In the Company of Gurus: Reflections at Dawn - For my book.

 Title: In the Company of Gurus: Reflections at Dawn

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
— Alan Watts

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
— Albert Einstein

It’s 5:30 AM. The world is quiet, the city still sleeping, and I sit in silence listening to Alan Watts' voice through the Tragedy and Hope YouTube series. This is how I often begin my mornings when I can—grounded in the familiar cadence of wisdom.

Ever since I stumbled upon The Way of Zen in the late seventies while attending the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay (UWGB), Alan Watts has remained a spiritual companion of sorts. Alongside him, J. Krishnamurti, whom I discovered around the same time, has guided me inward. Their thoughts changed the way I saw life, and nudged me toward paths less traveled—routes many avoid, but which I have chosen time and again.

Just as Marvel and DC evolved from childhood comics into massive cinematic epics, the presence of Watts and Krishnamurti has grown with me, becoming spiritual sentinels through the years—especially during moments when I found myself unraveling in confusion or doubt. I don’t hold them as infallible or beyond critique. Like any thoughtful student, I take their teachings as premises, not conclusions. They point, I walk.

I’d like to believe I am capable of forming my own conclusions, but I return to their ideas not for answers but for reminders—for clarity. They are to me what Hokusai and Rembrandt are when I face a creative block: not solutions, but openings. A mirror to my own deeper knowing.

“No man is an island.” It’s a phrase I carry like a koan. We are each other’s reflections. Our beliefs, our appearances, our practices—they ripple across the surface of a shared ocean. If we would only pause long enough, we might see: we are the Universe expressing itself, not in some abstract cosmic sense, but in the intimate, fragile unfolding of our being-ness. Right here. Right now.

It’s not always easy to grasp what these two thinkers speak of. Often, their words demand more than intellect—they ask for presence, vulnerability, patience. But for me, there is no better compass. Their teachings have helped me navigate the labyrinth of my mind, especially when shadows grew long.

“Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”
— Alan Watts

I chose the short-life path long ago. And even now, at 75, I still walk it—with every brushstroke, every written word, and every quiet morning I spend in the company of my Gurus.