Posted inAlan Watts

Alan Watts on Vedanta, Buddhism, and Taoism

Though Alan Watts was an Anglican minister and served as chaplain at Northwestern University, in the book he wrote in 1940 when he was just 24, The Meaning of Happiness, three Eastern religions/philosophies garner the most attention and praise. That's because Watts correctly sees Vedanta, Buddhism, and Taoism as being transformational, rather than metaphysical, as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are. Just picture Christianity without Jesus, or Judaism without the history of the Jewish people, or Islam without the revelation of the Koran via Mohammed. Hard to do, if not impossible. But Vedanta, Buddhism, and Taoism do just fine without any…
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Posted inAlan Watts

True acceptance is the way out of the vicious circle of duality

I like to read books by Alan Watts. Other people don't like Watts. Some of them visit this blog. So when I write about how I enjoy what Watts has to say, probably they find those blog posts irritating. Such is the play of duality. It's how the world works, generally. Love is inconceivable without hate. Up is inconceivable without down. Absent dualities, we're simply left with what is, reality without a second. But the moment we ascribe human qualities, such as likes and dislikes, to aspects of reality, duality appears. (I'm not saying that reality is completely absent of…
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Posted inAlan Watts

Why I embrace the dark side of me and the world

Looking back, I don't think I ever was a full-on dualist, just a half-hearted one. This was during the 35 years I was a member of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a religious organization based in India whose core teaching was that this world in which we live and breathe isn't our true home but a temporary resting place -- since the purpose of life is to return to higher regions of reality and God through extensive meditation, devotion to a guru believed to be God in Human Form, a vegetarian diet, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, and morality, including…
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Posted inAlan Watts Free will

The whole universe is at work in every thought and action

I'd thought that I'd read, or at least heard about, every book by Alan Watts -- one of my favorite authors. But then I saw a comment on this blog where someone recommended The Meaning of Happiness: The Quest for Freedom of the Spirit in Modern Psychology and the Wisdom of the East. So I ordered it, as the commenter said that Watts had interesting observations about free will, one of my favorite subjects. Sweet! Favorite author plus favorite subject equals enjoyable reading. Watts wrote The Meaning of Happiness in 1940, when he was just 24 years old. Though I'm…
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Posted inBuddhism Free will

Here’s some ways to free yourself of the free will illusion

As noted before, one reason, among many, why I enjoy Paul Breer's books about the illusion of free will and of independent selfhood is that in addition to persuasively arguing why we humans lack free will or an enduring Self he talks about how these illusions can be markedly reduced, if not outright eliminated. His second book, Beyond Self-Realization: A Sectarian Path to Enlightenment, has the greatest focus on "how to." I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, but I've come across some tips that make sense to me. Breer was a student of Zen Buddhism for five…
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Posted inFree will

Paul Breer speaks of a selfless experience while in prison

A few commenters on a recent post about how Paul Breer describes the Cosmic View and Local View of enlightenment in his book, Beyond Self-Realization: A Sectarian Path to Enlightenment, have noted that Breer was indicted in 2012 on a felony charge of sexually abusing a relative. I pointed out in my own comment that Breer speaks of being in prison for two years in both of his books about the dual illusion of free will and of an immaterial self or soul. In the first book I read, and liked a lot, he didn't mention what he was in…
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Posted inConsciousness Free will

Enlightenment: the Cosmic View vs. the Local View (I go with local)

Whew. What a relief. So good to know that I was mistaken. After reading Paul Breer's first book about the illusion of free will, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will, I decided to dive even deeper into the Breer waters and bought his follow-up book, Beyond Self-Realization: A Non-Sectarian Path to Enlightenment.  This second book has a different structure that I wondered about when I began reading it, but is turning out to be appealing. The book starts by saying that a local library has announced a course about -- no big surprise -- Beyond Self-Realization.  Eight people…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Religions

“Losers rule” helps explain both the Old and NewTestaments

Being an atheist, it's difficult for me to decide which is the weirdest and most unbelievable religion, because they're all weird and unbelievable. Since I don't know a lot about Judaism, I was drawn to a piece by Adam Gopnik in the August 28, 2023 issue of The New Yorker, How the Authors of the Bible Spun Triumph from Defeat. Based on a review of a book by Jacob Wright, "Why the Bible Began," the article aided my understanding of what makes Judaism so strange. Gopnik says that the Jews were notable losers. The Jews were the great sufferers of the ancient…
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Posted inFree will

Free will is an illusion we’re better off without

Well, at long last I've finished Paul Breer's book, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will, which I've been writing about recently.  I enjoyed it a lot. But then, I'm a big fan of the notion that free will is an illusion that we'd be better off not embracing. In the post I'll explain in my own words some of what struck me most strongly in the book.  Spontaneity. Breer opened my eyes to a fact that other writers on free will don't emphasize much. If we look upon our thoughts, emotions, and actions as not being produced by…
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Posted inFree will India Taoism/Tai Chi

Is romantic love a product of Western culture?

