Alan Watts - The Art of Meditation Full Movie

hello I'm elder Hartley and I made the film you're about to see so let me tell you a little about it I've been involved in film for over 60 years I started out as an actress but quickly figured out that a future as a Hollywood has been would be pretty grim my late husband and I started our own production company launching a long journey through the world of independent filmmaking for the first 25 years we focused on corporate productions sponsored films films for money for the last 30 years I've dedicated myself to films own spirituality and healing making them for love not money I've traveled the world documenting the great religions and traditional cultures probing the secrets of yoga's mystics and folk healers it is fair to say I've been working in this genre longer than almost anyone being a labor of love these films have given me the courage to follow my bliss as Joseph Campbell would say and some of the best thinkers of our time like Margaret Mead Joseph camel Alan Watts Bernie Siegel Houston Smith and Deepak Chopra have understood this vision and enthusiastically participated in my films and I sincerely believe that we can be helped by listening to the still small voice within I hope this film will make it easier for you to hear that voice a person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts and so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions by thoughts I mean specifically chattering inside the foul perpetual and compulsive repetition of words of calculations and symbols going on inside the head for as a result of confusing the real world of nature with near signs such as money stocks and bonds title deeds and so forth we are destroying nature this is a disaster time to wake up for what is reality obviously no one can say reality isn't material that's just an idea reality isn't that's just an idea reality is you see we all know what reality is but we can't describe it just as we all know how to beat our hearts and shape our bones but cannot say how it is done to get in touch with reality there is an art of meditation of what is called yoga or dianna in India Chan in China and Zen in Japan it is the art of temporarily silence in the mind of stopping the chatter in the skull of course you can't force your mind to be silent that would be like trying to smooth ripples in water the flat on water becomes clear and Tom only when left alone so will you try and experiment with me simply allow your ears to hear all sounds around you don't try to name or identify these sounds just hear them as you would listen to music as when you hear a flute or guitar without asking what it means you must understand that in meditation we are concerned only with what is with reality nothing else the past is a memory the future and expectation neither past nor future actually exists there is simply eternal now so don't think or expect a result from what you're doing that wouldn't be true meditation there is no hurry yes now you're not going anywhere simply be here live in the world of sound let it play that's all in the world of pure sound can you actually hear anyone who's listening can you hear any difference between all these sounds on the one hand and yourself on the other naturally we use various techniques and gimmicks for helping the mind to be still and one of the most useful of all is the gong or it has a sound which is at once Pleasant and compelling and I want you to listen and watch what happens when the sound fade the way the once arm becomes the many the single tone is transformed the ease of E and gently into all other noises and that's how the universe comes into being out of the one energy underlying all events so if you don't have a gong you can use your own voice and use a device which is called by the Hindus and Buddhists in mantra that is to say a sound or word or phrase which is sung for the sound rather than for its meaning and chief among these is the mantra ohm a um call the Pranava because it comprises the whole range of sound from the back of the throat to the lips this so called the sound of God so why don't you sing it with me or hum it with me taking the note from the gong now you can hear all sounds as oh they are all at some point in the total range of sound from the back of the throat to the lips making a spectrum of sound as all colors are originally one white light but don't ask what the sound is or what it means just hear it dig it come with me again let me explain again what we're doing we're going behind Birds names compass beliefs and ideas to get back to the naked experience of reality itself and at this level of awareness we find no difference between the listener and the sound the narrower the known the subject and the object or between the past the present the future all that's just talked what is really happening is and you may wonder how I can keep the sound going for so long a time it depends on regulation of the breath which is basic to the art of meditation and I'm going to show you how to do this and why to begin with just as you've been letting vibrations in the air play with your ears let your lungs breathe as they will don't as yet attempt any breathing exercise don't force anything simply allow breathing now is this breathing a voluntary or involuntary action or both or neither just there feel it without taking sides without words and again hear my voice as if it were wind in the trees or the sound of waves most of us are short of breath we never really empty our lungs but to make a long complete out-breath you mustn't faucet imagine there's a large ball of lead inside your neck and allow it to fall slowly through your body to the floor pushing and easing the breath out as it drops ease the breath out just as you settled and sink down comfortably into a bed and when the ball reaches the floor let it drop away as if to the center of the