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The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings, the past and the future are not as real, but rather more real than the present.

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
Life
Present
Rather
Future
Past
Power
Expectations
Human
Beings
Humans
Motivational
Real
Memories

More quotes by Alan Watts

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What is the next step, the practical application? —I will answer that the absolutely vital thing is to consolidate your understanding, to become capable of enjoyment, of living in the present, and of the discipline which this involves. Without this you have nothing to give.
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Imagine a multidimensiona l spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.
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And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.
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Playing a violin is, after all, only scraping a cat's entrails with horsehair.
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The hallucination of being a separate ego will not stand up to biological tests.
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The point is seeing that THIS - the immediate, everyday and present experience - is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe. I believe that if this state of consciousness could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense which passes for the serious business of the world would dissolve in laughter.
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But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
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The role of the Guru is to show the person that he already has what he is looking for.
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You don't need to try to be God, you are! But if you try to be God it means you don't know you are.
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To the Taoist mentality, the aimless, empty life does not suggest anything depressing. On the contrary, it suggests the freedom of clouds and mountain streams, wandering nowhere, of flowers in impenetrable canyons, beautiful for no one to see, and of the ocean surf forever washing the sand, to no end.
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A holy person is someone who is whole who has, as it were, reconciled his opposites.
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In Zen, poverty is voluntary, and considered not really as poverty so much as simplicity, freedom, unclutteredness.
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Nothing fails like success—because the self-imposed task of our society and all its members is a contradiction: to force things to happen which are acceptable only when they happen without force.
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As a human being it is just my nature to enjoy and share philosophy. I do this in the same way that some birds are eagles and some doves, some flowers lilies and some roses.
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Lack of love for the vegetative, subtle, cthonic, pagan, and sexy aspect of the world means death.
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Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.
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The question is not what I should do in the future to get it, but rather, what am I presently doing that prevents me from realizing it right now?
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Just as money is not real, consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures is like eating paper currency.
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When you look out of your eyes at nature happening out there...You're looking at you.
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The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence of all things and events--that the world beyond the skin is actually an extension of our own bodies--and will end in destroying the very environment from which we emerge and upon which our whole life depends.
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