When Life Changes, Stop Clinging To It - Alan Watts On The Philosophy Of Yūgen

A powerful and profound speech on the changing world by Alan Watts. Original Audio sourced from: “Out Of Your Mind 11: The World as Emptiness (Part 1)
““The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
- 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.

[@pandyfackler118]

"Hold your breath and you lose it... Let it go, and it comes back to you!"

[@maximelagace]

"To resist change, to try to cling to life, is like holding your breath" -Alan Watts

[@felixfedre518]

What nonsense that is though,

[@zandrokos]

@@felixfedre518 it literally isnt

[@felixfedre518]

@@zandrokos He liked to cling to a bottle of whisky.

[@zandrokos]

@@felixfedre518 honestly? me too. well for me it is beer and benadryl

[@d.sfilms7677]

@@felixfedre518 his personal life is separate from his lectures. You can speak truth separate from action

[@adamnwizard]

The council still acknowledges Alan Watts as the greatest wizard of all time.

[@KingaGorski]

Yūgen, what a beautiful philosophy. Release your grip on needing to know. Let the uncertainty be.

[@pandyfackler118]

"living in the question" mystery gives life beauty

[@pillieford1204]

❤

[@Mike-yg8ig]

I've begun to listen to Alan Watts more frequently. Little by little I think he could become the life coach I've always needed, and at 66 time is tight.

[@David_crypt0sheek]

Definitely

[@manleom2260]

you know since I begun listening to Alan watts my fear of death is less than what it use to be an am not 66 am 40

[@u-mos8820]

I'm not sure the time is ever wrong to attempt to improve one's self. I've a theory the reason we venerate the elderly is cause they tend to take time for introspection to make use of the experience they have usually. In every individual exist the potential for revelation based on the unique experience they've had in life. The longer and more tempered by introspection and worldly awareness that is the better.

[@s.h.1639]

Time can never be tight. The present moment is the only one that exists. Either you are here or you are not.

[@manleom2260]

@@s.h.1639 it's call presence of mind very difficult to achieve since the mind is always thinking and over thinking...most of us westerners suffer this addiction to thinking hence we are never in the present.

[@OnlyThisMoment]

A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be alive. Take care of yourselves. Mind, body, spirit 🙏

[@pyewackett5]

I disagree. Something of great age is vulnerable to current fads & fashions

[@OnlyThisMoment]

@@pyewackett5 Nothing lasts forever. This is what makes life so precious. The knowing that everything that arises, will fall. It is what allows us to appreciate life, otherwise, what would be point of anything. Everything that has a beginning, has an end, and that end, is the means to a new beginning 🙏

[@bradleywesterford3587]

nothing gold can stay

[@billmc5457]

I disagree. Ultimately if there is no self, then there is nothing that enjoys a special privilege of being alive. If being alive is a privilege then that denotes scarcity that pertains to an individual uniqueness, separate from everything else, which is not the case.

[@bradleywesterford3587]

stay gold ponyboy

[@jacobooley2814]

The line about “life requiring so much effort,” while death is something you relax into, really is enlightening

[@zandrokos]

Holy shit....I discovered this when I was homeless after the pandemic started. When I let go of my belongings and my previous life and accepted my situation...I have never felt so free. I don't want to be homeless again hopefully but likely will but wow.

[@IAmRayAnthony]

I know what you mean.. I came from being homeless before sitting here in my new home out in the beautiful country side tonight, havin a smoke, sitting by the window on this beautiful quiet night in South Texas....I tell of the times being homeless, on a mission to get up out of the streets every night...there was an ironic sense of freedom...the moments of quietness, loneliness, and experiences that the average "happy" person never has.

[@zandrokos]

@@IAmRayAnthony that sense of freedom is amazing when you aren't tied to paying bills and working. makes you think what life could really be like if you had 100% freedom.

[@yoyo-wr9ep]

Born free as free as the wind blows as free as tbe grass grows ...🙏🦋🦋🥳

[@k.l.manring2083]

Something very similar when I hit rock bottom in the grips of chemical addiction plus mental disorders. After a while in treatment, I too found freedom in losing everything and starting over. I firmly believed the whole world needed treatment and a 12 step program. Probably wouldn't hurt! Haha. It saved me and I found happiness and finally some direction but the best was newfound faith that anything is possible if you work for it. Over 2 decades free and squeaky clean. No not everything is unicorns and rainbows but is better than it was before. If you don't change, you become stagnant. Change can be very good and miracles do happen even if you don't see them coming and the outcome is not what you predicted nor even thought it would be. ❤❤❤

[@connornolen3595]

​@@IAmRayAnthonyshoutout to my Texas folk. South Houston area for me just trying to build myself up again from the bottom. I wish you guys luck.

