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Alan Watts Quotes - Page 12

All Quotes Acceptance Anxiety Art Attitude Awakening Belief Birth Buddhism Change Chaos Consciousness Culture Curiosity Dance Dancing Darkness Death Desire Effort Ego Energy Enlightenment Environment Expectations Failing Faith Feelings Fighting Freedom Frustration Future Giving God Heart Human Nature Identity Ignorance Imagination Inspirational Inspiring Journey Joy Language Laughter Learning Leaving Letting Go Life Listening Love Lying Meditation Memories Mindfulness Moon Morning Motivational Nature Overcoming Pain Past Philosophy Pleasure Purpose Rain Reality Religion Risk Running Silence Simplicity Skins Sleep Soul Spirituality Suffering Taoism Technology Time Understanding Unity Universe Vision War Water Wisdom Worry Writing

What would you do if money was no object?

What would you do if money was no object?

Objects, Ifs

I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, "You shall be my disciple."I looked at him and said, "Who was Buddha's teacher?" He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover.

Spiritual, Teacher, Laughter

At times almost all of us envy the animals. They suffer and die, but do not seem to make a "problem" of it.

Animal, Envy, Simplicity

Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

I want ... to consort with people whose emotions are not ... cold and standoffish.

People, Want, Emotion

so, the whole idea, you see, is that everything's falling apart, so don't try and stop it. when you're falling off a precipice, it doesn't do you any good to hang onto a rock that's falling with you. see? but everything is doing that. and so, again, this is another case of our completely wasting our energy in trying to prevent the world from falling apart. don't do it. and then you'll be able to do something interesting with the free energy.

Fall, Rocks, Ideas

If my happiness at this moment consists largely in reviewing happy memories and expectations, I am but dimly aware of this present. I shall still be dimly aware of the present when the good things that I have been expecting come to pass. For I shall have formed a habit of looking behind and ahead, making it difficult for me to attend to the here and now. If, then , my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.

Buddhist, Memories, Real

Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

Where do I begin and end in space? I have relations to the sun and air which are just as vital parts of my existence as my heart.

Heart, Air, Space

Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

We are all as much extraordinary phenomena of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars and the form of a galaxy.

Running, Stars, Fire

Alan Watts (2010). “Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation”, p.92, New World Library

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.

Inspiring, Ocean, Way

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

Tree, World, This World

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.8, Souvenir Press

The clash between science and religion has not shown that religion is false and science is true. It has shown that all systems of definition are relative to various purposes, and that none of them actually “grasp” reality.

Reality, Purpose, Definitions

Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendental flower but a field.

Flower, Fields, Transcendental

Alan Watts (2011). “In My Own Way: An Autobiography”, p.169, New World Library

Nothing fails like success—because the self-imposed task of our society and all its members is a contradiction: to force things to happen which are acceptable only when they happen without force.

Self, Tasks, Our Society

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.54, Souvenir Press

Our pleasures are not material pleasures, but symbols of pleasure – attractively packaged but inferior in content.

Inspirational, Pleasure, Materials

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.59, Souvenir Press

Lack of love for the vegetative, subtle, cthonic, pagan, and sexy aspect of the world means death.

Death, Sexy, Mean

Alan W. Watts (2011). “Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal”, p.135, Vintage

If we cling to belief in God, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.

Letting Go, Have Faith, Belief

Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

Black implies white self implies other

Self, White, Black

Alan Watts (2017). “Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide and Seek”, p.16, Sounds True

For every individual is a unique manifestation of the Whole, as every branch is a particular outreaching of the tree. To manifest individuality, every branch must have a sensitive connection with the tree, just as our independently moving and differentiated fingers must have a sensitive connection with the whole body. The point, which can hardly be repeated too often, is that differentiation is not separation.

Moving, Unique, Often Is

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.56, Souvenir Press

If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot even trust your mistrust of yourself - so that without this underlying trust in the whole system of nature you are simply paralyzed

Trust Yourself, Mistrust, Whole

Alan Watts (2010). “Tao: The Watercourse Way”, p.43, Souvenir Press

What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously. A convention is a social convenience, as, for example, money ... but it is absurd to take money too seriously, to confuse it with real wealth ... In somewhat the same way, thoughts, ideas and words are "coins" for real things.

Real, Ideas, Example

The Tao belongs neither to knowing nor not knowing. Knowing is false understanding; not knowing is blind ignorance. If you really understand the Tao beyond doubt, it's like the empty sky. Why drag in right and wrong?

Ignorance, Sky, Knowing

Alan Watts (2010). “Tao: The Watercourse Way”, p.49, Souvenir Press

Life and love generate effort but effort will not generate them.

Life And Love, Effort, And Love

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.53, Souvenir Press

Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social enviornment.

Attitude, Mirrors, People

Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.50, Souvenir Press

I am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag, whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands: the United States as a territory, as a people, and as a biological manifestation. That is an example of our perennial confusion of symbols with realities.

Reality, People, Confusion

"Individual and Society". Audio lecture,

If we are not totally blind, what we are seeking is already here. This is it.

Blind, Seeking, Ifs

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