Home / Quotes / Quote by Alan W. Watts

Quote by Alan W. Watts

“This is not a philosophy of not looking where one is going; it is a philosophy of not making where one is going so much more important than where one is that there will be no point in going.”

Quote by Alan W. Watts

Book:The Way of Zen

Work

This book delves into the essence of Zen Buddhism, examining its origins, key teachings, meditation techniques, and the role of mindfulness in daily life. It offers insights into the historical context and the various schools of thought within the tradition, providing a thorough exploration of the Zen path. more

Author

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

You May Also Like

“[I]t is typical of Zen that its style of action has the strongest feeling of commitment, of "follow-through." It enters into everything wholeheartedly and freely without having to keep an eye on itself. It does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”

Book:The Way of Zen

Source: The Way of Zen

“Kids want to be grown ups, adults want to be young and careless again. Single people desperately want a relationship, but those who are in one still complain almost all the time and wish for freedom. The poor want money, the rich want more of it. This means that changing your situation doesn’t prevent you from suffering, doesn’t make your desires go away. So you need to change something on the inside.”

Motivational Happiness Inspirational Quotes Life Lessons Life Quotes Life Philosophy Zen Control Change Your Life Happiness Advice

Book:This Moment

Source: This Moment

“itt was snowing as if you could hear wolves howling”

Buddhism Winter Zen Snow Imagery Wolves

Book:Zen Master Poems (1)

Source: Zen Master Poems (1)

“I look at the idea of rest as rotating one’s qualitative focus, not just doing less or changing activity. The role of rest is recovery. If you keep pushing the same quality button (fast or slow, concentrated or dispersed, hard-working or lazy…) for the same component all the time, of course it’s going to become depleted, just like if you keep working a single muscle in the same fashion or don’t use it at all.”

Source: Re:

“It has been said that if you have Zen in your life,you have no fear, no doubt, no unnecessary craving, no extreme emotions. Neither illiberal attitudes nor egotistical actions trouble you. You serve humanity humbly, fulfilling your presence in this world with loving-kindness and observing your passing as a petal falling from a flower. Serene, you enjoy life in blissful tranquility. Such is the spirit of Zen.---Zen flesh, Zen bones.”

Author:Paul, Reps

“Suffering builds character and impels you to penetrate life’s secrets. It’s the path of great artists, great religious leaders, great social reformers. The problem is not suffering per se, but rather our identification with our own ego: our divided, dualistic, cramped view of things. “We are too ego-centered,” Suzuki tells Cage. “The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow. We seem to carry it all the time from childhood up to the time we finally pass away.” Adolescent love gives us the first chance to break the shell. Sexual love makes the ego lose itself in the object it loves. “When the ego-shell is broken and the ‘other’ is taken into its own body, we can say that the ego has denied itself or that the ego has taken its first steps towards the infinite.…The religious consciousness is now fully awakened, and all the possible ways of escaping from the struggle or bringing it to an end are most earnestly sought in every direction. Books are read, lectures are attended, sermons are greedily taken in, and various religious exercises or disciplines are tried.” Suzuki says that sexual love is a vehicle of liberation? A crack in the ego shell? A path to the infinite? At this point, if I were Cage, I would buy the book and take it home.”

Ego Zen Sexual Love Spiritual Seeking

Author:Kay Larson

“Zen has a pronounced iconoclastic tendency, and regards the study of texts, doctrines, and dogmas as a potential hindrance to spiritual awakening, relying instead on humour, spontaneity, unconventionality, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression to communicate the idea of enlightenment”

Buddhism Zen Zen Buddhism

Book:Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

Source: Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

“Laughter has got to be the single healthiest activity one can perform. Just think how healthy you would be if you could sincerely laugh at that which now oppresses you.”

Source: Re:

“If one follows what is in one’s heart (let’s leave out mind for the moment), one ends up with what one truly values and loves in life—and one acts accordingly. One’s own private indulgent cyclic habitual reactive subjective transitory feelings are, hopefully, not at the head of that list.”

Source: Re:

“People often ask: If there’s a God, how can He allow so much suffering in the world? Realize all world suffering you perceive is a mirror to your own psychological self-abuse, gender imbalance, prejudice, poverty, and hunger. You couldn’t even perceive each suffering aspect of external reality if it didn’t already exist within you. Touch and transmute your own psychological suffering, and perceive the world in kind.”

God Suffering Perception Mirror Suffering Of Humanity World Suffering Transmute

Book:Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence

Source: Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence