He has a way of making you look at your life in a TOTALLY different light.
By Kayla Cavanagh and Emily Ratay — Written on Oct 28, 2016
It is so easy for us to get caught up in the grind of daily life that we almost forget what it's like to just do nothing, or put aside work so we can play. If you're anything like me, you have thought to yourself, "I can do it tomorrow" every day until it no longer becomes important to do whatever it is you kept putting off.
It might sound overdone, but life IS too short to let experiences and happiness fly right past you.
That doesn't mean you have to cram every day with mindless activity so you feel busy, but rather taking advantage of doing what you love and living in the moment.
Alan Watts — a philosopher and writer who was dedicated to bring Zen practices and life experience into his work — brought so much inspiration and motivation to people, explaining that there is in fact a difference between LIVING and EXISTING.
In his short video, "The Secret of Life," Watts talks about living for NOW — not tomorrow and not yesterday.
YOU are in control of your life and you should continue to live until you can't. Watts' words tell us that existence is purely spontaneous — like a flower blooming, and you have no one to answer to but yourself.
With many teachings and writing on life and death, Alan Watts has wanted to give us a reason to look at life differently; to see the world as a vast area of opportunity and experience, all of which you can make your own.
Instead of getting lost in your head, hoping that something better will come along eventually, you should always be thankful of reality and making the most of what you have right in front of you. Watts says that the real secret of life is to live in the now, that nothing will ever be as beautiful and real as what you are doing in the present moment.
Read some of his deepest and most powerful quotes about life and death below.
If you're searching for the best quotes and memes to share with the people you love (or just want to feel inspired yourself) ... look no further! From the sweetest love quotes, inspirational sayings, and hilarious friendship truths, we've got you covered.
"The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless."
"No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time."
"You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself."
"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone."
"No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen."
"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple, and yet everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
"Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be."
"The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with and join the dance."
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be had."
"There never is, or was, or will be anything except the present."
"Much of the secret of life consists in knowing how to laugh, and also how to breathe."
"The only zen you'll find on the mountain tops is the Zen you bring up there with you."
"You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes."
"It is better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way."
"You didn't come in to this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are no stranger here."
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