[@digidrum2003]

My wife left me for a divorced man 2 months ago...its hard adjusting to life without her....been together 20 plus years....i will adapt . Thank you for these videos.

[@dy6682]

Best wishes my friend

[@guntherkohler3076]

Time. Things get better in time

[@digidrum2003]

@@guntherkohler3076 Thank you.

[@bixou22002]

@@guntherkohler3076 Or...not !

[@georgiaskjustus8653]

Things will get better in time.

[@charliecappa3358]

"Life is life because it's always disappearing..." Alan Watts

[@CadenceFilmsInc]

When almost every aspect of your life changes it is hard, especially when you are a deeply nostalgic person, this helped a bit.

[@DannyWJaco]

Ex wife’s mother in-law passed away. As they were cleaning out the house I grabbed a box of her Christmas decorations. No one else cared about the decorations. The nostalgia (wanting to experience those wonderful Christmas memories) wouldn’t allow me to let those little shiny trinkets go into the dumpster. Thanks for your comment relating nostalgia to the idea of accepting change. 🥺

[@SowingSeedsWithChristy]

​@@DannyWJacoThere's always one who will carry on the traditions and keep them alive. And that's you. You've been graced with that gift. Feel favored. 🤗 Imagine how much happiness you will bring to others. ❤

[@SowingSeedsWithChristy]

I relate to your comment. At 63, so much seems to be changing in my life and there appears to be a necessary kind of sloughing off or letting go. If it must be then let us both celebrate the memories and grieve as we must. There's a new sunrise every day and there's always the horizon. I think excitement and/or comfort will be around the corner to meet you when you get there. Don't be in a hurry to move on too fast. There's richness in honoring what has been. But there is more in store. ❤

[@TheRealJoshW]

💯 agreed. Lost my Dad last year and now my model of the world has been nuked.

[@SowingSeedsWithChristy]

@@TheRealJoshW I'm sorry for your loss. That's a big turning point in one's life. Go easy on yourself. Not trying to be overly simplistic, but it will get better with time.

[@1.Connected]

Believe in yourself and your abilities. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. Surround yourself with positivity and supportive people. Remember that each day is a chance to make a difference. Keep going, and success will follow. Stay motivated!

[@georgiaskjustus8653]

Love this!

[@Neil.Stacy58]

❤❤❤

[@SK-le1gm]

“not being there is an essential component of being there” - alan, you just helped me make sense of my dad’s passing last week and i am grateful. thanks and see you out there someday good buddy.

[@yoyo-wr9ep]

Listen again 👍😇

[@lucyrue8808]

This scares me and comforts me at the same time

[@just-ask-why]

Terrifying and precious - his wisdom is sublime

[@dangreen4200]

The silence can be deafening.

[@whalercumming9911]

This has been the best grieving advice I've ever heard

[@EricsWorlds]

I’m so grateful for the skillful teachings of these deep truths. My world is better because Alan Watts existed.

[@atomatman3104]

WE NEVER EXISTED LOL

[@felixmoyoedonmi]

To say we exist is wrong. To say we don't exist is wrong. SILENCE IS THE ONLY RIGHT ANSWER.

[@atomatman3104]

@@felixmoyoedonmi i know what you do not know is NOTHING.

[@DanSmith-sn2fx]

The world is not better or worse my friend, in Alan Watts' words "the world simply IS".

[@tonyhill2318]

Yessss

[@robertbrown3064]

If more people listened to this man, it would be a happier world.

[@keep_walking_on_grass]

it is not about the person, it is about the teachings.

[@anaiis_salles]

If more people let these words penetrate their Yugen, we would make a happier world without trying. The richest moments, invisible elements, live timeless in the between.

[@keep_walking_on_grass]

@@anaiis_salles Eckhart Tolle says, suffering is necessary, until it's unnecessary. /end quote / Not many are born with wisdom and awakened.

[@anaiis_salles]

@@keep_walking_on_grass It's work, my friend. Tolle? Really? Your quoting Tolle? Suffering is not necessary at all; it is a by-product of lack of soul memory. This lack of soul memory -- spiritual Alzheimer's -- is not accidental. mRNA tweaking is not new.

[@keep_walking_on_grass]

@@eldiablo4966 you kidding?

[@user-wl2zp1bg3g]

This video suggestion came at a perfect moment.

[@Jack-gn4gl]

Nothing is a coincidence

[@tracyf3288]

Life is a beautiful, fragile gift that should be treated as such.Always try to embrace what is constant (change).

[@tonyhill2318]

"Not being there is an essential component of being there." I could meditate on that for weeks

[@Anna.Destiny1137]

Gosh…🥹yeah

[@anaiis_salles]

Lots of Buddhists do meditate on this for a lifetime, or lifetimes.

[@ronnieparkerscott6223]

Boy! he nails it every time. His thoughts haven't died. ❤

[@danielslagle6440]

Life is a series of valleys and mountain peaks that we journey, only by going through the valley do we climb the next mountain and gain a whole new veiw.

[@mariafelicidadaguayoparrad9548]

Wise words....❤

[@mobiustrip1400]

How did you even create this? The imagery is stunning, the music perfectly balanced and the message from Watts is so profound. I'm stunned. It's beautiful 🎉

[@froggythekid8955]

With his penis

[@jenmdawg]

I was 4 years old when, after realizing we all die, saw that the only way life has meaning is because we die. I was amazed by this and did my damndest to let all the sad grownups in my world know there’s nothing to worry about. lol. I was sent for testing, etc before I got wise - we are all going to the same place but in different ways. The world and life are not in sync but we can be.

[@youngpho3nix957]

lmao🤣🤣❤️

[@MarioGonzalez-mx3mk]

I would have never guess my daughters lives were going to turn out this way...may the Divine forgive me for all my faults and forgive them for what they have themselves done ..they have no clue as to what they do 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤

[@danieljones741]

...after coming across the book, be here now, and immersing myself in its snippets of wisdom, all those years ago (around fifty!), the results are only now beginning to emerge from the haze. The wait has been worth it. These vids are keeping me bouncing along!

[@manasacharyya4432]

Not being there, is an essential part of being there ❤

[@AttosGarcia]

....and that is how being is made up. (Superb!!!!)

[@Lizziemusique]

Acceptance is everything

[@19Marc79]

...only if it can also accept resistance !

[@beverlybuncher3392]

‘Not being there is an essential part of being there. That’s the way being is made up’ Brilliant❤

[@marssalm5247]

Kant wrote three centuries ago about the feeling of the sublime in nature. Moments you experience deeply when you behold scenes that overwhelm and words cant be found to describe. Indeed, they dont need to be found. Yes, we must learn to hear the quietness and look up to the mountains from the valley. All the rest comes by itself. Even the changes we are always so afraid of, will hurt less. If were not these frightening changes, we would become those wax figures in museums. Its amazing to see how Alan Watts could put so many important things in a only 10 minutes video together.

[@nextgenmillen]

We must except change and grow with it! :)

[@danieljones741]

...police! Open up! Be accepted or rejected, an exception can help put across your real meaning, affecting you? What's the effect then? 🤔🙄😜

[@user-dq1pw3cz4x]

I love how you keep finding new, beautiful speeches. This has been the best grieving advice I've ever heard.

[@thegibsterr1380]

I really wish I could’ve met this man.

[@stevedallaspiano777]

Thanks to you for compilation; thanks to Mark Watts for safeguarding his father's legacy.

[@daniel-alan]

Alan Watts also describes the concept of duality. That we see or perceive things only by their opposites (the mountain by the surrounding valley, or recognize different words by the small pauses beween them, and we only realize/appreciate things by their absence (or by the possibility of their absence).

[@ThroughTheseGlasses]

Alan Watts was amazing. Love listening to his thoughts. He has changed my life.

[@user-do1qn4pj4w]

Cling on for dear life is my mantra as you've seen in action, I'm not leaving all my children alone, never

[@pmarreck]

Very interesting how Alan Watts has found a new audience on the modern-day Internet. VERY interesting guy!

[@tracyf3288]

Way before his time and so wise!

[@d.sfilms7677]

I love how you keep finding new, beautiful speeches

[@eddiecardenas3541]

I lost my brother who was cerebral palsey. I practically did everything for him. Fed, groom, bathed. He passed away February 7, 2024. Now i feel out of place. With a feeling that i don't belong here anymore. How ironic, there's people fighting to live. And i ask God every night. Not to let me wake up the next morning. But i do

[@mattesswood8326]

I would say you have more to do on this Earthly plain. Your path will clear and the fog will lift. You need to heal. There is suffering in the world and there are the chosen few who recognise and do something about it. When you ask God for something, would He give it to you or provide you with an opportunity to get it yourself?

