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This is a revised version of a presentation created a year ago in tribute of my mentor and hero, Alan Watts. It's about zen, anxiety, life, and our relationship to the universe. Hope you enjoy. Design and copy by Edahn Small/Visuali.se.
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Anxiety, Zen, and EnlightenmentA brief presentation with quotes from the late, great Alan Watts
+EDAHN SMALL
www.visuali.se
/visualisepresentations
@visuali_sedon’t expect [email protected]
For fancy presentations
www.askedahn.com
For philosophical ramblings
/askedahn
@askedahn
This is Alan Watts.
He was child prodigy who was fascinated with Zen. He wrote prolifically and lectured around the US, introducing people to Eastern philosophy.
1915-1973
Some of his books, essays, and talks
This one in particular changed my life.
I started meditating.
I started paying attention differently.
I moved into a Zen Center for a short while.
…and of course, I started a blog. ;)
blah
blah
blah
shut up!
Here’s some of what I learned over the years.
We live in a world that is inherently unstable. It’s constantly changing on both a microscopic and macroscopic level.
But evolution has “designed” us to seek the exact opposite: stability, longevity, and continuity.
We work to stay alive.
To create security
and stability.
To make ourselves
attractive to potential mates.
To reproduce and ensure
that our offspring will
thrive, so they can continue the pattern.
We work to stay alive.
Seeking Continuity.And the cycle continues…
But our goals are constantly undermined by the ever-changing universe.
“There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.” –Alan Watts
So we exist against a backdrop of anxiety and fear, constantly fighting to put the world together a certain way while the universe is constantly shaking things up on us. We work harder and harder, and start obsessing about our future.
Get to the
choppa!
Get to the top!
Find Purpos
e Meet someone
Throw poop? Keep up!
Look good Be smart
New car?
Be smarterEat
Start savingGet ahead
The mental chatter starts to spiral out of control.
Get confiden
t
Get enlighte
ned
We slowly become disconnected from ourselves and from everything around us. It feels like something’s always missing.
Is there a solution?
Is there a solution?Sorta.
You can’t get around the problem of instability
because that’s just how things are. Sorry.
:(
But you can give up the need to plan,
to make progress, to achieve something, and just let things be for
a moment.Alan called it “Surrender”
Like this?
More like this.
Zen is letting your experience be as it is, whatever it is. When you sit down to meditate (zazen), you’re not trying to think positively or kill your thoughts. Nor are you trying to produce a feeling of tranquility. That’s just more struggling for progress.
You simply let things be as they already are, however confusing or unsettling that might be. You surrender control.
Zen Meditation.
“We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do.”
—Alan Watts
You pause the struggle against the world and against yourself.
And slowly, you realize something important.
That everything is okay.
And slowly, you realize something important.
That you are fundamentally good.
That everything is okay.
And slowly, you realize something important.
That you are fundamentally good.
That everything is okay.
That you have every reason to love yourself.
And slowly, you realize something important.
That you are fundamentally good.
That everything is okay.
That what truly matters is love, beauty, and goodness.
That you have every reason to love yourself.
And that your endless struggle against the universe was silly, because
you are the universe.
BAM.
“You did not come
into this world. You came out of
it like a wave from the ocean.”
–Alan Watts
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More about Edahn and Visuali.se
Edahn Small is the lead presentation designer at Visuali.se.
Portfolio: www.benet.net/presentations Slideshows: www.slideshare.net/edahn Facebook: /visualisepresentations Twitter: @visuali_se Email: [email protected]
Dedicated to my hero and mentor, Alan Watts.