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Alan Watts Teaches Meditation
Meditation is the way in which we come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe.
Alan Watts has become known as the West's foremost interpreter of Eastern thought, and one of the most original philosophers of this century. Fortunately for us, he is also witty, articulate, insightful, very entertaining, and a pleasure to listen to.
Alan Watts is also featured demonstrating the relationship of music and sound to meditation through the use of gongs, instruments, and the recitation of a mantra. The demonstration is designed to give the listener the opportunity to experience a mantra meditation with Alan Watts and a group of friends who were brought together especially for this recording.
Alan Watts has become known as the West's foremost interpreter of Eastern thought, and one of the most original philosophers of this century. Fortunately for us, he is also witty, articulate, insightful, very entertaining, and a pleasure to listen to.
Alan Watts is also featured demonstrating the relationship of music and sound to meditation through the use of gongs, instruments, and the recitation of a mantra. The demonstration is designed to give the listener the opportunity to experience a mantra meditation with Alan Watts and a group of friends who were brought together especially for this recording.
90 pages, Audio Cassette
First published November 15, 1992
15 people are currently reading
1831 people want to read
About the author
Alan W. Watts
255 books8,026 followersAlan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer and speaker, who held both a Master's in Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity. Famous for his research on comparative religion, he was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, the meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the non-material pursuit of happiness. In his books he relates his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 2, 2019
The art of meditation is getting in touch with reality. The reason for this is because there’s confusion between the real world, and how we talk about and describe the world. The former is reality, the latter is of abstractions. All good things have their disadvantages. The principle problem with symbols is that we confuse them with reality. Reality itself is not a concept. The difference between myself and the universe is nothing more than an idea. Meditation is the way we feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe.
This requires inner silence: ceasing the constant inner mind-chatter. If we don’t silence thinking, or talking to oneself, we end up living entirely within a world of symbols, absent of actual reality.
Meditation is an act without any purpose, like making music or dancing. There is no end-goal. The point is to always arrive at life in the present moment. If the goal is anything other than the present moment, you’ve missed the point. If the goal is to improve the mind or increase efficiency, it’s for the future and therefore ineffective. Meditation is supposed to be fun and we should do it to enjoy it. Through meditation, we learn the art of life in the here and now.
Meditation props include a gong and beads to keep track of time. Incense can be used to help associate contemplation. Posture must be firm and grounded. Meditation typically lasts for about 40-minutes per session.
To get into the meditative state, begin by listening. Allow yourself to hear all the buzzing sounds of life around. Don’t try to identify the sounds, don’t label them. Allow them to play with your eardrums, then let them go. Don’t try to understand anything, simply listen to sounds. The mind will naturally try to make sense of surrounding sounds, but don’t fight against this urge.
At this point, start to notice and listen to mind thoughts in the same way you’re listening to sounds in the surroundings and backgrounds. Look at your own thoughts as just noises. In this way, the so-called outside world and inside world come together as a happening, all you’re doing is watching it.
Next, allow your breath to breathe the way it wants. Don’t engage any breathing exercises. By watching breathing, become aware that what we do and what happens to us is arbitrary. Breathing is both voluntary and involuntary. Come to see the voluntary and involuntary as one happening. The truth is ultimately that both are true.
After breathing naturally for some time, you’ll notice yourself beginning to breath more deeply. When breathing out deeply, you’ll get the sensation that your breath is falling out. Thereafter your breath will fall back in. In this way, allow breathing to get easier and easier, slower and slower, and more and more powerful.
Be entirely content with what is. Don’t be in a hurry and simply watch all surrounding sensations as happenings.
Mantras are chanted sounds, not for meaning, but for simple tone. The sound Aum is a common mantra. The words of mantras should be repeated until they’re no longer words, but rather simply sounds. This should continue until there’s no distinction between past and future, knower and known. There’s only the eternal now. By going out of your mind you come to your senses. If you stay in your mind, you become overly-rational. Hear sounds as you would listen to music, not asking what it means. The point is how it feels, not what it means. When absorbed in a mantra, the ego dissolves.
In trying to control one’s mind, one realizes there’s no controller. The issue here is simply a matter of speech within nouns need verbs, but a noun is a process in itself. Eventually then, there’s a silence, and in that silence, we begin to see the world as it is. You don’t find any difference between yourself and the rest of life, because differences are just ideas. Reality isn’t an idea, reality is nameless. In the nameless is an eternal-now. When ideas don’t define differences, then other people’s doings are your own doings.
