Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 28 – Limits of Language

Taking a trip through the constructs of form and labeling, Alan Watts philosophizes about the limits of language.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts philosophizes about:
  • Unexamined systems of belief underneath language
  • Ideas that are built into our common sense
  • The substance of form, pattern, and organization
  • The profound mystery of matter
  • Limitations in trying to use language to define the ineffable
  • ‘Matter’ as a root word for many things
  • Chinese views of nature
  • Why verbs do not necessarily need subjects
  • Being at peace with ourselves in a world of form
  • Recognizing the universe as a process

“When we divide the world into operations and agents, doers and doings, then we ask such silly questions as ‘who knows, who does it, what does it?’ When the what that is supposed to do it is the same as the doing. You could very easily see that the whole process of the universe may be understood as process, nobody is doing it.” – Alan Watts

Listen to more Alan Watts talks:
Being in the Way Ep. 1: Alan shares a dharma talk on Taoism, the interdependence of nature, and dropping out of karma
Alan Watt’s son, Mark, 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
Therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus: Being in the Way Ep. 6
The connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and separation: Being in the Way Ep. 3
Our place in the universe and how very natural it is to be human, in Being in the Way Ep. 4
The joyous cosmology that we are God playing the roles of ordinary people: Being in the Way Ep. 21
Alan Watts