Alan Watts: You and the universe are one

~ Tom Das

centaurus A

“It’s not true that you came into this world. You came out of it, in the same way a flower comes out of a plant or a fruit comes out of a tree. An apple tree apples, the solar system peoples…You are a function of this total galaxy”
Alan Watts

This is one of my favourite quotes from Alan Watts. He has a lovely way of expressing the inherent oneness and interconnectedness of all things. Most people do not tend to think of themselves as an expression of the universe. Do you see that your every action is in fact the universe acting? Life is nothing but universe-al action.

Here another quote of his along similar lines:

“…it does not occur to the ordinary person to regard himself or herself as an expression of the whole universe.  It should be obvious that we cannot exist except in an environment of air, earth, water and solar temperature, that all these things go with us and are as important to us as our internal organs such as our heart, brain, stomach and so forth.”

We tend to think that we are individuals performing actions upon the universe-al stage. But in our anthropocentric arrogance we actually have it back to front. We are not doing things to the universe; the universe is doing us. It is living us, breathing us, it is speaking through our mouths, it is looking at itself through our eyes.

This reminds me of another one of my favourite quotes, this time from a Christian priest, Meister Eckhart (Eckhart Tolle supposedly took his name from this man):

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”
Meister Eckhart (1260-1368)

The universe is writing this blog; the universe is reading this blog.

Much love to you all

❤

8 thoughts on “Alan Watts: You and the universe are one”

  3. I strongly believe what you have posted is true. However, I am unable to get the insight on how it can be so. Can you provide some insight for a person who has this question?

    thanks
    Guru

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      1. How to understand that the universe operates through me? This is also related to one of the statements you made in your batgap interview. That we are not the doer. I am struggling to understand that even though I believe it. I intellectually understand that there is no “I” and there is no “doer” but how to understand it experiantially? In your another statement, you said that “you were frustrated with existing books and when you get enlightened you would write it simply so that anybody would understand it”. But I was not able to get your answer on that during the interview. Have you written anything that a person on the other side can somehow understand it?

        thanks
        Guru

        Like

  4. The problem is that it is not so easy to put into words. I would encourage you look through my essays and poems or come along to one of my meetings where we can discuss this in person.

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