Soft and frothy

Soft and frothy could well be the opinion of the doctrinaire of many Religions when hearing of the "watercourse way", otherwise known as the way of the Tao. 

Soft and frothy

"Letting things be" is not much to the liking of those who enjoy a few choruses of "Onward Christian Soldiers" ("marching as to war" etc) In many ways, this is all interconnected. 

Who needs to march when you have a horse?

There is the way of self-improvement though if we know the way of the Tao, then such a way begins to look very much like a dangerous form of vanity, even the way of the Pharisee - that man who is "not like other men".

Yet the one problem is the simple paradox, that though there is indeed nothing we can do - or even need to do - to be "enlightened" (or whatever), we cannot simply do nothing.

This is called a "mentoring paradox"

 "Life and love generate effort but effort will not generate life and love." 

Which is a little quote from one of the books of Alan Watts, who himself has been described as "light and frothy", even "new age", by the more ardent variety of theologian. Alan Watts has been accused of making light of human suffering. Yet, as I see it now, he simply seeks to understand our suffering, in all its various guises. 

At the heart of his "understanding" is not to fall into the habit of the dualist, i.e. that the solution to the dualist dilemma is to chop off one of its horns. Which can lead to the fantasy of the "world to come" as an "answer" to suffering, a time in the future when suffering will be "no more" and "right" will have no "wrong" - or left!

 All such a fantasy does, in looking towards it, is to postpone seriously asking the question:- "What must I do to be saved?"

Never Never Land?

Well, the answer is "nothing", so we are back where we started. Long ago I dabbled in calligraphy and for practice I often wrote out, in various scripts, a little poem found in one of the books of Alan Watts; in fact I think the book was one of his autobiographical efforts ( if "effort" is the right word!) Well, whatever, here is the poem:-

I asked the boy beneath the pines, 

He said, "the masters gone alone,

Herb-picking on the mount, 

Cloud hidden, whereabouts unknown."

Whereabouts unknown

Even way back then, I was quite taken with this. Very much the opposite of Christian soldiers marching "as to war". Then again, I don't think the calligraphy actually did my eyes any good, as I believe it could have been the zeroing in and concentration upon just one spot on the paper that caused a detached retina. Maybe not, but I've had an antipathy towards herb picking ever since. 

Well, I'm waffling as usual, and I'm not really sure exactly what this particular blog is about. I was going to title it just "Alan Watts" but when it came to it that just did not seem catchy enough - so it became "light and frothy", which sums it up in a way.

Alan Watts

 

Related Quotes:-

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

The real Zen of the old Chinese masters was wu-shi, or "no fuss."

(Both quotes from the books of Alan Watts, and I must say that the first is far from being "light and frothy". Reflecting upon it, the implications are profound and life giving, at least for me)

Here is another:- 

If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendental flower but a field.