The Whole Thing Is An Illusion - Alan Watts On Letting Go

A profound lecture from Alan Watts on memories and the power of now. Original audio sourced from: Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom - Religion of No Religion - Transcending Duality
#alanwatts #t&h #memories
“The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings the past and the future are not as real, but more real than the present. The present cannot be lived happily unless the past has been “cleared up”
Alan Watts (1915 - 1973)
Speaker: Alan Watts (1915 - 1973)
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T&H Inspiration is on a mission to share inspiring wisdom. The goal is to have you pause, think, and reflect. Many of our videos revolve around the extraordinary teachings of Alan Watts that we produce with permission from the Alan Watts Electronic University.
T&H also films and releases original interviews with iconic people who have experienced successes, while also persevering through life's highs and lows. We look forward to sharing more of these perspectives and insights.
Our hope with these videos is to push your thinking. As Alan Watts said “No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.” - Alan Watts.

[@OnlyThisMoment]

The past is a distorted memory, the future is a concept. This moment is all there is, ever has been, ever will be. I wear a watch, it broke years ago, but I still wear it because it reminds me that it is always now 🙏

[@michaelhull8078]

😊

[@Ms.Tee65]

I love it❤

[@tannhauser5399]

That is easy to say, much more difficult to apply without any background knowledge and experience. I slightly disagree with his saying "don't hold to memory". You have to. Because... it is also how you grow. How you look back at old memories, somethimes with a slight nostalgia, sometimes with a deep anger, sometimes with love - and then something inside you is slowly changing too. You slowly grow internaly too at all those points, simply by going back to your older memories. At the end, sure - you may let it all go, at some point of your internal development, abd then you may concentrate on "now", the "present", living the moment so to speak. But at some point: DO hold on to memories, because it is part of a growing process too, and at some point you may discover that is is also a road that actually helps you to understand that it is all about living "now".

[@LawnBros25]

🔥

[@1stabletour]

love the watch concept. Must try it with an old omega

[@Dailyafricantales]

Alan Watts Was spot-on, on everything

[@silveriver9]

☯️

[@AhmedMourad2022]

Forget about the past Forget about the future, there is only now . Made me feel when i was young

[@mickwinters3509]

Immediately reminds me of people shooting videos at rock concerts and experiencing the show through their screen instead of watching the stage

[@GhostTruck67]

I think about this, too.

[@antoniohinojos3808]

Fireworks too, but I guess this applies to all aspects of life you're attempting to capture. Live in the moment.

[@blackroan2276]

100%

[@cw1967]

I'm sure glad someone recorded what he said.

[@thebritishbushman8389]

I do not wish to be patronising to anyone reading this or stating the obvious at the same time to other readers, but I truly believe that to really understand and hear what AW is saying, takes many listens, many experiences and an open mind. It had taken me so long to really feel what he is saying.

[@johnharrison7176]

Some people get it straight away some don't. But your spot on its not about just understanding but feeling. And by the way I say this quite often you feel it because you know it already. It's within all of us. 😊

[@zinstilte]

I so enjoy listening to Alan Watts everyday and I do agree that I hear things differently when I listen to the same clip years later. I love that ❤

[@cpringipas]

Waiting for the day❤❤❤

[@jewel2022now]

It takes....to just do it now. No more listening ❤

[@markpowell6062]

Perhaps to begin with , by regularly listening to Alan we can deepen our listening strength and open our minds!

[@David-TX59]

Now more than fifty years after his death , Alan Watts is still one of the best teachers of the nature of reality.

[@ronaldhogan8331]

Allan Watts is always someone you want to listen to. Everything he says is not one word wasted.

[@ArthurM1863]

"All places are the same place, and the only time you ever notice any difference is in the moment you transition" - Alan Watts

[@Me-iz6cc]

The laws of impermanence 🙏🏻

[@decreasethyself1212]

A photo can often water down a memory, especially these days with the access. We often look at the memories so much the nostalgia is removed.

