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Alan Wilson Watts

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Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
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But spontaneity is not by any means a blind, disorderly urge, a mere power of caprice. A philosophy restricted to the alternatives of conventional language has no way of conceiving an intelligence which does not work according to plan, according to a one-at-a-time order of thought. Yet the concrete evidence of such an intelligence is right to hand in our own thoughtlessly ordered bodies. For the Tao does not 'know' how it produces the universe just as we do not 'know' how we construct our brains.
From The Way of Zen
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Make a spurious division of one process into two, forget that you have done it, and then puzzle for centuries as to how the two get together.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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Jesus was not the man he was as a result of making Jesus Christ his personal savior.
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when somebody plays music, you listen. you just follow those sounds, and eventually you understand the music. the point can't be explained in words because music is not words, but after listening for a while, you understand the point of it, and that point is the music itself. in exactly the same way, you can listen to all experiences.
From Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
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In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water, it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.
From The Essential Alan Watts
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Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger. The point is only to know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that "I" and all other "things" now present will vanish, until this knowledge compels you to release them - to know it now as surely as if you had just fallen off the rim of the Grand Canyon. Indeed you were kicked off the edge of a precipice when you were born, and it's no help to cling to the rocks falling with you. If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.
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The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
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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.
From The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
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Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so.
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I have always thought that all philosophical debates are ultimately between the partisans of structure and the partisans of "goo.
From The Essential Alan Watts
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Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
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But spontaneity is not by any means a blind, disorderly urge, a mere power of caprice. A philosophy restricted to the alternatives of conventional language has no way of conceiving an intelligence which does not work according to plan, according to a one-at-a-time order of thought. Yet the concrete evidence of such an intelligence is right to hand in our own thoughtlessly ordered bodies. For the Tao does not 'know' how it produces the universe just as we do not 'know' how we construct our brains.
From The Way of Zen
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Make a spurious division of one process into two, forget that you have done it, and then puzzle for centuries as to how the two get together.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Jesus was not the man he was as a result of making Jesus Christ his personal savior.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
when somebody plays music, you listen. you just follow those sounds, and eventually you understand the music. the point can't be explained in words because music is not words, but after listening for a while, you understand the point of it, and that point is the music itself. in exactly the same way, you can listen to all experiences.
From Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
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In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water, it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.
From The Essential Alan Watts
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Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger. The point is only to know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that "I" and all other "things" now present will vanish, until this knowledge compels you to release them - to know it now as surely as if you had just fallen off the rim of the Grand Canyon. Indeed you were kicked off the edge of a precipice when you were born, and it's no help to cling to the rocks falling with you. If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
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Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have always thought that all philosophical debates are ultimately between the partisans of structure and the partisans of "goo.
From The Essential Alan Watts
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Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
But spontaneity is not by any means a blind, disorderly urge, a mere power of caprice. A philosophy restricted to the alternatives of conventional language has no way of conceiving an intelligence which does not work according to plan, according to a one-at-a-time order of thought. Yet the concrete evidence of such an intelligence is right to hand in our own thoughtlessly ordered bodies. For the Tao does not 'know' how it produces the universe just as we do not 'know' how we construct our brains.
From The Way of Zen
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Make a spurious division of one process into two, forget that you have done it, and then puzzle for centuries as to how the two get together.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Jesus was not the man he was as a result of making Jesus Christ his personal savior.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
when somebody plays music, you listen. you just follow those sounds, and eventually you understand the music. the point can't be explained in words because music is not words, but after listening for a while, you understand the point of it, and that point is the music itself. in exactly the same way, you can listen to all experiences.
From Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
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In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water, it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.
From The Essential Alan Watts
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger. The point is only to know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that "I" and all other "things" now present will vanish, until this knowledge compels you to release them - to know it now as surely as if you had just fallen off the rim of the Grand Canyon. Indeed you were kicked off the edge of a precipice when you were born, and it's no help to cling to the rocks falling with you. If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
From The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have always thought that all philosophical debates are ultimately between the partisans of structure and the partisans of "goo.
From The Essential Alan Watts
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote