Alan Watts was known not only for making Far Eastern worldviews accessible to the Western world, but also for criticizing various circumstances of our modern society. This short but powerful excerpt from one of his speeches does both. Alan Watts explains the interdependence in which opposites stand, since they cannot exist without each other. In the...
Alan Watts was known for placing criticism on various circumstances of our society. This article is about Watts' view that our perception of materialism is wrong and modern philosophers have forgotten an important aspect of philosophy. Alan Watts made it clear that in his opinion the term materialism would be misinterpreted. Actual materialism implies...
Alan Watts (born 1915 in Chislehurst, Great Britain, died 1973, Druid Heights, USA) first studied theology and later moved to the United States (1938) and began Zen training. From then on he began to study Eastern philosophy in general. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Buddhist concept of nirvana became part of his writings....
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people are most afraid of. - Fyodor Dostoevsky Daring new things can be something to be afraid of. After all, you don't know if you will succeed or fail miserably. However, if you don't dare, you can....
English philosopher Alan Watts is known for "translating" Indian, Japanese and Chinese traditions of Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience. In his writings and lectures, he often tried to convey the meaning of foreign words and concepts. One of these is the Taoist "Wu-Wei." Wu-Wei describes the art of non-striving, which is probably...
The core of your satisfaction and well-being is that life goes as you imagine it. This sounds logical, but it also means that if life does not go as you imagine, you will be unhappy. That's kind of the whole magic. If life goes the way you want it to go....
We often forget that our perception of the world is not truly objective, but is largely influenced by who we are. The quote comes from the French writer Anaïs Nin, but has become even more famous thanks to the American bestselling author Stephen Covey, who has included it in several of his works (e.g. ....).
Every night, before we go to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness have I overcome today? What virtue have I acquired? - Lucius Annaeus Seneca There is a multitude of quotations and sayings that all have more or less the same quintessence: one should not compare oneself with others, respectively the only person with...
In this article, we'll look at six of Miyamoto Musashi's greatest quotes that have been extremely helpful to me (and countless other people) to steadily improve, see things in a more relaxed way, and find more inner peace - in short, to better cope with modern life. In this article we will look at the meanings and...
Probably the most avoided feeling we humans know is loneliness, but why is that? That we do not want to be alone has two major reasons. The first is that in our society we are taught everywhere that if you are alone, there is something wrong with you. After all, if we were "normal" and adaptable, we would be...
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