Ep. 41 – The Web of Life

Alan Watts Being in the Way - Be Here Now Network / Love Serve Remember Foundation

In this profound 1960s seminar recorded on a ferryboat, Alan Watts explores the interconnected nature of existence through the metaphor of a

Key takeaways

• Human awareness is both insightful and fundamentally limited—our everyday consciousness screens out crucial aspects of existence that, if known, would bring deep peace.
• The universe operates like a vast web of vibrations; we perceive only a narrow band of reality, much like threads in a tapestry where the back reveals the hidden pattern.

Main topics

• The selective nature of human perception
• Interconnectedness of all things in the cosmos

Notable quotes

"Our sense organs are selective. They pick out certain things. They are receptive... but we know that outside that small band, there is a huge range of vibrations to which we have built instruments that are sensitive."

"You're playing a trick on me. Really deep down. Who are you?"

Conclusion

Alan Watts concludes that true freedom and joy come not from denying the world of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) A good meditation teacher isn't just someone who meditates a lot. Helping someone work with their own mind is a genuine skill, and it requires training. Join Buddhist teacher David Nickturn for a free online talk on Tuesday, August 25th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Drawing on more than 50 years of practice and teaching, David will explore what it takes to offer clear meditation instruction, listen deeply, guide meaningful discussion, and share the teachings in your own voice. You'll also learn about Dharma Moon's upcoming 100-hour mindfulness meditation teacher training offered in partnership with Tibet House US, the Dalai Lama's cultural center in the United States. You'll have a chance to meet the teaching team, ask questions, and find out whether the program is right for you. Visit dharmamoon.com backslash path to learn more and reserve your spot for this free online event on August 25th. Speaker 2 (1:25) Welcome to the Alan Watts Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Watts. This is Being in the Way, and today we're going to listen to a great talk on the web of life. This talk was part of a seminar given on the ferryboat Vallejo in the early 60s, and it's one of the wonderful seminars that we have from this period where he's able to explore in depth with an audience some of his favorite themes. Speaker 2 (1:49) Today's podcast is produced by the Alan Watts Organization with help from the Be Here Now Podcast Network. And this is Alan Watts in Web of Life. Speaker 3 (2:09) The Web of Life. Now, let me try from the first to indicate the point that we're aiming at. The point is this, that human consciousness Speaker 3 (2:33) is at the same time as being a form of awareness and sensitivity and understanding, it's also a form of ignorance. The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have leaves out more than it takes in. And because of this, it leaves out things that are terribly important. It leaves out things that would, if we did know them, allay our anxieties and fears and horrors and if we could extend our awareness, you see, to include those things that we leave out, we would have a deep interior peace. Because we would all know the one thing that you mustn't know, you know, according to the rules of our particular social game. The one thing you mustn't know, that's really not allowed, that is the lowdown on life. And the lowdown, you know, is on... is a kind of a... has an ambivalence to it. The lowdown, on the one hand, means the news that people whisper to each other behind the back shed or something, you know? The real dirt on things. But the lowdown is also what is profound, what is mysterious, what is in the depths. and there's something left out. And our everyday consciousness screens this out in the same way that when you say you have weaving, you have, say, on this rug here in front of us, you have the threads done in such a way that when the black finishes here, the black threads will go underneath. and then appear again over here, then they'll go underneath the white, and then they'll appear again over here. You know? So that the back will be the obverse pattern of the front. Now, the world is like that. Our sense organs are selective. They pick out certain things. They are receptive. For example, we have a small, small band of what you might call a spectrum of light, of sound, of tactile sensation, and so on, to which the human organism is sensitive. But we know that outside that small band, there is a huge range of vibrations to which we have built instruments that are sensitive. Things like cosmic rays, ultraviolet rays. gamma rays, hard x-rays, so on. They're all outside the band of our spectrum and obviously there are things that are outside the range of our instruments. We may build new instruments someday which will evoke, bring into our consciousness other orders of vibration altogether, but as yet we don't know about them. So you could imagine, you see, the universe is a vast, vast system of vibrations and has infinite possibilities. All these vibrations, you know, are like the strings on a harp. And the harps that the angels are supposed to play in heaven are really this thing, this huge possibility. See, when you play the harp, you select strings. You don't play all the strings. It's stupid to just run your finger along the whole edge of the harp, back and forth, back and forth, and go... What you do is you pick out with your fingers, select, let's start on the piano,