There are, then, two ways of understanding an experience. The first is to compare it with the memories of other experiences, and so to name and define it. This is to interpret it in accordance with the dead and the past. The second is to be aware of it as it is, as when, in the intensity of joy, we forget past and future, let the present be all, and thus do not even stop to think, 'I am happy.'

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 Joy Quotes

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"Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance."

- Anne Lamott

Joy

"Tuesdays are for chasing rainbows and dancing in the rain."

Joy

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness."

Joy

"Taste and see how good the Lord is! The one who takes refuge in him is truly happy!"

Joy

"The joy of brightening other lives becomes for us the magic of the holidays."

- W. C. Jones

Joy