The transformation of consciousness is frustrated when the ego tries to bring it about. Wondering if oneself is more evolved than another needs to fall away first. The birth of responsibility is recognizing that things are explained only in the present, not in the past. The just man has no mind to seek happiness.
Allow the vibrations in the air play with your ears. Let your tongue rest on your lower jaw, and stop frowning. In meditation, we only exist with what is. Past is a memory, future is an expectation. Don’t seek or expect a result, simply be here. Live in the world of sound and let it all play. The world comes into being through the one energy underlying all things.
To make a long, complete, out-breath, it cannot be forced. This generates great energy without trying. Two things happen simultaneously: the breath is falling, and it’s under control - falling, under control. This is how what happens to you, and what you do are one and the same process. When we’re done naming, thinking, and talking, we can feel this essential inseparability.
Past memories and future expectations only exist in the present, thus there is only this present moment. The past only moves in the present if you make it, an eternal alibi. Taking responsibility is responding always in the present moment. Feel here and now directly as the only reality.
Don’t try to stop the mind, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. Simply don’t act on all the mind’s illusory ideas. What is the actual sensation of now? Boom - there it is. Is now a quick moment, or drawn out experience of expanding sensation? Is this a new now, or the same as before? The next step is with your imagination.
Sit with crossed legs, or knees down, palms up. The position should be firm, grounded and just uncomfortable enough to prevent you from falling asleep. Don’t fight against the feelings of discomfort. Relax into the position, and ease out a long breath, and so create energy without strain. The essence of the art is to feel, experience and sense all that is as it is, without defining it, without saying anything to yourself about it. Is your head in the world, is the world in your head, or both?
Between the all and the void is only the difference of name. Let go of it all. Let all things happen exactly how they are happening. The sounds of nature, the sound of rain, needs no explanation. Are all senses, different senses? Or is it all just one sense of consciousness?
This requires inner silence: ceasing the constant inner mind-chatter. If we don’t silence thinking, or talking to oneself, we end up living entirely within a world of symbols, absent of actual reality.
Meditation is an act without any purpose, like making music or dancing. There is no end-goal. The point is to always arrive at life in the present moment. If the goal is anything other than the present moment, you’ve missed the point. If the goal is to improve the mind or increase efficiency, it’s for the future and therefore ineffective. Meditation is supposed to be fun and we should do it to enjoy it. Through meditation, we learn the art of life in the here and now.
Meditation props include a gong and beads to keep track of time. Incense can be used to help associate contemplation. Posture must be firm and grounded. Meditation typically lasts for about 40-minutes per session.
To get into the meditative state, begin by listening. Allow yourself to hear all the buzzing sounds of life around. Don’t try to identify the sounds, don’t label them. Allow them to play with your eardrums, then let them go. Don’t try to understand anything, simply listen to sounds. The mind will naturally try to make sense of surrounding sounds, but don’t fight against this urge.
At this point, start to notice and listen to mind thoughts in the same way you’re listening to sounds in the surroundings and backgrounds. Look at your own thoughts as just noises. In this way, the so-called outside world and inside world come together as a happening, all you’re doing is watching it.
Next, allow your breath to breathe the way it wants. Don’t engage any breathing exercises. By watching breathing, become aware that what we do and what happens to us is arbitrary. Breathing is both voluntary and involuntary. Come to see the voluntary and involuntary as one happening. The truth is ultimately that both are true.
After breathing naturally for some time, you’ll notice yourself beginning to breath more deeply. When breathing out deeply, you’ll get the sensation that your breath is falling out. Thereafter your breath will fall back in. In this way, allow breathing to get easier and easier, slower and slower, and more and more powerful.
Be entirely content with what is. Don’t be in a hurry and simply watch all surrounding sensations as happenings.
Mantras are chanted sounds, not for meaning, but for simple tone. The sound Aum is a common mantra. The words of mantras should be repeated until they’re no longer words, but rather simply sounds. This should continue until there’s no distinction between past and future, knower and known. There’s only the eternal now. By going out of your mind you come to your senses. If you stay in your mind, you become overly-rational. Hear sounds as you would listen to music, not asking what it means. The point is how it feels, not what it means. When absorbed in a mantra, the ego dissolves.
