Geburtsdatum | Mittwoch, 06. Januar 1915 |
Geburtsort | United_Kingdom |
Todesort | California |
Sternzeichen | |
Beschreibung | Alan Wilson Watts (6. Januar 1915 - 16. November 1973) war ein englischer Schriftsteller, Redner und selbsternannter "philosophischer Entertainer", der dafür bekannt war, japanische, chinesische und indische Traditionen der buddhistischen, taoistischen und hinduistischen Philosophie für ein westliches Publikum zu interpretieren und populär zu machen. Geboren in Chislehurst, England, zog er 1938 in die Vereinigten Staaten und begann eine Zen-Ausbildung in New York. Er erwarb einen Master-Abschluss in Theologie am Seabury-Western Theological Seminary und wurde 1945 Episkopalpriester. Er schied 1950 aus dem Priesteramt aus und zog nach Kalifornien, wo er Mitglied der Fakultät der American Academy of Asian Studies wurde. |
You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.
The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.
The style of God venerated in the church, mosque, or synagogue seems completely different from the style of the natural universe.
But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.
And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
The difficulty for most of us in the modern world is that the old-fashioned idea of God has become incredible or implausible.
No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.
In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.
The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
Faith is a state of openness or trust.
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.
