Today, we no longer regard the atom as solid and uncuttable. Hume, going further than Berkeley, argued that mind is no more solid and substantial than physical objects. In Hume s view, the mind, the ego, the I , is only a series of perceptions or thoughts. Alan Watts argues that we aren t separate beings, we aren t isolated egos cut off from the external world by our skin, we re part of the whole, part of all that is. Internal and external are one, I and The World are one.
Nothing is separate, everything is a part of the whole.
Watts doesn t pretend to be expounding an original theory, but rather expounding an ancient theory that developed in India. Stop reading and look out of the window. I don t care what anybody says. Part of the tree, no doubt. But if the leaves die and fall to the ground, they appear to be separate from the tree.