In a letter to a friend, Seneca wrote that death is not an event somewhere in the future. Rather, one should see death in the now, in the permanent progression of time. One could also say that every moment that passes dies in that very moment. "The last hour in which we cease to exist brings....
Don't take life too seriously. Most people have probably heard this phrase. It is extremely widespread and even the philosopher Alan Watts had used it. But what exactly did he mean by it? Alan Watts tried to mediate between Eastern and Western philosophy and therefore it is not surprising that his approach to "the...
Often when we are faced with a task that we are afraid of, or that seems unsolvable, we chicken out. The problem, however, is that we can't outgrow ourselves unless we set ourselves tasks that exceed our current competencies. As mentioned in my post, "A Journey of a Thousand Miles..."...
I encourage all of us, regardless of our beliefs, to question the basic narratives of our world, to connect past developments to current problems, and not to be afraid of controversial issues. ' Dr. Yuval Noah Harari Dr. Yuval Noah Harari is a professor of history, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The quote that appears in this post...
Albert Camus was one of the most famous philosophers of existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical current that found many followers in the middle of the 20th century. In existentialism, the existence of man is the central point. Above all, the existence of man, marked by suffering, which only gains meaning through one's own actions. "To live is to act"...
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...
Most people have experienced situations in the course of life that one found intolerable. Depending on the situation, one can come to the conclusion that it was a good reason to die -or to live. These different ways of looking at things preoccupied the French philosopher, author and journalist Albert Camus and ultimately led to the following...
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....
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...
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