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The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.

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
Meaning
Alive
Simple
Inspirational
Life
Plain
Obvious

More quotes by Alan Watts

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Think about a piece of music - some great symphony - we don't expect it to get better as it develops, or that its whole purpose is to reach the final crescendo. The joy is found in listening to the music in each moment.
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I am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag, whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands: the United States as a territory, as a people, and as a biological manifestation. That is an example of our perennial confusion of symbols with realities.
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Real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.
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That society is strong and viable which recognizes its own provisionality.
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LSD is simply an exploratory instrument like a microscope or telescope, except this one is inside of you instead of outside of you.
Alan Watts
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I owe my solitude to other people.
Alan Watts
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Any systems approaching perfect self-control also approaches perfect self-frustration.
Alan Watts
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Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
Alan Watts
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When we look for things there is nothing but mind, and when we look for mind there is nothing but things.
Alan Watts
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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.
Alan Watts
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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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Zen... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
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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It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God, the Vishnu lila, lila meaning play. And they look upon the whole manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of dance — lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt
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There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know.
Alan Watts
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But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.
Alan Watts
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Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by somekind of cosmic lawgiver.
Alan Watts
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Everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality.
Alan Watts
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Do you see yourself as a victim of the world, or do you see yourself as the world?
Alan Watts
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Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.
Alan Watts