"As is so often the way, what we have suppressed and overlooked is something startlingly obvious. The difficulty is that it is so obvious and basic t… - Alan Watts

I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time — a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment only to vanish forever. Under such conditioning it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that myself does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body. At this level of existence “I” am immeasurably old; my forms are infinite and their comings and goings are simply the pulses or vibrations of a single and eternal flow of energy.

The sensation of “I” as a lonely and isolated center of being is so powerful and commonsensical, and so fundamental to our modes of speech and thought, to our laws and social institutions, that we cannot experience selfhood except as something superficial in the scheme of the universe. I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time — a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment only to vanish forever. Under such conditioning it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that myself does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body.

I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time — a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment... only to vanish forever.

"Kai mėginame pabėgti nuo baimės, mes stengiamės tuojau pat save atskirti nuo šio jausmo ir užfiksuoti jį. Interpretuojame jį, atsižvelgdami į prisiminimus, bandome prisitaikyti prie slėpiningos dabarties, lygindami ją su (prisimenama) praeitimi, įvardydami ir atpažindami ją.
Viskas būtų labai gražu, jei bandytum pasprukti nuo kažko, nuo ko gali pasprukti. Pabėgti naudinga, ieškant pastogės per lietų. Tačiau neaišku, kaip gyventi su dalykais, nuo kurių negalima pasprukti ir kurie jau yra tapę tavo dalimi. Iš tavo kūno nepašalinami nuodai, sužinojus jų pavadinimus. Mėginti kontroliuoti baimę, depresiją ar nuobodulį įvardijant juos - tai tarsi prietaringai tikėti užkeikimais bei užkalbėjimais.
Labai lengva suprasti, kodėl tai neveikia. Aišku, mes bandome atpažinti, įvardyti ir apibrėžti baimę, kad padaryti ją objektyvią, tai yra atskirtume nuo "Aš". Tačiau kodėl mes stengiamėss atsiriboti nuo baimės? Todėl, kad bijome. Kitaip tariant, baimė implikuoja bandymą nuo jos atsiskirti, tarytum galima būtų ugnį užgesinti ugnimi."

Millennia ago, some genius discovered that such wiggles as fish and
rabbits could be caught in nets. Much later, some other genius thought
of catching the world in a net.

In the widest sense of the word, to name is to interpret experience by the past, to translate it into terms of memory, to bind the unknown into the system of the known. Civilized man knows of hardly any other way of understanding things. Everybody, everything, has to have its label, its number, certificate, registration, classification. What is not classified is irregular, unpredictable, and dangerous. Without passport, birth certificate, or membership in some nation, one’s existence is not recognized.