published on
LUCIDxTEETH 2018 - 2023
"So then, in the metaphysical sphere, the mystic is the one who feels that everything that happens is in some way harmonious, is in some way right, is in some way an integral part of the universe. Now, when we transplant or translate that into the moral sphere, the sphere of human conduct, the equivalent is this: There are no wrong feelings. You see, the idea that there are no wrong feelings is an immensely threatening idea to people who are afraid to feel in any case, and this is one of the peculiar problems of our culture.
That we are terrified of our feelings, because they take off on their own, and we think that if we give them any scope, they will lead us into all kinds of chaotic and destructive action. It’s so funny that we, in our western culture say that kind of thing, we who do more chaotic and destructive kind of action than anybody ever did. But if, for a change, we would allow our feelings, and look upon their comings and goings as something as beautiful and as natural and necessary as changes in the weather, the going of night and day, and of the four seasons. We would be at peace with ourselves, because what is problematic for western man is not so much his struggles with other people and their need and their problems, as his struggle with his own feelings, with what he will allow himself to feel, and what he won’t allow himself to feel.
He is ashamed to feel really profoundly sad, so much so that he could cry. He is ashamed to loathe somebody, because you’re not supposed to hate people. He is ashamed to be so overcome with the beauty of something, whether it be a natural landscape or a member of the opposite sex, that he goes out of his mind with this beauty. Because all that kind of thing is, ’Not being in control, old boy!’ Not, kind of, having your hand on the wheel. But it is because, you see, we don’t go with that, that we’re not in control. That we try to pretend that our inner-life is different. So I think this is the most releasing thing that anybody can possibly understand, that your inner feeling is never wrong. That is to say, what you feel, it’s never wrong that you feel that way.”
-Alan Watts
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