In a lecture on symbolic reality versus real reality, Alan Watts explains the importance of total sensory awareness and looking at our motivations.

"Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality" is part of Flow, a three-part session in the TAO for NOW series of talks that you can listen to in full over at the Alan Watts Streaming Channel

Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self.

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts discusses:Being aware of all sensory inputs while meditatingAllowing oneself ‘to be’ in a non-conceptual wayConfusing the world of symbols for realityThe limits to what we can enjoy in a material senseThe uselessness of guiltMoney, tithes, and western religion versus gurusWhy our motivation and intention mattersExperiencing life naked and directlyThe Taoist approach to letting go of your body-mindUsing all five of our senses to witness our surroundingsThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“The point is to be wide, wide awake and aware of your total sensory input without confusing it with the symbolic world of words and concepts so that you experience life naked and directly. Experience YOU naked and directly, without having in your head the concept of who you are a a role player, as a personality, as an ego.” – Alan Watts

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Ep. 30 – Flow: Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality

Take a deep dive into the collected recordings of Alan Watts with Alan’s son, Mark Watts.&nbsp; Being in the Way is a podcast series that explores the Alan Watts Archive’s 100-hour tape collection - including recordings not heard in 40 years. We will meet some of the people being influenced by the works of Alan Watts today and learn a little of the history behind how these remarkable recordings were made.&nbsp; Mark and his guests offer reflections on Alan’s ideas— ideas that were radically innovative and groundbreaking in the sixties and seventies, and yet seem to have come of age today. Being in the Way is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization, in partnership with Ram Dass' Be Here Now Network. Check out all of the Alan Watts Organization's offerings at alanwatts.org.&nbsp; 


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Join us on a journey of contemplation and enlightenment in this captivating introduction to Taoism.

Discover the profound wisdom of Taoist philosophy with Alan Watts as he invites us to embrace the course of nature. Through insightful exploration, he delves into the timeless significance of Yin and Yang, illustrating their inseparable connection and guiding us toward a deeper understanding of harmony and balance in existence.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan

In this episode, Alan Watts speaks about:Ancient Chinese philosophiesHow social institutions are mistaken for the real worldThe self, Confucianism, and the roles we play in lifeTaoism and the basic energy of the universeTao as the force of natureHow space and solid are two facets of one realityYang and Yin, positive and negative, male and femaleConscious dying and preparing to let goActing in accordance with natureThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“It is the inner connection, or rather the inseparability of Yang and Yin, which is what is meant by Tao. That’s why Tao cannot be explained. The reason again if I may put it in another way is that all thinking is classification. It’s asking ‘is you is or is you aint’. Is it this or is it that. After all, if you want to say something is inside it requires an outside. You can’t have an inside without an outside or an outside without an inside.” – Alan Watts







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Ep. 29 – Philosophy of the Tao

Taking a trip through the constructs of form and labeling, Alan Watts philosophizes about the limits of language.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit play.alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts philosophizes about:Unexamined systems of belief underneath languageIdeas that are built into our common senseThe substance of form, pattern, and organizationThe profound mystery of matterLimitations in trying to use language to define the ineffable‘Matter’ as a root word for many thingsChinese views of natureWhy verbs do not necessarily need subjectsBeing at peace with ourselves in a world of formRecognizing the universe as a process“When we divide the world into operations and agents, doers and doings, then we ask such silly questions as ‘who knows, who does it, what does it?’ When the what that is supposed to do it is the same as the doing. You could very easily see that the whole process of the universe may be understood as process, nobody is doing it.” – Alan Watts

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Ep. 28 – Limits of Language

In celebration of the waters that bring life to all things, Alan Watts reflects on the separation between human civilization and the natural world.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit play.alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan

In this unique and experimental recording, Alan Watts discusses:The beauty of life on the waters in Sausalito, CaliforniaThe rhythms of natureTime and timelessnessThe transformation of one form into anotherThe separation of man from the natural worldObjecting and Objectifying the worldIdentity and being able to know knowingThe spacious environment of the ocean“Although the rhythm of the waves beats a kind of time, it’s not clock or calendar time, it has no urgency. It’s timeless time, because I know I am listening to a rhythm which has been just the same for millions of years.” – Alan Watts







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Ep. 27 – Love Of Waters

Using wisdom from Eastern philosophies, Alan Watts explains why Westerners should let go of any preconceived notions of God.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

This Alan Watts lecture features a discussion on:Comparative studies on religionThe absurdity of Christian imperialismSuperiority and lack of faithThe difference between faith and beliefBlasphemy and those who claim to be GodThe political image of God in the westThe ceramic model of the universe (material and form)Hindu mythology and dramaSelf-discovery of supreme realityThe meaning of MayaPunitive reasons why people say that God is deadFixed notions of God as idolatryContemplative prayer and letting go of our ideas of GodExistence as relationshipBuddhist vows versus western obedienceLooking beyond the skin-encapsulated ego“It must be understood that the crux of the Hindu and Buddhist disciplines is an experience, not a theory, not a belief.” – Alan Watts




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Ep. 26 – Relevance of Eastern Philosophy

Alan Watts Being in the Way

Ep. 30 – Flow: Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality

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