Hello, welcome to Effortless English. Today we have something a little bit new and different.

This is a podcast by Alan Watts, and Alan Watts.

And Alan Watts was a philosopher and originally he was a minister,

he was a minister, a Christian minister, but he left the church and became very

interested in Buddhism and Taoism and in Asian philosophy in general.

And during his life he taught Western people Americans, British

Europeans, about the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism especially and also Hinduism as well.

So he was one of the most important people to bring Eastern philosophy to the West and he's a very

intelligent very interesting guy so I'm offering here his direct podcast from a speech of his about spiritual authority

and I'll probably do a couple parts of this. I will also provide the transcripts so you can read what he's saying on my blog because some of the vocabulary is a bit difficult and some of the ideas are a bit difficult.

So you may need help, you may need to read the text and you can find the text on my blog.

I may take the liberty of beginning by saying something about myself

and my role in talking to you about philosophical matters, because I wanted to be understood

perfectly clearly that I am not a guru. In other words, I talk about

what we call these things and that comprises a multitude of interests concerning

Oriental philosophy, psychotherapy, religion, mysticism, etc.

I talk about these things because I'm interested in them and because I enjoy talking about them.

And every sensible person makes his living by doing what he enjoys doing. And that explains me. Now in saying therefore that I am not a

guru that means also that I'm not trying to help you or improve you. I accept you as you are.

I am not out therefore to save the world. Of course when a stream of bubbling spring flows out from the mountains, it's doing its thing. And if a

thirsty traveler helps himself, well that's fine. When a bird sings, it doesn't sing for the advancement of music.

But if somebody stops to listen and is delighted, that's fine. And so I talk in the same spirit. I don't have a group of followers. I'm not trying to make disciples.

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