RefleXions on God@Play 1

ALAN WATTS (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy. In one of his many books, ‘The Book on The Taboo against knowing who you are,’ he explained how he answers children’s questions about life. In the next few posts or so I would like to relate to you his amazing tale.

*“MYTH is fable, falsehood or superstition, but on the other hand, myth is a useful and fruitful image by which we make sense of life, and yet it is not meant to be taken literally, thus in using myth one must take care not to confuse image with fact. Myth then, is the form in which I try to answer when children ask me those fundamental metaphysical questions which come so readily to their minds.

‘Where did the world come from?’ ‘Why did God make the world?’ ‘Where was I before I was born?’ ‘Where do people go when they die?’ Again and again I have found that they seem to be satisfied with a simple and very ancient story, which goes something like this:”

“THERE was never a time when the world began, because it goes round and round like a circle, and there is no place on a circle where it begins. Look at my watch, which tells the time; it goes round, and so the world repeats itself again and again. But just as the hour hand of the watch goes up to twelve and down to six, so too, there is day and night, waking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter.

You can’t have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn’t be able to know what black is unless you had seen it side by side with white, or what white is unless seen side by side with black. In the same way, there are times when the world is, and times when it isn’t, for if the world went on and on without rest forever and ever, it would get terribly tired of itself...”

God@Play 2...

Dan’s Quote: “Open your eyes to what is really happening 
_____________(as opposed to what it looks like is happening.) 
_____________Judge not by outward appearances.”

*Excerpt from ‘The Book on The Taboo against knowing who you are’ - Alan Watts 1966.
      

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