Posted: Nov 03, 2017 5:16 pm
The_Metatron wrote:SpeedOfSound wrote:jamest wrote:I've been listening to many of Watts' ideas on youtube this year (I watched two sessions yesterday, as it happens). I'm no expert, but he's undoubtedly a theist of sorts, certainly a spiritual person. So, cease with that particular insanity (that he's an atheist).
Get me an exact quote from him and we will take a look at your 'theory'.
I am a 'spiritual person'. Trained by watts and I am a solid atheist. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
I am curious what that means to you, “spiritual person”.
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It was in response to a reference to Watts as a 'spiritual person'. I would never call myself that without reason. In a recent essay by Watts he made it clear why he wouldn't call himself that either.
I say things like Watts does in his videos and writings when discussing life and life problems. I try and find a more global view of our lives than that which you get from talking about your 'self' or your 'mind'. Now if you read just a tiny bit of science you will quickly understand what the problem is with all of this reference to a 'self' that we are obsessed with. Analytically it fails to obtain.
Another element of my Watts-bred spirituality is that I am obsessed with life's details. The more shit I notice around me and in me the happier I am. I wallow in sensation and conceptual scientific detail like a pig in mud. Drop me a little acid or mushrooms and all the better. I practice presence in my life, as a spiritual practice, by immersing myself in sensory input of all kinds. When I am troubled I go into the woods and 'feel' and repeatedly tell my think-brain to fuck off. I solve a surprising number of emotional and mental health issues by simply not thinking about them.
To summarize, jamest saw somehting in Watt's that prompted him to the label 'spiritual person'. I needed to point out, and he just agreed with me above, that this does not have anything to do with a 'spiritual belief'.
Thanks for asking!
