This is the website/blog of Philosopher Stephen Law. Stephen is Reader in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK. He has published several books (see sidebar). For school talks and media email: think-AT-royalinstitutephilosophy.org
Monday, November 2, 2015
Life as 'a journey' is a hoax: short video with Alan Watts
This is great. Life as journey is 'a dreadful hoax' … Thanks to Blakeley Nixon.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Not to be a wet blanket, I've always found Alan Watts's talks a bit glib. Life begins at birth and ends at death. I would call that a journey. Sure, you can smell the roses along the way, but there's no getting off the train. I think Christopher Hitchens (whom I admire for his honesty, intellect, wit and courage, even though I don't share his atheism) displayed a perfectly natural reaction when he spoke about his own death:
"I am badly oppressed by the gnawing sense of waste."
Watts's remark about heaven at the end of that video is typical of his shallow rhetoric. Not everyone believes that heaven is a reward for living a 'good' life. Christians (at least of the Calvinist persuasion) believe that their place in heaven isn't determined by what they do:
Ephesian 1:4 "For he chose us in him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and blameless in his sight."
For such a Christian, this life is not a means to an end. It has a very clear purpose:
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to DO GOOD WORKS, which God PREPARED IN ADVANCE for us to do."
Such Christians are not striving to win a place in heaven, they are doing good works because they care about the Good. It wouldn't surprise me if Christopher Hitchens is in heaven right now (though he would be very surprised). In many respects, he led a more exemplary life than many Christians.
Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Actually, if I understand it, it's life as a journey with a 'destination' that is the hoax.
I don't believe we define our 'self' or our 'life' by the job we do, and I think this is the 'con' that society spins us so that we contribute to that great political machine called the economy, which none of us can live without. And I'm caught up in that as much as anyone else, otherwise I wouldn't even have a roof over my head or be able to feed myself. Yet, there are some brave souls who choose to escape this as demonstrated by Kevin Mcleod's Escape to the Wild programmes.
This is about finding meaning in one's life, which I think is essential, and, I suspect, most people find meaning through having a family and growing children into adults. But I'm only surmising - I don't really know - because I've never done it.
So I find meaning through all the people I meet and the interactions I have whether they be work colleagues or chance meetings, like the one I had just last week with a young woman who had just returned from 20mths in Somalia with her two children, one a teenager and one pre-teen. Over a cup of coffee we discussed her country and its issues and her children, so for a short instance we were part of each other's life and we both feel slightly enhanced by it. That's what we live our lives for and everything else is incidental.
4 comments:
Not to be a wet blanket, I've always found Alan Watts's talks a bit glib. Life begins at birth and ends at death. I would call that a journey. Sure, you can smell the roses along the way, but there's no getting off the train. I think Christopher Hitchens (whom I admire for his honesty, intellect, wit and courage, even though I don't share his atheism) displayed a perfectly natural reaction when he spoke about his own death:
"I am badly oppressed by the gnawing sense of waste."
Watts's remark about heaven at the end of that video is typical of his shallow rhetoric. Not everyone believes that heaven is a reward for living a 'good' life. Christians (at least of the Calvinist persuasion) believe that their place in heaven isn't determined by what they do:
Ephesian 1:4 "For he chose us in him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and blameless in his sight."
For such a Christian, this life is not a means to an end. It has a very clear purpose:
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to DO GOOD WORKS, which God PREPARED IN ADVANCE for us to do."
Such Christians are not striving to win a place in heaven, they are doing good works because they care about the Good. It wouldn't surprise me if Christopher Hitchens is in heaven right now (though he would be very surprised). In many respects, he led a more exemplary life than many Christians.
Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Actually, if I understand it, it's life as a journey with a 'destination' that is the hoax.
I don't believe we define our 'self' or our 'life' by the job we do, and I think this is the 'con' that society spins us so that we contribute to that great political machine called the economy, which none of us can live without. And I'm caught up in that as much as anyone else, otherwise I wouldn't even have a roof over my head or be able to feed myself. Yet, there are some brave souls who choose to escape this as demonstrated by Kevin Mcleod's Escape to the Wild programmes.
This is about finding meaning in one's life, which I think is essential, and, I suspect, most people find meaning through having a family and growing children into adults. But I'm only surmising - I don't really know - because I've never done it.
So I find meaning through all the people I meet and the interactions I have whether they be work colleagues or chance meetings, like the one I had just last week with a young woman who had just returned from 20mths in Somalia with her two children, one a teenager and one pre-teen. Over a cup of coffee we discussed her country and its issues and her children, so for a short instance we were part of each other's life and we both feel slightly enhanced by it. That's what we live our lives for and everything else is incidental.
Regards, Paul.
The video is about not obsessing with the rat race. Reminds me of the Adam Sandler movie "remote"'
The video is about not obsessing with the rat race. Reminds me of the Adam Sandler movie "remote"'
Post a Comment