Life can be seen as a dream or a game, with a hidden higher self experiencing it all.
The thrill of adventure comes from relinquishing control and embracing surprise and challenge.
Deep dives
The Fantasy of Being in Control
The podcast explores the idea of inventing a cosmology that justifies and makes all the problems and sufferings of life seem worthwhile. It suggests the possibility of a hidden higher self within us, playing the part of our ordinary everyday self, and experiencing life as a dream or a game. This higher self would be responsible for everything that happens, making us willingly accept all experiences, including the most terrible ones. The podcast raises the question of whether life itself is a dream from which we have the potential to wake up, and whether we can find joy and meaning in even the worst situations.
The Thrill of Being Out of Control
The podcast explores the idea that we would eventually get bored if we had complete control over everything in life, and that we would seek out situations where we are surprised and challenged. It suggests that the thrill of adventure comes from relinquishing control and allowing ourselves to be out of control, to face difficulty and overcome it. The podcast proposes the fantasy of a world where we forget that we have control and find delight in experiencing surprise, uncertainty, and a sense of adventure.
The Fantasy of Awakening
The podcast presents the concept of waking up from the dream of life, where all our experiences and challenges are seen as a grand cosmic play. It explores the idea that behind our ordinary everyday self, there is a hidden self that is one with everything, and that there is no separation between the self and the world. It suggests that realizing this unity and seeing life as a dream allows us to overcome fear, face challenges with equanimity, and recognize the essential joy and worthiness of every experience.
The Simplicity of a Joyous Cosmology
The podcast emphasizes the aesthetic criterion of simplicity in creating a joyous cosmology. It questions the necessity of positing a separate self and instead proposes that there is no division between the self and the experiences of the world. It suggests that by recognizing that everything we experience is a state of our own nervous system, we can overcome the conflict between ourselves and the world. The podcast concludes by encouraging a shift in perspective, where we see the otherness in others as an extension of ourselves, leading to a deeper sense of connection, love, and joy.
Offering us the possibility of waking up, Alan Watts contemplates the joyous cosmology that we are God playing the roles of ordinary people.
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In this episode, Alan Watts explores:
If there could be a theory of the world that justifies and makes worthwhile the difficulties and suffering that we undergo
The contemplation that an infinite omnipotent being would eventually get bored with being everything, so would begin to shield itself from this knowledge, and pretend to play the role of separate beings so it could experience the full thrill of waking up to itself
The idea of reality as God playing a game of hide and seek with itself for it’s own excitement and cosmic joke
The difference or potential complete non-difference between the experience and the experiencer
That what you think of as outside yourself is actually just a hidden you
“We have within us a higher self who is pretending to be the ordinary everyday person that we are, who’s acting it. In other words, our everyday life is a dream from which we have the possibility of waking up.” – Alan Watts
