Pleasant Surprises

Scanning the Tag Surfer on WordPress.com I stumbled across a video using Audio from Alan Watts. I very much enjoyed listening to his philosophy and I’m rather surprised I didn’t stumble across it sooner. I imagine I’ve heard the name, but I never really looked deeper till watching the video on this post.

The video touches on the subject of if existence is a serious matter. I was attracted by the question because it reminded me of an idea in a quote by Lovecraft I used on an earlier post about morality and I was curious to see further opinions. Watts’ thoughts seem to be on a similar wavelength and takes the discussion into valuing life and actually living it. The video really wraps up a lot of what I’ve been thinking about for a long time now. However it still leaves that eternal question of how to apply the philosophy to life in general.

I enjoy the metaphor of life being like a dance or piece of music: the point is not the end but enjoying the entire thing. It is by no means a new idea, but I thought the metaphor very appropriate. The token of wisdom to be applied is find a way to do what you love or love what you do. I suppose it could be repetitive to say but to me there is a distinction between doing what you love and loving what you do. The first is a task that you’ve always enjoyed and wanted to do, the second is one that you’ve learned to love. I know in the long run there isn’t a distinction between the amount of happiness they would bring into someones life, but I have little interest in learning to love tedious things.

I suppose thats not completely true, I can enjoy tedious things I just don’t like being told to do them at a specific pace. Perhaps thats my conflict, I’m in no rush to get things done. Its not that I lack motivation, I just take more time to smell the roses than others, especially when its rarely an interest for most people.

Regardless of how his thoughts apply to me, it was a pleasant surprise to find his outlook. I say its hard to believe I missed him because apparently he is connected with a few areas I’ve dabbled in. He was a friend of Aldous Huxley, knew Joseph Campbell, and is attributed the oft quoted description of a DMT experience (“like loading the Universe into a gun and firing it into your brain”). I always enjoy when webs of association like that pop up.

~ by NewAgeAlchemist on May 27, 2008.