The reasons people in the West are so anxious, for Watts, was simple. They are trying to control everything. And the more they try to control everything, they more anxious they get.
Watts would suggest that the person who demands to be in control is misguided.
You think you want to be in control, but really, you don’t.
“The price of a sense of control is anxiety. We don’t really want everything under our control. If we could predict everything and control everything, it would be terrible. There is no surprise in it.
“There is always profound mystery. You will never be in control. It would be terrible if you were. There is always the mystery. The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.
“Everything is so complicated, no one really understands or knows what to do. We are getting in the way of ourselves. Everything is administration and records and controls and red tape”
This observation, in a world of bureaucracy, government and institutional ‘targets’ and ‘goals’ policed by layer after layer of management, each watching the layer beneath them feels remarkably prescient.
Without trust, says Watts, the whole system seizes up.
“Everything comes down to trust. You have to trust yourself. If you don’t trust yourself, than how can you trust the you that doesn’t trust yourself? Nature must be trusted – although it is not completely trustworthy. But that’s the risk of life. If you do not trust nature at all – of which you are part – then you end up…
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