[@T-Woman]

I have felt this so many times but haven't heard it explained so eloquently.

[@bonnieclark8069]

I love Alan and what he shared with us. I didn't have the patients to watch and listen to him until my life became so chaotic that I was driven to hear him out of necessity, and I am grateful, even if it hurt. It is like we have to be whipped into submission by our own desire to find out that we are really creating every single situation that comes to us. here now is my point of really living. Whoever is putting Alan Watts and other teachers on you tube. You are saving angles. Namaste'

[@geoff1391]

I love my algorithm right now because it feeds me Alan Watts videos and i consume them like candy

[@FreshDeath1385]

Excellent 🖤

[@PawWasHere]

I find great comfort and wonder in Alan Watts’s lectures, what a master craftsman in articulating profound truths. Thank you T&H for posting this.

[@simonrobinson1317]

Absolutely beautiful 🙏🏻 loved the addition of the music 🎵 thank you for sharing this timeless wisdom of AW!

[@rogerlin9602]

4:20 There is nothing but eternal now. Memory is in eternal now. Keep the balance like riding a bicycle. 9:47 The nature of being is constantly renewing itself, Therefore it is worth going on by eternally forgetting and getting rid of itself. Thanks Alan. 16 April 2024. 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

[@pinkgus]

16.4.2024 ❤ thanks Watts

[@antoniohinojos3808]

I am constantly torn between the two schools of thought he describes, the answer must lay somewhere in between. Remember your life, but don't let past experiences limit those yet to come. Remember you're alive, take with it the good and bad, it's through polarity that we can truly understand and appreciate the most beautiful experiences life has to offer.

[@zovalentine7305]

The Creator Is Within

[@George.Coleman]

I never want to come back ever again

[@CoconutsGlow]

How many times have you said this… and just came back anyways?❤

[@George.Coleman]

@@CoconutsGlow if it happens, must be over and over again forever

[@scottelliott6568]

I love the great memories of my childhood with my family. It makes me very happy.😊

[@e4eleanor2816]

😭 perfect timing. Thank you 🙏

[@zovalentine7305]

The Gift Of The Present

[@AlexTodd-60s]

Hello zo

[@meetandinspire]

"Memory is an illusion; it's all gone, so everything you know about that makes an impression on you is no longer there."

[@AlexTodd-60s]

Hello Joanne

[@blackroan2276]

No truer words were spoken. Memory IS an illusion. And sometimes when we look back at our "memories", we remember events a little differently than they really were when they originally happened. Nothing exists but the present moment.

[@user-iw7bl3hj1r]

The past: thoughts and words. The future: thoughts and words. All of which occurs in the present.

[@santivergara4900]

Eternal now❤

[@kimharris2599]

Yeah , life is a kaleidoscope all the colours intertwine. The experience is the experience.

[@d.sfilms7677]

Beautiful, as always

[@hayathussen3743]

Thnak u🙏🙏 T&H

[@teassea]

Pain and suffering in this world outweighs peace and feeling good, in my experience. Is this really a beautiful arrangement, especially with the memory wipe in between lives? To do this over and over again, pain and suffering with tiny specks of joy here or there, no thanks, I'll pass.

[@jennifervaughn2466]

I get it, but if this is what we decide to give in to, we will lose all hope.

[@teassea]

@@jennifervaughn2466 you can have all the hope you want. I'm not asking anything of anyone, I am simply expressing my thoughts on Mr. Watts's opinion that what we are all experiencing here is, in his words "a beautiful arrangement."

[@timsparx]

Thank you for not using an AI image likeness of AW like many other channels. 🙏🏻

[@jameschesterton]

One of those rare occasions where the music and video worked very well with Alan Watts.

[@bobbygriz5648]

Ive met so many "famous people" in my work at an airport and not once have i ever asked for a photograph or an autograph. I simply cherish the actual moment and dont need any record of it at all. The funniest was meeting Charles Barkley and putting him in a cab as his limo driver stood him up. He expected to be asked and as he sat in the cab, i fist bumped him and said have a good ride lol

[@jameschesterton]

That's cool.

