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The Metaphysics of Alan Watts The philosophy of Alan Watts was mostly Zen Buddhism and Taoism. On this website, I have explored that the only logical explanation of physics and ultimately the Universe is the simulation argument, that the Universe is a virtual reality, a programmed reality. What strikes me in some of the statements made by Alan Watts is they are compatible with the simulation argument. I doubt Watts knew of the idea of the Universe as a virtual reality, he died in 1973, yet he came to some strikingly similar conclusions through pure reason. However, Watts idea of waking up would be the realization of the Universe as a virtual reality. If the Universe is a virtual reality, then we are an artificial intelligence that came out of this world and we did not come into this world, as the Watts’ quote at the top notes. As I quoted Stefan Molyneux in a previous post, “The only freedom is freedom from illusion”.

Comments by Alan Watts Excerpts of what Watts says in the video below: “So then, here’s the drama. My metaphysics, let me be perfectly frank with you, are that there is the central Self, you could call it God, you could call it anything you like. And It is all of us. It is playing all the parts of all beings whatsoever, everywhere, and anywhere. And It is playing the game of hide and seek with Itself. It gets lost, It gets involved in the farther out adventures, but in the end It always wakes up, and comes back to Itself. And when you’re ready to wake up, you’re going to wake up. And if you’re not ready you’re going to stay pretending that you are just a poor little me. You won’t wake up until you feel you’ve paid a price for it. The guilt one feels, the anxiety, is simply the way one experiences the guilt of keeping the game of disguise going on. You say to yourself, ‘I won’t wake up until I feel I deserve it. I won’t wake up until I’ve made it difficult.’ When I feel it has been sufficiently arduous, then I may at last admit to myself who I really am, draw aside the veil, and realize that after all, when all is said and done, I am that I am. Which is the name of God. As they say in Zen, when you attain satori, nothing is left you but to have a good laugh. So it’s a question fundamentally, do you define yourself as a victim of the world or as the world?”

The Way of Waking Up A short movie narrated by Alan Watts. What does it mean, to awaken?

About Alan Watts

Alan Watts was born in London in January of 1915 at the start of the first World War. Alan Watts was profoundly influenced by the East Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Buddhism, and by Taoist thought, which is reflected in Zen poetry and the arts of China and Japan. After leaving the Church he never became a member of another organized religion, although he wrote and spoke extensively about Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Some American Buddhists criticized him for not sitting regularly in zazen, even though he recorded several guided meditations teaching a variety of mediation techniques. Alan Watts responded simply by saying: “A cat sits until it is done sitting, and then gets up, stretches, and walks away.” By the early seventies Alan Watts had become a foremost interpreter of Eastern thought for the West, and was widely published in periodicals including Earth, Elle, Playboy, and Redbook. Overall Alan Watts developed an extensive audio library of nearly 400 talks and wrote more than 25 books during his lifetime, including his final volume, Tao; the Watercourse Way. Alan died in his sleep in November of 1973.

“The Universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever.” – Alan Watts
Magnificent Spiral Galaxy NGC 4414 (Hubble Space Telescope)

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