"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It's so clear, so obvious, and so simple." This thought from the philosopher Alan Watts cuts through the noise of our modern lives. So many of us seem caught in a constant state of rushing, striving for something more, something greater, often feeling like we're missing the point entirely. Watts encourages us to pause and look at the common ideas that drive this rush – our concepts of money, time, and even our own selves.

Finding Real Silence

Before diving deeper, let's consider silence. Not the heavy, awkward silence when we stand remembering someone lost, our minds still buzzing with thoughts. Watts spoke of a different kind of silence – a state where the inner chatter stops. It's in this real silence, he suggested, that we can stop analyzing and simply perceive reality as it is.

What is this "real world" we encounter? Some argue it's purely material, others that it's spiritual. But Watts pointed out that both are just theories, concepts built from words. The actual, tangible world isn't an idea; it's what we experience directly when we quiet the mental labels. When we face reality without these filters, certain powerful illusions begin to fade.

The Money Illusion

Think about money. We often treat it as the ultimate goal. But Watts reminded us that money is simply a tool, a way of measuring wealth, much like inches measure length or pounds measure weight. You can't eat dollars or live inside a bank account. Imagine being stranded on a desert island with a suitcase full of cash – it would be useless. What you'd truly need is food, shelter, perhaps companionship.

Money represents wealth, like a restaurant menu represents dinner. Yet, as Watts observed, many of us have become so fixated on the symbol that we'd rather have the money than the actual wealth it could provide. We forget that there's a limit to what we can actually use or enjoy. Can you really drive five cars simultaneously, live in six houses at once, or eat a dozen meals in one sitting? Chasing endless accumulation often stems from confusing the measurement with the reality.

The Elusive Ego

Another powerful concept we grapple with is the "ego" – our idea of "self." Watts saw the ego not as a fixed entity, but as an abstract idea, a feeling created by memory and habit. He compared it to the illusory circle of fire created by spinning a torch quickly; the circle looks real, but it's just the rapid movement of a single point of light. Or imagine tracking a bird's flight – we might visualize a line tracing its path, but the bird leaves no actual mark on the sky.

Similarly, the past moments that seem to build our "self" are gone, vanished without a trace. Watts likened the ego, specifically our conscious attention, to a ship's radar constantly scanning for problems. If we identify completely with this scanning function, we define ourselves as beings in perpetual anxiety, always looking out for threats.

This brings us to one of the biggest anxieties: the fear of death. Many imagine it as being locked in eternal darkness. But Watts argued that this "eternally continuing non-existence" isn't something you can experience. You won't be there to feel it, just as you weren't there before you were born. Nature fills voids. Understanding this connection, this unity with the ongoing process of the universe, can lessen the fear of personal annihilation. (Some find echoes of this idea of interconnectedness in stories like Andy Weir's "The Egg," which explores the concept that we are all facets of a single consciousness).

The Trickiness of Time

"I don't have enough time!" How often do we hear or say this? Watts believed our culture is hypnotized by the illusion of time. We're obsessed with the past (which is gone) and the future (which hasn't arrived), often missing the only reality we ever possess: the present moment.

Time, he argued, isn't some fundamental feature of the universe, but rather a human invention – a useful way to measure change and movement. To break free from its perceived pressure and truly connect with the real world, Watts often pointed towards meditation.

Embracing the Now Through Meditation

It's important to understand what Watts meant by meditation. He didn't see it as a self-improvement exercise or mental gymnastics designed to make you "better." It doesn't have a goal in the conventional sense. Instead, it's more like listening to music or dancing – the entire point is the experience itself, happening right now.

The aim is to immerse yourself in the present, allowing thoughts and illusions to gently wash away. When fully absorbed in listening to a piece of profound music, like Bach or Mozart, you can find yourself centered in the eternal "now." The past and future dissolve, and the mental constructs built by words fade.

How does one achieve this state of "no thought" and face reality directly? Watts’ key advice was: don't try to force thoughts away. You can't calm boiling water with more boiling water. Instead, simply allow your thoughts to come and go as they please. Observe them passively, as you might listen to birds chirping outside your window, without judgment or struggle. Just listen, just be.

By gently questioning our deep-seated beliefs about money, ego, and time, and by cultivating moments of true presence, perhaps we can step out of the frantic rush and rediscover the simple, profound meaning of just being alive.

References:

• Watts, Alan W. The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety. Pantheon Books, 1951.
  This book directly addresses the core themes discussed. Watts explores how our relentless pursuit of security and certainty (often tied to money and future planning) paradoxically creates anxiety. He argues for embracing the present moment and understanding the illusory nature of the ego as pathways to genuine peace. Chapters 3 ("The Great Stream"), 4 ("The Trouble with Pleasure"), and 6 ("The Awesome Task") are particularly relevant to the concepts of time, chasing satisfaction, and the nature of self.
• Watts, Alan W. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. Pantheon Books, 1966.
  This work focuses heavily on the illusion of the separate ego. Watts argues that our feeling of being an isolated "I" inside our skin is a socially conditioned hallucination that prevents us from realizing our fundamental unity with the universe. It delves deeply into the idea that the "self" we cling to is a concept, not a concrete reality, aligning with the article's discussion of the ego and the call to recognize our connection to the world. Part I ("Inside Information") lays the groundwork for understanding this perceived separation.