“Meditation is the way we come to feel our fundamental oneness with the entire universe, and what that necessitates is that we shut up.” — Alan Watts

I was on a spiritual road before I came across Alan Watts, but I was becoming a little too serious with myself. (if you know what I mean). He thus arrived as a welcome surprise. He made me laugh, which taught me that life can be both goofy and sacred at the same time. His joyful and playful temperament inspired my own to come out and play.

In his 58 years, he was a self-described philosophical performer who combined Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism while puffing on his now-famous pipe.In fact, he wrote 25 books, which is 18 more than he fathered children in case you were wondering making writing the only thing he did besides bear children. He was well aware of the value of creating a peaceful interior environment after having all those babies. And fortunately for us, he was eager to spread the word about what he had learned.

He first suggested the following: “Starting with listening is the quickest way to enter the state of meditation.” He continued, “Allow yourself to hear everything that is going on around you. Just take in the world’s general hum and buzz as though it were music. Never make an attempt to identify the sounds you are hearing. Do not affix names to them. All you have to do is let them mess with your eardrums and then let them go. Don’t make assumptions based on sounds. Proper sounds and inappropriate sounds don’t exist. Anytime someone sneezes, coughs, or drops something, it doesn’t matter. Just sound, that’s all.

In the same way that you might listen to passing automobiles or the chirping of birds outside your window, you just listen to them as part of the background noise. The so-called outside world and the so-called interior world will quickly converge if you consider your own ideas to be nothing more than noises. A occurrence they are. Everything is just occurring, and all you can do is watch it happen as your thoughts and the sounds outside do.

Can you hear the listener? He then paused to ask two crucial questions. Additionally, from where do the sounds come? For me, this explores the enigma of who we are and what life is really about in general. They are notions to be thought about rather than questions that must necessarily have a solution. When he said what he did next, as a breathwork practitioner, my ears perked up. “Now, another thing that is happening in this process that is crucial is that you are breathing. You will realise that the voluntary and involuntary components of your experience are all one happening as you pay attention to your breathing.

At first, that could sound a little frightening because you might wonder, “Am I just a puppet of a happening… the mere passive witness of something that’s going on completely beyond my control?” Another option is to ask yourself, “Am I really following the rules? It would be really embarrassing for me to be God since I would be in charge of everything, if I were to be that. Both statements are accurate in the real world. While everything that might possibly happen to you is also occurring to you, as you can see, everything is being done by you.

Your eyes, for instance, are what transform the sun into light. The nerve endings in your skin are what convert the air’s electromagnetic vibrations into heat and temperature. Your eardrums are what convert air vibrations into sound, and by doing so, you are essentially creating the universe. But when we don’t discuss it, when we don’t philosophise about it, then this is what happens. Thus, “the problem of who we are always contains an element of profound mystery,” as Alan Watts loved to remind us.

Final observations

He had a few more meditation-related pearls of wisdom to impart before he went, in typical Alan Watts way. With these several tools — listening to music, listening to your own inner feelings and thoughts, and tracking your breath. These fundamental feelings are all you are conscious of. After that, you’ll start to experience meditation. Don’t rush anything, though. Don’t stress over the future. Do not concern yourself with your progress. Just be completely satisfied with knowing what is. I’d also like to add: Don’t be frightened to admire its beauty!

Hi, I’m Garima and I write about life experiences. I have several books available on Amazon. Check them out today! Any purchases or KDP reads will be greatly appreciated. If you like my books, do leave a review. Here’s my author page on Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0BQDZXYNV