earth then let the breath come back back in the reflux without pulling it and then imagine another ball of legend and the game that it fall along once again now do you see what's happened you are generating a great deal of energy without crying or forcing two things seem to be happening at once first the outflow of breath is simply falling happening all by itself second it's under perfect control so from this practice you learn to realize to experience that what happens to you and what you do are one and the same process there is no real separation between one thing called you and another quite different thing called the universe when you stop talking and naming they're quite obviously one meditation has no purpose no objective except to be entirely here and now it isn't something you do to improve yourself to get ahead in the world or to prepare yourself for life for the division of time into past present future is a trick of words and numbers all memories and expectations exist now and now only because now is what there is and all that there is we could say that the past flows back from now like the weight from the prow of the ship and then just like the wake vanishes as the wake doesn't drive the ship the past doesn't move or propel the present unless you here and now want to insist that it does and so give yourself a perpetual alibi for every kind of irresponsibility but I'm not preaching that would be a diversion from our feelings centered in this eternal here and now from feeling it directly as the reality the meditation it's best to sit on the floor or the ground on a cushion either cross Nate or in the Lotus posture if you could manage it or as I'm fitting which is kneeling and sitting back on my heels which I find the most convenient this position is slightly uncomfortable there is a certain amount of strain on the legs but the advantage of this is that it keeps you awake you should have your spine comfortably erect not tight not slumping but just evenly erect and your hands resting on your lap palms upwards one upon the other and then you settle into this position so that you in the same way as we learned to let the breath settle itself out when you breathe out so you learn to relax into this position and settle down comfortably on the ground and you will discover that if you take it easy time will disappear and that you will be able as judged by the talk to sit in this way comfortably for say 40 minutes to an hour once again the essence of the whole art is to feel to experience what is what happened without saying anything to yourself about it so let your breath flow easily heavily down and out again no strain and after it has come back once more well then who I what is he what is I some people say it's the study others the mind the ego of the soul but all those but he included our names and notions can we experience the self directly like a sound a flame or any other object let's assume that all ordinary ideas of what my self is are either so wrong or so doubtful that we must investigate the matter directly but to do that you must first get the sensation the feeling of yourself without forming any idea regard words in the hair does mere noise relax your tongue and let it float easily in your lower jaw just stop look and listen odd isn't it either you were everything you felt or you just didn't feel yourself the velar at all just as you didn't see your eyes all or nothing as it said in an ancient Chinese text all the secret of the golden flower between the all and the void is only a difference of name now put your hands back on your lap arms up with one upon the other and just let go of it all and now I want to show you a form of meditation which was explained to me by a Zen master who said it really is one of the very best kinds of meditation even better than sitting for a long time and getting your knees aching what you do is you just put your hands on your hips with the wrists upwards and now that's all since the beginning of time people have felt that there was something outside themselves some power greater than themselves which they feared and honored after thousands of years it was discovered that this power was not only without but also within it was at this point that meditation was begun and through the centuries and many cultures a variety of techniques have been developed for this journey inward universally the early morning has been considered the best time for meditation and for Muhammad Ali this means rising with the Sun at the call of the new Asian ritual ablution is the first of a series of gestures and postures which have symbolic meaning they prepare the devotee for his journey inward just as the mantra and pranayama is prepare the Hindu with each of these gestures the devotee silently recites passages from the Quran the constant repetition engages the rational mind and automatic behavior thus freeing the intuitive for that leap to enlightenment which is the objective of all meditation the noon prayer on Friday is a principle congregational prayer of the week preceded by the ritual bath observance of these prayers is an essential religious duty the first is a recitation of the phrase God is most great with the hands open on each side of the face this is followed by other passages from the Quran while standing upright bowing from the hips guiding to the knees and prostration with a face to the ground quite possibly many simply go through the motions and never bring itself into focus at all but here in the mosque some of the ingredients for successful meditation are present a quiet place a reverent attitude and proper posture postures of great importance in all disciplines for Hindus the longest position for Christians kneeling Muslims combined standing kneeling and prostration many right yeah reading from the Quran is the voluntary right most widely spread throughout the Islamic community great concentration is