Live Fully Now - Alan Watts

~ Alan Watts

from the out of your mind lectures

with thanks to erin



The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.



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.



Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.



No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.



Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.



Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.



You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.



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.



I owe my solitude to other people.


But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

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wordless and idea-less

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Let your ears hear whatever they want to hear;
 let your eyes see whatever they want to see;
 let your mind think whatever it wants to think;
 let your lungs breathe in their own rhythm. 


Do not expect any special result,
 for in this wordless and idea-less state, 
where can there be past or future, 
and where any notion of purpose? 


Stop, look, and listen.

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~ Alan Watts

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Human desire

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Human desire differs from animal desire in that it is at root insatiable. Man is characterized by a hunger for the infinite, for an eternity of life, love and joy which, whether he knows it or not, can be nothing other than God. Assuming that God exists, it will follow that God is man's true end, for the appetite of a living organism shows its function. The stomach hungers for food because it's function is to digest food. As physical taste and hunger may often be mistaken as to their true object, desiring nothing but caviar instead of a balanced diet, man is often mistaken as to the goal of his life, desiring wealth, power or physical pleasure instead of God. But his real appetite continues to be God, for which these lesser goals are always unsatisfactory substitutes. Those who set their hearts on finite goals are always discontented; they must always have more and more and more of what they desire, and failing this are frustrated and miserable. Profound contentment is only enjoyed by animals and primitives, in which infinite hunger has not been awakened, and by the saints and mystics who have realized union with God.
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- Alan Watts

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