Tuesday, January 31, 2023

More Watts

If we are unduly absorbed in improving our lives we may forget altogether to live them. Alan Watts

You are free to abandon yourself to actual life. Alan Watts

A man does not really begin to be alive until he has lost himself. Until he has released the anxious grasp which he normally holds upon his life, his property, his reputation and position. Alan Watts

The most important thing in human life for one’s sanity is to be able to be playful or to be able to do things which are sublimely useless. Alan Watts

We thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end. […] But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing, or to dance, while the music was being played. Alan Watts

Poor humans, skillful beyond all other animals by being able to think in time. In knowing the future, they die before they’re dead, they shriek from the shark’s teeth before it has bitten, they dread the alien germ long long before its banquet begins. Alan Watts

If you happen to be sitting, just sit. If you are smoking a pipe, just smoke it. If you are thinking out a problem, just think. But don’t think and reflect unnecessarily, compulsively, from sheer force of nervous habit. In Zen, they call this having a leaky mind. Alan Watts

We must grab what we can while we can, and drown out the realization that the whole thing is futile and meaningless. Alan Watts

The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Alan Watts

Much of the secret of life consists in knowing how to laugh, and also how to breathe. Alan Watts

wisdomquotes.com

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