Quotes and excerpts from the book “The Essence of Alan Watts”. Alan Wilson Watts (1915 - 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, lecturer and one of the pioneers in the dissemination of Eastern wisdom to the West. Drawing on a wide variety of traditions (such as Chinese philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and modern science), Watts synthesizes the main teachings that allow the individual to encounter his or her deepest nature. With great lucidity of thought and simplicity of language, Watts presents answers to the fundamental misunderstanding, the central mystery of existence, the reality of who we are. As a great interpreter of Eastern disciplines, Watts spread the idea that our conception of ourselves is a myth; that the entities we call “separate things” are merely aspects or characteristics of the same unity. ???? Get Alan Watts' books through our Amazon link: Become What You Are: https://amzn.to/3ySB9D3 Myth and Religion: https://amzn.to/3BnoQQt The Wisdom of Insecurity: https://amzn.to/3e9qb4j Alan Watts' book list: https://amzn.to/3yESbaL “Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” Alan Watts. “So... There is absolutely nothing wrong with being sick or dying. Who said you need to survive? Who gave you the idea that it is necessary to always keep moving forward? We cannot say that it is a good idea for everything to survive... because if we allowed everyone to live forever, we would face overpopulation. So in some way, dying is an honorable act, because it makes room for others. We can look at this in more detail and realize that if we could postpone our death indefinitely... We wouldn't keep postponing it forever. Because after a certain point we would realize that this is not the way we want to survive... Why else would we have children? Because children allow us to survive in a different way. Like we're passing the torch, so you don't have to carry it all the time. There comes a time when you can let go. And say: Now it's your turn! It's a much more interesting arrangement for Nature... To continue the process of Life, through different individuals, instead of always being the same individual. Because with each new individual that comes to Life, Life is renewed. And then, remember how fascinating everyday things are to a child. Because they don't see everything from the perspective of survival and profit. When we start thinking of everything from the perspective of survival and profit, as we do, the shapes of the scratches on the ground cease to contain magic. Most things, in fact, lose their magic. So in the course of Nature, when we stop seeing the magic in the world, we are no longer playing our part in Nature's game of recognizing herself. There is no more meaning... and so we die. And then something different is born, with a completely different perspective. It is not natural for us to want to prolong life indefinitely, but we live in a culture where we have been told in every possible way that death is a terrible thing, and that is a great disease that our culture suffers from.” Alan Watts. “What would it be like to go to sleep and never wake up? Most reasonable people just dismiss that thought. They say, “You can't imagine that,” and they shrug their shoulders and say, “It will be what it will be.” But I am one of those stubborn people who will not be satisfied with that answer. Not that I am trying to figure out anything else, but I am totally fascinated by what it would be like to go to sleep and never wake up. In the Eastern world, there are different ideas about this. The main Eastern idea is generally known as reincarnation, going through life after life in an endless series. The most fascinating thing about this is that death is not the end of consciousness. In other words, we are deluded by a kind of fantasy. If you think that death is like endless darkness, endless nothingness, that is inconceivable nothingness, because we are not capable of having any idea, much less the sensation of nothingness, unless it can be compared to the sensation of something. These two things go together. Which means that the void created by the disappearance of a being, by the disappearance of its memory system, would simply be filled by another being.” Alan Watts. Music: Heart Abandoned (https://elements.envato.com/pt-br/hea...) Chris Collins - Infinite Calm ( • Infinite Calm - Peaceful Piano and Ra... ) ========================================= ???? Corvo Seco is a study group on non-duality. ???? Help maintain our channel: PIX: [email protected] ???? Instagram: / corvoseco ???? Facebook: / corvoseco ???? Get in touch: [email protected] #AlanWatts #Self-knowledge