Don't Force Anything - Alan Watts — Transcript

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1. 0:00there is a principle called way
2. 0:06means none or not no
3. 0:11negation
4. 0:13way
5. 0:15has a combination of meanings it can
6. 0:17mean action
7. 0:19making
8. 0:21but the best translation I have found
9. 0:24for it is forcing
10. 0:27and so Louis is the principle of not
11. 0:30forcing
12. 0:32in anything that you do now we know when
13. 0:35we watch any performance of an artist be
14. 0:37it a dancer
15. 0:38or a an actor
16. 0:41or a musician
17. 0:43we know immediately when the performance
18. 0:45is forced
19. 0:47and we say it doesn't ring true it's too
20. 0:49artificial it doesn't seem to be natural
21. 0:53many people who study the Taoist
22. 0:56doctrines think that way means do
23. 1:00nothing
24. 1:03in the sense of laissez-faire be lazy
25. 1:06always be passive it doesn't mean that
26. 1:11there is a Time for Action when you
27. 1:14study Judo
28. 1:16[Music]
29. 1:17you use Muscle only at the right moment
30. 1:21when your opponent is hopelessly
31. 1:23overextended and off balance and you add
32. 1:25a little muscle to it and you throw him
33. 1:27across the room
34. 1:28but only then
35. 1:30you never use Muscle
36. 1:32at the wrong moment
37. 1:35for a Shakespeare knew perfectly well
38. 1:37there is a tide in the Affairs of men
39. 1:39which taken at its flood leads onto
40. 1:41Fortune
41. 1:43and so wu-way is based on knowledge of
42. 1:46the tide
43. 1:48the drift of things
44. 1:50get with it
45. 1:52wu-way is the art of sailing rather than
46. 1:56the art of rowing
47. 1:57[Music]
48. 2:00so one of the most famous sayings of Lao
49. 2:03in the laozer book
50. 2:07is superior virtue
51. 2:10has no intention to be virtuous
52. 2:13and thus
53. 2:15is virtually
54. 2:17inferior virtue cannot let go of
55. 2:21virtuosity
56. 2:23and thus is not good
57. 2:26so one could also say
58. 2:30the real woo way
59. 2:31[Music]
60. 2:33is not intentionally
61. 2:36and so is wool way
62. 2:38but inferior will we
63. 2:42so tries to be woo way that it isn't
64. 2:49in other words this is say is not a
65. 2:52matter of cultivated passivity
66. 2:56or even of cultivated spontaneity
67. 2:59because there are people
68. 3:01who think that they are released
69. 3:03[Music]
70. 3:05that they have realized that they are
71. 3:08the Tao
72. 3:09as all of us in fact are or that you are
73. 3:13to put it into vedanta terms every one
74. 3:15of us is the Brahman
75. 3:18the Eternal self of the universe beyond
76. 3:21all description or classification or
77. 3:23thought
78. 3:25and say okay baby I'm that now I'm gonna
79. 3:28have a ball
80. 3:30well what kind of a ball do they have
81. 3:34well what they do is they look up the
82. 3:36rules
83. 3:37on which society runs and do the
84. 3:39opposite
85. 3:42well that's still running by the rules
86. 3:43of society and it's the mirror image in
87. 3:46Reverse that's not spontaneity
88. 3:48you have to be able to realize that you
89. 3:52don't know what you really want to do
90. 3:56until you are very quiet
91. 3:59and it tells you
92. 4:02see we are in heaven now
93. 4:05because the Earth is a spaceship
94. 4:09and Heaven is space
95. 4:12what is called in Chinese kung Japanese
96. 4:15goo
97. 4:16the void
98. 4:18that's what is important
99. 4:20most of us
100. 4:22don't know this
101. 4:24space it comes down to space always
102. 4:28space
103. 4:30which nobody can Define nobody can
104. 4:32imagine appears to be nothing
105. 4:35is the foundation of the universe
106. 4:38but
107. 4:40you have to become again as a child to
108. 4:42see that
109. 4:44are Europe go back to your childhood
110. 4:46what were the fascinating things
111. 4:50what's out there
112. 4:52what's beyond the stars
113. 4:55how long does it go on
114. 4:58and Mama Said
