Alan Watts's Quotes
You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
Alan WattsNo work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan WattsHow is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.
Alan WattsIn other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
Alan WattsReligion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.
Alan WattsAnd the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.
Alan WattsBut the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
Alan WattsI 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.
Alan WattsNo valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan WattsZen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Alan WattsThe religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
Alan WattsYou are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.
Alan WattsIn known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.
Alan WattsTechnology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.
Alan WattsFaith is a state of openness or trust.
Alan WattsThe reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.
Alan WattsBut to me nothing - the negative, the empty - is exceedingly powerful.
Alan WattsSo then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.
Alan WattsTo have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
Alan Watts