[@catherinepeter5231]

I can't stop listening to Alan Watts, I love the ocean, the sea, the lakes and the rivers. It flows with such harmony.

[@johnanthonycafe2993]

Alan drank his way through his life choices - Bravo Alan.

[@19Marc79]

I don´t even know who I am. How could I possibly know who Alan Watts was ?

[@reeblesnarfle4519]

Beautiful...💜

[@felixmoyoedonmi]

Truly beautiful 😍.

[@malcolmnicoll1165]

So true. Every word. Love Alan Watts. “What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.” - C. G. Jung

[@MuntheDane]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[@clintstiemke3788]

I would rather hold my breath. This is what it means to get old

[@PeteGannon]

"and that "Nothing" is the obverse face of "Something" ... "not being there" is an essential component of "being there" And somehow he's helped me to be here better. So glad this gentle person has been.

[@Anna.Destiny1137]

😓Thank you Alan. I felt it, got to me in a bitter sweet way🕉

[@John-sr2hc]

Oooh how happy it is to see there is no lasting happiness in the world...🙏

[@animageofgod]

@@John-sr2hc The only joy that truly lasts.

[@MisterMills-fd9td]

brilliant man

[@elgeebee5250]

Everything feels like it's falling away, and apart in my life. No friendship group, no work place I like, no family, no money, no partner. It's fucking hard not to stay invisible. Or to suck up.

[@felixfedre518]

"Clinging" as Watts puts it, is what makes life, life. We fight to remain alive, we fight to keep our relationships and to protect our children, our rights. Life never really changes and constancy is the ideal aim, as Watts in another video would say. I cannot help but notice how Watts often contradicts himself as he wonders from one Eastern philosophy to another.

[@Saral_Lekhi]

😊....I have not found him contradictory yet. Just in this video he gives an example of a university, whose building gets old...is razed down and a new one put up. So what changed? The building that represented the university was removed. But the university stayed, because it had become a pattern, a notion. The notion may not change...but matter is always changing. Always. Every second. It's getting old....deteriorating....growing....etc. always. That's a promise. 😊

[@felixfedre518]

@@Saral_Lekhi Read my comment again. I wasn't talking about the university but even there he is, in fact, wrong. The original university is gone! The only way a new University is the same, is the same way that any other University is the same.

[@yoyo-wr9ep]

Your wrong

[@Anna.Destiny1137]

Perspective. Every head is a world, yet we share so much in common. Many are parallels and/allegory. Everything is & isn’t. That came to mind many years ago while driving. As I looked at trees, I felt I went into a certain depth. It meant many things, and came around as there’s meaning & nothing to meaning. What is, also isn’t. These conscious shifts are har to fathom, it happens to so many people. It’s a great thing, it means a lot to me…I give it my personal emotional meaning, I guess bc I’m still conscious, or perhaps I want to give it meaning, while there’s absence of meaning to all this as well🤔And maybe such meaning will change according to my conscious awareness (alive or passed on), IDK 🤷🏼‍♀️ so mysterious, we know nothing about knowing. We just don’t…😑

[@azloii9781]

It does feel good after a while once you stop clinging though. Waves of bliss will fill your void

[@zandrokos]

1. I really need to start taking notes on this stuff. 2. Yay something I haven't heard before.

[@renzo6490]

"The Wild Swans at Coole" The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine and fifty swans. The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me Since I first made my count; I saw, before I had well finished, All suddenly mount And scatter wheeling in great broken rings Upon their clamorous wings. I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All's changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread. Unwearied still, lover by lover, They paddle in the cold, Companionable streams or climb the air; Their hearts have not grown old; Passion or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still. But now they drift on the still water Mysterious, beautiful; Among what rushes will they build, By what lake's edge or pool Delight men's eyes, when I awake some day To find they have flown away?

[@nataliewhite54]

Alan Watts never fails to bring tears to my eyes and enlightenment to my soul. ♥️

[@nunurbusiness894]

One of the best Watts I have heard in years. Thanks 😊

[@marciasinger]

Yugen -- marvelous to ponder... Mystery of Living

[@user-ex4si2md6r]

Praying for you 🙏☮️🌎

[@Whathatsmellike]

Needed to hear this, thank you

[@japanken5153]

OMG ! Hidden wisdom is here !