115. 5:00it goes on always and always and always
116. 5:04the child wonders it's excited
117. 5:08that this is something that never ends
118. 5:11then the child asked about time
119. 5:13how long ago is long ago
120. 5:17well the Bible says that in the
121. 5:20beginning God created the Heaven and the
122. 5:21Earth but what did God do before he did
123. 5:23that
124. 5:25well as one person said he sat up
125. 5:27thinking punishments in hell for people
126. 5:29who asked silly questions
127. 5:30[Music]
128. 5:33ill that is only a joke and the the
129. 5:36child thinks of God going back and back
130. 5:40and back forever
131. 5:42never beginning
132. 5:45so in the same way you think about death
133. 5:49go to sleep and never wake up never
134. 5:54why it would be as if you never had
135. 5:57existed not only you but everything else
136. 6:02which is of course the way things were
137. 6:04before you were born
138. 6:06you know about how about waking up after
139. 6:09having never gone to sleep
140. 6:12that's quite a thought and something
141. 6:14fishy about it all
142. 6:16so we get a funny feeling when we think
143. 6:18those questions really through
144. 6:22very funny feeling
145. 6:24and children you see love to get into
146. 6:26that funny feeling children know all
147. 6:28kinds of weird things they like to spin
148. 6:30around as fast as possible so they watch
149. 6:32the suddenly they're all the ground goes
150. 6:34tilting into this thing with their eyes
151. 6:44and make faces and test out their bodies
152. 6:47in all sorts of funny ways
153. 6:49because they know from the beginning
154. 6:51that the world is weird
155. 6:53a strange thing because everybody knows
156. 6:58what it's all about only they won't
157. 7:00admit it
158. 7:01being brought up is being taught not to
159. 7:04admit it
160. 7:05as you know very well
161. 7:08what's going on
162. 7:12but in order to find out once more is an
163. 7:14adult you have to become again as a
164. 7:15child so what does that involve
165. 7:17means ladies and gentlemen would you
166. 7:20please check your ideas and opinions at
167. 7:22the door
168. 7:25all your philosophical and religious
169. 7:27views all your logic
170. 7:30[Music]
171. 7:31because I say check it at the door
172. 7:34advises it because you can pick it up
173. 7:35again when you go out if you feel unsafe
174. 7:38without it
175. 7:38[Music]
176. 7:41I'm not trying to argue you out of your
177. 7:44opinions and views
178. 7:46I'm merely suggesting that for the sake
179. 7:49of an experiment with temporarily
180. 7:51suspended and
181. 7:53view what is
182. 7:57as if you didn't even know how to talk
183. 8:02red is not red blue is not blue
184. 8:07heart is not hard soft is not soft
185. 8:10male is not male female is not female
186. 8:13there is just this Jazz it will not be
187. 8:18possible to compel yourselves into this
188. 8:20way of looking at things because what
189. 8:22Buddhists call habit energy is going on
190. 8:25on on on and as I talk to you you will
191. 8:29find yourselves thinking in a compulsive
192. 8:32and habitual way this is read this is
193. 8:35green this is something this is nothing
194. 8:38this is solid this is space all right
195. 8:40but treat those thoughts that are going
196. 8:43on in your head
197. 8:45in exactly the same way as if they were
198. 8:47maybe below see
199. 8:51that's all they are
200. 8:52like shapes in the spray as the sea
201. 8:54breaks on the rocks
202. 8:57now please don't get agitated that this
203. 9:01is an anti-intellectual point of view
204. 9:03this is undermining the value of logic
205. 9:06and reasons on that we will bring all
206. 9:09that back later when we need it but just
207. 9:11for the time being
208. 9:12let's simplify
209. 9:14close your eyes
210. 9:16listen
211. 9:19what do you really and truly
212. 9:22honestly
213. 9:24here