On learning, self-improvement, genius and more... [Alan Watts speech]

Learning because learning is good for you is irrelevant to learning. The whole idea of improving yourself by learning is irrelevant to the learning process, and in the same way, doing business is doing business.

Manufacturing clothes is a good thing to do. But to make clothes to make money?

Raises another question... Cause then, your interest is not in making clothes, it’s in making money, and then you gonna cheat on clothes. And then you get an awful lot of money - and you don’t know what you gotta do with that. You cannot live in 6 houses at once, eat 10 steaks in one day, can’t drive seven Rolls Royces at the same time…

What then to do? Well, go back to make more money. Put your money back. Invest it in something else until it make more… You don’t give a damn how it’s made so long as they make it. So long as you see those figures happening, you are not aware of anything else.

So you see, you went out to do self-improvement thing. Making money, you see, is a measure of improvement. A measure of your economic worthwhileness. At least that’s what it’s supposed to be, isn’t it? But you went out for the status instead of actuality. So in other words, if you do arts, if you are a musician, why do you play music? The only real reason to play music is to enjoy it. If you play music to impress the audience, to read about yourself in newspaper - you are not interested in music.

So, the same way, why do I (Alan Watts) come and talk to you? Because I enjoy it. I like the sound of my own voice (haha).I am interested in what I am talking about, and I get paid for it. And that's smart to get paid for what you enjoy.

The whole idea of self-improvement is a will’-o-the-whisp and a hoax. That’s not what it’s about.

Let’s begin where we are. What happens if you know beyond any shadow of doubt that there is nothing you can do to be better?

Well, that’s kind of a relief, isn’t it? Now, what will you do? See, there is a little fidget comes up. Because we are so used to making things better - «leave the world a better place than when you found it» sort of thing, «I want to be of service to other people» and all these dreadfully hazy ideas. There is that little itch, still.

But, supposing, instead of that, seeing that there isn’t really anything we can do to improve ourselves and the world… It gives us a breather. In the course of which we might simply watch what is going on. Watch what happens. Nobody ever does this, you know? And therefore, it sounds terribly simple - it sounds so simple that it looks like it isn’t worth doing.

Have you ever just watched? Watch what’s happening, and watch what you are doing by way of reaction to it. Just watch it happen. And don’t be in a hurry to think you know what it is.

In other words, people think «Well, that’s the external world». Oh, how do you know? The whole thing from the neurological point of view is a happening in your head. That you think there is something outside the skull is a notion in your nervous system. They may or may not be, but it’s a notion in your nervous system. You think,"This thing is the material world" - well, that’s somebody’s philosophical idea. This «real world» is not spiritual, it is not material, the real world is simply… (claps).

So… could we look at things in that way? Without, as it were, fixing labels and names, gradations and judgements on everything, but watch what happens. Watch what we do.

Now, if you do that, you give yourself at least a chance - and it may be - that you are in this way, freed from busybodinness and being out there to improve everything, and your nature will start to take care of itself. Cause you are not getting in the way of yourself all the time.

You will begin to find out that the great things that you do are really happenings.

For example, no great genius can explain how he does it. Yet he says «I have learned the technique to express myself, because I had something in me that had to come out». If I want to describe something, I need to learn a language so that others can understand me. I need a technique. But then, beyond that… I am afraid, I cannot tell you how I used that technique to express that mysterious thing I wanted to show you.

If we could tell people that, we would have schools that would infallibly train music geniuses. Scientific miracle minds. And there would be so many of them, we wouldn’t know what to do with them. And then we would say, «Well, after all people are not very ingenious».

You know, PhDs, how many of them are out there?

Because what’s fascinating about genius always is that fellow does something we cannot understand. He surprises us.

But you see, just in the same way we cannot understand our own brains. Neurology knows relatively little about the brain. Which is only to say, the brain is much smarter than neurology. (laughter) We don’t know how we do it - performing this scientific, cultural, thinking miracles - but we did. We didn’t have some campaign to have an improve brain.

The whole growth, you see, is fundamentally, something that happens. But, for it to happen, two things are important:

1. you must have a technical ability to express what happens

2. you must get out of your own way

But right at the bottom of the whole problem of control is how I get out of my own way? And if I showed you a system, a practice of «Let’s all get out of our own way» it would turn into another form of self-improvement. (haha) Here’s the dynamics of this whole thing. We find this problem throughout the whole history of human spirituality. In phraseology of Zen Buddhism «you cannot get this by thinking». You cannot attain to it by thinking. It is only when getting out of your own way ceases to be a matter of choice. When you see when there is nothing else for you to do. When you see that doing something about your situation is not going to help you. When you see equally that trying not to do anything about it is not gonna help you. Where are you? Where do you stand? You are simply reduced to watching. Now you might say, «I need some help in this process and therefore I am going to find someone else to help me». A therapist, a clergyman, a guru, or any other kind of process who teaches a technique of self-improvement. How will you know whether this person is able to teach you? You ask their patients, students, and they are excited about it… Well, you got to be excited about something expensive not that you’ve paid for it. Otherwise, it’s very expensive to admit that you’ve been fooled. When you pick an authority - you’ve chosen it. In that sense, whether this person, book, or system is the right one, is your opinion. And how are you competent to judge? You cannot escape that situation. It’s your opinion. So you see, when you select an authority who will help you improve yourself, it’s like hiring the police out of your tax money and putting them in charge to make sure you obey the law. (laughter) i mean, cannot you take care of yourselves? But you see, nobody seems to want to be in charge of themselves because they feel they can’t do it. And again, we are at difficulty, because trying to improve oneself is like trying to put yourself up in the air by pulling by your shoelaces. And it can’t be done.

Now, there are all sorts of ways in which religious people try to explain they ways by which it cannot be done. Like, the grace of God. They say «No, you can’t do the job yourself because the improving you is the one that needs to be improved». Therefore, you have to say «God, help me». Now, of course, if God exists is your opinion. That God will answer your prayer is your opinion and your idea of God is your idea of God.

Believe in things on your authority. _________________________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from Alan Watt’s «Mind Over Mind» speech. Full speech can be found here.