leanings before hand but this just sums it up in such a beautiful way.

There's something about Alan that I haven't found elsewhere. He just has a natural tendency to make the unexplainable and the unknowable perfectly explainable and knowable. He does it with such ease, almost effortlessly.

So, I ended up downloading a torrent with a fuckton more lectures of his and truly I must say, he's one of a kind. (unless he isn't, then please PLEASE direct me towards them) Leary, Rogan, Eckhart Tolle etc. just aren't the same.

>Carl Sagan was an idiot.
0/1000

>> No.4987775

>>4987760

>Implying SETI wasn't a waste of money

>Implying Nuclear Winter is anything but pseudoscientific politicized trash

-1/10