Alan Watts on Mindfulness Quotes

"There is no point in making plans for a future which you will not be able to enjoy because you are not living in the present."

"Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment."

"A mind filled with turmoil cannot be cleared by force. Like a jar of muddy water, you must leave it alone, and clarity will return on its own accord."

"We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-importantly causative past and an absorbingly important future."

"The practice of Zen is eating when you are hungry and sleeping when you are tired."

"No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now."

"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies."

"To travel is to be alive, but to get somewhere is to be dead."

"No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity to live now."

"We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree."

"Zen is a liberation from the dualistic thinking that creates the false sense of a separate ego."

"To hold your breath is to lose your breath."

"You cannot clean up muddy water by stirring it with a stick. You must leave it alone, and the dirt will settle on its own."

"The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention."

"The art of living is neither drifting carelessly nor clinging fearfully to the past, but being sensitive to each moment."

"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone."

"A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. You lose touch with reality when you confuse the menu with the meal."

"Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun."

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float."

"Do not confuse the symbol for the reality it represents. You cannot get wet from the word 'water', nor can you sustain yourself by eating the menu instead of the meal."

"Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal."

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."

"Memories and future expectations are only real when they are being experienced in the present moment."

"A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So he loses touch with Reality, and lives in a world of illusion."

"The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive."

"You don't look at the musician and say, 'What are you trying to prove?' He's just playing."

"We are merely the universe playing hide and seek with itself, pretending to be separate entities to experience the joy of rediscovery."

"Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present."

"We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, like leaves from a tree."

"The real secret of life is to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now."