It Will Give You Goosebumps - Alan Watts On Existence 

Moral of the story, don’t overthink and live in the moments of emotion and excitement. Stop being so smart it hurts you.

My favorite quote: "We are not humans experiencing the universe, we're the universe experiencing humans"

If you live in the past you become depressed, if you live in the future you become anxious but if you are at peace you are living in the present.

One day, I was very very young, I hid in the closet because I realized my mother would die someday. I was not crying, I was shocked, so shocked I built everlasting memory of that episode. Power of life can only shine in the darkness of being aware of death. The fact that we desire to live knowing that our body keeps aging, our bonds with people will all be broken, is fascinating. Our intelligence is so delicately balanced, no creature could ever hold the burden of consciousness without something as powerful to balance it: love, curiosity

“We are always thinking that the satisfaction of life will be coming later. Don’t kid yourself.”

ive always told myself that everything will be okay in the end, and work out the way its suppose to.. but you really have to wish for it. you have to want to really bad just like that new iphone or drugs or whatever it maybe. if you desire it so immensely, you will do anything to achieve it and it will manifest itself. best wishes everyone

What a profound last line: "Only suckers put hope in the future." -Alan Watts

I just watched this with my 15 month old daughter walking around my house being a little discoverer and it’s amazing. It put me in the moment immediately. I have 3 children under 3 years old and my wife and I need to realize that we are living in “the good ole days” right now. Enjoy it.

Probably the hardest realization for many is how many trials and tribulations you go through through life, only to realize when you get older that none of it really mattered in the first place.

It's crazy how life can end in the blink of an eye, never take a moment for granted.

I have always said "If you wake up happy and you go to sleep happy every day, then you win at life, even more than those with millions who can't remember the last time they truly felt happy." Happiness truly is an inside job.

"The smartest man in the world also knew that he knew nothing " great video

I've always kind of felt like life is a cross between a Joke, a Dream, some absurdity, and a little craziness. Sometimes I'm amazed that everything works as well as it does.

moral of the story: don’t waste your time “preparing yourself for the future” be “the future” live in the moment and don’t bind yourself to time.

When your young you worry about what other people are thinking about you. When your old you realize that no ones thinking about you > 1:38

Psychedelics are just an amazing discovery , it's quite fascinating how effective they're for depression and stress disorders . Saved my life other than the weed.

Exatcly. There is no past, only memories, there is no future, only wants, there is only this moment.

When I was eight, I realized for the first time I wasn't going to live forever and that life is just another terminal illness. No matter how perfect or imperfect one lives, it will all be the same in the end. This realization filled me with deep sorrow and hit me with a depression from which I still haven't truly recovered from. I would even say a part of that exuberant kid died that day. Even though I pushed that thought away and tried suppressing it so I can live like a normal human being, I always end up questioning my existence and never actually lived, just hanging on and getting by. There is no moral to my story, no silver lining. I wish I could say I had found God or a purpose, but it just wouldn't be true, and that's something I have to accept. You just go on breathing until you don't. I do have a lot of admiration for people who continue to go strong despite facing the same dilemma.

Existence is weird, wonderful, and totally pointless.. I love this life..

I love how he points out that everything is denfined simply because humans defined things the way they wanted to define it so they could have an answer. But people never seem to think that our system of classifications could be wrong.

"We are always thinking that the satisfaction of live will be coming later"....truest statement ever!

When I lost my father at 18 years old, I reached the lowest point in my life ever. I went through shock, grief and so on and at one moment while sitting by the kitchen table, I thought to myself that if I were to feel even worse than I did right then and there I would cease to exist. Just after that thought everything turned into love. Everything was love. I mean absolutely everything like all the material things around me, every cell in my body, the action of putting a knife on the table earlier, everything was pure love. It is unexplainable and it was not a feeling, it was a condition. I call it my spiritual moment. I it was a wow moment and I felt harmony times a million. I do not know for how long it lasted, perhaps two minutes, but I don’t know. With all the suffering on this planet I have always hoped that those who suffers have these moments of relief.

It's so weird hearing someone else say your own thoughts. It drives me kind of mad when no one I know understands how insane it really is that we even exist. The thought paralyzes me sometimes. Like what is this?! Again, his words, my words. I love it.

That language circle... "Let's pretend that we matter." pure genius

"Giraffes are giraffing Trees are treeing Stars are staring Clouds are clouding Rain is raining And People are peopling. ...Wow." -Alan Watts

Over the 47 years of my life I've finally come to realize that every second minute hour day week month year matters, don't take this life for granted, love laugh exist feel life talk to a stranger be kind spread love tell people you love them, even when your tired never give up keep going spread Joy, let others know your there, make your positive mark enjoy the sun enjoy the rain enjoy pleasure pain triumph defeat gain & loss, Your here take part enjoy nature enjoy others God bless 🌹♥️🙏

Wise words, God bless everybody reading. Live long and prosper

I've always thought that the recipe for good mental health is a combination of having a goal to pursue and being able to relax and appreciate what you have in the here and now.

Live in the moment. It's all anyone can ever do. Be the best possible you, you can be. No one will reward you. You reward yourself by knowing you are doing the best you can in that moment.

I love this guy! He’s so authentic.

You are who you think you are. Every one is unique in there own way and we all think about life in different ways. Every body's journey is different. We all have moments of sadness and happiness. It's all about learning how to deal with whatever life has in stall for you and the decisions you make. Stay positive as much as you can and work hard and hopefully everything goes your way for happy and successful life. Peace to you all🙏

Since I was born, I've wanted to explore the universe. Feels like I'm stuck in this life and I can't escape.

You shouldn't dwell in the past or the future because you exist in neither. You do and always will exist in the present. When I first realized this I cured my depression and anxiety. No pills no doctors. Just realization of that fact.

Thank you Alan Watts , old rascal you saved me, I'm still here because that moment when it came all i had was your voice.. saying ,do it . And you know what you mad master ,it didn't matter .. thanks master ,i owe you 😊

Blown away... Profound people are my jam

I needed this. I’m gonna be one of the best blues guitarists ever right up there with Stevie Ray Vaughan , Robert king , bb. King and lighting Hopkins

“Only suckers, put hope in the future” that’s one of the most truthful statements I’ve ever heard

I love listening to these talks.

Keep coming back to this every once in a while. giraffe are giraffing, clouds are clouding, trees are treeing and stars are starting, rains are raining.. profound and simple. Beautiful

Whoever was able to know him personally in their lifetime... what a gift.

“With life no matter what you do, you are all in. This is going to kill you. You might as well play the most magnificent game you can. Because do you have anything better to do?” -Jordan Peterson

I feel like he truly knew who he was to himself and who he was since a child, it seems like he was very happy with how he saw things.

You can't see the outstanding without the flat background 🙌

He simultaneously calms and perturbs my soul, what sorcery is this..

A voice you could listen an eternity to

I just wanted to be a 10 year old child forevermore. Parents love, long days of play and fantasies are worth more than a ton of gold.

“We do not see things as they are we see things as we are” I was quiet in life and learned, stop thinking so much just do because your not supposed to just do becomes we have constant intuition telling us what we like, fun is living, that’s when time flys and you bend time, 2 hours feels like 30 mjn

The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories.

“Listen….that’s the meaning.” How staggeringly profound! A statement that applies to every aspect of our existence.

It's funny how I heard his voice today for the first time. I've felt hopeless and now I don't. I was thinking of how mean humans are. Then I saw a photo of one of my grandchildren holding a big frog. I saw a video of a man helping a huge sea turtle. I felt hope and joy. Then I heard Alan talk. Everything seems ok suddenly. Not hopeless.

This is why I love fractals, they appear everywhere in Earths natural world, and in the universe, even within concepts. It doesn't matter what the thing is, but put that thing on a thing, iterate however mathematically, and all you're left with is beauty.

Everything he talks about makes me worry less and less about the trials and tribulations of life. Inner peace is accepting that life will do what its going to do and their actually is NOTHING you can do to stop it, so don't worry, just react, and experience it. Even suffering and pain is just something we have to experience to move forward and continue to be people, peopling

So basically life is spontaneous. We live by the second. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Live in the now. All this reminds me of Eastern philosophy. Wonderful messages.

Whatever life is all about . We are here for a very short while and only a few make it . I pray we all be among the ones that make it❤️

Listened 1k times and won't ever stop. Of there's one to watch its this one ♥

Every time I watch Alan Watts' profound video on existence, I'm filled with contemplation. He urges us to explore our being's essence and nature deeply. It's a call to embrace the present moment, leading with confidence and compassion. Authenticity is crucial for leaders, as it allows them to break free from doubts and expectations. Our uniqueness empowers us to inspire change and make a real impact. Let's embrace this journey of self-discovery, leading with confidence, empathy, and compassion. We hold the power to transform ourselves and the world around us.

I'm stoned and this makes so much sense, thanks Mr Watts ✌🏻❤💨 stay free

It’s amazing how we can speak words to describe a deep meaning to life and how odd it is.

Matter comes from the soul

It's worth listening to this short video every now and then to remind yourself to go with the flow rather than fighting existence with incessant unanswerable questions. You've got to accept 'is' since 'why' is unavailable!

That last bit about living in the here and now, that really hit me... I've been stuck in my head for around a decade now -- 35 years old and constantly living in the past. It's difficult to let go of something you never wanted to end in the first place, and I'm finding it hard to make new memories that live up to the ones I've made in the past. Life is fast and short, and I've wasted a decade of it, running around in circles in my head...

Don’t ever get down on your self or be suicidal because you never know you can always have the chance to fix what’s wrong and make it right

I love how I've described existing as weird so many times, just life is weird, the things we do to live is weird, it's all weird.

The way I see it is, everyday here on earth is a blessing, I also see it as a reset button, for every single day that allows you to wake up and walk the earth, be the best person you could possibly be, life is like a freestyle, it doesn’t have to be perfect but just be mindful of your actions and try to self reflect from time to time, hold yourself accountable for your actions and learn from every single chance of experience you get, we’re all in this together…

Praise God

"Only suckers put hope in the future" - Alan Watts, what a line 👏

What I got from this is, everything is perfect. We’re experiencing the human experience which is to experience it.

This guy is so profound he doesn't need this emotive music. He doesn't need it.

This is my favourite video on RU-vid

What i have learned is that there is no such thing as always being happy, just like sadness also happiness goes away. What i have also realized is that there is more struggles in life then successes but if you think about it, the only time you get stronger and smarter is when you deal with your problems or struggles. These days i just look forward to dealing with my struggles and conquering them or anything that bothers me or that i want. Dont fight the struggle, accept it and embrace it :)

Life is living, living is giving, giving is loving, loving is life!

Existence as such, is a miracle.

Imagine being totally enthralled by this man preaching his philosophies, then he fire an arrow directly up in the air mid speech.

That last part is straight facts, I was in a weird place past couple years but starting last year I put my focus on optimizing what’s in front of me rather than timing everything to be perfect, I accomplished more in that single year in regards to my career, relationships, etc than I have in the 3 years prior combined

I really just spent almost 9 minutes listening to him basically just tell me "it is what it is"

I just see it like this, enjoy the life you’ve been given and do everything you can possibly do

Wish my dad understood that but at the same time. He was a dreamer. Le'sigh. RIP old dude.

I listened to this on a loop for almost 2 hours straight while doing cardio outside, while it was snowing. Amazing. Absolutely lovely.

Being “destined for greatness” only comes through active and conscious decisions. But fate is what happens when you let other people and external circumstance dictate your life.

We are all here to heal 💙

I’m just tired

So literally, it is what it is.

There is existence and then there is conscientiousness, you can exist without being aware and you can't be aware without existing.

Purpose of life is doing the things you love to do for as long as you can and as best as you can while enjoying the company of the ones you love. One person might love to paint or another might love helping others or you might love to travel. So meaning of purpose of life has a different answer for everyone.

Man. Parts of this speech hit hard for me. I've not taken a listen to Alan Watts in quite some time. Several years. Though I did listen to him quite frequently then. The two lectures I just listened to from this channel, I don't think I had heard before. I've had a difficult go of things for the past 5 to... Well, 20 years probably if I get into technical detail lol. But, starting in late 2018 things started getting really bad - with many similarities to my late teenage years. My parents heavily abusing alcohol and drugs, constant fighting amongst them, with me and my brother caught in the middle. Being involved in their quarrels when we shouldn't have been and sometimes involving ourselves because things were clearly getting completely out of control between them. My dad passed on Xmas Eve 2021. Many health complications. Some no fault of his own, on one hand he adamantly refused to seek help with his medical issues. On another, the standard and quality of care when he did was very subpar. On yet another, his drinking was way out of control and played into his refusal to get medical help as well. Life and the people in it are complicated. I've since 'gotten over' his death and hold what I feel is an unpopular opinion about the way things went. My mom's health was very poor around that time as well. Though it (and she) has gotten a bit better over time. At least to the point where I'm not constantly worried if she's going to pass out or fall when I'm not there. Or that I might find her laying on the floor when I arrive. Very grateful for that. Though I still worry a lot about her current state, my mind is no longer in constant agony over it. Shortly after my dad's passing, my grandma's rapid development of dementia became apparent. While struggling with the loss of my father, digging for answers pertaining to the cause of his death, grieving heavily, taking care of my mom and trying to get her the care she needed, I had to step in to help her as well. Going over to fill her new automated medication tray, taking her to her hair appt's... Her car was stolen around that time as well which added a whole new level of stress on everyone. She was eventually blindsided by my aunt who is PoA. She took her on vacation while my uncle and the rest of the family moved all her belongings into a nursing home. Dropped her off there when they returned and that was that. My mom and I had to continue caring for her because the quality of care there is just sh*t, but my aunt won't hear any of it. And my uncle would never step up to assist us in caring for her to relieve some stress on my mom and I so she could actually get to doctor appt's when she needed to - even while she was still at home. I've been through points in my life over the past several years where I didn't recognize any of the people, blood relatives, who I consider family. My dad. My mom. My brother even. My aunt. My uncle. My best, and only close friend. I read an article which made me realize that, though they were all still alive, I was grieving over them. Like I said. It was a lot in a relatively short period of time. Things are still bad, but... better. Life has it's odd ways of working itself out, some way or another. When you realize and accept that bad things happen, have always happened, and will continue to happen, in a very strange way it makes it easier to deal with and just go about living. Everyone's got things they're going through and reasons behind why they are the way they are, which for the most part we're unable to see. Unless we take the time and show genuine interest to let them reveal their secrets. Or simply sit and listen. ❤ Be kind to others, and to yourself. We're all just out here doing it. Experiencing what it means to be alive. And if things are really difficult right now, have faith and stand strong. No matter how strong the storm is, it doesn't rain forever.

Alan Watts... What a hell of a guy. He really understood life, with all of it's facets. His level of comprehension always has an impact, even if I've heard the speech 100 times. I'm glad for the availability of his wisdom in the 21st century, even though pretty much everything else is horrible.

His essential message, and the whole point and joy of human life, as he shared in the preface to his autobiography In My Own Way, was to “integrate the spiritual with the material”. He believed that this could only be done by carving “your own way”, by “accepting your own karma”, and by “following your own weird.”May 5, 2020

This is great to listen anytime you want to be alone. Recommend it, actually.

honestly helping other people helps me be okay that i can close my eyes for good

We are spiritual creatures living a human experience. We do not die,we just change form. Thus we have always been here & always will be in some form or another.

Oh my god I love this so much, Thank you. I have been feeling so terrible, so angry and alone, and then I am led to this video, and Alan brings me back to sanity and humor again.

Pretty much what is being said is, live the life you have now and live it the way you want because there is no future prize or reward in the place of death. Existing isn’t surviving, it’s experiencing.

This dude finished me. I was down I feel even worse now.😢

One of the best quotes about life I ever heard came from the movie The Enemy Below, starring Robert Mitchum..., when the captain from the German U-Boat told his fellow officer, "Never think too much, you pay penalty. You never rest." In my life, it's a quote I can relate to big time.

As someone who has a very creative mind that sometimes causes stress, as it does for all of us to a greater or lesser degree, I ultimately must remember that we humans are no different (at a fundamental level) than all other forms of life. We adapt to survive. The human mind adapted (or was given) the ability to think introspectively for example. We can process the idea of the future and thus prepare and predict with reason in order to safely navigate. The human mind is always curious. We crave stimulation and for those with more creative minds we tend to think about the meaning of life when in fact it is simply to survive and procreate. Our brain evolved to crave serotonin. We release Serotonin when we feel superior, have achieved something, figured it out or love. The world does not need "meaning", our human brain is a survival tool and when something is not understood (which can pose an existential threat to our being) we "worry" about it, or dwell on it seeking meaning or understanding so we can tame it. Our creativity which is a survival mechanism can carry us beyond the need to simply survive and thus lead to the ultimate question of why we are here. In fact it is quite simple; we were a creation of the coming together of two people (male and female) who conceived you. In order to survive our brains crave serotonin which effects your mood and thus how well you survive. Some people feel they must find the meaning of life in order to justify their existence. No you don't. Your mind may tell you that and crave the "answer", yet that craving is due to our advanced brain seeking knowledge as a survival mechanism. We are gifted with creative minds, some more than others, yet seek happiness in what you do understand and stop trying to give meaning to life beyond what is given. Your truth may be quite different than another's truth. So who is right? Learn to be content. Stop struggling for meaning to the most difficult of questions. Learn to accept while at the same time learning to enjoy the experience of not understanding it all. It's OK. Start to focus on what you see. Enjoy the fact that your eyes have adapted to see a flower within the visible light spectrum rather than in, for example, the rather bland infra-red or ultra-violet. Marvel that your brain has evolved to see the rainbow of colors instead of trying to understand why they do. It ultimately comes down to survival mechanisms that have taken millions of years of evolution. If you believe you can find the "meaning of life" you will still see a flower in the same visible light spectrum, you will still smell its fragrance with the same olfactory receptors........Do I believe in "God"? I believe in a Creator. With that, I do not need to understand it all as I never will. Yes, I have a very creative mind and have used it creating music. I also have a very analytical mind having been a career research scientist. I will never stop thinking about the "why" or "how", yet I will not allow that to be a stumbling block to relish the present. Life is a gift. Stop questioning its ultimate meaning. It simply is..........Your flaws are no greater than any other. You just believe it is because it dwells within your mind. Just .....be.

The accompanying video gave me goosebumps too!

This just made me smile.....so true

I too have always thought life and existing was weird. Make sense how Mr Watts explains it all!! I feel this today!

I’ve always felt this way. It drove me into depression. I always felt alone in thinking about this. Luckily I’m not the only one. It’s an existential crisis when you overthink it.

Thanks man, now my goose has bumps all over it 👍👍❤❤