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Only words and conventions can isolate us from the entirely undefinable something which is everything.

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
Inspiring
Words
Everything
Something
Undefinable
Isolate
Conventions
Entirely

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The problem is to overcome the ingrained disbelief in the power of winning nature by love, in the gentle (ju) way (do) of turning with the skid, of controlling ourselves by cooperating with ourselves.
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For if you know what you want, and will be content with it, you can be trusted. But if you do not know, your desires are limitless and no one can tell how to deal with you. Nothing satisfies an individual incapable of enjoyment.
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The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
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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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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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But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is. If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself.
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People often say to me, 'I understand what you are talking about intellectually, but I don't really feel it, I don't realize it,' and I am apt to reply, 'I wonder whether you do understand it intellectually, because if you did you would also feel it.'
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Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be
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To go out of your mind at least once a day is tremendously important. By going out of your mind, you come to your senses.
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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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The psychotherapist ... tries to help the individual to be himself and to go it alone without giving unnecessary offense to his community, to be in the world (of social convention) but not of the world.
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The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
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For me, being literate and articulate is a form of judo, of overcoming the [system] by its own method.
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The self-styled practical man of affairs who pooh-poohs philosophy as a lot of windy notions is himself a pragmatist or a positivist, and a bad one at that, since he has given no thought to his position.
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Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.
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If you want to stay in a state of illusion, stay in it. But you can always wake up.
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You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
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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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A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.
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Many people think that the Bible is the authentic word of God and they worship the Bible, making it an idol.
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