The Wisdom of Insecurity

Once in a while I feel myself in need of a large dose of Wisdom. At such times I seek out the company of a favourite spiritual philosopher. I 'discovered' Watts by accident. Or so I thought at the time. I was in the university library reading up on Hindu philosophy for an upcoming exam and I happened on a few quotations attributed to Watts. His manner of writing was direct and witty, a nice change from the dry texts of other scholars. Watts had the gift of penetrating to the heart of matters and illuminating profound truths in an understated way. Over the next few years he would become my favourite companion in the pursuit of 'enlightenment'. I found that over time Watts's appeal for me only deepened.

The Mindful Philosopher

Since the 'crash' of 2008 millions of people have lost their jobs, their houses, and the old certainties that a 'college degree' guarantees you a lifetime of employment. Watts believed that much of suffering that we experience as a result of such 'crashes' is actually the result of flawed thinking on our part, both as individuals and as a society. Watts deals with the issue of impermanence and change in all of this books but The Wisdom of Insecurity focuses deeply on this issue which is at the centre of existence itself.

No one is exempt from feelings of fear or anxiety. We all experience such feelings from time to time and in a crisis, we may be in a permanent state of apprehension. What Watts discovered through his own experience and in studying ancient spiritual traditions, is that we have the means to free ourselves of the influence of fear by learning to think differently. We all want to be 'happy'. What most people mean by 'happy' is a state of perpetual sameness, an absence of pain or deprivation of any kind, a sort of stasis in which nothing ever changes. This is so because change involves 'loss' or at least exchange of one thing or state for another and by definition we would have to let go of the state of 'happiness' in such situations.

The Great Paradox

As Watts puts it:  Because consciousness must involve both pleasure and pain, to strive for pleasure to the exclusion of pain is, in effect, to strive for the loss of consciousness. Because such a loss is in principle the same as death, this means that the more we struggle for life (as pleasure), the more we are actually killing what we love.   Usually we are so focused on avoiding pain (as loss) that we are unaware of this paradox. As Watts goes on to say "...the greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing"! (Emphasis mine) "Music is a delight because of its rhythm and flow. Yet the moment you arrest the flow and prolong a note or chord beyond its time, the rhythm is destroyed.  Because life is likewise a flowing process, change and death are its necessary parts. To work for their exclusion is to work against life"! (Emphasis mine).

Time and Suffering

The real source of our emotional suffering is rooted in our concept of time. We worry about future events or dwell on past ones. Both practices result in our loss of the one thing we actually have: the present moment.  "The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings the past and the future are not as real, but more real than the present".

Surely we must learn from the past and plan responsibly for the future, right? Yes, but only to the extent that we are able to do both without losing the present in the process. How can we do that?  I will take up this question in tomorrow's post. 

Meanwhile, if you are interested in learning more about (and from) Alan Watts, visit Delia's "A List" Amazon Shop HERE.

Photo credit: Portrait of Alan Watts, Wikipedia, Creative Commons.