Alan Watts lecture on Taoism

This is a very good lecture. I did the bulk of my spiritual work twenty years ago, in my twenties, and I've been thinking more in terms of changing the literary canon, rather than being some kind of guru. But if you want to get me a white robe and a staff... I really don't want to go read all those books again, go over all the same old ground so I can talk about it. But this lecture is pretty good.

I've occasionally taught guitar lessons, and when people came to me as beginners in their forties or fifties, even their thirties, I usually discouraged them. "You know, when you're young, you have the time and the enthusiasm, and your brain is still growing so it's much easier for it to assimilate new information, particularly muscle memory." I had been thinking along the same lines with regard to spiritual development: "Shit, I did all that stuff twenty years ago when I was chomping at the bit. What to do about people who aren't exactly young anymore?" But here he talks about the Taoist idea of doing spiritual work when you retire from active life, the active life being more conducive to a philosophy like Confucianism. (You can see the left-brain/right-brain dichotomy here with Taoism and Confucianism.) I thought, that's a great idea, I never even thought of that because I'm always unemployed. I never really made the transition into the active life. 

So to Ben Shapiro, who wants to work people to death, I would say, but what about the contemplative life, old horse? Aren't you forgetting something?