A Playing of Energy

Watch. Listen. Then Act.

“Watch, listen, and then act, they told us. This is the way to live.”
— Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf nor Dog

Before you go any further, I want you to do something radical.

Pause.

In 2026, that might be the most rebellious act available to you.

In a world engineered to fracture your attention into a thousand glittering fragments, I am asking you to reclaim it.

Please play the Alan Watts video below.

But do it properly.

Alone.
Undisturbed.
Notifications off.
Headphones on.

No scrolling.
No “just checking” messages.
No half-watching while answering emails.

If you are viewing this on your phone while walking, multitasking, or grazing on three other apps at the same time — you are missing the point entirely.

And I do not say that lightly.

Your life is at stake.

Not in the dramatic, headline-grabbing way.
In the quiet way.

The way attention slowly erodes.
The way presence dissolves.
The way a human being forgets how to fully inhabit their own existence.

My mother used to tell me:
“Do the right thing the right way.”

She didn’t say, “Do it quickly.”
She didn’t say, “Do it efficiently.”
She didn’t say, “Do it while checking six other things.”

She said: Do it the right way.

That sentence became a standard in my life.
Later, it became the culture across all of my companies.

Because how you do one thing is how you do everything.

If you cannot give 15 undivided minutes to a message that could alter how you see reality, how will you give full presence to your partner?
To your children?
To your own intuition?

Transformation does not happen in fragments.
It happens in focus.

So here is your first practice in The Transformation Experience:

Create a container.

Choose the right environment.
Choose the right state.
Choose the right way.

Then press play.

Watch.
Listen.
And only then — act.

I’ll be right here when you return.

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“You Are It.”

This clip is from Alan Watts’ lecture, You Are It.

Think of it as a recalibration tool.

Not motivation.
Not hype.
Calibration.

On this journey, you’ll need that from time to time.

When you set an awe-inspiring Intention — and you will — something interesting happens. You declare the destination… and then you stop micromanaging the route.

You allow “life” to fill in the details.

And life, being efficient and slightly mischievous, begins rearranging things.

Before momentum comes alignment.
Before alignment comes unraveling.

There are threads to untangle.
Old assumptions to dissolve.
Outdated identities to retire.
Energy knots to loosen.

That unraveling phase can feel… discombobulating.

One day you feel expansive and clear.
The next, you feel like the universe misplaced your instruction manual.

One step forward. Two steps back.

Good.

That usually means something real is happening.

At those moments, it helps to listen to Alan Watts. Not because he gives you answers, but because he reminds you of scale. Of perspective. Of who — and what — you actually are.

Now, you’ll notice I use the word “life.”

I do that deliberately.

Some call it God.
Some call it Source.
Some call it chi, quantum field, divine intelligence, higher self, nervous system regulation, or simply biology.

Labels don’t interest me nearly as much as function.

There is a lifeforce animating you. That is undeniable. What you call it is your business.

So I use “life.” It keeps us out of semantic debates and inside the experience.

Here’s something else to consider.

You are exactly where you are right now as the cumulative result of the thoughts and words you have emitted since you arrived here.

Thoughts are energy.
Words are energy.
Repeated energy forms patterns.

Those patterns create your outer energetic field — your lived reality.

Over time, that field can accumulate knots. Old narratives. Protective strategies. Limiting beliefs disguised as personality traits.

Before you accelerate, those knots often need loosening.

That is the “two steps back” sensation.

It is not failure.
It is clearing.

So when things feel temporarily chaotic…
When the old structure is dissolving but the new one hasn’t stabilized…
When you feel slightly untethered…

Press play.

Let Watts remind you:

You are not a small, separate thing trying to survive the universe.

You are the universe… happening.

Listen.

Remember.

Then continue.

Momentum is coming.

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The Christmas Lights Problem

The visual I use for this entire experience comes from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

You know the scene.

Dad hands his son the largest, most catastrophic knot of Christmas lights ever created and says, with confidence bordering on delusion:

“Unravel that.”

That’s us.

Some people have spent decades tangling their internal wiring — beliefs, reactions, identities, emotional habits — into something resembling psychological quicksand.

Then they arrive here and say:

“I’m ready. Let’s go. How long will this take?”

Life smiles politely.

Because before momentum comes… detangling.

“Life” — and we’ll continue to use that neutral term — has to undo some knots before you can run freely.

And that takes patience.

Not forever.
But longer than your dopamine-trained, same-day-delivery brain might prefer.

A little patience goes a very long way.

