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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.

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
Men
Confuses
Definition
Definitions
Universal
Unique
Longer
Given
Others

More quotes by Alan Watts

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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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The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.
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Every explicit duality is an implicit unity.
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I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution , where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment... only to vanish forever.
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Change is an illusion because we're always at the place where any future can take us.
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No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.
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You find out that the universe is a system that creeps up on itself and says 'Boo' and then laughs at itself for jumping.
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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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Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be
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In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
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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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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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Your soul isn't in your body your body is in your soul!
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You must not be afraid of playing wrong notes. Just forget it, play it wrong! But play!
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When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.
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This is what Zen means by being detached—not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked, and through whom the experiences of the world pass like the reflections of birds flying over water.
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A paradox is only a truth standing on its head to attract attention.
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But we must not suffer over the suffering.
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To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.
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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
Alan Watts