Quote

If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.

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
Point
Ghosts
Pain
Pains
Born
Unbelievable
Fear
Ghost
Comes
Surprise
Death
Forgotten
Transience
Take
Afraid
Hitherto
Never
Dies
Dissolution

More quotes by Alan Watts

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Duality is always secretly unity.
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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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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There is nothing wrong with meditating just to meditate, in the same way that you listen to music just for the music. If you go to concerts to get culture or to improve your mind, you will sit there as deaf as a doorpost.
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And people get all fouled up because they want the world to have meaning as if it were words... As if you had a meaning, as if you were a mere word, as if you were something that could be looked up in a dictionary. You are meaning.
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For we have never actually understood the revolutionary sense beneath them – the incredible truth that what religion calls the vision of God is found in giving up any belief in the idea of God.
Alan Watts
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Without birth and death, and without the perpetual transmutation of all the forms of life, the world would be static, rhythm-less, undancing, mummified.
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The whole point of Zen is to suspend the rules we have superimposed on things and to see the world as it is
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You know that if you get in the water and have nothing to hold on to, but try to behave as you would on dry land, you will drown. But if, on the other hand, you trust yourself to the water and let go, you will float. And this is exactly the situation of faith.
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Western religions are more concerned with behavior, doctrine, and belief than with any transformation of the way in which we are aware of ourselves and our world.
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You can't figure out the Universe, especially if you're using figures to figure it.
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...[W]ords can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.
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The sound of the rain needs no translation.
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We all need to go out of our minds at least once a day. When we go out of our minds we quickly come to our senses.
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You will begin to realize that if you contemplate long enough on the leaf of the flower, that it involves the whole universe.
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How could you say the best form of government is a republic if you think the universe is a monarchy?
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However much I may be impressed by the difference between a star and the dark space around it, I must not forget that I can see the two only in relation to each other, and that this relation is inseparable.
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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.
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...for since there is no real 'way' to sartori, the way you are following makes very little difference.
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To feel that life is meaningless unless “I” can be permanent is like having fallen desperately in love with an inch.
Alan Watts