The Real You: Alan Watts

I wish to bridge the perceived gap between logical, materialistic analysis and intuitive, mystical experience. My directive as an artist is to engage and communicate the meaning that lies before our eyes, and yet we do not see. I attempt to point to the ‘numinous’, which is characterized by the quintessential qualities of the sacred:…

The imagery for LUNGTA1 is drawn from that sublime altar of the earth that is the Himalaya—the Abode of the Gods. It was to these remote mountains, specifically the region of Lo, that esteemed Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield and I traveled in 2008 for the purposes of an artistic collaborative.2 A brief bit of background…

“But how can I, an amateur, be expected to settle a question which the philosophers have not yet ceased to argue?” (W. Somerset Maugham. The Summing Up) I am happy to represent our Society for the Integration of Science and Human Values, based in the Department of Pali & Buddhist Studies at the University of…

The history of science is wrought with a great many milestones, but some are more significant turning points than others. The Copernican dismissal of the long-held geocentric view of the universe was only one of those revolutionary upheavals. The classification of celestial bodies into stars and planets which probably began in ancient Babylonia, and the…

In thought and conversation we each take a variety of perspectives, many of which are nested or hierarchical. That is, when you make a statement, it is worth knowing what it represents. A part of you? You overall? Us? Your community? Your country? Everybody? I’ve written a lot in these pages about how hierarchies of…