[@petercampbell8694]

Absolute truth 🙏

[@Nicoladen1]

We want to peak, but for that peak to be meaningful we have to experience valleys too. Good and bad aren't two separate things, they're two poles of the same thing. One end is good the other is bad. Light and dark aren't two different things, they're two poles of the same thing. Light. Enlightenment and Non-enlightenment aren't two different things, they're two poles of the same thing. Being confused and seeing clearly aren't two different states of being. They're two poles of the same state of being. We mustn't attain anything, we must simply shift what's already there.

[@MerakiRak]

I agree

[@KevinDunning108]

Silvia Nakkach (Grammy-nominated @soundstrue recording artist and international sacred sound authority) teaches her dharma students - when they are ready to hear it - that 'Yugen' is 'Longing.' "If you understand this, you are beginning the practice of dharma."

[@apowerfulmind2093]

Thank u Alan watts “I am “ greatful.🙏🏻❤️🌏💯♓️A perfectly imperfect powerful mind sandy wolcott 🙏🏻

[@heekyungkim8147]

Thank you for this message… i needed it…

[@JM-jd7yp]

How absolutely beautiful. He really was a bodhisattva. Thank you.

[@biiig_papa]

THIS MAN!!!

[@indiraghai7972]

Never follow anything anyone ..just lead by ur own conscience

[@mariacasemyr]

Fantastic! Thank you so much ❤️

[@davidsaarelajr.5986]

I love you Alan, thank you for saving my life.

[@gillobao]

Thank you for this wonderful video 🙏🏾

[@palomawhite6210]

Beautiful! Thank you!

[@pacoguerilla3097]

Very inspiring thoughts. 🙏

[@clow0824]

Beautiful

[@linda6987]

Thank you! ♥️

[@onotheking]

Beautiful video

[@davidmaddy1447]

This is class...thank you for putting this together..

[@KaleidoscopesthirdeyeViz-il2gj]

Beautiful!

[@katydid2k]

You found the perfect visual accompaniments to every phrase - lovely, well done. Thank you.

[@shassblake]

Brilliant . . . Thank You Kindly for sharing

[@willatno2]

Thank you for making this ! Please please make more ! Wonderful film and images bravo!

[@thomasmaddox5638]

Absolutely BRILLIANT!!!!

[@connierenna-xf9um]

Thanks, very helpful to be reminded of these truths that are so easily forgotten. I am VERY westernized so when I am hit with impermanence I go nuts. In this life I will always need rude awakenings as I don’t readily embrace Eastern philosophy even though I intellectually understand it. It’s just the way I am.

[@neilcook1652]

Love this perspective

[@OneDayAtATime365]

As a recovering alcoholic. The one thing that broke my heart was to know he basically died an alcoholic. After all that search for meaning and explanation. He was basically demented and confused and scared and drank until he died.

[@billmc5457]

Apparently he was still holding on to his "self".

[@TomBreezy1]

He was human with human flaws. You need to separate the message from the messenger

[@kompal__79]

Allen Watts matches Osho alot. Grateful !

[@user-kp9yl9bm8i]

I love this man !❤

[@arturodeltoro1419]

Wow! I am speechless. so powerful. i am about to watch it again and i sure it wont ne the last time

[@andrearenee7845]

😇Thank you.

[@ravneetkaur5442]

Paradoxically am craving one type of change and resisting the other type of change

[@MrMjp58]

I love his talks. Could do without the background music.

[@A.G.Birajdar]

Great speech

[@sterlinggentry599]

Thats fing beautiful!

[@chentequilichini7182]

great!!

[@utinamsemper]

2:32 ..the theme of the Evanescence of the world is beautiful ♥ Being an Evanescence fan, this is the most beautiful use of this noun I have ever heard in my life.

[@larry6400]

This was insightful

[@7headsofdragon]

Go with the flow of the Water of Light and See the One who Created all things in Life! This is: The Law of One……

[@7headsofdragon]

Earth is a Dumping Ground of the Past-Lives who failed the test of the Harvest. Yugen: from Mu and the Deneb Galaxy came from the Past Lives here on Earth…..from MU!!!

[@carlydubbya7620]

beautiful imagery

[@offgridwhips]

thank you

[@aliayub5475]

Hope you are ok .sending positivity and love