Alan Watts: Philosophy of the Tao

Alan Watts on the Philosophy of the Tao – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 29 - Hosted by [his son] Mark Watts
(Be Here Now Network) Premiered March 28, 2024: Alan Watts - Being in the Way. Join us on a journey of contemplation and enlightenment in this captivating introduction to Taoism (which should not be mistaken for Buddhism).

Discover the profound wisdom of Lao Tzu and Taoist philosophy with Alan Watts as he invites us to embrace the course of nature (the path of least resistance).

Through insightful exploration, he delves into the timeless significance of Yin and Yang, illustrating their inseparable connection and guiding us toward a deeper understanding of harmony and balance in existence.

In this episode, Alan Watts speaks about

• Ancient Chinese philosophies
• How social institutions are mistaken for the real world
• The self
• Confucianism and the roles we play in life
• Taoism and the basic energy of the universe
• Tao as the force of nature
• How space and solid are two facets of one reality
• Yang and Yin, positive and negative, male and female
• Conscious dying and preparing to let go
• Acting in accordance with nature.

“Whereas the emphasis in the Confucian tradition in China is on interference to a large extent, keeping things in order, there is a certain anxiety about the whole thing, the emphasis of Taoism is to trust in the course of nature.”

– Alan Watts

This series is brought by the Alan Watts Organization (alanwatts.org and alanwatts.com) and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. Subscribe to the Being in the Way Podcast with Alan Watts on Apple, Spotify, or favorite podcast app, proudly presented by the Be Here Now Network, home of official podcasts from thought leaders like Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and others.

Is it I, me, and mine (ego) or the environment?

Alan Watts on the Philosophy of the Tao – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 29: Being in the Way – Ep. 29 – Philosophy of the Tao - beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts...

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COMMENTS

(@eaton55r) Alan Watts probably helped me the most with depression and anxiety. I am an alcoholic and would like to say Alan is, I think, a good example of how a person with amazing knowledge can be slowly pushed into ill health and poor judgement by alcohol. It slowly crippled my judgement, health and family. Now in recovery for 6 years I live with fear of the alcohol 'spirit' taking me over again like so many others. Please be ever so careful with alcohol and drugs they can crush anyone... Anyone!

Taoism, Tai chi, Kung fu: Sun Lutang

Defining the Internal Martial Arts

Sun Lutang (1860-1933) was a master of Chinese internal (neijia) martial arts and the progenitor of the syncretic (blended) art of Sun-style tai chi [1].

He was also considered an accomplished Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholar (especially of the I Ching or Book of Changes) and was a distinguished contributor to the theory of internal martial arts through his many published works [2].

• Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (4): Sun Lutang and the invention of “traditional” Chinese martial arts, Pt. 1 (Kung Fu Tea)

Biography

Sun Lu Tang doing bagua

Sun Lutang was born in Hebei, named Sun Fuquan (孫福全) by his parents. Years later, his baguazhang teacher Cheng Tinghua gave him the name Sun Lu Tang.

It was common in old China for people to have multiple names during various phases of life. He continued to use his original name in some areas, including the publishing of his books.

He was well-versed in two other internal martial arts, xingyiquan and baguazhang, before he came to study tai chi. His expertise in these two martial arts was so high that many regarded him as a master without equal. More: Sun Lutang

• Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Anne Hathaway dates young Coachella bro?

He's like my son, I mean, he's like my daughter's brother, I mean, he's in a band!

I used to be the hottest actor in Hollywood.

Busted on video making out with sexy Boy Toy

Ah, romantic love, is there anything higher to live for? There's Nothing Higher to Live For: Romantic Love We get so intoxicated, so out of ourselves, so devoted and obsessed that we seem to forget other people. ("We're out here. We still exist," they say. But we don't pay them no never mind. Why? With those brain chemicals running on overdrive, we feel we found all we need.)

Who'd you go to see? - August Moon!

Anne Hathaway has been seen and photographed at "Coachella" with a much younger man, a "boy toy" half her age!

In shocking revelations, she has a teenage daughter, too. It was the girl who dragged mom to the big Woodstock in the desert event, where she hooked up with a straight boy band singer, Hayes Campbell. Why he's young enough to be her own son! That shameless hussy?

