Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.
Alan WattsTo understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, โI am listening to this music,โ you are not listening.
Alan WattsThe police have enough work to keep them busy regulating automobile traffic, preventing robberies and crimes of violence and helping lost children and little old ladies find their way home. As long as the police confine themselves to such activities they are respected friends of the public. But as soon as they begin inquiring into people's private morals, they become nothing more than armed clergymen.
Alan WattsWhen one speaks of awakening, it means de-hypnotizatio n; coming to your senses. But of course to do that, you have to go out of your mind.
Alan WattsJesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, theyโll say youโre crazy and youโre blasphemous, and theyโll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, โMy goodness, Iโve just discovered that Iโm God,โ theyโll laugh and say, โOh, congratulations, at last you found out.
Alan Watts