I wasn't expecting to find the "Love and Sexuality" chapter in Paul Breer's book, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will, to be very interesting. After all, he'd already made his arguments for why free will is an illusion, along with describing the benefits of giving up the illusion. But his observations about how romantic love is largely a product of Western culture, and is at odds with Eastern philosophy, were thought-provoking. I'm not sure what to make of them, which is why the title of this blog post ends with a question mark. What do you think? Here's…
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Posted inFree will

We surrender to a higher power when we no longer believe in free will

I like the idea of surrendering to a higher power. I just don't like the notion that this is God or some other supernatural entity, for I prefer my surrendering to be founded in reality, not illusion. I'm not sure, though, if surrendering is the right word. Acceptance seems more accurate, but it lacks the imagery of surrendering -- which for me conjures up two generals negotiating the terms of the end of a war that one has won and one has lost. In this case, what's being surrendered is a belief in free will, the subject I've been writing…
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Posted inMeaning of life Miscellaneous

Great speech on speaking the truth about ourselves

This evening I was all set to write about a different subject. Then while eating dinner, I watched an episode of a streaming series that I've become addicted to. I'm on season 4 of the seven seasons, having belatedly discovered this show. Which is going to remain nameless, because I don't enjoy having plot twists revealed in a series that I'm watching, and I don't want to run the risk that I'll do the same to someone else.  Good actors with good scripts can convey messages about life that are deeply moving. I was hoping to be able to share…
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Posted inFree will

Here’s how to do away with blame, regret, and pride

If a religion, spiritual path, or mystical realization could promise a very good chance that you'd be able to do away with feelings of blame, regret, and pride -- along with other negative or good-to-let-go-of emotions -- would you want to pursue that opportunity?  I sure would. Especially if that opportunity didn't involve believing anything that couldn't be demonstrated to be true. And since I no longer believe in God or any other supernatural entities, I'd give the opportunity bonus points if it was thoroughly secular. That's why I've been so enthused for quite a few years about seeing through…
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Posted inBuddhism Free will

No entity inside us which is either free or not free

Here's more pearls of wisdom from Paul Breer that I'm harvesting from his book, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will, that I've been blogging about recently.  I'm finding Breer to be a clear thinker who is one of the few people writing about free will, or rather the lack thereof, who is out to show not only that free will is an illusion, but how that illusion can be dispelled. The difficulty of letting go of the false notion that we humans possess free will, while the rest of the world doesn't, is that as discussed in my…
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Posted inDelusions Free will

Our belief that we’re freely acting agents causes pain and suffering

Want to feel better? Want to take steps toward genuine enlightenment? Want to embark on a journey toward truth and away from illusion? All those wants can be achieved by giving up a sensation of being an independent agent, or soul, or ego, that stands apart from the laws of nature that govern everything else in existence.  So argues Paul Breer in a persuasive fashion in his book, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will. I'm enjoying the book a lot. Here's excerpts from the first chapter, "An Overview of the Agency Problem," that provide a good overview of…
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Posted inFree will

Accepting free will means denying determinism

I keep writing blog posts about free will for a couple of reasons. One, it's a fascinating subject that points to the heart of what religiosity is all about, and what atheism is all about. Two, some of the comments on my posts indicate that visitors to this blog have some mistaken notions about free will. Regarding religiosity and atheism, the only way free will could exist is if the complex web of causes and effects that result in determinism and chance (the only two proven options in our universe) somehow isn't operative in us humans. Meaning, some unknown supernatural…
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Posted inFree will

Ideas about free will I’m compelled to share

A nice thing about writing on the subject of free will is that it's easy to explain why I'm doing it. I had no alternative. To put it in the words of a Doris Day song, "Whatever will be, will be." I've been writing about free will recently, but mostly by quoting the words of knowledgeable authors on this subject. In this post I'm going to take a more eclectic approach, sharing a variety of ideas about free will that have been rummaging through my mind the past few days. Trump's indictments. Here in the United States those of us…
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Posted inFree will

Free will is an illusion. But it’s a useful illusion.

As noted in my previous post about a book by Daniel Wegner that persuasively describes the illusion of free will, appropriately titled The Illusion of Conscious Will, in this post I'll share some of what Wegner says in a concluding chapter about why a belief in free will, though wrong, can be useful. That chapter is called "The Mind's Compass." Conscious will is the mind's compass. Like an actual compass, which does no actual steering of a ship, free will indicates what is happening with a person, even though it also doesn't do any actual "steering." Wegner writes, "Just as…
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Posted inFree will

How the brain creates the illusion of conscious will

As I said in my previous post about Sartre and how his view of freedom bugs me because I don't believe in free will, Sartre takes it for granted that because he feels like he is free to choose his actions, this is proof that free will actually exists. This is wrong. It goes against what is known about the human brain. So because I realize how entrenched a belief that they possess free will is in the minds of most people, including commenters on this blog, I dug out what I consider to be one of the best books…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Free will

Freedom is what bugs me about Sartre. I don’t believe in free will.

Message to those who visit this blog who aren't into Sartre's Being and Nothingness as much as I am (which includes almost everybody, I'm pretty sure): Today I reached a point in my re-reading of the book where it dawned on me what my central problem with Sartre's existentialist philosophy is -- freedom. It's a big enough problem that I likely will put Being and Nothingness back on the shelf where I picked it up recently. I enjoy trying to encapsulate complex philosophies and world views in a few words, as crazy as this would seem to an expert in…
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