You Are the Universe: Alan Watts Explains Our Cosmic Connection

This weekend, I stumbled upon some really interesting thoughts from Alan Watts about who we are and our place in the universe. He talks about how we’re all connected, like waves in a giant ocean. It’s a pretty mind-bending idea, but he breaks it down in a way that makes you think about things differently. It’s not about being some tiny, separate person, but about being a part of something much bigger.

The Universe Looking Through Your Eyes

Watts suggests that we’ve been taught to think in a way that makes us forget a big truth: each of us is like a window for the entire universe to see itself. Imagine the universe as a bright light, and each of us is a tiny opening, a pinhole, letting that light shine out. So, when you look at something, it’s actually the whole universe looking out through your eyes.

The game we play, according to Watts, is pretending we don’t know this. We get caught up in being just our individual selves, our egos, our specific names and lives. But what if we could hold onto that sense of being ‘us’ while also knowing we are part of the whole thing? Watts says this leads to a wonderful feeling of joy and excitement.

Key Takeaways

We are all apertures through which the universe perceives itself.
Focusing only on our individual ego can make us miss the bigger picture.
Recognizing our connection to the universe brings joy and a sense of harmony.

Life’s Predicaments and Nature’s Patterns

Watts doesn’t say it’s wrong to take your individual life seriously or to deal with all the problems that come with it. He points out that being a mixed-up human being, with all the struggles, is just another manifestation of nature. It’s like the patterns on a wave or the shape of a seashell.

He uses the example of a seashell. When we look at one, we often think it’s perfectly beautiful, without any flaws. But do fish living inside them ever judge each other’s shells? Probably not. We, on the other hand, tend to judge and criticize, not realizing that all our actions and behaviors are just as marvelous and complex as nature’s designs.

Specialized Awareness and Missing the Background

We tend to have a very focused kind of awareness. We look at one thing, then another, picking out only certain details from everything we could possibly notice. This specialized attention means we often leave out two big parts of our experience:

The amazing beauty of things we don’t even see.
The deep sense of our own identity and our unity with the entire process of existence.

It’s like staring at a specific tree in a forest and not seeing the whole forest. We get so caught up in the details, like examining a seashell and thinking about the creature inside, that we miss the grander view. But when we step back and look at the seashell as a whole, we can truly appreciate its beauty.