Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Alan WattsTrying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
Alan WattsI have suggested that behind almost all myth lies the mono-plot of the game of hide-and-seek.
Alan WattsTo 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.
Alan WattsThis is the real secret of life to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now . And instead of calling it work , realize it is play.
Alan WattsReligion is always falling apart.
Alan WattsEgo is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself. Just as the word " water " is a noise that symbolizes a certain liquid without being it, so too the idea of ego symbolizes the role you play, who you are, but it is not the same as your living organism.
Alan WattsI am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag , whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands: the United States as a territory, as a people , and as a biological manifestation. That is an example of our perennial confusion of symbols with realities.
Alan WattsThe more we struggle for life (as pleasure ), the more we are actually killing what we love .
Alan WattsThe greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing .
Alan WattsBuddhism ... is not a culture but a critique of culture, an enduring nonviolent revolution or “loyal opposition” to the culture in which it is involved.
Alan WattsThe psychotherapist ... tries to help the individual to be himself and to go it alone without giving unnecessary offense to his community, to be in the world (of social convention) but not of the world.
Alan WattsWhen a man no longer confuses himself with the definition of himself that others have given him, he is at once universal and unique. He is universal by virtue of the inseparability of his organism from the cosmos. He is unique in that he is just this organism and not any stereotype of role, class, or identity assumed for the convenience of social communication.
Alan WattsHow is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.
Alan WattsWhat we see as death, empty space, or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endlessly waving ocean. It is all part of the illusion that there should seem to be something to be gained in the future, and that there is an urgent necessity to go on and on until we get it. Yet just as there is no time but the present, and no one except the all-and-everything, there is never anything to be gained though the zest of the game is to pretend that there is.
Alan WattsSex is no longer a serious taboo. Teenagers sometimes know more about it than adults.
Alan WattsWe accepted a definition of ourselves which confined the self to the source and to the limitations of conscious attention. This definition is miserably insufficient, for in fact we know how to grow brains and eyes, ears and fingers, hearts and bones, in just the same way that we know how to walk and breathe, talk and think only we can't put it into words. Words are too slow and too clumsy for describing such things, and conscious attention is too narrow for keeping track of all their details.
Alan WattsThere 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.
Alan WattsHow could you say the best form of government is a republic if you think the universe is a monarchy?
Alan WattsHow did you know you're alive, unless you'd once been dead?
Alan WattsThe only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Alan WattsThe world is in an extremely dangerous situation, and serious diseases often require the risk of a dangerous cure like the Pasteur serum for rabies.
Alan Watts