Quote

Parts exist only for purposes of figuring and describing, and as we figure the world out we become confused if we do not remember this all the time.

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
Figure
Figures
Exist
Figuring
Purpose
Describing
Become
Purposes
Remember
Confused
Time
Parts
World
Inspiring

More quotes by Alan Watts

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The world is a marvelous system of wiggles.
Alan Watts
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Perhaps there is no other knowing than the mere competence of the act. If at the heart of one's being, there is no self to which one ought to be true, then sincerity is simply nerve it lies in the unabashed vigor of the pretense. But pretense is only pretense when it is assumed that the act is not true to the agent. Find the agent.
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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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You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
Alan Watts
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The real you is not a puppet that life pushes around, the real deep down you is the whole universe.
Alan Watts
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The mind's the standard of the man.
Alan Watts
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That society is strong and viable which recognizes its own provisionality.
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You will begin to realize that if you contemplate long enough on the leaf of the flower, that it involves the whole universe.
Alan Watts
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One is a great deal less anxious if one feels perfectly free to be anxious, and the same may be said of guilt.
Alan Watts
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The destination of life is this eternal moment.
Alan Watts
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We are sick with fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin.
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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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Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up... now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.
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Everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality.
Alan Watts
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Meditation is the way in which we come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe, and what that requires is that we shut up.
Alan Watts
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Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.
Alan Watts
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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.
Alan Watts
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Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
Alan Watts
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Like love, the light or guidance of truth that influences us exists only in living form, not in principles or rules or expectations or advice, however widely circulated
Alan Watts
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...[W]ords can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.
Alan Watts