Alan Wilson Watts was a British writer and speaker. He was known for popularising Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism in the Western world. Watts was born in Chislehurst, England, on 6 January 1915. He was born in the village of Chislehurst, Kent. Laurence Wilson Watts, his father, was a representative for the London office of the Michelin tyre company. His mother, Emily Mary Watts, was a homemaker.
Watts studied at The King's School, Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral. He later grabbed an opportunity for a scholarship to Oxford. Watts moved to the United States of America in 1938. Later, he started Zen training in New York. He received a master's degree in theology from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. However, he left the Christian ministry in 1950 and the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies, California.
Watts wrote more than 25 books and columns on religion and philosophy. He wrote "The Way of Zen", a book that got published in 1957. It was one of the first bestselling books on Buddhism. In another book, "Psychotherapy East and West", he propounded that Buddhism could be thought of as a variant of psychotherapy. He explored the realms of human consciousness and psychedelics in his notable works like "The New Alchemy" and "The Joyous Cosmology".
Watts died on 16 November 1973 in his sleep. He was reported to have been suffering from a heart condition. His ashes were buried near his library at Druid Heights and the Green Gulch Monastery. Below are some of the famous Alan Watts Quotes.
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your teeth.
Trying to define yourself in front of others is a challenging task. You cannot do it because it's almost impossible to know oneself fully. That's why it's said that defining your personality, likes and dislikes in clear and concise terms is quite tough. It's just like biting your teeth which is impossible to do.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Change is a part of everyone's life. It isn't something that we can escape. Thus, initially, the change may look quite incomprehensible to us. Yet if you really want to make sense out of it, just plunge into it. This means that one should savour its taste and freely move with the change and join the dance. This is to say that one should enjoy a change in all ways.
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.
Past and future may come to us in the form of beautiful and bitter memories. They are the biggest illusions life can give us, for they don't exist at all. They can be either memories or manifestations of what the future would look like. Thus, the only reality that exists is the present and nothing else.
Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
Don't pretend in front of others by using the sweet veil of love. It's easy to say to someone that you love them to make things go sweetly. However, love isn't a pretence that has to be used. It's a pure emotion that needs to be experienced most purely. It's advised that we stay true to this beautiful emotion and don't force ourselves to love.
No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Having plans for the future is good. It makes our task easier to figure out what we want in our life ahead. Yet, if you are a person who feels that you cannot have valid plans in future, then it's a bit tricky and problematic. They are those people who aren't even sure of living at present. Thus, having some plans in future is indicative of your will at present.
Continue reading some more Alan Watts Quotes....
You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
Humans and the universe have a beautiful connection. The physical universe is meaningless if you don't move. It's a waste if we humans don't add to its beauty and motion. We moving with this divine creation is just like the wave moving with the ocean. Both being inevitable and juxtaposed.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Watts is hereby clarifying a misunderstanding that one may hold while preaching Zen. It's a huge misunderstanding to think that Zen deals with two tasks at the same time. Zen is not about peeling potatoes while thinking about God. It's a faith that will ask you to focus on one activity: the peeling of potatoes.
You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
Haven't we all as children looked up in the sky and believed that God stays up there? We have. However, it's not God who resides in the clouds. It's rather the mirror reflection of that innate divine being that takes a seat in our hearts. If ever you feel that you found God in the sky, just remind yourself that you saw your reflection in clouds!
But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
Hermits realize that attention and spirituality come in a peaceful, quiet corner of a thick forest. It's incredibly surreal to see how this attainment of peace gains a formulaic lens -going deep in the forest and getting connected to everything. Thus, Watts is somehow reiterating the fact that being in a peaceful environment simply makes you feel connected with everything.
But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
Faith in any form, be it religion or trust, has the sole function of showing us the truth. Faith is not about drawing curtains to hide the truth. Thus, any faith that motivates people to strive hard to attain the ultimate reality is best. All attitudes towards faith should be tied to the common cause of facing the bitter realities of life. Thus, one should prepare to face the harshest of realities if that's the case!
Few more Alan Watts Quotes...
The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
Is there anyone who stays permanent in our life? No. Permanence is something that for humans and animals is impossible. You cannot stay mortal throughout. Yet if ever you want to become a little more permanent, just look at lifeless things. A knife, book, stone etc.; all these may live longer than humans. Yet permanence increases only when things turn more lifeless.
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
This is a very witty quote. We can say that through the usage of wit, Watts is answering the basic notion of why we humans suffer. We all suffer because we tend to take things so seriously. It can vary from being sad about losing our favourite gift or anything as trivial as that. The gap that exists between God and Man is this only. God made such things to entertain us perhaps, but we always get so serious that suffering resides in our heads.
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
Here, the muddy water is a metaphor that Watts uses to represent foul people. How do you get rid of muddy water? You don't have to do anything though. Just let the muddy water settle there, and you will see how you can immediately remove the mud from the bottom. Similarly, there's no need to do anything with people who spread negativity. Just let their negativity settle with time, and everything would be perfect!
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
Human beings are the ones who help the universe to explore its boundaries and limits. Had there been no humans, what would the poor Universe have done? It would have just stayed there without doing anything. But the existence of humans means that we make efforts to understand the nature of the Universe, its origins, elements etc. It just feels as if humans are the aperture through which the universe explores itself.
Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
This is an extremely deep and poignant line. No problem in this world is insoluble. It will one day dissolve in our life and will vanish. Yet if at all there exists a problem that stays for a longer time and looks insoluble, then something isn't wrong with the problem. It's rather like questions that are asked in the wrong way. Put in simple words, issues that last longer are like questions asked in a wrong way. If you ask them correctly, you will find the answer to your problem too!
Some more Alan Watts Quotes...
A scholar tries to learn something every day; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.
A scholar is a person who tries to imbibe something new in himself/herself every day. This becomes crucial to the kind of job they have to engage in, where knowledge becomes so important. Yet, a student of Buddhism has to unlearn everything daily. That's so because spirituality is about giving up on knowledge that the human world gave and learning things from a newer experience.
Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.
Life has been compared to the music in this quote. It seems as if we all are living eternity right now. Whenever we listen to music, we are not listening to the past. Neither are we listening to the future. We are rather listening to the present that gets expanded in the form of lyrics and words that exist in a song. Thus, music is the symbol of the present and nothing else.
We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.
We all are manifestations of nature. We are just like those fresh leaves that sprout from a branch of the tree. Similarly, we are like those waves in an ocean and the universe that gives birth to us. Simply put, all human beings have reflections of nature embedded in them. We all seem to be mirroring the beautiful creations of nature.
When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.
When we try to dominate someone else, we cannot stop giving them the same right to dominate us. This is so because any power relation has to be an equal one. If we want to enjoy the power that we try exerting over others, we need to see that we give them the chance to exert some power over us.
The menu is not the meal.
There's a huge difference between menu and meal. What's there on the menu doesn't guarantee what would be there in the meal. Looking at the menu can give you false hopes of having some delicious food. Yet it may turn out that the food isn't cooked or available. Similarly, what is promised may not always be something you get in life!
