A REMARKABLE SPEECH

    For more than 20 years, I have been writing quotes to begin the working week. My working week begins with some time dedicated to find the quote. I like to ascertain the source of the quote and the context in which it was made, as much as possible. Often, while reading the quote, I am struck by its insight or relevance to today's time or to my life, in general. On Twitter and LinkedIn, these quotes can be found by searching for the hashtag #onmywhiteboard. On 12-Jul-2022, NASA's James Webb telescope delivered an image of a galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 whose light emerged 4.6 billion years ago, available at https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet for viewing, a historic image. On 18-Jul-2022, I searched a quote that that would suit this historic event and finally selected this quote: "You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean. The ocean waves, and the universe peoples.", by philosopher Alan Watts. When I wrote this on my whiteboard at home, I made a subtle change in the last sentence, after reading the quote in its context. I wrote it as "The ocean 'waves' and the universe 'peoples'". https://twitter.com/kiran_the_lz_1/status/1548928935186075648 shows my whiteboard as it was that week ! I shall explain why after some time.

     https://www.famousphilosophers.org/alan-watts/ provides a brief overview of his life. https://alanwatts.org/life-of-alan-watts/ is the website responsible for curating Alan Watts' works.

    I read some of the essay from which the quote is taken at https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/watts_alan/watts_alan_article1.shtml while writing the quote. I was intrigued by what I read. Over time, I read the entire speech that Alan Watts made in 1960 on the nature of consciousnness. To go to work, I use the metro. It took me nearly the whole week of commuting to read the entire speech. Some of the ideas expressed opened my eyes to new ideas/ concepts. The long speech requires time to digest, but it was well worth my time. The speeches are also available at https://alanwatts.org/3-4-6-nature-of-consciousness-part-1/ (Part 1), https://alanwatts.org/3-4-7-nature-of-consciousness-part-2/ (Part 2) and https://alanwatts.org/3-4-8-nature-of-consciousness-part-3/ (Part 3). I list out the broad ideas that I liked from Alan Watts' speech:

* There are 3 parts to the speech, as Watts explains his idea of consciousness. In part 1, he discusses two models of the universe, based on religions. In part 2, he proposes that the universe can be regarded as a drama of sorts. In part 3, Watts explores the senses and how religions aim to teach the nature of consciousness in their own ways.

* In part 1, a term called the "ceramic model" is used to symbolise the manner in which religions like Christianity explain the creation of the universe. It is an interesting viewpoint.

* Alan Watts states: ".... the tree which grows apples is a tree which apples, using 'apple' as a verb." This is the sense in which the words 'waves' and 'peoples' are used in the quote that I put up on my whiteboard.

* There is a beautiful sentence "But we have this hostility to the external world because of the superstition, the myth, the absolutely unfounded theory that you, yourself, exist only inside your skin." This is something that we have seen over years: the outsider is blamed for evils.

* The Big Bang is compared to an ink splash. Just as the pattern at the end of the splash is also part of the ink splash, as people we are also part of the universe and the Big Bang. The analogy Alan Watts uses is brilliant.

* ".... life isn't either prickles or goo, it's either gooey prickles or prickly goo. They go together like back and front, male and female." brings out why opposites and divergent ideas are important.

* The term "polarization" is used often nowadays. Alan Watts observes that: ".... you have a magnetized bar, there's a north pole and a south pole. Okay, chop off the south pole, move it away. The piece you've got left creates a new south pole. You never get rid of the South Pole." Extending this idea: " .... self and other go together, in just the same way as the two poles of a magnet." This idea is a powerful and thought provoking one. Polarization is about opposites, but both opposites exist in a magnet and no matter if we cut the magnet, the poles will still continue to exist: this point needs to be stressed.

* The role of emotional intelligence is brought out here: "..... the cortex of the human brain enables us when we're happy to know that we're happy, and that gives a certain resonance to it. If you're happy, and you don't know you're happy, there's nobody home."

* The value placed on the power of money is explained in simple terms: "The symbols representing the reality, the money representing the wealth, and if you don't realize that the symbol is really secondary, it doesn't have the same value."

* Watts explains in one sentence, the celebration of life contained in the Hindu word "satchitananda". The sentence is: "'Satchitananda.' Which means 'sat,' that which is, 'chit,' that which is consciousness; that which is 'ananda' is bliss. In other words, what exists, reality itself is gorgeous, it is the fullness of total joy." He also brings out aspects of Zen Buddhism

* The etymology of the word "persona" is so nicely explained that I will always relate to its Greek origin now.

     While reading the speech again to write this blog post, I am again struck by the manner in which Alan Watts uses analogies to guide the listener/ reader about his thoughts. I had selected this quote because humanity got to see light from 4.6 billion years ago, thanks to NASA's James Webb telescope. It was the famous cosmologist Carl Sagan who told his daughter that his father had told him that we are star stuff. https://news.culturacolectiva.com/technology/carl-sagans-response-to-his-daughter-on-life-immortality-and-why-were-stardust/ is the source of that quote. I wrote the quote by Alan Watts thinking that this quote was similar to Sagan's quote. It is only after I read his entire speech that Watts' quote links astronomy, philosophy and also some amount of medical science! I feel stimulated and enriched after reading Alan Watts' speech.