Because, after all, if I talk all the time I can’t hear what anyone else has to say, and if I think all the time-and by that I mean specifically talking to yourself subvocally inside your skull-if I think all the time, I have nothing to think about except thoughts. In the prison in Vietnam, in talking about the present and the past, the two prisoners, one experienced in meditation and one not experienced in meditation, their experience of presence is going to be entirely different. I don’t mean that kind of grim silence which one observes when somebody says, "Such-and-such a famous person has just died and we’ll observe a moment of silence in his honor." And everybody frowns and thinks very serious thoughts. So in the Byzantine chant, where the Eastern churches, they don’t use musical instruments. Yes. So, in the same way, in India and Tibet and Buddhist countries in general you will find that they use the syllables "om," "ah," "hung" for purposes of meditating on sound. You begin to wonder why we use such a funny sound to represent an affirmative attitude. To begin with, the clothes I am wearing are not those of a Buddhist priest, they are those of, say, a Japanese literary gentleman (which would correspond to the sort of person that I am), and they’re worn for the simple reason that they’re convenient and comfortable.

And of course that would be brainwashing to a person who didn’t know how to meditate. That’s the difference between a crazy person and an enlightened person. We’re always advising God what to do as if he didn’t know, or listening to exaltations, or singing hymns. When modern Protestant theologians of the sort of liberal type are saying God is dead, they mean that not literally, they mean a certain image of God is dead, outworn. I’m also saying-well, if I’m saying there is no ghost, what is billiards I’m also saying there is no body. All good ghosts walk straight through brick walls without disturbing the bricks, so how can a ghost in your body lift an arm? Yes, the red arm I see over there. One and many. And you can, by listening to the gong, really fade out: see how one turns into many. " And then we say, "Oh, it was because of that bit that came before it." We don’t see that it’s all one!

Things don’t mean anything. What does a fern mean? What does a cloud mean? The opening of the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word." It doesn’t mean in the beginning was chatter. And when it says, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image," it doesn’t mean merely images of wood and stone (which nobody took seriously anyway), it means above all images made of imagination: images made of concepts. And it’s therefore an envelope by means of which you communicate with the so-called outside world. There is some inferior music that means something; what we call program music, like the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, or some of Debussy’s perpetrations such as the Engloutie Cathedral, where it’s creating visual pictures or imitating natural noises: the beat of horse’s hooves or rollings of military drums and the sound of the waves, et cetera. We are not very particular about what sounds, but just listen to the whole natural flow of sound as you would listen to music. It’s rather like music or dancing in that respect. But it’s also possible in retrospect to realize that you were meditating. Now, so long as such motivations and considerations exist, you’re not meditating.

You still remember your name, address, and telephone number, your social security number, and who you’re supposed to be, and what role you’re supposed to be playing. If I were to identify myself with "Alan Watts," that would be identifying myself with a concept, with words-a rather complicated mess of words, to be sure, but still I would have made that mistake. She couldn’t last it through.’" Because, you see, who you think you are is entirely dependent on who people have told you you are. Most people nowadays say, "I have no time." Of course you don’t. Also, don’t forget that you can’t have an inside unless you also have an outside. The word "meditation," in English, doesn’t have quite the same meaning. It’s like when you separate a wiggle and you give names to different, say, bays or capes or mountains on a territory: that naming doesn’t actually separate them. Which, although does mean "Hail to the Lord," doesn’t really mean anything. This is called a mokugyo, and it’s a sort of wooden drum which, as you heard, makes an extremely effective noise that can be heard for a very long way.