Image (feat. Alan Watts) Video (MV)

I find it a little difficult to say
What the subject matter of this seminar is going to be
Because it's too fundamental to give it a title
I'm going to talk about what there is

Now, the first thing though, that we have to do
Is to get our perspectives with some background
About the basic ideas
Which as westerners living today in the Unites States
Influence our everyday common sense
Our fundamental notions about what life is about

And there are historical origins for this
Which influence us more strongly than most people realize
Ideas of the world
Which are built into the very nature of the language we use
And of our ideas of logic and what makes sense all together
And these basic ideas I call 'myth'
Not using the word 'myth' to mean something untrue
But to use the word 'myth' in a more powerful sense

A myth is an image

So, basic to this image of the world
Is the notion, you see
That the world consists of stuff, basically
Primordial matter
Substance, stuff,
As pots are made of clay
And the potter imposes his will on it
And makes it become whatever he wants

And so, in the book of genesis
The lord, God, creates Adam out of the dust of the earth
In other words, he makes a clay figurine
And then breathes into it
And it becomes alive
Because the clay becomes informed
By itself it is formless
It has no intelligence
And therefore, it requires an external intelligence
And an external energy to bring it to life
And to put some sense into it

So, in this way we inherit a conception of ourselves
As being artefacts
As being made
And it is perfectly natural in our culture for a child to ask its mother
'How was I made?'

A myth is an image

We are playing a game
And the game runs like this
The only thing you really know
Is what you can put into words
Let's suppose I love some girl
Rapturously
And somebody says to me
'Do you really love her?'
Well how am I going to prove this?
Let's say I write poetry
'Tell us all how much you love her'
'Then we'll believe you'

So, if I'm an artist and I can put this into words
And convince everybody that I've written
The most ecstatic love letter ever written
They say
'Alright, okay, we'll admit it, you really do love her'
But supposing you're not very articulate
Are we going to tell you
You don't love her?
Surely not

A myth is an image

Once you start thinking about things
You worry as to whether you thought enough
Did you really take all the details into consideration
Was every fact properly reviewed
And by Jove
The more you think about it
The more you realize
That uh
You really couldn't take everything into consideration
Because all the variables in any human decision are
Incalculable