Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson
Today’s service is an introduction to the works of Alan Watts, a British-American writer and philosopher who worked to interpret Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism for Western audiences. I first encountered Watts’ completely by accident. I was listening to a selection of calming, meditative music on youtube and a compelling voice came on and began talking very matter-of-factly about some very strange but intriguing spiritual ideas. I wasn’t quite sure what to think. It always pays to be suspicious of people who talk a load of pseudo-mystical nonsense in a very confident fashion – it’s the perfect recipe for a cult leader. It turned out that Alan Watts wasn’t a cult leader, but did get up to all the mischief you might expect of a mid-20th century Californian hippie. He lived for some time in a commune, had three wives (though not all at once), fathered seven children, and used psychedelic drugs. So all in all, exactly my kind of person. I’ve enjoyed Alan’s spiritual insights, and I hope you will too.
No recording this week.
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
Today’s main topic is an edited version of a talk given by Alan Watts, called “The Constitution of Nature”
Ruby Johnson © 16 March 2025
The talk goes on to end I think, fairly abruptly. Still there’s a lot to think about in the comparisons Watts makes. I was first introduced to Alan Watts through his description of the Indian “dramatic view” of the cosmos. Elsewhere, he calls this view “the cosmic game of hide and seek”, where every living thing is just a piece of the universe that has come to life, and is in effect, the universe looking at itself. For someone that has long struggled to believe in any particular supernatural power, this was a potent way of taking a hard material fact – that each of us is made up of inert matter, and turning that into something sacred. Our eyes are the eyes of the universe. When we look at each other, the universe is looking at itself. This is a tremendous antidote, I think to that feeling which Watts rightly calls out, that modernity has made all of us feel like cogs in a machine.
Rationalising the world is great for scientific progress, but I’m much less enthusiastic about the idea of rationalising ourselves, or our inner lives. Watts makes the point that this is not an easy thing to address. Our entire culture, economy, and politics is built on the idea of continual optimisation. We can’t just take these other ideas out of the cupboard to take the pressure off after a hard day’s work. It takes a genuine curiosity, spiritual and intellectual self reflection, and a little bit of self-compassion to get under the skin as it were, and reevaluate what is really important to us. I know at least, that that is what it has taken for me.
Links
Chalice Lighting:- “A Chalice Lighting for the Dark and the Light” By Frances Koziar
Closing Words:- from “The Final Speech from The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin