A recurring theme of Alan Watts' talks is the western perception of the self as a little man living in the skull, sitting in the driver's seat of a human body. I don't think of a little man operating my body like a crane, exactly, but I have lately begun to see my body as more of a weight or trap limiting my 'real self,' whatever that 'real self' may be.
I don't believe in a soul. I believe what we call the soul or spirit is, along with the intellect, just an electrochemical process going on in the brain. Viewed in the context of the whole universe, it's a tiny and inconsequential process.
Even so, it would be interesting to be able to free that process of its physical restraints and let it float free like some sort of wispy cloud. Some of us would have clouds that were white and fluffy. Others (like me, probably) would have dark, looming clouds that stayed close to the ground.
Or perhaps we would all be one big cloud.
In any event, we'd be free of the imposition of a physical body that constantly broke down on us, needed constant grooming and even surgical modification to conform to marketing-driven expectations, only to eventually quit working no matter how much we spent on it.
4 comments:
is it safe for me to come over and work... your words remind me of the people i worked with in mental health centers... low glooming dark clouds.... close to the ground... hmmm... this is definitely.. a twist on your most recent outlook on life.. no soul..no spirit... is that not a contradiction the lack of physical self...
As I wrote that, I thought it was a contradiction.
On further reflection, I'm not sure it is.
If one believes in non-self, then one almost necessarily also believes in the illusion of self, because it's the illusion that causes us so much problem.
What I'm suggesting is that it would be more pleasant if the illusion was not some awkward, heavy, clumsy, high-maintenance human body, but simply a cloud floating over the ground below.
The point is moot: we have the illusion we have, and we have the reality we have.
Glad you cleared that all up, MCARP. For a little while I thought you were describing us all as a kind of cosmic fart.
blogblah
Take some mushrooms, dude.
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