Return to Video

What did you forget? - Alan Watts

  • 0:03 - 0:03
    You know, you can always bug people,
  • 0:03 - 0:04
    in a beautiful way, in a very helpful way.
  • 0:06 - 0:15
    by just saying to them: "What did you forget?"
  • 0:15 - 0:18
    Well, I don't know. What was I supposed to remember?
  • 0:18 - 0:22
    Oh, I'm really not trying to put you on, I mean it's not difficult.
  • 0:22 - 0:22
    This is something completely obvious that you forgot.
  • 0:26 - 0:30
    You would easily remember it, because it's so obvious.
  • 0:30 - 0:33
    Well that's the hardest thing in the world to think of.
  • 0:33 - 0:35
    What's is the most obvious thing I've forgotten?
  • 0:35 - 0:39
    Hell, what's that?
  • 0:39 - 0:44
    Well who do you think you are?
  • 0:44 - 0:46
    How do you answer that question? Who are you?
  • 0:46 - 0:48
    Will you give a name?
  • 0:48 - 0:51
    You say, "I'm Joe Doe, cause I'm Alan Watts."
  • 0:51 - 0:54
    That is not true!
  • 0:54 - 0:58
    That's what people told you, you are!
  • 0:58 - 1:00
    They put that name on you, and they torch you
  • 1:00 - 1:06
    to identify with it and to behave as it was expected to behave.
  • 1:06 - 1:10
    But that's not who you are, you know very well.
  • 1:10 - 1:15
    Go back in your memory, go back into your infancy before they started telling you all this stuff.
  • 1:15 - 1:20
    Who are you?
  • 1:20 - 1:31
    And if you get with that you'll know very well who you are
  • 1:31 - 1:40
    What you are basically, deep deep down, far far in
  • 1:40 - 1:46
    is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself
  • 1:46 - 1:51
    only there's a conspiracy that you musn't let on about that.
  • 1:51 - 1:59
    Because everybody is. And if one person realizes it the other's a little bit offended
  • 1:59 - 2:04
    And they say: "well, how come you're so great?"
  • 2:04 - 2:10
    So, everybody therefore who gets an intimation of who they really are
  • 2:11 - 2:11
    and ever comes out with it in Christian civilization, people say: "who the hell do you think you are? You Jesus Christ?"
  • 2:13 - 2:19
    Or you can say: "Jesus Christ said he was Jesus Christ and everybody put him down through it and that's what you're doing to me."
  • 2:19 - 2:19
    There is a, an as it were recess of the soul, of the psyche.
  • 2:19 -
    Where everybody knows perfectly well that you are not just this irresponsible little mouse
  • Not Synced
    that's been chucked down into this world.
  • Not Synced
    But that you are really doing this work.
  • Not Synced
    You're running it.
  • Not Synced
    Only you can't admit just in the same way as you can't admit that you're responsible for the way your own heart beats.
  • Not Synced
    You say: "Oh, that's not my doing. I've no control over my heart. Do you have any control over being conscious? Do you know how you will?"
Title:
What did you forget? - Alan Watts
Description:

Alan Watts ask a simple yet profound question.."What did you forget?"

Follow us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tragedy-and-Hope/122913764534469

more » « less
Video Language:
English, British
Team:
Volunteer
Duration:
03:34

English subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions