πŸ“š Watts Alan – The Universe Experiencing Itself
05. The Art of Awareness

32. Music and Dance as Mirrors

A reflection on music and dance as metaphors for awareness β€” revealing that life unfolds like a melody, not a straight line toward a destination.

2012-03-20 β€’ 2 min read

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Music and Dance as Mirrors

> "Life is more like music than it is like mathematics." β€” Alan Watts

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The Shape of a Song

You don’t listen to music to reach the final note.

If that were the goal, the best symphony would last one second.

A song matters because of the movement within it β€”

the rise, the tension, the pause, the silence between sounds.

Its meaning is not stored at the end.

It is distributed across the unfolding.

Life works the same way.

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Dancing Without Arrival

Watch someone dance well.

They are not trying to arrive somewhere on the floor.

They are not calculating their next step with anxiety.

They move because movement is alive.

Each gesture dissolves into the next.

Nothing is held. Nothing is stored.

A dance cannot be saved for later.

It only exists while it happens.

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The Mirror We Ignore

Music and dance quietly show us something we rarely notice:

life does not move in straight lines.

It pulses.

It curves.

It accelerates and softens.

But we try to force it into progress charts and five-year plans.

We want crescendos without silence.

Momentum without pause.

And then we wonder why it feels rigid.

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Listening Instead of Controlling

You cannot command a melody.

You respond to it.

You listen and allow your body to adjust.

Perhaps living is more like that β€”

less about directing every note,

more about attuning to what is already playing.

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The Quiet Realisation

If life is music, then you are not marching toward completion.

You are part of the composition.

Not separate from it.

Not outside observing.

But vibrating with it.

And when you see that, you stop asking,

β€œWhere is this going?”

You start listening instead.

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> "Life is not a staircase to climb β€”

it is a song to be heard while it is being sung."