Quote

We have allowed brain thinking to develop and dominate our lives. As a consequence, we are at war within ourselves. The brain desiring things which the body does not want, and the body desiring things which the brain does not allow the brain giving directions which the body will not follow, and the body giving impulses which the brain cannot

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
Giving
Follow
Impulses
Things
Brain
Dominate
Thinking
Within
Directions
Lives
Impulse
War
Allowed
Cannot
Develop
Doe
Consequence
Body
Allow
Desiring

More quotes by Alan Watts

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The sound of the rain needs no translation. In music one doesn't make the end of the composition the point of the composition... Same way in dancing, you don't aim at one particular spot in the room... The whole point of dancing is the dance.
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One is a great deal less anxious if one feels perfectly free to be anxious, and the same may be said of guilt.
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I too realize that the less I preach the more likely I am to be heard.
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You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are.
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I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, You shall be my disciple.I looked at him and said, Who was Buddha's teacher? He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover.
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What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.
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The destination of life is this eternal moment.
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Society is our extended mind and body.
Alan Watts
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Insecurity is the result of trying to be secure.
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Although profoundly inconsequential, the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work.
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Altough we all realize that monotony is boring, almost every form of industrial work- banking, accounting, mass-producing, service- is monotonous, and most people are paid for simply putting up with monotony
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If we live, we live if we die, we die if we suffer, we suffer if we are terrified, we are terrified. There is no problem about it.
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We know that from time to time there arise among human beings people who seem to exude love as naturally as the sun gives out heat.
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A person who thinks too much only ever thinks about his thoughts
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For me, being literate and articulate is a form of judo, of overcoming the [system] by its own method.
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Naturally, for a person who finds his identity in something other than his full organism is less than half a man. He is cut off from complete participation in nature. Instead of being a body, he 'has' a body. Instead of living and loving he 'has' instincts for survival and copulation.
Alan Watts
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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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...for thousands of years human history has been a magnificently futile conflict, a wonderfully staged panorama of triumphs and tragedies based on the resolute taboo against admitting that black goes with white.
Alan Watts
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You can't figure out the Universe, especially if you're using figures to figure it.
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What keeps us from happiness is our inability to fully inhabit the present
Alan Watts