Nothing Wrong with You At All

What I am really saying is that you
don't need to do anything, because
if you see yourself in the correct way,
you are all as much extraordinary
phenomenon of nature as trees,
clouds, the patterns in running water,
the flickering of fire, the arrangement
of the stars, and the form of a galaxy.
You are all just like that, and
there is nothing wrong with you at all.

Alan Watts

Respond Well to Small Moments

A good life emerges not from planning it out,
but through training ourselves to respond well
to small moments ... there is no path to follow
in the first place - just a journey we create anew
at every moment by seeing and doing things
differently.

Book jacket from "The Path: What Chinese
Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life"
by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-loh

Through the Lens

Every fragment of self-talk is a little story
in the head that goes around, and then
you look at reality through the lens
of the little story.

Eckhart Tolle

Quietly Go to Work

Quietly go to work on your own self-awareness.
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then
awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate
the suffering in the world, then eliminate
all that is dark and negative in yourself.
Truly, the greatest gift you have to give
is that of your own self-transformation.

Hua hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu

A Really Happy Man

If you observe a really happy man,
you will find him building a boat,
writing a symphony, educating his son,
growing double dahlias in his garden.
He will not be searching for happiness
as if it were a collar button that has
rolled under the radiator.

W. Beran Wolfe

No Point in Going

If you make where you're going
more important than where you are,
there may be no point in going.

Alan Watts

Nothing We Can Do

We aren't better because: we want to be.
There's nothing we can do to be better.

Alan Watts

Saints Need Sinners

Saints need sinners.

Alan Watts

Open to Truth

But the attitude of faith is to let go,
and become open to truth,
whatever it might turn out to be.

Alan Watts

Having Faith

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.

Alan Watts

Have a Good Laugh

After all is said and done,
there is really nothing left
for us to do but to have
a good laugh.

Alan Watts

Real Religion

Real religion is the transformation
of anxiety into laughter.

Alan Watts

Nonsense

Nonsense wakes up the brain cells.
If you can see things out of whack,
then you can see how things can be
in whack.

Dr. Seuss

Laughing

A Zen monk once said to me,
"If you're not laughing,
then you're not getting it."

David Russell

Full Human Beingness

The basic work of health professionals
in general and psychotherapists in particular
is to become full human beings and to
inspire full human-beingness in other people
who feel starved about their lives.

Chogyam Trungpa

You Are Home

Enlightenment is not something that occurs in the future,
after 50 years of sitting cross-legged and saying "OM."
It is right here, in this instant. The reason you're not
experiencing this state of total peace and timelessness
is because it is being resisted. It is being resisted
because you are trying to control the moment ... Let go
of anticipating the next moment, trying to control it,
trying to hang on to the moment that just passed.
Let go of clinging to what has just occurred. Let go
trying to control what you think is about to occur.
Then you live in an infinite space of non-time and
non-event. There is an infinite peace beyond description.
And you are home.

David Hawkins

Sitting Still

In an age of acceleration, nothing can
be more exhilarating than going slow.
And in an age of distraction, nothing
is so luxurious as paying attention.
And in an age of constant movement,
nothing is so urgent as sitting still.

Pico Iyer

Nothing Either Good or Bad

There is nothing either good or bad,
but thinking makes it so.

William Shakespeare