author, philosopher, and self-proclaimed spiritual entertainer

Alan Watts

In the West,

we inherit the idea of law

from those ancient conceptions of God

and it is even passed down into science!

Where we discuss Laws of Nature

but one recognizes more and more in the sciences

that what we call Laws of Nature

are simply observed regularities
in the way things behave

And you,
in order to observe regularities

you must look at things
through something regular

that is to say
you must lay a ruler alongside them

or compare their behavior with the regular behavior of a clock

But clocks and rulers
are human inventions!

They are regular measures

which we use for comparing

the rates of change,

say a clock
is a measure of a rate of change

It's quite arbitrary!

But we very easily compare our

regulation measuring devices

with what makes things happen.

As if the sun rises
because it's 6 in the morning!

And that's being
completely backwards in one's thinking

And we get into the same confusion

when we imagine for example
that money is wealth!

Here we have fantastic wealth

and we have the technological possibility

of making everybody on Earth

the enjoyer of an independent income.

We can't do it

because people say where is the money gonna come from?

Because they think money makes prosperity

it's the other way around!

It's physical prosperity

which has money
as a way of measuring it

But people think
money has to come from somewhere

like hydroelectric power
or lumber or iron

and it doesn't!
Money is something we invent!

Like inches

So you remember
The Great Depression?

When there was a slump

and what did we have a slump of?

Money

There was no less wealth,
no less energy

no less raw materials
than there were before

but it's like you came to
work on building a house one day,

and they said "Sorry!
You can't build this house today,"

"no inches."

What you mean "no inches"?

"Ah just inches! We don't mean... We got inches of lumber, yes"

"we got inches of metal,
we even got tape measures!"

"But there is a slump in inches!"

And people are that crazy!

They can have a depression

because they have no inches to go around

or no dollars

It's all a load of nonsense

But you see,
because we got thinking backwards

And making the
metaphysical tail wag the dog

making the law rule things

where it doesn't, it's merely a way of measuring what happens

And so, you see,
when you get into Buddhistic thought

you don't get that confusion.