– Alan Watts

I came across this short video on nostr not too long ago and while I agree with the core idea that Watts is trying to convey, I felt like it was missing a huge part of what this little thing called life is all about. So if you'll allow me to provide some Kontext...

It was always about you. Until it wasn’t. Until you realize “you” were always creating for others. Serving others. Loving others. You create, you love for yourself first, yes. But then, you need to let it go. You need to give it away. And you need to do it without expecting anything in return. Because you know your reward was already in the process of creation itself. You were the one who got to experience it, to channel it. And you know that this is the highest of honors anyone can receive. An honor given to you by God himself.

Let’s go back to first principles:

The two most basic goals of any living organism are:

“It was always about you” is the “survive” part.

Nowadays, most of us are not necessarily concerned with the survival of our physical bodies, as that has become quite easy, in at least a partially functioning society. Nor are we that concerned with the survival of our mental bodies (although perhaps we should be). But what we are concerned with is the survival of the Soul i.e. the spiritual bodies, which is essentially what Watts is talking about. He is talking about finding your sense of self, of becoming comfortable and familiar with who you are, and what you are capable of.

“...until it wasn’t” is the “procreate" part.

Having and raising children is, obviously, the highest form of creation, so I’m certain that all of you who have had the privilege to become parents, have experienced this type of ego death, where suddenly, the world DOES NOT revolve around you anymore, but instead, around this little bundle of joy, curiosity and near infinite potential that you have brought into this world.

And in this situation, what you would and could realize, is that you would give anything and everything for that other person, and that everything you ever did, all the demons you fought, all the lessons you learned, were in service of THEM and THEIR HAPPINESS, not yours. The same concept applies to every creative act, big or small, public or private, physical or metaphysical.

– Rick Rubin

And another thing is this: HAPPINESS SHOULD NOT BE THE GOAL. Happiness is merely a byproduct of a life well-lived. Honesty & truth should be the goals (you can also call them justice, love, God). IF truth is NOT the absolute base layer of your values, then pure pursuit of happiness is going to get you to where we are today: to narcissism (which in and of itself leads to fascism/authoritarianism), rampant consumerism, short-term time preference, all sorts of addictions from sugar to alcohol to opioids to porn to social media, etc. In other words, if truth is not your main focus then you are bound to be led or to lead yourself deeper into the illusion, the Maya, the Matrix. But I’ll leave that topic for another post.

Much love,