Ep. 20 – Man is a Hoax

Alan Watts Being in the Way

Sifting down behind the cultural myth of man as separate, Alan explores how we are all actually Earth, the Universe, and the Big Bang.

In this episode of Being in the Way, Alan takes us on a journey from childhood to adulthood, highlighting how we are trained into separation from a young age, and forced to focus on the never-arriving “future,” rather than being present in the moment. Through this lens, he further spelunks the “hoax of man” and offers insight into how this sense of ego identity creates tension and frustration.

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In this episode Alan discusses:

• How from childhood onward we are constantly preparing for something in the future, rather than being present for life
• The culture’s division of work and play, and the confused idea that money can buy you pleasure
• Growing up in society, identity, defining a person, and being a “genuine fake”
• How the sense of ego creates tension, separation, alienation, and frustration
• The inseparable connection of the polarity of self and other
• The dawn of creation and how we are not actually separate from the Big Bang
• The 19th-century myth that man is a fluke in an unintelligent, automatic universe

“Your actual self—what is finally and fundamentally you—is not a separate and lonely part of the world, but the real you is the world itself, everything that there is, expressing itself as this particular organism here and now.” – Alan Watts

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

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