Why Alan Watts Helps

During that untangling phase, it helps to have a steady voice in your ear.

Alan Watts is one of mine.

Not because he tells you what to do — but because he reminds you what you are.

I recommend listening to this video often. And others of his lectures. Many are freely available.

And no — I am not giving you a direct link.

Not because I’m being difficult.

Because I’m training you.

Soon we’ll talk about a fascinating cluster of neurons in your brainstem called the Reticular Activating System — the RAS.

For now, here’s what you need to know:

Your RAS filters reality.

It notices what you consistently pay attention to…
And then it helps you see more of that.

If you passively consume whatever is handed to you by an algorithm, your RAS gets programmed by accident.

If you deliberately seek something out — type it in, search for it, choose it — your RAS takes notes.

It says:
“Ah. This matters.”

And then suddenly, that topic appears everywhere.

Search engines, used consciously, are one of the simplest modern tools for reprogramming your perceptual field.

Intriguing, eh?

More on that later.

For now:
If you like Alan Watts… go look for him.

Let your RAS register the signal.

Then watch how often he “randomly” shows up in your life.

Energy Is Playing With You… Or You’re Playing With It

We begin this journey of transformation by understanding what we are made of.

Most people let energy play with them.

Which produces random-looking outcomes.

Emotional reactions.
Impulse decisions.
Repeating patterns.
The same argument in different clothing.

When you understand the energetic nature of reality, randomness decreases.

You start playing the game consciously.

You realize your thoughts are energy.
Your words are energy.
Your attention is energy.

And energy organizes.

Once you see that, something powerful happens:

You pause.

You observe a thought instead of obeying it.
You notice a word forming and choose a better one.
You feel a reaction rising and select a different response.

That is you learning to play with energy.

Life, at its core, is simply energy playing with itself.

Simple?

Yes.

Easy?

Only with practice and discipline.

The “Metaphysical” Conversation

At this point, some people get uncomfortable.

“Is this metaphysics?”

Twenty years ago, that question carried tension.

In 2026, it mostly carries outdated assumptions.

Quantum physics, particle physics, and cosmology have made something very clear:

What appears solid… isn’t.

What appears continuous… flickers.

What appears separate… isn’t quite.

The wall between science and mysticism has thinned dramatically.

What ancient sages described intuitively is now being mapped mathematically.

Alan Watts said things decades ago that sounded poetic then — and scientifically reasonable now.

He used phrases like:

“One suchness.”
“It comes and goes. On and off. Here you are, here you aren’t.”
“All life is a magnificent illusion — a playing of energy.”

Watts arrived at this through studying Eastern and Western wisdom traditions.

Modern physics arrived there through particle accelerators.

I suspect the sages are amused that the scientists have finally caught up.

On. Off. On. Off.

At the subatomic level, particles flicker in and out of measurable existence at inconceivable speeds.

Energy states oscillate.
Fields fluctuate.
Probability waves collapse and reform.

Your body — which feels solid — is an orchestration of these micro-events happening at speeds your brain cannot perceive.

Think of an old film reel.

Thousands of still frames flash so quickly that your brain experiences motion.

In reality, it’s stillness… switching.

On.
Off.
On.
Off.

Not in neat Christmas-tree synchronization — that would be visually catastrophic — but in dynamic, incomprehensibly fast patterns.

What you experience as solidity is stability of pattern.

What you experience as identity is continuity of narrative.

What you experience as “me” is energy organized in a particular way — for now.

When that sinks in — not intellectually, but viscerally — something shifts.

You stop feeling like a victim of circumstance.

You start feeling like a participant in orchestration.

And that’s when the real fun begins.

Now…

Back to those Christmas lights.

Unravel patiently.

You’re not fixing yourself.

You’re freeing the current.

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Here. Not Here.

When you add it all together, something extraordinary emerges:

In every second of your life, you are here… and not here.

Physical… and not physical.

Stable… and flickering.

At the quantum level, the particles and fields that compose what you call “your body” are fluctuating at rates so extreme the numbers become meaningless to the everyday mind. Not millions. Not billions. Numbers so large they stop behaving like numbers and start behaving like poetry.

If every particle synchronized its fluctuation at once, you wouldn’t shimmer.

You would vanish.

Fortunately, they don’t.

The orchestration is staggered, dynamic, interwoven — which gives you the lived experience of continuity.

But continuity is not solidity.

It is pattern stability.

Alan Watts described this beautifully:

“That in this universe, there is one great energy, and we have no name for it… but according to Buddhist philosophy, all this universe is one ‘dadada.’ That means ‘ten thousand functions, ten thousand things, one suchness,’ and we’re all one suchness.”

