“What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon 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. You a…”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy
“To put is still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy
“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.”— Alan Watts, amazon.com
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy, Faith
“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy
“There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: The Power of Now, Time, Now, This Moment
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Change, Move With It, 107 Of The Greatest Single Sentences In Literature, Perfect Sentences
“For the animal to be happy it is enough that this moment be enjoyable. But man is hardly satisfied with this at all. He is much more concerned to have enjoyable memories and expectations — especially the latter. With these assured, he can put up with an extremely miserable present. Without this assu…”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Happiness, Happy, Satisfaction
“Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would 'lief' or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, w…”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Beliefs, Believe, Faith, Science, Religion
“Paradox as it may seem, we likewise find life meaningful only when we have seen that it is without purpose, and know the 'mystery of the universe' only when we are convinced that we know nothing about it at all.”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Paradox, Universe, Knowing Nothing, You Know Nothing
“The common error of ordinary religious practice is to mistake the symbol for the reality, to look at the finger pointing the way and then to suck it for comfort rather than follow it.”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Religion, Reality
“If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish into the abyss of death.”— Alan W. Watts, amazon.comTagged: Happiness, Future
“The desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: Philosophy, Psychology, Emotional Intelligence
“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to liv…”— Alan Watts, amazon.comTagged: Philosophy, Psychology, The Person You'll Become, Emotional Intelligence, Presence