Actor Anne Hathaway was once very famous.

Is there anything she won't do for attention? Who would star in such a movie, all about real life goings on? It seems Hathaway is embracing the "unconventional" age gap -- playing cougar to some young cub -- in the new movie, The Idea of You.

While it's serious sex, it hides under the cloak of "rom-com." In this scandalous upcoming romantic comedy, Hathaway plays 40-year-old Solène Marchand, a single mom who takes her daughter to Coachella to see her favorite boy band, August Moon.

When she has a chance meeting with that band’s 24-year-old frontman, "Hayes Campbell," played by Nicholas Galitzine, sparks fly between them and they strike up an unexpected romance.

Zendaya's threesome: Challengers

Let's redefine "girl power" as being "Be as big a jerk as men, and you win"

• Anne Hathaway held hands with her husband, Adam Shulman, after ‘The Idea of You’ screening

Hathaway and Galitzine stopped by TODAY on Monday, April 29, to talk about it and the conversations it has sparked around romantic age gaps.

• 

  Why would "love" do this to people? Why not?

  Old Anglo Martin Freeman recently spoke to The Times of London about the backlash that erupted over his movie Miller's Girl earlier this year. The erotic thriller opened in theaters in January and caused a stir on social media due to intimate scenes between Freeman and his co-star young Latina Jenna "Lolita" Ortega (Beetlejuice 2). The movie casts the "Wednesday" favorite as an 18-year-old student who is attracted to her writing teacher (Freeman) and attempts to start an affair with him. Freeman is 31 years older than Ortega. Martin Freeman reacts to outrage over ‘Miller's Girl' 31-year age gap with Jenna Ortega: The film is ‘grown up and nuanced' and not saying ‘Isn't this great?'
• Jenna Ortega, 21, was totally 'comfortable and sure' about filming X-rated sex scene with Martin Freeman, 52, for Miller's Girl, film's intimacy coordinator insists -- as she hits back at critics who branded it 'gross' (Daily Mail)

I'm fed up with... [Israel?] No, with being judged.

“It’s kind of fun to be in a film where we talk about it, where we don’t dance around it, but we actually embrace her point of view on it,” Hathaway said.

There’s no doubt The Idea of You subverts traditional rom-com tropes by featuring a relationship between a 40-year-old single mother cougar and a much younger man-child.

However, as Hathaway points out, being 40 can mean different things to different people, and it’s the relationship between two individuals that ultimately matters.

“It’s funny, it’s OK if 40 is old, it’s OK if 40 isn’t old, it’s OK whatever it is, because it’s personal,” she explained. “For [my character] Solène, her point of view is, you know, she became a mom really young, and she really wanted to have a career, and so she doesn’t totally identify with her age.

“She feels like maybe she’s done things a little bit out of order and for her, 40 means it's a time...of self-discovery for her,” she continued. “And that’s what the movie says…how wonderful that she finds someone that she feels so supported by, seen by, embraced by, valued by.”

Is it IRL or Hollywood?

Let's get out of here, Anne. - I'm married, Nick.

Hathaway also said she “poured so much love, so much life experience into this film.” Galitzine and Hathaway also revealed they had instant chemistry as "friends" off-screen.

She was once a starlet in H-wood

“Well, Annie put me through the ringer,” Galitzine joked about their audition. He added that they did “a couple of pretty amazing scenes, one quite comedic, one very emotional,” and that he “serenaded Annie” on set.

“The whole room, it wasn’t just me...Nick sang at the audition with his guitar and looked at me sometimes,” she answered with a laugh. Was The Idea of You age gap the same in the book?

The Idea of You is based on a 2017 novel of the same name by Robinne Lee.

• While the plot of the movie is similar to the book, the characters’ ages were changed slightly in the film adaptation. In the movie, Solène is 40 and Hayes is 24, while in the book, the characters have a larger age gap: Solène is 39, while Hayes is just 20.

Meanwhile, the actual age gap between Hathaway and Galitzine is smaller than in the book or the movie: Hathaway is 41, and Galitzine is 29. “The Idea of You" will be available to stream on Prime Video on May 2. This article was originally published on TODAY.com

• TODAY.com, 4/29/24; Ashley Wells, Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Homeless freeway mansions of Los Angeles

The solution to homelessness could be easy and inexpensive rather than a bureaucratic mess.

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Not all 'homeless' are alike on the streets of LA

What will become of the people in Los Angeles who are priced out of the housing market and oftentimes strung out on drugs? Even if they are detoxed and recover from addiction, what does the city and county plan to do with the billions devoted to solving the system problem? New stories like this only highlight what every Angeleno knows is going on under every freeway overpass and most sidewalks in plain sight.

Riverside properties along the 110 Freeway in Highland Park are a nuisance to nearly no one.

There may be tiny homes nearby, but they are run like a prison and people do not want that.

• 

  If only the inside were clean

  Homeless families say they have "no choice" but to take up space next to dangerous freeways because they can't find housing or jobs.
• Some of the unhoused have taken creative measures to bring creature comforts to their tiny shanty homes.
• The freeway families say they "look out for one other" and have built their own tiny community.
• Caesar Duarte didn't flinch as an Amazon truck barreled down the busy 110 Freeway in Los Angeles, missing his makeshift home by just a few feet.

I want to go off grid and live in peace

The only thing that stood between Duarte's outdoor kitchen and speeding vehicles was a three-foot retaining wall and metal fencing. 

The 44-year-old mechanic and house painter said he has learned to deal with the danger and noise since he erected his homestead by the freeway about four years ago.

With all new materials, a home like this might only cost $40K to build and place on a foundation

Is there any hope for a future of modular homes with A/C and protection from rain and sun?

.

Could there be a double wide mansion on wheels?

"It doesn't bother me, and also I have no choice," Duarte told DailyMail.com. "Everything is too expensive. Rent is too expensive, and right now it's hard to find jobs.

"We are struggling like everyone here. We don't have any problems with anyone, and we don't make problems with anyone. The neighbors, we take care of one another."

Is there a homeless crime problem? Yes

• More + PHOTOS: Inside LA's ramshackle city built on the side of a busy freeway
• ‘I’m a builder by day then go home to my squat’
• A better tiny home: Abodu Quiz

What's the tiniest "home" possible? LA's plan for "tiny tent" housing

With more than $100 million to spend, Mayor Karen Bass and LA County should be able to afford at least 800 "tiny tents," according to Fishbone and Crab in the Morning on 95.5 FM (j/k).

If they don't like their tiny tents, we have ways to convince or house them in our jails - LAPD

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• Daily Mail (mailonline.co.uk) via MSN, 4/25/24; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly LIVE from Highland Park, along the Arroyo Mojado (LA River tributary)

Rapper Lil Jon's "Total Meditation" (NPR)

Sensei Rap Guru Lil Jon; Usher, ft. Ludacris; CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Just a few years ago Lil Jon was producing booze-promoting trashy rap hits like "Yeah!"

WARNING: Filth, "Yeah!" by Usher song featuring Lil Jon (who also produced the song) and Ludacris is a crass, vulgar sexual exploitation pop-rap hit song that got so big it catapulted Usher to the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show with Taylor Swift dancing in the bleachers to it and amping up footballer Travis Kelcey to win and go party on the Vegas strip with strippers and alcohol after the game.

Rap artist Lil Jon's latest album is a guided meditation

Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, March 3, 2024 (7:59 am ET) Weekend Edition Sunday (8-min listen)

A moment of Zen from NPR's Ayesha Rascoe (pronounced \eye-eesh-uh ross-koh\): She talks to rapper DJ producer Lil Jon who's all turnt up about his new guided spoken word album, Total Meditation, finding peace while being the life of the party. [He got uh kol'ina'skuppy at fiddy, so maybe he koming dahn? It's a Southern thang (Rascoe's accent) y'all woodent git it.]

Lil Jon "Deep Relaxation" (official audio)

If you shake your bottle rocket and hold it in your crotch, it'll pop off and shoot everywhere.

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(LIL JON) Feb. 16, 2024: Now let's see if we understand this. The vulgar featured rapper who produced and sang on "Yeah!" with King of R&B Usher and Ludacris has had a change of heart and started practicing meditation?

(LMAFO ft. Lil Jon) "Shots" about binge drinking in social situations

Rapper/meditator Lil Jon

Moreover, he likes it so much, he's teaching meditation and laying down relaxation tracks on his latest album instead of the mindless rap and hip-hop songs fans expected?

Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu! (aka Hallelujah!) We're incredulous, but NPR's Blackest voice ever, Ayesha Rascoe from the Deep South (Durham, N.C.), assures us it's true on NPR radio ads.

She will be featuring the gangsta-rapper-cum-meditation-guide on tomorrow's episode of Weekend Edition Sunday (3/3/24).

Tune in to NPR at 8:00 am (Eastern), or at 2:00 pm (Pacific) as it repeats on scpr.org.

• A Rational Conversation: Lil Jon's History of Turning Up (The Record/NPR)
• Usher's Super Bowl Halftime show cemented his R&B legacy

#LilJon #DeepRelaxation #Meditation LIL JON'S MEDITATION ALBUM ➡️ liljon.lnk.to/TotalMeditation SOULCHAKRA.COM CLOTHING

ArroyoFest takes over Pasadena freeway

KCAL News, 10/29/23; PasadenaNow.com, 10/24/23; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation Meetup), Jen Bradshaw, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly UPDATED

I plan to downward dog it all the way to Down Town Los Angeles then rollerskate back home.

'Arroyo Fest' draws thousands to South Pasadena

(KCAL News) Oct. 29, 2023: Thousands of people are strolling, scootering, or cycling on the freeway [that becomes Arroyo Parkway into Pasadena] as part of "Arroyo Fest" in South Pasadena. Tina Patel reports.

The inaugural Arroyo Fest on Arroyo Seco Parkway held in 2003 (Joan Dooley/Charles Lee)

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Next time, inspired by South Park, the buttbike

REVIEW: It was amazing, running onto a freeway I had driven all my life and had almost died on once in an almost-crash (when I was about to let go of the wheel, give up, and cover my face for the impact) but then things inexplicably went back to normal. Thanks, Kwan Yin, Mary, Mother Goddess! So imagine running onto it -- as thousands are walking, riding, and strolling across lanes.

It's much smaller than it looks at 55 MPH and faster. The concrete and asphalt thoroughfare is the oldest in the West, perhaps the oldest in the country, maybe even the world. It's the first "freeway." Well, there are those Maya roadways under jungle cover in Belize, recently discovered using LiDAR, as we reported. There were families, pro joggers, EVs, bicyclists in too tight shorts and cleats, guys aboard loud contraptions like the makeshift Bike Band Flotilla (who are sure to be playing the 2023 Doo Dah Parade), lots of dogs, and plenty of roller skates. Where was the host of Off-Ramp or Ira Glass? This American Life would have had a field day with interviews.

We yoga stretched along the median separating speeding bicyclists from those out to savor the day, trying not to photobomb all the cellphone cameras, over the river (the Aroyo Seco or "Dry Gulch" into and out of Pasadena) toward the distant DTLA. It feels like LA is mostly flat, but we're in the hills and canyons, ravines and the second valley of this megalopolis. Then the fuzz put the kibosh on our fun and cleared the roadway, along with very nice civilian ambassadors, so that by noon, it was all a dream on a strange day in LA when the beaches are warmer than the inland cities. It's always the other way around, with traffic choked into Santa Monica for the ocean breeze. It was so clear that from the right vantage point, the Pacific was visible, as it is on clear days.

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Event details

The nearby Suicide Bridge, Pasadena

Pasadena is gearing up for a historic and festive event on Sunday, Oct. 29th, when the Arroyo Seco Parkway, also known as the 110 Freeway, will close to vehicle traffic and open to people walking, biking, or any form of active transportation, for six hours.

The fun event, called ArroyoFest 2023, marks the 20th anniversary of the first time that the parkway was transformed into a car-free zone for biking, walking, and exploring.

If one is into running, sign up and arrive early for the “Run the 110” event, a chip-timed 10K point-to-point run. It starts promptly at 7:00 am at the north end of the route in South Pasadena. Runners need to arrive at the starting line by 6:30 or 6:45 am.