required to properly recite the Quran and in a sense it does for the Muslim but the mantra does for the Hindu among Muslims as a sect called sufi who used dance as a meditation it begins with a stately procession the Sheikh takes his position as the axis of the universe since the dance is the outward representation of the circling of the spheres and the inward symbol of a circling movement of the soul calls by the Sufis fervent love of God the dancer enters the orbit of his Sheikh with the right palm upward there's a receptacle of heaven and the left palm downwards to transmit heaven to earth Oh as a whorl a new force takes over balance and coordination are maintained but now mysteriously overseen by a force beyond the individual by crusting in this power by letting everything go the Dervish attempts to reach a state of God consciousness just as the founder of the order did more than 700 years ago jalal Udina Rumi a great Persian poet hurled in grief after the murder of the man who brought about his spiritual metamorphosis as he twirled he became God conscious and since then super squirrel to alter their state of consciousness so that they might receive direct knowledge of an eternal as he turned the dervish silently repeats Allah Allah and seeks to empty his heart of all with the thought of God the necessary condition for this revelation is death not physical death but a mystical death death to self the Persian mystic abu saeed said the veil between the servant and his lord is neither heaven nor earth neither throne nor threshold the real veil is your egotism you are thinking of yourself get rid of that and you reach god in buddhist meditation the highest wisdom is found not in distinct ideas but in the tranquil silence that transcends all thoughts all reasoning in the total extinction of craving and desire one is not preoccupied with the past or future right or left up or down one is simply in the present in the eternal now asked to concentrate on one thing and see into the heart of it I am one with a stream one with water as it plunges down the rocks one of the waves in the sand with the sunbeams dancing on the water one with a fish playing follow the leader one would a wind in the clouds one goes down down to the depths of one's being to catch a glimpse of another and more profound unity the unity that binds us to the natural world to all created things and to the spirit of life the whole world and its unity is reflected in that one thing so that all becomes one self merges with universe and finally the Buddha nature shines through and what achieves that transforming experience known as the Tory or Samadhi Buddhists and Christians have much in common at the deepest level at what Elliot calls a still point of the turning world but Christian prayer has tended to be very cerebral not the imageless Silence of the Buddhists but a dialogue between creature and creator a rational dialogue not the adoration of st. Teresa Christians have put little emphasis on aids to meditation such as posture breathing or the repetition of a mantra but there have been exceptions in the 14th century the monks at Mount Athos originated a prayer that's come to be known as a Jesus Prayer Father kalisto's explains one of the disciplines of a monk in the Eastern Orthodox Church probably he will be given this way he will be told call on the name of Jesus say this prayer Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me and he will be told to say this many times not mechanically but with the sense that he's speaking to another person so as he goes about his daily tasks when he is alone when he is with other people he will say within himself these words of the Jesus Prayer our hope is that in time and with the help of God this prayer will become part of himself not only something he says with his lips but prayer in his mind and they're not only prayer in his mind but prayer in his heart prayer of the whole purse and so we hope but in time he will not just be a person who says prayer but a person who is prayer for seven centuries the great Cathedral in Salisbury England has echoed with the prayers of Christians repetition of the Jesus Prayer helps eliminate what Alan Watts called the chattering in the skull the rational mind marks time and the intuitive is prepared for that leap known to all the great Christian mystics Christians have always stressed a life of service of action consequently meditation too can be performed in action since it's a state of mind rather than a state of body a solitary walk in the woods may be more suitable for some temperaments than sitting alone in a sanctuary through the divine that's within and it's been experienced we're led to an intimation of the divine it's beyond knowing we are led to it by that inner knowing is so real we cannot doubt its authenticity we look on the promised land from a distance but we know it's there for those who successfully made the journey inward the eternal now is full joy having learned to look at themselves as if they were someone else they have also learned to look at others as if they were themselves

Channel: Uziel Bueno

Views: 62,153

Rating: 4.9185452 out of 5

Keywords: Alan Watts, Meditation

Id: UD4eXo8E9rc

Length: 46min 22sec (2782 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 12 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Redbluuu]

Alan Watts is amazing. I've listened to all his lectures and he has influenced my mindset a lot.

[u/Infectedbumhole]

Alan Watts is a wonderful man and has some of the most amazing insights into everything in life; including meditation. His beautiful messages will forever be immune to obsolescence. If anyone here hasn't watched this yet, watch it you won't be disappointed.

[u/LFMG]

Was the video taken down? I'm on mobile and I keep getting "this video is not available".

[u/ChicoTheKid]

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