Alan Watts
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Wattswas a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he received a master's degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest in 1945, then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth6 January 1915
...the habitual dualist's solution to the problem of dualism: to solve the dilemma by chopping off one of the horns.
The hallucination of separateness prevents one from seeing that to cherish the ego is to cherish misery. We do not realize that our so-called love and concern for the individual is simply the other face of our own fear of death or rejection. In his exaggerated valuation of separate identity, the personal ego is sawing off the branch on which he is sitting, and then getting more and more anxious about the coming crash!
For me, being literate and articulate is a form of judo, of overcoming the [system] by its own method.
But the disappearance of the effort to let go is precisely the disappearance of the separate thinker, of the ego trying to watch the mind without interfering.
I too realize that the less I preach the more likely I am to be heard.
LSD is simply an exploratory instrument like a microscope or telescope, except this one is inside of you instead of outside of you.
Where do I begin and end in space? I have relations to the sun and air which are just as vital parts of my existence as my heart.
The question "What shall we do about it?" is only asked by those who do not understand the problem. If a problem can be solved at all, to understand it and to know what to do about it are the same thing. On the other hand, doing something about a problem which you do not understand is like trying to clear away darkness by thrusting it aside with your hands. When light is brought, the darkness vanishes at once.
The police have enough work to keep them busy regulating automobile traffic, preventing robberies and crimes of violence and helping lost children and little old ladies find their way home. As long as the police confine themselves to such activities they are respected friends of the public. But as soon as they begin inquiring into people's private morals, they become nothing more than armed clergymen.
By going out of your mind, you come to your senses
We tend to regard ourselves as puppets of the Past, driven along by something that is always behind us.
Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.
The mundane and the sacred are one and the same.
The hallucination of being a separate ego will not stand up to biological tests.