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The moralist is the person who tells people that they ought to be unselfish, when they still feel like egos, and his efforts are always and invariably futile.

Alan Watts

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Alan Watts
Age: 58 †
Born: 1915
Born: January 6
Died: 1973
Died: November 16
Anglican Priest
Author
Dramaturge
Musician
Philosopher
Theologian
Videographer
Writer
Kent
England
Still
Unselfish
Persons
Invariably
Person
Efforts
Feel
Ego
Feels
Tells
Always
Ought
Moralist
Like
Effort
Egos
People
Stills
Futile

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Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.
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Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with discovering what is good or bad or advantageous, but what is.
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The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
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We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.
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The animal tends to eat with his stomach, and the man with his brain. When the animal's stomach is full, he stops eating, but the man is never sure when to stop. When he has eaten as much as his belly can take, he still feels empty, he still feels an urge for further gratification.
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Cows scream louder than carrots.
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Do you have any control over being conscious? Do you know how you will?
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Hospitals should be arranged in such a way as to make being sick an interesting experience. One learns a great deal sometimes from being sick.
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Buddhism ... is not a culture but a critique of culture, an enduring nonviolent revolution or loyal opposition to the culture in which it is involved.
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The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
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What you do is what the whole universe is doing at the place you call here and now, and you are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing... The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real deep-down you is the whole universe.
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Playing a violin is, after all, only scraping a cat's entrails with horsehair.
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A scholar tries to learn something everyday a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.
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Enlightenment remains unrealized so long as it is considered as a specific state to be attained, and for which there are standards of success.
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Different Chinese philosophers, writing probably in 5-4 centuries B.C., presented some major ideas and a way of life that are nowadays known under the name of Taoism, the way of correspondence between man and the tendency or the course of natural world.
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We are not clear as to the role in life of these chemicals nor are we clear as to the role of the physician. You know, of course, that in ancient times there was no clear distinction between priest and physician.
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If we cling to belief in God, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.
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You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
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