The Wisdom of Insecurity — Alan W. Watts // Quotes

Incredible book, every page had a new revelation - I could hear my synapses connecting with every chapter 😂 I don’t think I could do this book justice with a review so I will just highly recommend it, and if you are a student, I borrowed this book from AUB Library!

“It has been possible to make the insecurity of human life supportable by belief in unchanging things beyond the reach of calamity — in God, in man’s immortal soul, and in the government of the universe by eternal laws of right” — P16

“Consequently our age is one of frustration, anxiety, agitation, and addiction to “dope.” Somehow we must grab what we can while we can, and drown out the realisation that the whole thing is futile and meaningless.” — P21

“This “dope” we call our high standard of living, a violent and complex stimulation of the senses, which makes them progressively less sensitive and thus in need of yet more violent stimulation.” — P21

“We crave distraction — a panorama of sights, sounds, thrills, and titillations into which as much as possible must be crowded in the shortest possible time.” — P21

“To keep up this “standard” most of us are willing to put up with lives that consist largely in doing jobs that are a bore, earning the means to seek relief from the tedium by intervals of hectic and expensive pleasure. These intervals are supposed to be the real living, the real purpose ny the necessary evil of work.” P — 21

“You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket” — P24

“Religious people…confuse faith with clinging to certain ideas, are curiously ignorant of laws of the spiritual life which they may find in their own traditional records.” — P25

“A careful study of comparative religion and spiritual philosophy reveals that abandonment of belief, of any clinging to a future life for one’s own, and of any attempt to escape finitude and mortality, is a regular and normal stage in the way of the spirit.” — P25

“Consciousness seems to be nature’s ingenious mode of self torture.” — P38

“To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist you kill yourself.” -P41/42

“If you look carefully, you will see that consciousness — the thing you call “I” — is really a stream of experiences, of sensations, thoughts, and feelings in constant motion.” — P42

“But because these experiences include memories, we have the impression that “I” is something solid and still” — P42

“”I”, not understanding that it too is part of the stream of change, will try to make sense of the world and experience by attempting to fix it.” — P42

“Just as money does not represent the perishability and edibility of food, so words and thoughts do no represent the vitality of life.” — P47

“It must be obvious, from the start, that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.” — P77

“If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life.” — P77

“To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing.” — P78

“Every moment we are cautious, hesitant, and on the defensive. And all to no avail, for life thrusts us into the unknown willy-nilly, and resistance is as futile and exasperating as trying to swim against a roaring torrent.” — P95

“It showed how the supple willow survives the tough pine in a snowstorm, for whereas the unyielding branches of the pine accumulate snow until they crack, the springy boughs of the willow bend under its weight, drop the snow, and jump back again.” — P95/96

“Your body is a movement in an unbroken process which includes all suns and stars, and yet continue to feel separate and lonely.” — P109

“Despite all theories, you will feel that you are isolated from life so long as you are divided within.” — P110

“This is why all Philosophical and theological systems must ultimately fall apart. To “know” reality you cannot stand outside it and define it; you must enter into it, be it, and feel it.” -P114

“The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music, also, it is fulfilled in each moment of its course. You do not play a sonata in order to the reach then final chord.” — P116

“Nothing is more creative than death, since it is the secret of life. It means that the past must be abandoned, that the unknown cannot be avoided, that “I” cannot continue, and that nothing can be ultimately fixed.” — P117

“There is no problem of how to love. We love. We are love, and the only problem is the direction of love, whether it is to go straight out like sunlight, or to try to turn back on itself like a “candle under a bushel”.” — P131

“Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love all the bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love. — P133