Everything Is A Pattern Of Energy (Alan Watts)
We think of the Universe as a system of Energy, and the energy flows in such a way, as in a rock to act hard, in water to act liquid, and it air to act soft and gassy.
All the way around, everything is patter of energy.
I don’t want you think of the words ‘Pattern of Energy‘ as though the patter were one thing, and the energy another, as if a pattern was something made out of energy, like cloth is made out of thread.
Because energy and pattern are the same thing. You will never find energy without pattern, nor pattern without energy. They are simply two ways of seeing the same process. What appears to be fixed forms, are really motions, behaving according to their ow rhythm. And what we call a thing, is just the way energy holds itself for a while. The course of the world is a constant flow.
Each of us, every person is like a whirlpool in a stream, you can see the form of the whirlpool, it has a certain shape that seems to stay, but the water within it is always moving, it never holds on to anything. And so, in just the same way, what we call a self, or a thing, is a stable pattern in a moving field. It looks continuous but is always changing.
All people, all things, all events, they are forms of perpetual transformation, like a flam that keeps its shape though the fuel is always new. And yet, we are so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as fixed, solid identities, as if there were some core inside the whirlpool that isn’t water, but there isn’t, there is no thing behind the form, only flow.
So when you look for your true self, you may find nothing at all that stands still. And that is precisely the point. You can experience yourself as a whirlpool of energy in a stream, a stream which is the Tao. The Tao is the total course of nature, the energy field of the whole cosmos. It flows not according to a plan, but according to its own rhythm.
In one chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says ‘The Great Tao flows everywhere’, both to the left and to the right. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them. And when merits arise, it lays no claim to them. That’s quite different you see from the western notion of a God who demands credit, who says ‘any good that you have done is mine, and all the evil is yours‘. But the Tao doesn’t behave like that, it has no boss, no overseer, no central command.
The Chinese word for nature is Ziran, which means ‘that which is so of itself’. It’s not controlled, not forced, like your heartbeat, it happens without your effort. So the view of the Tao is that everything happens by itself, and yet, everything happens in harmony.
Now this is one of those delightful paradoxes, for which Taoist philosophy is full: the more you let go, the more things begin to work. It’s very curious, we tend to think that unless we interfere, nothing will happen. That unless we push and strive, life will fall apart. But that’s not how nature works: your heart beats without your permission, your lungs breathe without your command, the stars move, the tide turns, the tree grows, not because someone is managing them, but because they are allowed to be. And the Tao, the total course of nature, moves just the same.
The moment you stop trying to manage the river, you begin to flow with it. And it’s not passivity, it’s participation. You begin to feel as if you are dancing with the universe, rather than dragging it behind you. Because you were never outside it.
You are not pushing the flow, you are the flow.
– Alan Watts –
Everything is a Pattern of Energy: An Energy Experience
31 August 2025 @ 8:00 PM UK Time
What emerged for you when you read this article? Were you triggered? Did you feel any resistance?
Work energetically with it. Click the link below to register for this session:
Image created with Leonardo
About Giancarlo Serra
Giancarlo is a Gokuikaiden (Reiki Master) of the Japanese Lineage, as well as a Reiki Master of Western Lineages of Reiki. He trained with Hiroshi Doi in Osaka, Japan. Read More