• ArroyoFest Returns to Pasadena This Weekend After 20 Years’ Absence – Pasadena Now

ArroyoFest is not just a street festival, but a community movement that aims to reconnect people with the natural and urban landscapes of the Arroyo Seco corridor.

The event was first held in 2003, seven years before the popular cicLAvia series began in Los Angeles. 

Prof. Robert Gottlieb, founder of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at (Obama's local alma mater) Occidental College and the Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies, relates how ArroyoFest was inspired by multiple factors.

One was the interest in re-envisioning the LA River and the Arroyo Seco Stream as natural and cultural assets, the LA County Bike Coalition’s bike ride along the LA River program, Dennis Crowley’s idea to bike on the Pasadena freeway, and the desire to promote biking and walking as part of a transportation and livability agenda.

“So that led to some discussions with a number of groups about maybe really expanding this agenda of biking and building out ways to put biking and walking in front of the transportation agenda and livability agenda,” Prof. Gottlieb said.

“That led to this idea of doing the bike ride on the freeway and a walk on the freeway. We approached Occidental, and when Caltrans and the Highway Patrol and some of the other agencies that would need to sign off on such an event were approached, they initially really dismissed it as implausible.

“They thought it was almost a joke.”

The transportation agencies were worried about how car owners would oppose closing down the freeway for something like a bike ride, Prof. Gottlieb said. But eventually, with Occidental College stepping in, the skepticism was at least modestly reduced.

Prof. Gottlieb said the planning for the first Arroyo Fest took a challenging two years. He said that they used an inside and outside strategy, involving community groups, elected officials, and leading figures from Los Angeles, South Pasadena, and Pasadena, to persuade them to approve the event.

Prof. Gottlieb’s group also developed a traffic plan, got insurance, and expanded the agenda to include the history and vision of the Arroyo Seco corridor. Finally, the agencies gave the event the go-signal. More

P-22 Mountain Lion Festival, LA (10/22)

Fiona Ng, LAist.com, Oct. 21, 2023; Xochitl, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A mountain lion stalks by hillside homes in the LA suburbs. Long live P-22 (Johanna Turner).

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Nearly a year after its death, the Mountain Lion Spirit of P-22 lives on in Los Angeles

I thought I loved my cat. I love this one!

This Sunday (10/22/23), Griffith Park is celebrating its most influential transplant: LA's Lion King.

It's a native son who made the trek from the Santa Monica Mountains to its new digs by crossing the 101 and 405 Freeways — and in so doing inspired Los Angeles to dream the impossible dream of building the world's biggest freeway overpass for animals to use, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

"We were told we were crazy, and here we are. It's underway," said Beth Pratt. "It actually started because of the P-22 story and the effect it had on me."

A drawing of a bridge for wildlife to cross over a busy freeway A rendering of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, slated for completion in 2025 (National Wildlife Foundation).

Pratt leads the Save LA Cougars campaign, which helps support efforts to get the historic wildlife crossing built.

The organization is also behind the annual P-22 Day Festival at Griffith Park, where all of Los Angeles is invited to celebrate the city's urban wildlife and its titular king.

LA's Lion King

P-22 Day Festival, Oct. 22 (urbanwildlifeweek.org)

Like the majority of the city, Pratt first heard about P-22 in 2012, shortly after she started working with the National Wildlife Federation.

"I couldn't believe the headlines I was reading that a mountain lion had made a home in Griffith Park," she said.

She learned from biologists working in the area about the plight of P-22 — having arrived after a treacherous journey in Griffith Park only to be trapped there.

"It wasn't just P-22, there were mountain lions all around the Santa Monica Mountains that were facing the same struggle. I asked that day how I could help."

Beth Pratty, Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

More than a decade later, Pratt and Save LA Cougars have raised some $100 millions toward the construction of the wildlife crossing near the Liberty Canyon exit on the 101 Freeway.

The project broke ground last year. Currently, Caltrans crews are putting up the support system on both sides of the freeway for the bridge to be placed across early next year. The entire crossing is set for completion in 2025. Source (LAist.com) laist.com/news

[Let's kill P-22 then feel sorry for it, like we did the Native Americans, the Palestinians, and most of the other wildlife that used to roam wild throughout the basin, from the foothills to the bay.]