Illusion of Memory – Alan Watts

see memory is an illusion it's all gone so everything you know about that makes an impression on you is no longer there that memory has got you hooked it holds you to the past and it holds you to death memory has caught you and you think it's all really there and you don't realize this is there's only the eternal now but on the one hand you let go of everything and you live in the eternal now because that's all there is [Music] there is only the present moment never will be anything else even what you're remembering is happening in the present the memory is in the eternal now isn't it see so it's all really absolutely here but on the other hand what is life you see except there is a memory except there is an echo [Music] what fun to drag it out and to make it echo and to get involved and to fall in love and to become attached [Music] as these are the two sides see so the thing is this it's just like riding a bicycle it's a balance trick you suddenly find yourself falling over one way well you balance that you turn into that direction and you stay up and so in the same way when you find yourself becoming too attached to life you correct that with the realization that there is nothing except the eternal now [Music] then when you feel that's all right now you see you're safe again this is the only return now once more you go and get attached or you get involved you get concerned about some enterprise social political amorous uh familial scholarly artistic whatever it is you get involved [Music] and the two always go together so this is the meaning of the symbolism and you need to know that in order not to get fight lost because if you go out to any one end of the spectrum you forget you're there that's sort of a non-existence you can't really non-exist you'll always come back eventually but if you get one extreme too much you don't know you're there the real you