Like too much alcohol,self-consciousness makes us see ourselves double, and we make the double image for two selves - mental and material, controlling and controlled, reflective and spontaneous. Thus instead of suffering we suffer about suffering, and suffer about suffering about suffering.
Alan WattsIf you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself. Not conceive, but feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as someone here on sufferance, on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke, but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.
Alan Wattsthis present moment never comes to be and it never ceases to be, it is simply our minds that construct the continuity of thoughts we call time. In the present moment is nirvana.
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