Alan Watts Being in the Way: Recent Episodes
Be Here Now Network / Love Serve Remember Foundation
Take a deep dive into the collected recordings of Alan Watts with Alan’s son, Mark Watts.
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.
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.
This time on the Being in the Way Podcast, Alan Watts delves into questions of identity, purpose and buying into the ‘Myth of Myself’.
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 explores:
- The question of our own identity and our place in the world
- Myths of the self handed down through history
- Viewing ourselves and the world with a “floodlight consciousness” – rather than the narrow “spotlight consciousness” we are taught to see the world through
- How we are not born into this world, but grow out of it – “In the same way an apple tree apples, the Earth peoples.”
“The most fascinating problem in the world is who am I? What do you feel when you say the word I? I myself?
This problem has fascinated me for many years. Most Western people locate their ego inside their heads. This is the ordinary average conception of what is oneself.” – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Picking up from our last episode, Alan elucidates faith versus belief, and how our individual existence is connected with the totality of the universe.
Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
From his houseboat in Sausalito, CA, Alan Watts explores:
- The two great myths which underly our Western sense of identity: the Judeo-Christian myth of an overly intelligent universe founded by a cosmic king; and the material myth of a universe which is mechanical, un-intelligent, and empty
- The problem of “believing” in God, versus the real attitude of faith which is being open to whatever reality is
- Finding out who we are beyond social institutions like time, money, value, language, and survival
- How you as an individual implies by your existence everything else in the universe
“The problem about believing in God, incidentally, is that believing is the wrong attitude. Believing is a form of mistrust, because it’s saying, ‘I fervently wish that you exist, and if you don’t, I don’t know what to do with myself.’ The real attitude of faith is not believing, but simply being open to whatever reality is, and to say you don’t know.” – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring modern culture as actually anti-materialistic, Alan tackles matters of sedentariness, sensuousness, isolation, work, play, God, and sexuality.
Host, Mark Watts, returns to introduce another thought-provoking talk from his father, Alan Watts. In this powerful lecture—one of his earlier field recordings, entitled ‘The Unpreachable Religion,’—Alan turns our common idea of modern materialism on its head.
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 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.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alan Watts pulls back the veil of ‘the human game,’ digging into language, ethics, finding balance, and the art of the controlled accident.
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, Mark Watts introduces Alan Watts in ‘Learning the Human Game’ – originally recorded at a seminar at the University of Michigan. In this lecture, Alan explores the connection between language and ethics, helping us understand why the perfect balance between randomness and order is the optimal middle-ground for experiencing life.
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.
“Mental health is a good game—and a good game is what keeps a certain balance between randomness and order. And a healthy society, therefore, is one which keeps a proper balance between law and whimsy.” – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Contemplating the coincidence of opposites within the 'human game,' Alan ponders the simple yet thought-provoking question: is existence serious?
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
In this episode of Being in the Way, Mark introduces a lecture from his father Alan Watts called 'Coincidence of Opposites' – the first talk in a seminar called 'Learning the Human Game,' given in 1965 at the University of Michigan to a small group of psychology and philosophy grad students.
"One has to get used fundamentally to the notion that different things can be inseparable—that what is explicitly two, can at the same time be implicitly one." – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, & Allen Cohen join Alan Watts on his houseboat to discuss change, the evolution of society, and the practicality of 'dropping out.'
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
In this episode of Being in the Way, Mark Watts introduces a truly legendary discussion featuring his father Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Allen Cohen. Beaming in from the summer of 1967 on Alan's infamous houseboat in Sausalito, CA, this stacked lineup of free-thinkers, beatniks, poets, environmentalists, psychedelicists, and spiritualists dive into heady and practical conversation around "dropping out" into a freer, more natural, tribe-focused society.
"What we need to realize is there can be a movement, a stirring among people, which can be organically designed instead of politically designed." – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this recording from 1972, Alan Watts lectures on mystical vision via art, aesthetics, and Buddhist and Daoist philosophy.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
“You and I have all conspired with ourselves to pretend that we are not really God, but of course we are. That is perfectly obvious. We are all apertures through which the universe is looking at itself. Only it is so arranged that we don’t know that in exactly the same way as we don't look at our own eyes.” – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Binding contrast into paradox, Alan takes us on a journey through the psychology of mystical experience in relation to life and death, followed by a jaunt through the power of nothingness.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
In this episode of Being in the Way, Mark Watts opens the door to the vault, introducing two rare recordings from his father, Alan Watts. The first lecture, entitled Psychology of Mystical Experience, stems from March 5th, 1972 at San Jose State exploring the paradox of life and death. Recorded on Alan's infamous houseboat in Sausalito, the second talk, Nothingness, highlights the inseparable oneness of contrasts, like form and formlessness.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This time on the Being in the Way podcast, Alan Watts explores the concepts of identity and consciousness, looking at the role we play in the greater 'Cosmic Drama'. Before the talk from Alan, we invite you to listen to an insightful conversation between Mark Watts and his guest, Cory Allen, about getting in touch with the core ideas of Alan Watts’ teachings.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
Cory Allen is an author, mindfulness teacher, and music producer. He uses his podcast The Astral Hustle to ask leading experts in mindfulness, neuroscience, music, and philosophy to share their wisdom. Check out his book titled Now Is the Way and his online meditation course called Release into Now.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Ram Dass joins Alan for a look at the tools that the Bhagavad Gita offers us to face life's challenges head-on.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alan Watts explores the 'veil of thoughts' in money, civilization & progress; before shifting gears to the 'divine madness' of marriage & falling in love.