One suchness.

That may be my favorite metaphysical description of what we are made of.

And from a modern scientific perspective?

He was astonishingly accurate.

Everything — you, me, your coffee cup, your competitors, your doubts, your ambitions — is an expression of the same underlying field activity.

Science calls it energy.

Which is convenient.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

Energy Doesn’t “Exist”

Energy isn’t a thing you can hold.

It isn’t a substance.

It’s a concept.

A measurement framework.

In physics, “energy” is a way of accounting for change within a system.

When something changes — moves, heats, accelerates, transforms — we describe the capacity for that change using the word energy.

It’s a bookkeeping system for transformation.

Your car battery contains chemical potential energy.
That determines how far you can drive.

Your financial reserves determine optionality.
Money behaves like stored potential.

Your thoughts carry intensity.
Emotion amplifies that intensity.

Different system. Same principle: capacity for change.

And here is where it becomes deeply personal.

You influence the system.

You influence the amplitude of your thoughts.
You influence the emotional charge behind your words.
You influence what patterns stabilize.

You are not just inside the energy.

You are participating in its organization.

The Three Practical Concepts

In physics, we simplify change into three related ideas:

Forces – what causes change in a system.
Momentum – the continuation of that change once initiated.
Energy – how much change is occurring or can occur.

This may sound abstract.

It is not.

If you apply force consistently in a direction, you generate momentum.

If momentum stabilizes, you experience flow.

Flow is simply sustained, organized change.

And the amount of flow determines the size, shape, and texture of the outcome.

Small, inconsistent forces → erratic results.
Clear, sustained forces → compounding momentum.
Compounding momentum → outcomes that feel “inevitable.”

Most people attempt to change results without understanding forces.

They want different outcomes while applying the same inputs.

Transformation works differently.

You alter the forces — thoughts, language, attention, reaction patterns.
That alters the energy profile of the system.
That generates new momentum.
That creates new outcomes.

Not magically.

Mechanically.

Beautifully.

Why This Matters

On the surface, this may feel like interesting theory.

It is not.

It is operational knowledge.

If everything is fundamentally organized change — if everything is “one suchness” expressing as ten thousand forms — then your life is not a fixed object.

It is a dynamic process.

And processes can be redirected.

You don’t control the entire universe.

But you absolutely influence the forces you apply within your own system.

Change the forces.
Momentum shifts.
Flow emerges.
Outcomes reorganize.

Simple?

Yes.

Casual?

Never.

This is where discipline becomes freedom.

And this is where we begin to consciously play with energy — instead of being unconsciously played by it.

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Homework: Contemplate the Suchness

Whether this is something you’ve always sensed…
Or something you’re encountering for the first time…

The realization that everything is energy — which means everything is in constant change — and that all of it is one “suchness,” one great dadada… is not a small idea.

It is not an intellectual upgrade.

It is a perceptual shift.

Over the years, many people have written to me after absorbing this one concept.

They tell me it quietly rearranged their world.

One man said he could no longer casually kill a spider.

A woman told me she suddenly felt drawn to trees — not as scenery, but as companions.

Several have said that animals behave differently around them. Calmer. Less defensive. More curious.

Interesting, isn’t it?

If everything is one suchness — not poetically, but literally — then the sense of separation begins to soften.

And when separation softens, something else shifts.

Fear loosens.
Defensiveness lowers.
Control relaxes.

Is it possible that by contemplating oneness, your internal “frequency” shifts from isolation to inclusion?

From contraction to openness?

From vigilance to trust?

We’ll speak more later about what frequency really means in practical terms — but for now, just observe.

When you genuinely consider that you are not a disconnected object in a hostile universe, but an expression of the same field animating everything…

What happens inside you?

This is not a question to answer quickly.

This is a question to sit with.

So here is your homework.

Find a quiet place.

A chair you like.
A corner that feels contained.
No notifications.
No performance.
No need to “figure it out.”

Give yourself thirty uninterrupted minutes.

Contemplate your place in the universe — if everything truly is one great dadada.

Not as philosophy.

As lived reality.

If the same underlying “suchness” is expressing as you…
As the air…
As the trees…
As the person you struggle with…
As the spider…

How does that change how you move?

How does it change how you speak?

How does it change how you treat yourself?

And most importantly:

How does it feel to be part of one great dadada?

Don’t analyze too quickly.

Notice.

This is where transformation stops being theory…
And starts becoming experience.

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