Bi ht: Taoism Main - AJ Hoge

Hello, this is AJ again. Welcome to our next lesson, this ones a really interesting one
from one of my favorite writers. Absolutely love him, his name is Alan Watts. He
actually died back in the 70s but just an amazing man, so intelligent and actually quite
funny actually, just a great sense of humor. And Alan Watts is a very interesting guy.
He was one of the first western people, meaning American or European, to learn about
eastern spiritual practices, eastern religions. So he studied Buddhism, Taoism and
Hinduism, most especially Buddhism. He was a Buddhist. He became a Buddhist. And
then he came back, for example, he lived in Japan actually for several years and
learned Buddhism there in a monastery.
And then he came back and he wrote in English about these religions. The other
interesting thing about him is that he was a Christian minister before he became a
Buddhist. I believe he was Episcopalian which is a kind of Christian, but he was a
minister, he was a preacher. And so the very interesting thing about Alan Watts is that
he has a great understanding of both the western and the eastern religious practices,
religious beliefs. And not just the normal kind of religion, just go to church and pray and
read your little book, but really the deeper meanings of both Christianity, Buddhism, etc.
And he has a great way of teaching eastern religions, especially Buddhism and Taoism,
to western people in a way we can understand.
So anyway, hes also just a really funny, interesting guy and a very intellectual guy, very
intelligent. So this is from one of his books about Taoism. Now Taoism is actually
spelled with a T, T-a-o-i-s-m, but its pronounced Daoism like its a D. Why is that?
Because English spelling is crazy. English spelling, as you already know, is very difficult
and theres no logic about it, or very little logic about it. So its spelled with a T but
pronounced as a D. I dont know why. Why didnt we just spell it with a D? I dont
know. It comes from Chinese words so I guess they wrote it, they heard it wrong and I
dont know. Anyway, its pronounced Daoism and the book is called Taoism Way
Beyond Seeking by Alan Watts, A-l-a-n and then his last name W-a-t-t-s. And by the
way, he has a great podcast, alanwatts.com I believe is his podcast. So in this book
Alan Watts talks about Taoism.
Taoism is a philosophy, not really a religion, I dont think. Maybe it is, I dont know, but
in my opinion its really more of a philosophy. Its a way of living. Its a philosophy about
life. And its a very natural philosophy. The basic idea of Taoism is that you should live
in harmony with nature. You should follow nature, be part of nature. And if you live with
nature instead of fighting it, your life will be much more successful and happy and easy.
Its a little bit like Thoreaus idea. Remember Thoreau, Walden, remember that lesson?
Well, Taoism has a similar kind of feeling. This idea that we dont fight against things,
we go with them. We do what is natural. So Effortless English, in many ways, is Taoist
kind of English program. Because were trying to go with your natural brain, right?
Were trying to learn in the most natural way. Were not fighting against our brains.
Were going with the brain. The brain loves stories so we use stories to teach English.
The brain learns grammar best from patterns and stories, not from rules.
So we use patterns and stories to teach grammar. You learn vocabulary best and
fastest from stories and from reading interesting articles and books, so thats what we
use in our system. So this is the idea. Youre not fighting against something with effort,
trying, trying, trying. Youre doing what is most natural. When you do what is most
natural its easier and its more successful. Wow, two great things at the same time.
Alright, so now this section from his book talks about the subconscious. Remember,
weve had this word before. Its the part of your brain that is working all the time but you
dont know. Its the part of your intelligence, your brain that makes your heart beat...
bom-bom, bom-bom, bom-bom, right? You dont have to think about it. You dont tell
your heart to beat Beat now, beat now, beat now, right? Its automatic. Your brain is
making that happen subconsciously. Now you can breathe, for example, consciously or
subconsciously. Usually when youre doing something youre not thinking about
breathing. But you still continue to breathe, right? Youre always breathing. You can
also think about it, right? You can consciously think about breathing. You can decide...
breathe in, breathe out. Thats conscious breathing.
Subconscious breathing or unconscious breathing, it just happens automatically. Youre
doing something else. Youre not thinking about it, but it still happens. Your brain is still
working. So that kind of intelligence, that unconscious, that subconscious intelligence is
the most powerful. Thats most of our intelligence. Thinking about th