In trying to control one’s mind, one realizes there’s no controller. The issue here is simply a matter of speech within nouns need verbs, but a noun is a process in itself. Eventually then, there’s a silence, and in that silence, we begin to see the world as it is. You don’t find any difference between yourself and the rest of life, because differences are just ideas. Reality isn’t an idea, reality is nameless. In the nameless is an eternal-now. When ideas don’t define differences, then other people’s doings are your own doings.
The transformation of consciousness is frustrated when the ego tries to bring it about. Wondering if oneself is more evolved than another needs to fall away first. The birth of responsibility is recognizing that things are explained only in the present, not in the past. The just man has no mind to seek happiness.
Allow the vibrations in the air play with your ears. Let your tongue rest on your lower jaw, and stop frowning. In meditation, we only exist with what is. Past is a memory, future is an expectation. Don’t seek or expect a result, simply be here. Live in the world of sound and let it all play. The world comes into being through the one energy underlying all things.
To make a long, complete, out-breath, it cannot be forced. This generates great energy without trying. Two things happen simultaneously: the breath is falling, and it’s under control - falling, under control. This is how what happens to you, and what you do are one and the same process. When we’re done naming, thinking, and talking, we can feel this essential inseparability.
Past memories and future expectations only exist in the present, thus there is only this present moment. The past only moves in the present if you make it, an eternal alibi. Taking responsibility is responding always in the present moment. Feel here and now directly as the only reality.
Don’t try to stop the mind, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. Simply don’t act on all the mind’s illusory ideas. What is the actual sensation of now? Boom - there it is. Is now a quick moment, or drawn out experience of expanding sensation? Is this a new now, or the same as before? The next step is with your imagination.
Sit with crossed legs, or knees down, palms up. The position should be firm, grounded and just uncomfortable enough to prevent you from falling asleep. Don’t fight against the feelings of discomfort. Relax into the position, and ease out a long breath, and so create energy without strain. The essence of the art is to feel, experience and sense all that is as it is, without defining it, without saying anything to yourself about it. Is your head in the world, is the world in your head, or both?
Between the all and the void is only the difference of name. Let go of it all. Let all things happen exactly how they are happening. The sounds of nature, the sound of rain, needs no explanation. Are all senses, different senses? Or is it all just one sense of consciousness?
October 16, 2021
What a great man! Thank you, Mr. Watts
January 5, 2019
"If we don't shut up, we can't hear other people have to say. If we don't meditate, we can't hear the universe."
Alan Watts teaches meditation in a very approachable way. Still your mind. Listen to the sounds of the world as if they were a song. Try seeing your thoughts as a passive observer. Don't force things, don't track your progress and try not to meditate while you're meditating.
There is no past or future. "We're trying to groove with the eternal now".
Alan Watts teaches meditation in a very approachable way. Still your mind. Listen to the sounds of the world as if they were a song. Try seeing your thoughts as a passive observer. Don't force things, don't track your progress and try not to meditate while you're meditating.
There is no past or future. "We're trying to groove with the eternal now".
May 16, 2008
Listened to this about 11 years ago. Looking back, the lesson that sticks in my mind and that I use daily is to regard all surrounding noise and merely background. For meditators, this is great advise, and I'm sure it was all good.
April 4, 2015
Liked the advice to use incense (smell being the most suppressed sense) and get gong/bowl to hit, but mostly he was pretty insufferable and not something/someone I would point those interested in getting into meditation towards. It was very short.
September 6, 2019
Five stars for the first half; it has my favorite "guided meditation" in it. However, the second half was sort of unnecessary. It restates most of the same stuff in a different lecture. Alan Watts is always great, but most of this one you can find on YouTube.
March 14, 2023
A wonderful little book I like to read every year or so. The man was profound while remaining very approachable. Meditation is an important endeavor in life to remain sane. Especially these days. Always highly recommended as are any of his other works.
January 18, 2018
Bueno para los neófitos. Para la gente que ya tiene un poco más de experiencia, tiene buenos momentos lúcidos.
January 31, 2019
It was ok, but nothing especially new or mind expanding there.
January 25, 2023
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Alan Watts himself. I could have done without him chanting in my ear. Otherwise, it was insightful as always.
February 28, 2024
It’s a great reference material
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September 25, 2025Nub
June 5, 2011
Alan Watts has become a philosopher in his own right after having mastered the techniques used by the ancient Indian saints on meditation and philosophy. He is very articulate in conveying his message to his audience. I really enjoyed reading the book.
April 13, 2012
One of Watts' best works...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews