Ep. 36 – Seeing through The Net

Alan Watts Being in the Way

Be Here Now Network / Love Serve Remember Foundation

Being In The Way, Taoism, Self-improvement, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Alan Watts, Buddhism, Society & Culture, Education, Tao, Spirituality, Dao, Eastern Philosophy, Zen

4.9 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this new, technological age, Alan Watts explains how seeing reality via only one perspective can lead to a fragmented view of the world; instead, he encourages listeners to adopt both the analytical and the organic.

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In this episode, Alan Watts dives into:

Living in an age of technology in a culture obsessed with rational control
How someone can easily be obstructed by their own cautiousness
The problem of human ecology and how one should best relate to their environment
Considering what our idea of heaven is and what desires we truly want
The western model of the universe (intellectual, architectural, mechanical)
Reductive thinking: seeing the world through a net and making everything into a comprehensible, geometrical unit
The fundamental difference between a mechanism and an organism
How understanding the world through only conscious attention can lead to seeing everything as parts rather than the whole picture
Combining the academic, analytical mind with the organic, ‘gooey’ mind

“Go to the science of medicine. You get a specialist who really understands the function of the gall bladder. He studied gall bladders ad infinitum, and he really thinks he knows all about it. But, whenever he looks at a human being, he sees them in terms of the gall bladder.” – Alan Watts

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The practices of mindfulness meditation can transform your life.
0:06.3	And for many, that opens the door to wanting to share these practices with others.
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0:16.7	join Buddhist teacher David Nichtern for a free online talk,
0:22.7	deepening your practice to teach the journey from meditation practitioner to meditation guide on Tuesday, September 2nd, at 6 p.m.
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0:39.4	understanding. David will also discuss Dharma Moon's renowned mindfulness meditation teacher training,
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0:55.5	and to reserve your spot for the free online event on September 2nd.
1:22.5	Thank you. Welcome to Being in the Way at the Alan Watts podcast.
1:24.1	I'm your host, Mark Watts.
1:27.2	And today we're going to be listening to Seeing Through the Net,
1:33.3	which was one of a series of talks to the systems group of engineers at IBM in the mid-60s. In this talk, he begins with an exploration of our ways of knowing, and how it is that we describe the world, relate to other cultures, and ultimately determine our place in the cosmos.
1:45.0	It's a fascinating journey that begins with a look at the linear ways of knowing
1:50.0	in which information is strung out along a line,
1:53.0	and he points out that this is the method of binary computers,
1:57.0	which do this with incredible speed.
1:59.0	However, he also points to the value of triangulation
2:02.6	and the comparison of completely different kinds of entities
2:06.0	to gain a fuller and more rounded view of ourselves and our place in the world.
2:12.0	So this is Alan Watson, seeing through the net,
	...

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