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The real Zen of the old Chinese masters was wu-shih, or no fuss.

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
Real
Fuss
Chinese
Masters

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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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Yet again, the more you strive for some kind of perfection or mastery—in morals, in art or in spirituality—the more you see that you are playing a rarified and lofty form of the old ego-game, and that your attainment of any height is apparent to yourself and to others only by contrast with someone else's depth or failure.
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Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.
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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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Where does my fist go when I open up my hand? Where does my lap go when I stand up?
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Buddhism ... is not a culture but a critique of culture, an enduring nonviolent revolution or loyal opposition to the culture in which it is involved.
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The source of all light is in the eye.
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this present moment never comes to be and it never ceases to be, it is simply our minds that construct the continuity of thoughts we call time. In the present moment is nirvana.
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To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely one with this universe.
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A philosopher is a sort of intellectual yokel who gawks at things that sensible people take for granted.
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The morning glory which blooms for an hour differs not at heart from a giant pine that lives for a thousand years.
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Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself.
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No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
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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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The question is not what I should do in the future to get it, but rather, what am I presently doing that prevents me from realizing it right now?
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And although our bodies are bounded with skin, and we can differentiate between outside and inside, they cannot exist except in a certain kind of natural environment.
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I too realize that the less I preach the more likely I am to be heard.
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The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.
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The Tao belongs neither to knowing nor not knowing. Knowing is false understanding not knowing is blind ignorance. If you really understand the Tao beyond doubt, it's like the empty sky. Why drag in right and wrong?
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Make a spurious division of one process into two, forget that you have done it, and then puzzle for centuries as to how the two get together.
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