But the transformation of consciousness undertaken in Taoism and Zen is more like the correction of faulty perception or the curing of a disease. It is not an acquisitive process of learning more and more facts or greater and greater skills, but rather an unlearning of wrong habits and opinions. As Lao-tzu said, 'The scholar gains every day, but the Taoist loses every day.'

More quotes by Alan Wilson Watts

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"You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes."

- Alan Wilson Watts

Awareness

"The source of all light is in the eye."

- Alan Wilson Watts

Awareness

"Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them."

- Alan Wilson Watts

Awareness

"Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger. The point is only to know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that 'I' and all other 'things' now present will vanish, until this knowledge compels you to release them - to know it now as surely as if you had just fallen off the rim of the Grand Canyon. Indeed you were kicked off the edge of a precipice when you were born, and it's no help to cling to the rocks falling with you. If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are."

- Alan Wilson Watts

Awareness

"In looking out upon the world, we forget that the world is looking at itself."

- Alan Wilson Watts

Awareness

More Transformation Quotes

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"Love has the power to transform even the most hideous of creatures."

- Beauty and the Beast

Transformation

"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Transformation

"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Transformation

"It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change."

- Queen Elizabeth II

Transformation

"Today is not just Tuesday, it is Transformation Tuesday. That means that success does not just come to you, you have to go out and get it. So what are you waiting for?"

Transformation