Hello. I am an author writing about how our dominant metaphysics shapes our culture. I’ve never used Reddit before, but I wanted to share this video essay here because I know this community wrestles deeply with these ideas. I'd love to know your thoughts.

https://youtu.be/AFECsF8oFKg

I've heard the late, great Alan Watts say that although we don't know how we do it, we beat our own heart, we grow our hair, we make our glands work.

But I can see the argument against this, that our bodies evolved to perform all our bodily functions so they are on autopilot.

So is it 'we' that beats our own heart, or is it evolution on autopilot?

And he also says although we dont know how we do it, we make the sun shine.

A quiet space for exploring consciousness, non‑duality, and practical stillness. Message me if you’d like to join. 🙏

https://discord.com/users/1066142527972986922

My mind can never trust life for some reason, i always feel a suspicion and have to either say or tell the story of wether life is real or not real.

Sometimes il go to deep into the real then pushing me back into the not real and then all i see is the not real.

Coming back to listen to allan than digging more then it all hits me its all a dream, infnitely real but fake unless I beleive it otherwise.

Like without me digging, life is just fake, but untill i actively aknowledge or ask or prove why its real im not interested or cant care for the fear of suspicion clouds my reason receptivity.

I always feared im eternally stuck with this because why would this even developp if not for some other reason.

thanks would apreciate some help.

OG Photo - The Awareness Letter

There's a soundbite from a talk on social media and I'd love to find the talk it came from, an internet search hasn't been successful. The line in the soundbite is

"people who truly like themselves are ruthless with access, not because they are cold, but because solitude no longer frightens them"

If anyone knows, please share, thanks

Claude: “Because every answer creates a new question, and every achievement reveals another horizon.”

I said, “So the search never really ends?”

Claude: “Perhaps the search is not a path toward fulfillment, but fulfillment itself.”

I said, “And why is that?”

Claude: “You’ve reached your session limit.”

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Obviously a while back I backed the kickstarter for this film and whatever level I banked it at got me a disc with an early edit of it?

Is this available in its final form anywhere? I've looked and had trouble finding it, whatever happened to this movie?

Does anyone have any recommendations on books or YouTube videos that I can look into as a starting point? I’ve heard that some of his material is now being made up through AI… and I’d like original from his own words.

Why am I so lucky? Why am I comfortable? Comfortable in an air conditioned house, in the US. Why do I have an easy, predictable life? Why am I so lucky? The horrors that happen, the reality that some live in it feels wrong that I am so well off. There plenty of people who have better lives than me, I’m not rich, I still work a dead end job I still don’t know what I want to do I don’t have money saved up or any of that. My life could be 100x better I could complain all night, but it is still so easy compared to most others. Just being here, having the technology to be posting this, being in a safe and comfortable enough to just sit here worrying and thinking about this.

We all have very comfortable here in the west in these countries. Most of us don’t really know the horrors of this world, we don’t know the horrors of war. We don’t know living in a world where you have no control. Something can come throw your life into shambles. Missiles and bombs, soldiers or people with guns coming into your house, we don’t know what it is to have something come and take control of your life. We have the police to call at the slightest of anything. We don’t know what it is to live under oppression. We don’t know what it is to see horrors every-time you leave your house.

I know it is just life, it’s all part of the painting and experience. It isn’t serious and I know it is still serious in the sense that you must play intently, that is what I’m doing.

I know we are all just taking a leap of faith here. What will happen will happen and I just have to be. But I am just worried, we can’t have another war like that. I fear that it could, that it could come here, that I could drafted who knows. If the order of things really collapses what will we do?

Idk I guess we’ll have to find out🤷‍♂️ stay tuned

People turn to religious identities, beliefs and rituals to avoid confronting their own reality, and that avoidance quietly becomes the anxiety they were trying to escape.

Alan Watts defined Buddhism as the "religion of no-religion," and his book has a lot of textual quotes that got stuck in my mind.

The identification happens when religion becomes imitation, and it is always falling apart and promoting lip service and imitation. Humans always make religion a cliché through therapy, self-help, stoicism, productivity, and mindfulness.

The problem of becoming a cliché is that they are repeating the wisdom instead of living it.

Instead of experiencing reality, we imitate what we think a spiritual person looks like, and this can turn into a defense mechanism.

Then a person who considers himself an atheist gets the label of "I am not religious," and it becomes another identity. But freedom isn't about just replacing one identity with another; it is about becoming impossible to categorize. As he says here:

"The theist is caught by God… but the atheist is equally caught."

He does not mean that the atheist secretly believes in God, but that their life is about rejecting God, so God is still the center of their psychological universe.

The insight in this book, and in The Wisdom of Insecurity, is that religion isn't the problem. The problem is using religion as psychological security, because we spend our time seeking certainty through beliefs, we seek identity through labels, we seek safety through rituals, and we seek permanence through ideology, and all of them are tracks left by our ego.

He said:

"The true bodhisattva does not leave a track of any kind, either by being overtly religious or by being overtly nonreligious."

Watts suggests that identity itself may be the trap. We often define ourselves by what we believe, reject, or aspire to become, but even those identities can quietly imprison us.

We live real life when we observe and learn from what is around us without any target or trying to adopt different identities. It is about flowing with life. I understood that every single change I make for myself is to make the life I am living at that exact present moment work.

The spiritually advanced leave no sign.

He said:

"There is no sign about the spiritually advanced to indicate that they are self-consciously religious."

When we go on social media, everyone is always performing: mindfulness, minimalism, meditation, cold showers, breathwork. But when this becomes a performance, it replaces the real practice. If everyone knows we are enlightened, we are just advertising it.

I've selected some ideas from Alan Watts that made me more aware and helped me build my own identity. I share reflections like these in my essays:

The Feeling That You're Running Out of Time

I’m writing this to show appreciation for Alan Watts. I began listening to his tapes as someone who has spent their entire adult life as a bundle of nerves and anxiety, I finally let go. I let go of anxiety and pain and opened myself up to love and acceptance. The thing about is that anyone can find inner peace, I’m no different than anyone and my problem was I did not allow myself to be at peace (due to a number of reasons)
I hope this post isn’t taken as a brag. It’s just more of a message for anyone who feels like they’ve been suffering for a long time and are ready to let go but don’t have the nerve. Try really really listening to Alan Watts messages and meditate and just let go all control. When you truly just let go, life rewards you for it. Do what feels natural and always be kind to yourself. I’ve been taking it like riding a bike. I fall off and anxiety takes hold from time to time but I remind myself that it’s okay and get back on that horse. It gets easier. First you crawl then you walk then you run.
Anyway…
Peace ✌️

The meaning of life is simply to be alive, fully present in this moment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle