Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 22 – Out of the Trap Pt. 1

Delving into the historically complicated human relationship to divinity, Alan Watts describes the trap of separateness. 

“The idea that we were all subjects of a divine king you might say was a political model based on the organization of the great city-states of the ancient near east. That image, you see, has absolutely haunted Western man throughout his whole development because he has felt that he is in the universe on probation and sufferance. He doesn’t quite belong here.” – Alan Watts

In this episode, Alan Watts explores:
  • The sensation of our own existence 
  • Jewish Christian mythology 
  • Identifying with the tribe
  • Universal law and the roots of justice
  • Freud and the energies of the psyche 
  • Man as a product of nature versus the supernatural

About Alan Watts:

A prolific author and speaker, Alan Watts was one of the first to interpret Eastern wisdom for a Western audience. Born outside London in 1915, he discovered the nearby Buddhist Lodge at a young age. After moving to the United States in 1938, Alan became an Episcopal priest for a time, and then relocated to Millbrook, New York, where he wrote his pivotal book The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety. In 1951 he moved to San Francisco where he began teaching Buddhist studies, and in 1956 began his popular radio show, “Way Beyond the West.” By the early sixties, Alan’s radio talks aired nationally and the counterculture movement adopted him as a spiritual spokesperson. He wrote and regularly traveled until his passing in 1973.

Listen to more Alan Watts:

In this premiere episode, Alan shares a dharma talk on Taoism, the interdependence of nature, and dropping out of karma, on Being in the Way Ep. 1.
Alan’s son, Mark Watts, shares background on Alan’s early life, before introducing two of his father’s specially curated dharma talks focused on karma, in Being in the Way Ep. 2
Alan shares on therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus, before playing the hilarious and light-shedding role of a clinical patient who realizes they’re God, in Being in the Way Ep. 6
Alan illuminates the connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and separation, Saints and rascals, you and not-you, as well as difference and unity, in Being in the Way Ep. 3
Uncovering how we arise mutually with all things, Alan examines our place in the universe and how very natural it is to be human, in Being in the Way Ep. 4
Alan Watts