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alan watts
June 2009 
Alan Watts - Behold the Spirit
Posted on Aug 26th, 2008
by 
Domi333
Domi333
In Behold the Spirit, Alan Watts compares the mirror to God,
the mirror is something which has no colour of its own and yet reflects everything.
This reminds me of what I was trying to understand with the illusion and an illusion of an illusion. Alan Watts is trying to convey the place of God in the cosmos he saw God as something which in a sense embodied the universe and yet was distinct from it.
How do you separate the infinite from the finite?
He also deals with the problem of evil, evil is something not totally distinct from God, it ultimately pressures people into looking back to God, it pushes them into looking at their situation and puts them in the need for grace. E.g. it is the people who are sinful that are truly needed for communion, it is they who need the help of God. Thus it is always said that evil can never truly win, people will be constantly forced to analyse themselves.
Alan Watts spoke of the importance of symbols, symbols can be used to help the connection between a man and God, symbols were minimalised by Protestant groups and even less so in Catholic groups(catholic and anglican), religion shifted to analysing the humanity of Jesus and these symbols lost their importance in relationship to God.
He compared the Blessed Mary to the Holy Spirit, a pure vehicle for the sacred the spirit, am immanent connection to deity.
I'm wondering what drove Watts to shift again, though in this book he states the need, in the modern religious shift, for Christianity to reincorporate the mystic spirit, the incorporation of Eastern methods since they are currently in contact.
Alan Watts(Coincidence of opposites) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_OfIHJnsnE. You can relate this video into what he has said about God, (to paraphrase one of the sentences: universe is made up of inseparable differences)
the mirror is something which has no colour of its own and yet reflects everything.
This reminds me of what I was trying to understand with the illusion and an illusion of an illusion. Alan Watts is trying to convey the place of God in the cosmos he saw God as something which in a sense embodied the universe and yet was distinct from it.
How do you separate the infinite from the finite?
He also deals with the problem of evil, evil is something not totally distinct from God, it ultimately pressures people into looking back to God, it pushes them into looking at their situation and puts them in the need for grace. E.g. it is the people who are sinful that are truly needed for communion, it is they who need the help of God. Thus it is always said that evil can never truly win, people will be constantly forced to analyse themselves.
Alan Watts spoke of the importance of symbols, symbols can be used to help the connection between a man and God, symbols were minimalised by Protestant groups and even less so in Catholic groups(catholic and anglican), religion shifted to analysing the humanity of Jesus and these symbols lost their importance in relationship to God.
He compared the Blessed Mary to the Holy Spirit, a pure vehicle for the sacred the spirit, am immanent connection to deity.
I'm wondering what drove Watts to shift again, though in this book he states the need, in the modern religious shift, for Christianity to reincorporate the mystic spirit, the incorporation of Eastern methods since they are currently in contact.
Alan Watts(Coincidence of opposites) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_OfIHJnsnE. You can relate this video into what he has said about God, (to paraphrase one of the sentences: universe is made up of inseparable differences)
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Are you saying that there is an apparent conflict between the mystical and the mythical, the infinite and the finite, the immanent and the transcendant, the mirror and the symbol? And was Watts saying that those illusory distinctions are unified by the coincidence of opposites?
Alan Watts talks about the need for the re-appropriation of mysticism into christian religion, he talks about the current clash and the need for christianity to learn from its clash with eastern religion.
There is a traditional clash between mythical and mystical(i.e. mainstream muslims saying sufism isn't islam, etc.) but they are different ways of approaching the same things same symbols!
Alan Watts also feels that what seems contradictory in the world and what is different live in a system of need(interdependent differences)…everything is separate yet interdependent.
A personal comment: His approach to symbols has really helped me see them in a better light, that they're not mere symbols without power but symbols that can be approached spiritually.
In Catholic tradition they usually say something: This is the mystery of the lord. Catholicism was created around the time of the mystery schools(like Mithras), schools where sacred mysteries were expressed in their real meaning(in secret though). The symbol thus forms a part of the sacred mystery and it is something that has to be experienced and explored(ritually and also mystically).
I've been without my own computer this past month, and so haven't been able to watch that video you linked. I have read Watts in the past, but its been a while.
I think of symbols as they relate to archetypes in general, and my understanding of archtypes isn't limited to psychology. Even Jung sensed that archetypes were something more. Later in his life, he came to the conclusion that archetypes are autonomous and intelligent and not mere mechanisms. Hillman took his ideas much further. Another author I've enjoyed recently is Harpur who writes about the imaginal which is somewhat related to Jung's notion of the collective unconscious. Harpur thinks that the imaginal includes the whole world in that there is an interaction that goes on between the individual and reality.
Have you read Joseph Campbell? I believe he was raised Catholic. I'm not sure what his spiritual beliefs might've been, but he is one of the more intelligent commentators on symbols.
I have read Joseph Campbell’s books(Power of Myth, transformations of myth through time, oriental mythology), he is a really intelligent guy. Everybody is telling me about this Hero’s Journey that he spoke of.
I’ve heard of Hillman, mainly through this book I read on the possible transformations of Australian spirituality(David Tacey, Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia ‘93)
I must try and read one of Hillman’s works.
I’ve heard of Harpur but don’t know too much of him.