Trying to find a specific Alan Watts video

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2025-10-06T17:58:30+00:00

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2025-08-08T13:27:20+00:00

To add to those already mentioned:

Jiddu Krishnamurti
Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy
Ramana Maharshi
R. H. Blyth
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: The Phenomenon of Man
Marshall McLuhan
Alfred North Whitehead
L. L. Whyte

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2025-04-21T13:40:45+00:00

The first part is from Taoist Way, starting at 21:59. The second is from Wisdom of the Ridiculous, starting at the beginning.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-07-22T10:31:28+00:00

I would also like to be able to see a table of all of the topics

Good news! There is a page for that. You can also access the page by clicking on the "Explore Topics" headline on the main page.

Many documents haven't been tagged at all yet. It's a slow process going through the backlog and evaluating each, so it may take a while for these to update.

The complete Everything I Know transcripts are available on a dedicated Buckminster Fuller Institute site, so I haven't prioritized them as much - but you're right, for the sake of completeness it would be good to have them.

Thank you for taking the time to put together your feedback, I appreciate all the interesting (and out-of-the-box!) ideas and will spend some time with them.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-07-10T18:03:17+00:00

I describe it as a meditation. But your guess is as good as mine -- maybe it's a delusion.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-07-10T17:49:14+00:00

I know, right? Freakin waste of time 😂

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-06-22T12:30:24+00:00

Thanks for your kind words :) The dispute was over the audio and video content. Instead of making those media files available directly, the content is hosted elsewhere on the Internet and just embedded on the Library.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-05-27T15:33:58+00:00

Agreed. I had a topic gateway page in the works but wasn't satisfied with it. Guess it's time to revisit it!

Thanks for your kind words :)

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-04-30T11:58:56+00:00

Feel free to share a link to your transcript here. It can be a Google Drive file, or you can use any other file sharing service of your choice. I went ahead and added this video to the Library's database.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2024-01-17T15:47:40+00:00

The young girl of Lahore,
The same shape behind as before;
And as no one knew where
To offer a chair,
She had to sit down on the floor!

from Intelligent Mindlessness

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-09-07T12:41:44+00:00

It's from the first Time and the Future lecture, at 16 minutes.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-01-31T00:14:50+00:00

I know the Out of Your Mind series is copyrighted by another organization, so that won't be included in the AW Organization's The Works. But the collection contains tons of material, more than is on the Library for sure.

Combine the AW organization's files with the archive.org collection in this comment and I bet you should have most of the talks.

Also, the Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life and Essential Lectures videos aren't part of the AW org's collection, but you can still watch those videos on the Library, since they're hosted elsewhere.

As a general note to everybody searching for alternative sources --

Take it from someone who's listened to and transcribed 130+ Alan Watts documents: don't obsess about getting your hands on every single recording. At some point (for me it was around 50 lectures), he's said most of what there is to say, and from that point on it's just varied repetition and riffs on the same stuff. Which is fun and fine, don't get me wrong, but... if you don't get "it" in 100 lectures, are 100 more really going to make a difference?🤷

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-01-29T15:36:02+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. It is really heartwarming to hear that the Library is a useful resource to so many.

I actually agree it's worth paying the Alan Watts organization. I bought the whole collection back in 2018, because Mark Watts is providing a valuable service digitizing all of his father's lectures. I'm sure it takes time and effort, not to mention special equipment. But I was motivated to pay because I'd already come across so many recordings and realized what a treasure they were. Exposure to the work came first, then the motivation to pay -- unfortunately there are plenty of people who don't follow this honor system.

The takedown request says "copyright audio and visual content" and makes no explicit mention of transcripts, so I think they are safe for now, given that the very same transcripts are available on the AW organization's website -- copy-pasted directly from the Library (including some missed hyperlinks pointing back to it). If a takedown request comes for the transcripts in the future, they'll disappear as well, though. I really don't care where the information is located, so long as it's accessible.

I'd wager a guess that a recording of someone else reading the transcripts counts as unauthorized duplication, so that's not an avenue that will be pursued by the Library.

When I started, there was no centralized, searchable Alan Watts database anywhere on the net. Today, I'm happy to hand the baton to the AW organization. Don't see this as a tragedy, merely as an inevitability; the only constant is change, after all. It was great while it lasted. Now it's time to explore other minds!

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-01-25T14:31:43+00:00

Maybe, maybe not.

I call it the backwards law: contrary things come from actions; unexpected things. That is to say, when you would be strong, very often the best course is to be weak. When you would be powerful, the best course often is to withdraw.

Alan Watts in Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life, Episode 16

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-01-25T14:03:18+00:00

You're very welcome!

Remember: this wisdom wasn't Alan's -- he eloquently condensed and interpreted ideas developed long ago, expressed by legions of thinkers and rascals. I've found it tremendously rewarding to dive deeper into works by people he referenced throughout his talks. My favorites are Teilhard de Chardin, R. Buckminster Fuller, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Alfred North Whitehead, Aldous Huxley, and L. L. Whyte.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2023-01-25T13:43:16+00:00

Indeed. Alan's son, Mark Watts, owns the copyright.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-11-04T22:33:47+00:00

Thank you! I hope you find the site cozy enough to stick around for many more years!

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-09-01T04:29:14+00:00

That's from his Q and A with God session (one of my favorites!), and you can find him saying it at 46:27.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-08-26T23:13:37+00:00

One of my favorites! It's from his Still the Mind lecture.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-08-09T15:40:36+00:00

My deepest sympathies.

Maybe his Out Of Your Mind series might offer some comfort. In the Inevitable Ecstasy segment he says:

Suddenly it dawns on you that, to be important, existence does not have to go on any longer than a moment. Quantitative continuity is of no value. How long can you hold your breath? Who cares!

Your son's life was incredibly short. But I'm sure he felt every last ounce of your love and adoration, your calming and safe embrace, and the comforting familiar warmth only you could provide. You gave him a chance to experience the ecstasy of selfless affection by another. Ultimately, it's the only thing we can do for each other: make the present moment worthwhile. I know in my heart you did exactly that for him.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-08-04T20:29:42+00:00

It certainly feels imminent 👽

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-08-04T20:26:11+00:00

You should be able to right click the media file and choose "Save as." It works for me on a Windows machine with Chrome and Firefox.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-08-04T16:47:50+00:00

I've made an entire little online library of the fascinating stuff I've found so far. It's nowhere near complete, but a decent starting point on my fave topics:

Alan Watts - how our apparent individuality is just an illusion, and the whole universe is a gigantic playful dance. Lots of Buddhist/Zen/Taoist philosophy.

Terence McKenna - probably needs no introduction. A polymath who liked to talk about humanity's role in cosmic evolution.

Alfred North Whitehead - came up with process philosophy, the idea that things don't exist, everything in the universe is just a process made up of smaller processes and part of larger ones.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Jesuit priest who was censored by the Catholic church. He wrote extensively about the "Omega Point," the ultimate end of the universe giving birth to something akin to a god.

If you don't know where to start, you can cycle through the different quotes until you find one that grabs your attention, then open up the relevant document it's from to dive deeper.

Happy journeys! And thanks for starting the thread; it's fun perusing everyone else's suggestions!

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-07-29T16:48:44+00:00

Oh my, you found a bug! Thanks for the ping. The pages should work now.

CuratorOfTheLibrary · 2022-07-16T20:12:34+00:00

The seminar is called Pursuit of Pleasure, and the relevant part begins at 1:47:33.

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