I don’t know jack but Alan Watts knows some stuff

Alan Watts.  

I heard of him before in some of my readings of Gary Snyder. I am pretty sure that Snyder wrote about Watts in letters to Allen Ginsberg.  Watts was located on the west coast and I know that both Snyder and Ginsberg attended school on the west coast as well.  I still have some more reading to do but I am pretty sure that there is some influential connection between Watts and Snyder.   When I read Snyder’s letters, I get the same feeling when reading Watts work. They both seem to have the personality of feathers. Their words are light and playful and they always seem to have it all figured out and not a care in the world. 

Today I was reading Watts ideas on “form”. Watts discusses the idea of most of us on this planet have these preconceived methods of thinking that are as Watts puts it “unexamined”. We don’t really question any of these methods of thinking. Form is one of these “unexamined” methods. He goes on to write on about how science continually breaks down things into smaller things. Classifications into classifications. If you take a chunk of a table and put it under a microscope and then get a more powerful microscope the classification of the table will only continue to spread. Which, when thinking about the universe, supports the notion that our studies of universe will continue to into other studies. The universe will always be an enigma. The proverbial dog that chases its own tail. 

I am not doing justice to any of this man’s work but I thought I writing it down would help me with my own thought when wrestling with his various concepts. Here is one of his lectures.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZqGUCrje8