Watts about Nature

In the artifact, Alan Watts makes an interesting point that we become more aware of our unknown self through nature. Katie touches on the popular western belief that we only exist inside our human skin, but I feel that in order to unravel the hidden identity that Watts mentions; we must avoid this common image of self. When I experience nature, through a hike in the mountains for example, I feel a certain peacefulness and harmony rise from within my consciousness. I hear a voice telling me I belong here, because nature and I were created to live in unity. This type of experience is hard to put into words, but certainly relates to Watts’ notion of looking beyond the hallucination that we only exist inside our bodies.

I also thought it was captivating how Watts’ tried to create a bridge between western and eastern theories on nature. He explains that western society views nature as a machine or an artifact created by God, but I do not completely agree with this notion. I see nature as a resource to create machines or artifacts rather than an artificial mechanism itself, which contradicts the essence of nature altogether. His idea places an excessively negative connotation on the West’s interpretation of nature. Later Watts traces the Chinese theory of nature, which has no boss and is created out of spontaneous, involuntary action. They believe that nature stems from trust and virtue. Watts shines a brighter light on the Eastern theory, but as a listened to the concepts of Zidran and the Tao, I wandered where do Eastern theorists believe nature comes from? Human power? To me this just seems irrational to believe there is no boss in nature. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by Watts’ analyses of eastern and western theories.