Quote

The animal tends to eat with his stomach, and the man with his brain. When the animal's stomach is full, he stops eating, but the man is never sure when to stop. When he has eaten as much as his belly can take, he still feels empty, he still feels an urge for further gratification.

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
Much
Animal
Stops
Never
Stop
Tends
Men
Brain
Urges
Sure
Emptiness
Stills
Stomach
Eaten
Still
Empty
Gratification
Take
Eating
Urge
Feels
Full
Belly

More quotes by Alan Watts

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Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent...this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering.
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To remain caught up in ideas and words about Zen is, as the old masters say, to stink of Zen.
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To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
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We are not clear as to the role in life of these chemicals nor are we clear as to the role of the physician. You know, of course, that in ancient times there was no clear distinction between priest and physician.
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What we need to realize is that there can be, shall we say, a movement, a stirring among people, which can be organically designed instead of politically designed.
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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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How did you know you're alive, unless you'd once been dead?
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So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.
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In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water, it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.
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The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music also, it is fulfilled in each moment of its course. You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord, and if the meaning of things were simply in ends, composers would write nothing but finales.
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The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion.
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What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?
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Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
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If we are unduly absorbed in improving our lives we may forget altogether to live them.
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Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.
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Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
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This-the immediate, everyday, and present experience-is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe.
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Our view of reality is like a chart of the sea - the truer it is, the less likely we will become lost.
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It's time to question a job or career move when it seems like most energy is devoted to making things appear other than what they really are.
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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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