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Quote by Alan W. Watts

“[I]t becomes clearer and clearer that we do not live in a divided world. The harsh divisions of spirit and nature, mind and body, subject and object, controller and controlled, are seen more and more to be awkward conventions of language. These are misleading and clumsy terms for describing a world in which all events seem to be mutually interdependent[.]”

Quote by Alan W. Watts

Book:Nature, Man and Woman

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Nature, Man and Woman

This book delves into the intricate connections between human beings and the environment, examining the impact of nature on human life and culture. more

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Browse famous quotes and profile details for Alan W. Watts. more

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“But the idea of a purposeless world is horrifying because it is incomplete. Purpose is a pre-eminently human attribute. To say that the world has no purpose is to say that it is not human[.] For what is not human appears to be inhuman only when man sets himself over against nature, for then the inhumanity of nature seems to deny man, and its purposelessness to deny his purposes. But to say that nature is not human and has no purpose is not to say what it has instead. The human body as a whole is not a hand, but it does not for this reason deny the hand.”

Zen Biocentrism

Book:Nature, Man and Woman

Source: Nature, Man and Woman

“[S]exual love is a troubled and problematic relationship in cultures where there is a strong sense of man's separation of from nature, especially when the reals of nature is felt to be inferior or contaminated with evil.”

Zen Biocentrism

Book:Nature, Man and Woman

Source: Nature, Man and Woman

“The more a person knows of himself, the more he will hesitate to define his nature and to assert what he must necessarily feel, and the more he will be astounded at his capacity to feel in unsuspected and unpredictable ways. Still more will this be so if he learns to explore, or feel deeply into, his negative states of feeling - his loneliness, sorrow, grief, depression, or fear - without trying to escape from them.”

Zen Biocentrism

Book:Nature, Man and Woman

Source: Nature, Man and Woman

“Reality in itself is neither permanent nor impermanent; it cannot be categorized. But when one tries to hold on to it, change is everywhere apparent, since, like one's own shadow, the faster one pursues it, the faster it flees.”

Reality Change Zen

Author:Alan Watts

“If we had more sleepless nights in prayer, there would be fewer souls to have a sleepless eternal night in hell.”

God Night Prayer Hell Intercession Ravenhill

Book:Revival God's Way

Source: Revival God's Way

“To succeed is always to fail-in the sense that the more one succeeds in anything, the greater is the need to go on succeeding. To eat is to survive to be hungry.”

Success Succeed Hunger Zen

Author:Alan Watts

“[O]ur feelings are not fixed, unrelated states, but slowly or rapidly swinging motions such that a perpetuity of joy would be as meaningless as the notion of swinging only to the right.”

Zen Biocentrism

Book:Nature, Man and Woman

Source: Nature, Man and Woman

“Going through all these quotations, it may be thought that the critics are justified in charging Zen with advocating a philosophy of pure negation, but nothing is so far from Zen as this criticism would imply. For Zen always aims at grasping the central fact of life, which can never be brought to the dissecting table of the intellect. To grasp this central fact of life, Zen is forced to propose a series of negations. Mere negation, however, is not the spirit of Zen, but as we are so accustomed to the dualistic way of thinking, this intellectual error must be cut at its root. Naturally Zen would proclaim, "Not this, not that, not anything." But we may insist upon asking Zen what it is that is left after all these denials, and the master will perhaps on such an occasion give us a slap in the face, exclaiming, "You fool, what is this?" Some may take this as only an excuse to get away from the dilemma, or as having no more meaning than a practical example of ill-breeding. But when the spirit of Zen is grasped in its purity, it will be seen what a real thing that slap is. For here is no negation, no affirmation, but a plain fact, a pure experience, the very foundation of our being and thought. All the quietness and emptiness one might desire in the midst of most active mentation lies therein. Do not be carried away by anything outward or conventional. Zen must be seized with bare hands, with no gloves on.”

Buddhism Zen Emptiness Zen Buddhism Negation

Book:An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Source: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Zen is forced to resort to negation because of our innate ignorance (avidya), which tenaciously clings to the mind as wet clothes do to the body. 'Ignorance' is all very well as far as it goes, but it must not go out of its proper sphere. 'Ignorance' is another name for logical dualism. White is snow and black is the raven. But these belong to the world and its ignorant way of talking. If we want to get to the very truth of things, we must see them from the point where this world has not yet been created, where the consciousness of this and that has not yet been awakened and where the mind is absorbed in its own identity, that is, in its serenity and emptiness. This is a world of negations but leading to a higher and absolute affirmation--an affirmation in the midst of negations. Snow is not white, the raven is not black, yet each in itself is white or black. This is where our everyday language fails to convey the exact meaning as conceived by Zen.”

Mind Language Buddhism Zen Emptiness Zen Buddhism Negation Dualism

Book:An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Source: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“When you suffer a calamity - then be it so; now is the time of calamity. When you die - then be it so; now is the time to die. Thus you save yourself from calamity and death.”

Author:Joshu