The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

We seldom realize that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.

A proper exposition of Zen should tease us out of thought, and leave the mind like an open window instead of a panel of stained glass.

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

We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.

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

Nirvana is right where you are, provided that you don’t object to it.

No 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

The essential introduction to his life and ideas

books

Books

communication

ALAN WATTS

Similar ideas

I am alive

We can each do our part in avoiding antibiotic resistance

Intelligent preparation > Luck