Ep. 30 – Flow — Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality

Ep. 30 – Flow — Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality

Bibliography

• Author: Alan Watts Being in the Way
• Full_Title: Ep. 30 – Flow — Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality
• Category: podcasts
• URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/103715b6-5e01-4161-b438-228251c5b811
• Last Highlighted Date: 2024-09-25 03:02:20.461145+00:00

Highlights

• True wealth lies beyond superficial pursuits and ephemeral pleasures. Summary: True fulfillment cannot be found in the relentless pursuit of material wealth or superficial pleasures. The confusion between symbols and reality leads society to prioritize ephemeral goals, such as accumulating money, which ultimately are hollow pursuits. Unlike the limitless chase for wealth, genuine experiences in life, like food, relationships, and possessions, come with inherent limits. There is an inherent richness in valuing the few things that truly resonate with us, such as a favorite suit or a beloved partner, rather than endlessly amassing items that provide fleeting satisfaction. Emphasizing the importance of recognizing the distinction between real-life experiences and the misguided symbols that society elevates as goals is crucial for attaining true contentment. Transcript: Speaker 1 Now the importance of this, the practical effect although when you are in meditation you are not concerned with practical effects, practical effects are crew as a byproduct. Just as happiness which cannot be pursued is only a byproduct of being interested in something else but the disease of civilization is that we confuse the world of symbols with the world Speaker 3 Of reality. Speaker 1 As I said this morning, you all know what reality is and it doesn’t have to be explained to you and if you try to define it, you become a professional philosopher and you will eventually Shrivel up and die but you know what it is. Speaker 3 It’s this. Speaker 1 So we are in a very serious condition in the world today. Speaker 3 We are trying to make as the goals of life the attainment of pleasures that really exist on paper only and the chief example of this is lots of money. Speaker 1 There are no limits to the amount of money you can make if you are sufficiently clever and sufficiently ruthless. You can go on and on and on but there are very strict limits to the amount of beef you can eat at one meal, to the amount of girls you can give to whom you can give adequate satisfaction, to The number of houses you can live in, to the amount of clothes you can wear. You can have, supposing you wore three suits a day and you want it to be different all the time, you are like there are 365 days to the amount of life that by three and that’s enough for anyone. With dresses also, there is a real limit and you would consider if you were wearing a completely different suit for one third of the day and you never wore it again, after while that would Become a bit absurd, you might find a favorite suit, one that you felt suited you, what is a suit except something that suits you and you would go back to it and you would want that one again, Same with a woman. You find you’ve got a favorite one and you want to go back to her and keep her around, see? Then you have a house, you can have hundreds of houses if you’re very rich but you find you have a favorite one and you want to go back. So there are limits to what we can enjoy in a material, physical, real sense. So I must say when I say real and I also join with the word physical and material, the real world is not necessarily physical or material.
  • Tagged: #zk #spirituality
  • Time 0:06:32, Open in Readwise
  • Note: Audio is off. The disease of the human condition is confusing the world of symbols for the world of reality. We accrue money, which exists only on paper, and physical things, which have limited utility to our happiness. Instead we need to embrace true reality and escape materialism and the world of symbols to understand the physical world and attain spiritual peace. ^rw790279233