This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the truth of the relationship between awareness and self, Alan Watts naturally opens us to the inevitable ecstasy of surrender.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this intimate session, Alan Watts shares distinctive philosophical vantage points outlining humankind's relationship to nature.
Welcoming listeners into a seminar session from SMU in 1965, Mark introduces the pivotal Alan Watts lecture, 'Man and Nature,' which he describes as one of his father's most engaging talks, positively focused on ecology and our relationship with the natural world and ecosphere.
Today's talk comes from the Tao of Philosophy from Mark's specially curated Alan Watts Essential Lectures Collection
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Can you get mysticism in a bottle? Alan Watts explores the drug question, in this psychedelically infused episode of Being in the Way.
In this talk at San Jose State during the counterculture bloom and LSD peak of the mid-1960s, Alan shares a nuanced and well-rounded approach to the psychedelic experience, sharing personal antidotes of his first two LSD trips, as well as outlining the benefits and pitfalls of taking drugs on both cultural and spiritual levels.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In 'On Being God,' Alan shares on therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus, before playing the hilarious and light-shedding role of a clinical patient who realizes they're God.
Following in the fashion of the last episode (Zen Bones), Mark Watts introduces another big-hall presentation from Alan Watts which creatively and colorfully explores western therapy and religion in relationship to the eastern mystical or altered state experience. This talk, aptly titled, 'On Being God,' was recorded in 1971 in New York City at a conference for western therapy and eastern religion, and features a unique experiment in which Alan positions himself as a clinical patient who believes themself to be God, giving way to lively, hilarious, and enlightening responses to a stream of audience questions.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alan Watts illuminates the nuances of Zen and the Unspeakable World in this dynamic 'Zen Bones' talk adorned with Buddhist chanting, chimes, and gongs.
Mark Watts introduces a classic talk entitled, 'Zen Bones,' a remarkable public lecture that Alan gave in 1967 at the Avalon Ballroom (usually the scene of wild rock concerts) for a 'Zen-efit' put on by the San Fransisco Zen Center to raise money to purchase Tassajara – a remote Zen center in the mountains of Big Sur. Diverting this week from the 'small-audience' seminar and workshop recordings of our first few podcasts, this episode marks Alan's first 'big hall' recording on Being in the Way, fittingly opened by the dynamic resonance of chanting Buddhist monks, chimes, and gongs.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Uncovering how we arise mutually with all things, Alan Watts examines our place in the universe and how very natural it is to be human.
Continuing the last episode's dharma talk on Taoism, relativity, and the connections between you and not-you; Mark introduces part two of his father's classic talk, Being in the Way – a fundamental lecture by Alan explaining mutual arising within the context of a human-populated, yet ever-changing universe.
"You can be untaught. In other words, your mind can be wiped clean, and you can experience yourself as a whirlpool of energy in a stream which is the Tao, which is the total course of nature, the energy field of the whole cosmos." – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alan Watts illuminates the connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and seperation, Saints and rascals, you and not-you, as well as difference and unity.
Furthering outlining his father's storied life and works, Mark shares perspective on Alan's early literary successes, radio work, and ensuing lecture tours. Highlighting how Alan's lively and expressive style of sharing dharma on the public stage quickly captivated audiences hungry for insight into the mystery, Mark introduces part-one of the talk that is the namesake of this podcast: Being in the Way.
"The principle of relativity is absolutely fundamental to an understanding of Taoist philosophy. That is to say, that wherever you are, whoever you are, and whatever you are: you're in the middle." – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the second episode of Being in the Way – an Alan Watts podcast exclusively on the Be Here Now Network – Alan's son, Mark Watts, shares background on Alan's early life, before introducing two of his father's specially curated dharma talks: Taoist Way of Dropping Out From Karma (Part III), and Wisdom of the Ridiculous.
"The whole conception of nature is as a self-regulating, self-governing, democratic organism. But it has a totality; it all goes together. This totality is the Tao." – Alan Watts
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Being in the Way is a podcast series that explores the Alan Watts Archive’s 100-hour tape collection. Hosted by Alan's son, Mark Watts, Being in the Way features curated talks from Alan Watts and conversations with guests who continue to be inspired by Watts' work today.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Alan Watts Organization and Be Here Now Network have come together to bring you a new podcast series that dives deep into the Alan Watts Archive’s 100-hour collection of talks - from the most popular talks lighting up the Internet today to recordings not heard in 40 years.
This Monday, June 7th, discover for yourself why Alan Watts has continued to inspire generations of seekers with the Alan Watts Being in the Way podcast.
This exciting new series is hosted by Mark Watts, Alan's son and archive curator. Mark and his guests share Alan Watts’ inspirational work that poetically interprets the wisdom teachings of the East for Western audiences.
Set a reminder for June 7th and subscribe to the Alan Watts Being in the Way podcast wherever you get podcasts to receive regular wisdom from Alan Watts - brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass' Be Here Now Network!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.