[Music]
 Welcome to the Love of Wisdom with Alan Watts.
 As one of the century's most eloquent philosophers,
 Alan Watts introduced a generation in the West
 to the fascinating ideas of the Far East,
 the wisdoms of the Orient.
 In the 1960s and early 70s,
 he lectured throughout the English-speaking world
 and was recorded in a variety of settings,
 from seminars aboard his ferry boat, the Vallejo,
 in Sausalito, California,
 to keynote addresses at major universities.
 The author of books on Christian theology,
 psychology, ecology, and Eastern religion,
 including his classic "The Way of Zen,"
 Watts' scholarship is deep and timeless.
 However, it is also his wit and playful approach to life
 that endears him to us today.
 Originally recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
 in April 1973,
 this program is called "Symbols and Meaning."
 In this talk, Alan Watts points out that
 anyone in any culture who speaks a language
 has underneath the surface of the language
 certain basic assumptions that are usually unexamined.
 By comparing and contrasting Eastern and Western languages,
 Watts uncovers some of the faulty assumptions
 beneath the surface of what we call "common sense."
 On the other hand, reality is like musical expression.
 It means exactly what it says.
 If you ask Bach, "What is the meaning of music?"
 he would have said, "Listen, that is the meaning."
 Here's Alan Watts.
 Tonight, at any rate, we've got to go through
 some theoretical material, so we're on a head trip.
 I don't know where the trip will end up.
 It depends on you.
 But in order to lay the foundation for this,
 we've got to examine ideas that are basic to our common sense.
 Ideas are very powerful.
 It's not only emotions that are powerful in human life.
 Psychoanalysis has, of course, examined
 the emotional bases of human opinions and beliefs,
 but one should also examine the intellectual bases
 of psychological principles, or theories, or therapies.
 Because everybody who speaks a language at all
 has underneath the surface of the language,
 or the figuring that he uses,
 certain basic assumptions which are usually unexamined.
 And these unexamined systems of belief
 are extremely powerful in their influence over our lives.
 We'll begin with one very common idea
 that's built into our common sense,
 which is that the world, the physical world,
 consists of two aspects, respectively form and matter.
 This was foisted on us by Aristotle,
 and also by the Bible, because it is said...


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