You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
ALAN WATTSYou and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
ALAN WATTSMan suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
ALAN WATTSThe more we try to live in the world of words, the more we feel isolated and alone, the more all the joy and liveliness of things is exchanged for mere certainty and security.
ALAN WATTSThe present is always changing the past.
ALAN WATTSSociety is our extended mind and body.
ALAN WATTSWe must abandon completely the notion of blaming the past for any kind of situation we’re in and reverse our thinking and see that the past always flows back form the present.
ALAN WATTSWhen we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
ALAN WATTSEvery intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.
ALAN WATTSA 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 WATTSNo work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
ALAN WATTSThe frightened mind that runs away from everyday terrors meets the seeking mind that wants a better world.
ALAN WATTSThe morning glory which blooms for an hour differs not at heart from the giant pine, which lives for a thousand years.
ALAN WATTSProblems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
ALAN WATTSThe only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
ALAN WATTSOnly doubtful truths need defense.
ALAN WATTSIf 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
ALAN WATTS