[@steelearmstrong9616]

Nothing wrong with taking a few photos. You are not missing out on anything. Great to have those memories. Live your life and do what makes you happy, not what others believe what will make you happy. Tomorrow is not promise. Tomorrow does not exist. Now is all we have. In the end nothing matters. We are all winging it and we are all on the same sinking boat that inevitably ends in tragedy. When the brain dies consciousness dies and we will cease to exist and eventually be forgotten. Drop the ego and character that you are playing and live. You only got one shot at. Don’t waste it. Smile, your alive

[@blackroan2276]

I find myself taking photos less and less. "Memories" are overrated. Better to focus on the here and now and enjoy the present moments. Looking back at "memories" is living in the past.

[@anthonywhite6530]

Truth

[@gypsylee73]

My thinking is annoying me so much right now lol. Alan's beautiful voice brings me to the present a little ❤️👍✌️🇳🇿

[@pl7601]

❤

[@johnwallace7841]

I am, therefore, I think 😁

[@chamarigangoda2196]

🙏🙏🙏

[@travisdsimmon]

It's sorta funny, that this plays over a montage of photos and videos.

[@MrShineon7]

I love Alan. But there is a trickster amongst us. Look at the comments... there is a time stamp! This comment is the past as well. Where we all can learn from.....The past that is. I actually screen shot this comment as it showed 0 sec. It will forever be present.

[@jansefran1752]

Spot on. / P.s. Like - we do not exist vithout photos + videos + pictures ...

[@blackroan2276]

People are WAY too obsessed with photos and videos these days. Think of all the millions of people who existed before they were invented. And they were just fine.

[@JustReed]

This says much on biblical prophecy or predictions in general. Whether ego generated or misdirected intentions. Humanity shouldn't be warned of future events that haven't occurred. Otherwise, one will build bunkers, storing food and items of an event that may never occur. Spending so much time in the future, preparing for something that most likely will never happen, takes away from the moment one is actually living. ' But Ma, just let me finish listening to this song.' -'One of these nights,' by the Eagles.

[@joecalabresi4072]

🥂

[@JaredR-wp4zu]

What do we do

[@jeffd72703]

I try to understand him but it’s like Tolle. Just seems like circular winding rambling. 🤷‍♂️ Can someone summarize?

[@blackroan2276]

I find if I listen to Allan Watts and Tolle over and over, the meaning starts to sink it. Becomes more clear each time.

[@WinItReigns]

You, making this video Let it Go Stop

[@Al-Noor-rf4ie]

From experience, stay away. For anyone open minded, hear me out: I do not say this because of opinion, but rather experience. The words of Allan Watts should be understood logically before anything else. And the mechanism he explains should be applied to the thing he's teaching you to think about. What happens when one followings a sound? It becomes a word. And a word? It becomes a sentence. Meaning accumulates and builds new meaning. Once you understand a language, it becomes inescapable. You are the meaning experiencing itself. You are the word, you are then the language, etc. This mechanism of consciousness applies to all. Now what happens when you seek to recognise yourself? You recognise yourself even better. And then? You recognise yourself recognising yourself. As he's put it before, there's a paradox. You are trying to catch your own tail, but your tail is trying to catch itself. If a sound can become a language and it's inescapable, then what becomes of you trying to catch tail while recognising you are the tail? It becomes a deeper understanding of catching your own tail, and there is a point of no return where the accumulated meaning is inescapable. You'll live every second in a painful paradox. And wherever you look, you can only see more of it. It'll accumulate further and further. Or as we know about Shiva and the third eye: he ended up burning himself with himself. Take this literally, because the subjective experience leads there, it's not a description of enlightenment. As Allan himself put it before he died: the meaning of life is to know when to stop. But you cannot stop. I do not wonder anymore why he turned to alcoholism, he tried to escape the inescapable. My advice? Seek God, and think hard and well about what I said. If you won't take me seriously, then take Allan Watts seriously and do what he says correctly. Then when you find yourself drowning in the waves of your consciousness pulling harsh jokes on you, don't forget to reach out to God. You'll finally understand why he is One.

[@blackroan2276]

The answer is the question upside down. The meaning of life is to have a life of meaning. And that will be different for each and every person. It's really important not to overthink things.

[@mickyfinn7969]

The music is so loud and distracting . Is there a copy of this with out loud music .

[@shane555]

His readings (read aloud in his own words) are available on apps such as Audible. There are also some books of his read by others, but Alan is such a great orator, I prefer them in his own voice 👍

[@andreelfrink]

Isn't it stupid? Making pictures and you are recording everything with you're video with you're eyes into you're Soul forever Funny how humans think They forget to feel and everything is already in OUR ❤ BE AWARE GOD BLESS ⚡🤎AE1🙏

[@Tz1886]

no one really remembers how it really happen just what we think and as time goes on memory loss is filled in with made up stuff. either way I prefer a combination of some sentimental hold ing on to memory regardless what it is and an equal amount of time put the camera away and enjoy it with no digital interference. I do this with most anything. Some time for preserving some memories and an equal time of silence or just take it all in with no digital interfernce. I take it further with cleaning out your closets and storage areas and spring cleaning its hard but once started you can clean out useless trash you are hoarding that you neverr looked at in years and its poinntless to keep lugging around. But I repeat some things can be treasured no need to be completly detached is the only thing I will highlight here. Was not sure if Alan Watts agrees with that dont get me wrong sentimental is equally okay as well becuase its emotional attachment from your heart or mind and that too has equal value to me. You are still of human sentiment and not completly ai teched robtically charged which in some ways could very well be the next stage in the future setting where this gneetic trait no longer genetically viable in the new generation of digital world and maybe we will see less of it. But at the same time humans are fighting back. Like the abortion thing and fighting dictators shows humans still care for human life and want to protect it from death. And to me that is also a blessing to hear humans still fighting for humans to live even if means to die for it oxymoron there somehow. But Alan Watts is very inspiring and cognitivly stimulating. A very nice tranquil well verbally illustrated envisionment in logical reasoning of subjective nature well spoken out. I think any topic chosen of Alan Watts would be the most interesting no matter how many times I listen to it still magical and relevent to me in life years later. I actually save this in the past to watch again in the future but never had time and it accumalted and as I decided to start cleaning as I posted I stumbled on this one so its actually new but old but i held on which you shouldnt but if I didnt we wouldnt be here and I would not have learned its not good to hold on. But here I go again hit "SAVE"😛

[@johnattallah2087]

People become demons or sons of God. Eternal existence is revealed through Jesus. I known him personally

[@russBwright]

This inspirational music is distracting from the actual message. How ironic.

[@blackroan2276]

I agree. The music is annoying AF.

[@pakietrozwojowy7198]

Why would you need these distracting movie and music? What for?

[@blackroan2276]

I think it's gotten to be an addiction for a lot of people. You can thank social media for that in a big way.

[@sourcetext]

🤡 Lots of opinions from an unenlightened man who never saw the love in anything.... He never understood or explained the difference between the external here and now of the physical world ( called Maya) and the internal Here and Now of Eternal prior Consciousness. At least he made a living spilling he opinions out and didn't have to work....

[@morganlee2806]

This dude was actually just a drunk.

[@aussiebeermoney1167]

so was the dad you never knew

[@acreblade1264]

@@aussiebeermoney1167😂😂😂

[@morganlee2806]

@@aussiebeermoney1167 It's true, though. Look it up.

[@Thebricklayerswife]

Satanic

[@Jovana-xi7uq]

He is lier

[@jrt2007gjdje]

What's with the annoying sound effects?! If you are promoting philosophical ideas, especially Alan Watts, keep it simple. This is not Hollywood.

[@Zainab-jb7lr]

❤️