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....
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...
Self-reflection is perhaps one of the buzzwords when it comes to personality development. There is definitely a reason for this: whoever does not make use of this tool, which significantly distinguishes humans from animals, will hardly find inner satisfaction. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of clarity when it comes to self-reflection. Self-reflection is first and foremost about finding oneself...
Most great ambitions are those through which our environment is to be influenced. A coincidence? Not at all. There are various reasons why we are so averse to changing ourselves, but we work with a naturalness to change our environment. History has produced several great thinkers. A special spirit of modernity was Leo Tolstoy,...
Alan Watts is considered one of the mediators between Eastern and Western philosophy. This passage from one of his lectures deals with the idea of what life and being are. In summary, Alan Watts describes the Hindu principle of "lila". All beings and things are in principle nothing more than different roles through which the...
The story of the Chinese farmer is a well-known tale that is particularly widespread in Taoism and seems to have originated there. The philosopher Alan Watts was fond of reproducing the story of the farmer in his lessons. But what is the meaning behind the story of the farmer? The story of the Chinese farmer shows us...
What may seem simply provocative at the outset is, on closer examination, a well-considered statement and is in itself the concentrate of Carl Gustav Jung's convictions. But why is this so and what exactly is meant by this statement, which shakes the value framework of our society? Jung (1875 - 1961) is still regarded today as one of the...
Miyamoto Musashi, the sword master and founder of the school "of the two heavens" (jap. 二天一流, Niten Ichiryū), stated in his writings in various places that it is crucial not to have preferences. Only in this way, he said, could one succeed in battle. An example of this is the following quote from the Gorin-No-Sho (The Book of Five Rings):...
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