I owe a debt of gratitude to the philosopher Alan Watts. His teaching is sometimes so clear and plain that I don't even register the lesson or wisdom. I listen to the same lecture multiple times and then at some point a teaching will register within and I will have this aha! moment. It feels sometimes that I already know the concept deep down but hearing Alan explain it or put it into a metaphor evokes a strong feeling of connection to this knowledge through having experienced similar at some point.
Do YOU beat your heart? The same energy that shines the sun is beating your heart.
“So you see, if you become aware of the fact that you are all of your own body, and that the beating of your heart is not just something that happens to you, but something you're doing, then you become aware also in the same moment and at the same time that you're not only beating your heart, but that you are shining the sun. Why? Because the process of your bodily existence and its rhythms is a process, an energy system which is continuous with the shining of the sun, just like the East River, here, is a continuous energy system, and all the waves in it are activities of the whole East River, and that's continuous with the Atlantic Ocean, and that's all one energy system and finally the Atlantic ocean gets around to being the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, etc., and so all the waters of the Earth are a continuous energy system. It isn't just that the East River is part of it. You can't draw any line and say 'Look, this is where the East River ends and the rest of it begins,' as if you can in the parts of an automobile, where you can say 'This is definitely part of the generator, here, and over here is a spark plug.' There's not that kind of isolation between the elements of nature.”
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