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For a decision-the freest of my actions just happens like hiccups inside me or like a bird singing outside me.

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
Outside
Inside
Decision
Action
Hiccups
Happens
Freest
Like
Actions
Bird
Singing

More quotes by Alan Watts

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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.
Alan Watts
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Your body does not eliminate poisons by knowing their names. To try to control fear or depression or boredom by calling them names is to resort to superstition of trust in curses and invocations. It is so easy to see why this does not work. Obviously, we try to know, name, and define fear in order to make it “objective,” that is, separate from “I.
Alan Watts
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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.
Alan Watts
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Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.
Alan Watts
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What we have to discover is that there is no safety, that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine that we have found it, we don’t like it.
Alan Watts
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Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are.
Alan Watts
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Basically, there is simply nothing to worry about, because you yourself are the eternal energy of the universe.
Alan Watts
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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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You are the universe experiencing itself.
Alan Watts
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The biggest ego trip is getting rid of your ego, and of course the joke of it all is that your ego does not exist.
Alan Watts
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We see what we believe rather than what we see.
Alan Watts
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The 'you' who you think you are does not exist.
Alan Watts
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And the more you become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it - the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.
Alan Watts
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...[W]ords can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.
Alan Watts
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Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
Alan Watts
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Don't hurry anything. Don't worry about the future. Don't worry about what progress you're making. Just be entirely content to be aware of what is.
Alan Watts
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Any systems approaching perfect self-control also approaches perfect self-frustration.
Alan Watts
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Playing a violin is, after all, only scraping a cat's entrails with horsehair.
Alan Watts
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If you love a person, you say to that person, Look, I love you, whatever that may be. I've seen quite a bit of it and I know there's lots that I haven't seen, but still it's you and I want you to be what you want to be. And I won't be happy if I've got you in a cage. You'd be a bird without song.
Alan Watts
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Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them.
Alan Watts