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I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, You shall be my disciple.I looked at him and said, Who was Buddha's teacher? He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover.

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
Way
Looked
Handed
Pieces
Buddha
Teacher
Disciple
Shall
Odd
Talking
Master
Moment
Laughter
Clover
Spiritual
Piece
Clovers
Moments
Masters
Burst

More quotes by Alan Watts

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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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A paradox is only a truth standing on its head to attract attention.
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If you belong to an in-group of good, or saved, or elite people, you can only know that you’re in because someone else is out. You cannot live on the right side of the tracks without there being a wrong side of the tracks, so you ought to be grateful to the outside for having the privilege of being on the inside.
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Conscious attention is a designed function of the brain which scans the environment for any trouble making changes. If you identify yourself with your trouble shooter, then naturally you define yourself as being in a perpetual state of anxiety.
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The mundane and the sacred are one and the same.
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Of course, you can’t force your mind to be silent. That would be like trying to smooth ripples in water with a flatiron. Water becomes clear and calm only when left alone.
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To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely one with this universe.
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I would suggest that today, we know about as much concerning the human mind as we knew about the galaxy in 1300.
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And although our bodies are bounded with skin, and we can differentiate between outside and inside, they cannot exist except in a certain kind of natural environment.
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In Hindu philosophy the whole creation is regarded as the Vishnu Lila, the play of Vishnu. Lila means dance or play. Also in Hindu philosophy, they call the world illusion and in Latin the root of the word illusion is ludere, to play.
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Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone.
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Increasingly, the world around us looks as if we hated it.
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When a man no longer confuses himself with the definition of himself that others have given him, he is at once universal and unique.
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To remain caught up in ideas and words about Zen is, as the old masters say, to stink of Zen.
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Self-knowledge leads to wonder, and wonder to curiosity and investigation, so that nothing interests people more than people, even if only one's own person.
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There is a peculiar contradiction in trying to be a member of a republic while believing that the universe is a monarchy.
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There is nothing wrong with meditating just to meditate, in the same way that you listen to music just for the music. If you go to concerts to get culture or to improve your mind, you will sit there as deaf as a doorpost.
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As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.
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But to me nothing - the negative, the empty - is exceedingly powerful.
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There is no way of making a hedge grow like pruning it. There is no way of making sex interesting like repressing it.
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