Quote

We have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that this moment is ordinary. This now moment, in which I'm talking and you're listening, is eternity.

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
Listening
Talking
Moment
Moments
Conned
Somehow
Notion
Eternity
Ordinary

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The fools standpoint is that all social institutions are games. He sees the whole world as game playing. That's why, when people take their games seriously and take on stern and pious expressions, the fool gets the giggles because he knows that it is all a game.
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And it came to pass that in the hands of the ignorant, the words of the Bible were used to beat plowshares into swords
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The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.
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...[W]ords can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.
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What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously. A convention is a social convenience, as, for example, money ... but it is absurd to take money too seriously, to confuse it with real wealth ... In somewhat the same way, thoughts, ideas and words are coins for real thing
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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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For a decision-the freest of my actions just happens like hiccups inside me or like a bird singing outside me.
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If we cling to belief in God, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.
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It takes time for an acorn to turn into an oak, but the oak is already implied in the acorn.
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We usually don't look. We overlook.
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The sound of the rain needs no translation.
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Basically, there is simply nothing to worry about, because you yourself are the eternal energy of the universe.
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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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Only words and conventions can isolate us from the entirely undefinable something which is everything.
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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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If the earth is man's extended body, to be loved and respected as one's own body, those who do no greening of themselves will hardly bring about the greening of America. The idea of 'greening' involves color, flowering, freshness of spring, and, above all, respect for what is organic and vegetative as distinct from the mechanical and metallic.
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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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A living body is not a fixed thing, but a flowing event, like a flame or a whirlpool.
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