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What we have to discover is that there is no safety, that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine that we have found it, we don’t like it.

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
Imagine
Found
Like
Discover
Safety
Seeking
Painful

More quotes by Alan Watts

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I too realize that the less I preach the more likely I am to be heard.
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Life and Reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you accord them to all others. They do not belong to particular persons any more than the sun, moon and stars.
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Change is an illusion because we're always at the place where any future can take us.
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Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.
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Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
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It is the seeker, who understands there is more than what meets the eye, who is not afraid and makes the choice to go into the unknown. The process of awaking has begun, the discovery is underway.
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... preliminary accounting, banking and surveying (known as arithmetic, algebra and geometry).
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The 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. On the other hand, the more we are forced to admit that we actually live in the real world, the more we feel ignorant, uncertain, and insecure about everything.
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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 real you is not a puppet that life pushes around, the real deep down you is the whole universe.
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Just as the ocean is waving so each one of us is a waving of the whole cosmos, the entire works, all there is.
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You know that if you get in the water and have nothing to hold on to, but try to behave as you would on dry land, you will drown. But if, on the other hand, you trust yourself to the water and let go, you will float. And this is exactly the situation of faith.
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For there is never anything but the present, and if one cannot live there, one cannot live anywhere.
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We usually don't look. We overlook.
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Time is a social institution and not a physical reality. There is no such thing as time in the natural world - the world of stars and waters, clouds, mountains and living organisms. There is such a thing as rhythm - rhythm of tides, rhythm of biological processes... There is rhythm and there is motion. Time is a way of measuring motion.
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If you insist on being determined by the past that's your game, but the fact of the matter is it all starts right now.
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Truly great companies are built on ideals, not just deals.
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Faith is, above all, openness an act of trust in the unknown.
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If you study the writings of the mystics, you will always find things in them that appear to be paradoxes, as in Zen, particularly.
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A philosopher is a sort of intellectual yokel who gawks at things that sensible people take for granted.
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