more Alan Watts

A friend tipped me off to this episode. He's a character and this is loaded with good sense about "what am I? what is this??"

zencast.org/zencast-455-what-is-by-alan-watts

There's one part where he asks a very interesting question:

What's the difference between hearing something and listening intently?
What's the difference between seeing something and staring hard at it?

When you pay attention instead of just looking you grimace, grit your teeth, clench your face, tense your muscles. Yet none of these things actually impacts the function of the eyes or ears!! At all!!!

We feel like we are achieving results when we have muscular tension like this. It's how we "try hard." We feel this, and THIS is what we feel when we say "I". That's the "I", the "me." When you are functioning normally and freely, without hindrance, everything just functions without any groaning, gritting of teeth, flailing around or clenching of muscles.

He's such a comedian. But he gets some stellar points in there!!!