Yet, when it comes to it, this moment can be called “present” only in relation to past and future, or to someone to whom it is present. But when ther… - Alan Watts

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Yet, when it comes to it, this moment can be called “present” only in relation to past and future, or to someone to whom it is present. But when there is neither past nor future, and no one to whom this moment is present, what is it? When Fa-ch’ang was dying, a squirrel screeched on the roof. “It’s just this,” he said, “and nothing else.

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About Alan Watts

Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English philosopher, writer, speaker, and expert in comparative religion.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Alan Wilson Watts Alan W. Watts
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Additional quotes by Alan Watts

To begin with, this world has a different kind of time. It is the time of biological rhythm, not
of the clock and all that goes with the clock. There is no hurry. Our sense of time is
notoriously subjective and thus dependent upon the quality of our attention, whether of
interest or boredom, and upon the alignment of our behavior in terms of routines, goals, and deadlines. Here the present is self-sufficient, but it is not a static present. It is a
dancing present, the unfolding of a pattern which has no specific destination in the future
but is simply its own point. It leaves and arrives simultaneously, and the seed is as much
the goal as the flower. There is therefore time to perceive every detail of the movement
with infinitely greater richness of articulation. Normally we do not so much look at things as
overlook them.” — Alan W Watts

The clash between science and religion has not shown that religion is false and science is true. It has shown that all systems of definition are relative to various purposes, and that none of them actually “grasp” reality.

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This is the greatness of human consciousness, but at the same time it is always posing the practical problem of how to live upon the lower level when one's understanding reaches to the higher. For if we discover that there is some superior order harmonizing what seem to be conflicts at the level of our normal, individual consciousness, may not this new understanding upset our standards and weaken the will to fight?
If we see that the Good of the world is not the victory of· good over evil but, on the contrary, the tense polarity of good-and-evil in perpetual conflict, is it not possible that this will lead us to a recognition of the function of evil making it difficult for us to fight and hate it?

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