Alan Watts explains change, life and death
Who doesn't know it, you wish for nothing more than permanent happiness, permanent health or permanent satisfaction. However, there is no such thing as permanence in real life. But even if it did exist, would it make life more beautiful?
Alan Watts once said that the more a thing tends to be permanent, the more lifeless it is. In this post, we'll take a closer look at his quote of this statement.
"The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless."
Alan Watts
Let's use a flower for the first example. The flower starts as a seed, which begins to germinate and then starts to grow and grow. Until finally a beautiful flower has grown from the seed, some time passes and during this time a lot of change takes place. After the flower has bloomed it begins to wilt, but before it withers it still sheds seed to produce new flowers. Only when the flower is nothing but the earth from which it came will it stop changing. In other words, it is lifeless. Yet throughout the process, throughout all the changes, it has been alive.
For the second example, we can take a stone or a mountain to help us. The stone will not undergo any great change in its life. It will lie in different places from time to time, stuck in different layers of the earth, but never by its own power. It may be washed to another place by a heavy rain or carried to another place by an animal. It is also possible that it will be picked up by a human somewhere and thrown away again. But the stone in and of itself will not change, which is why it tends to be lifeless.
Of course, this quote can be applied not only to objects. Friendships, careers or relationships also fall victim to the same scheme. Of course, a lasting friendship is something desirable, but friendship in and of itself naturally has its ups and downs. It is not a constant. These ups and downs, this movement within the friendship gives it the lively. The same is true, of course, for relationships and much more.
Read more about Alan Watt's views on highs and lows here.
If life seems too fast and too changeable, remember that these changes are what make life alive. If there were no changes in your life, then it would not be a life, it would be a gray, dull and boring experience.
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