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There is a peculiar contradiction in trying to be a member of a republic while believing that the universe is a monarchy.

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
Believe
Member
Contradiction
Peculiar
Republic
Believing
Members
Universe
Trying
Monarchy

More quotes by Alan Watts

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But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.
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Do not let the rapidity with which these thoughts can change deceive you into feeling that you think them all at once.
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The life of Zen begins, therefore, in a disillusion with the pursuit of goals which do not really exist the good without the bad, the gratification of a self which is no more than an idea, and the morrow which never comes.
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Where do I begin and end in space? I have relations to the sun and air which are just as vital parts of my existence as my heart.
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We must see that consciousness is neither an isolated soul nor the mere function of a single nervous system, but of that totality of interrelated stars and galaxies which makes a nervous system possible.
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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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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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If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot even trust your mistrust of yourself - so that without this underlying trust in the whole system of nature you are simply paralyzed
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Wars based on principle are far more destructive... the attacker will not destroy that which he is after.
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Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.
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... nets, grids, and other types of calculus.
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To remain stable is to refrain from trying to separate yourself from a pain because you know that you cannot. Running away from fear is fear, fighting pain is pain, trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought. There is no escape.
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Many people think that the Bible is the authentic word of God and they worship the Bible, making it an idol.
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You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
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You are the universe experiencing itself.
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To play so as to be relaxed and refreshed for work is not to play, and no work is well and finely done unless it, too, is a form of play.
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The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity and it is really impossible to tell whether something that happens in it is good or bad. Because you never know what will be the consequences of the misfortune. Or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.
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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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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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What keeps us from happiness is our inability to fully inhabit the present
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