To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A… - Alan Watts

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To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet. We look for this security by fortifying and enclosing ourselves in innumerable ways. We want the protection of being “exclusive” and “special,” seeking to belong to the safest church, the best nation, the highest class, the right set, and the “nice” people. These defenses lead to divisions between us, and so to more insecurity demanding more defenses. Of course it is all done in the sincere belief that we are trying to do the right things and live in the best way; but this, too, is a contradiction.

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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

the future is a concept — it doesn’t exist There is no such thing as tomorrow There never will be because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.

Si întrucât fericirea
exista doar în corelatie cu nefericirea si placerea în corelatie cu durerea, omul inteligent nu
încearca sa le separe. Aceste relatii sunt inseparabile, mergând pâna acolo încât putem spune ca
fericirea este nefericire iar placerea este – întrucât o implica – durere. Pe masura ce realizeaza
aceste lucruri, omul învata sa abandoneze orice dorinta de a obtine fericire separata de suferinta
sau placere separata de durere.
Evident ca aceste lucruri sunt greu de realizat. Eu pot sa înteleg la nivel verbal si intelectual
ca râvnind dupa placere îmi potolesc setea bând apa sarata – deoarece cu cât obtin mai multa
placere cu atât vreau mai multa (Sa ne amintim de sensul mai vechi al cuvântului „dorin.a”, care
era „lipsa”!).

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