Alan Watts

The greatest wisdom lies on the other side, immediately on the other side, of the greatest despair.

Buddhism is not a culture but a critique of culture, an enduring nonviolent revolution to the culture in which it is involved.

It is your solemn duty to learn how to enjoy yourselves.

And this in turn is a form of the basic un-get-at-ability of it.

If I believe that I would like to break a habit, that very wish is another form of the same tension.

Tension against the stream is habitual, and the frustration which it engenders is chronic.

To tell the truth, I have some faith in the historical idealism of “human progress.” Like the planet itself, human history goes round.

That’s you, that’s the real you! The you that goes on itself. Not the symbol, not the person. It’s you that’s happening as when you breathe.

You’re breathing, the wind is blowing, the trees are waving, your blood is circulating, nerves are tingling. It’s all going on by itself.

What happens when you just wait? There’s nothing you can do. You watch. And all you see is what goes on that is happening of itself.

Saints need sinners.

There is something in the nature of all play that is not serious, but at the same time may be sincere.

He is never uptight because he is not afraid of the negative aspect of the world.

When he climbs a hill, he has the feeling that it is lifting him, for he takes it one step at a time and does not fight with it.

The expert in judo gets the feeling that all his actions are “falling,” and when he uses muscle he never strains.

As we look back into the history of the universe we find little evidence and little assurance of orderly comfort as anything but a rarity.

Streams and waves never stop moving, and yet they are at rest, and restful to hear, because they are in no hurry to reach any destination.

And so in exactly the same way, it becomes extremely uncomfortable to spend all your time holding on to your life.

If you try to hold on to life, you lose it. You can't hold your breath & stay alive; it becomes extremely uncomfortable to hold your breath.

Energy itself, William Blake said, is eternal delight—& all life is to be lived in the spirit of rapt absorption in an arabesque of rhythms.