Happy 100th Birthday Alan Watts

Alan Watts was born on 6th January 1915 (d.1973) and so today is the 100th anniversary of his birth.



I thought it might be nice to suggest sharing a quote or an idea of his that is particularly meaningful to you.

blessings and thank you.
Thanks to the Force for channeling through Mr Watts for all of us.

Alan Watts wrote: Genuine love comes from knowledge, not from a sense of duty or guilt.

This came from the first chapter of "The Book" and is an amazing quote. There were many others, this was just the first one that jumped out at me from the notes I took while reading it.

Happy birthday Alan. Your spirit lives on in all of us and I thank you for that.

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." - Alan Watts

"You are the universe experiencing itself." - Alan Watts

Happy birthday Mr. Watts! Thank you for opening my mind.

When this new sensation of self arises, it is at once exhilarating and a little disconcerting. It is like the moment when you first got the knack of swimming or riding a bicycle. There is the feeling that you are not doing it yourself, but that it is somehow happening on its own, and you wonder whether you will lose it—as indeed you may if you try forcibly to hold on to it. In immediate contrast to the old feeling, there is indeed a certain passivity to the sensation, as if you were a leaf blown along by the wind, until you realize that you are both the leaf and the wind. The world outside your skin is just as much you as the world inside: they move together inseparably, and at first you feel a little out of control because the world outside is so much vaster than the world inside. Yet you soon discover that you are able to go ahead with ordinary activities—to work and make decisions as ever, though somehow this is less of a drag. Your body is no longer a corpse which the ego has to animate and lug around. There is a feeling of the ground holding you up, and of hills lifting you when you climb them. Air breathes itself in and out of your lungs, and instead,of looking and listening, light and sound come to you on their own. Eyes see and ears hear as wind blows and water flows. All space becomes your mind. Time carries you along like a river, but never flows out of the present: the more it goes, the more it stays, and you no longer have to fight or kill it.

~ The Book, pp. 91-92

Yes, thank you Alan Watts ... for everything.

“Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.”

That one comes from chapter two of "The Book"