Alan Watts Quotes

You don't always have to be doing something. You can just be, and that's plenty.

As you walk, you simply walk. Don't go ahead, don't jump here and there. Mind always go ahead or lag behind. Remain with the moment.

Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them.

It's a wonderful thing to perceive the world and to interact with it and with other people and nature from that deep place of utter stillness, where the compulsion to immediately label and interpret whatever arises around you is no longer there.

In an age of speed, I began to think nothing could be more exhilarating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.

What I have learned over the years is to try to stay in the moment.

We have to get back to the beauty of just being alive in this present moment.

Listen to the silence. Listen to your life. Be present, not just think about what's going on next week, next month.

When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you're waiting for the elevator - instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.

One of the best things to do sometimes is simply to be.

If you look at little kids and wild animals, these are two groups of things that whenever I'm with them forces me to be in the moment.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want to leave anybody behind. Happiness is right here, right now, in this world, in this room. I am happiest wherever it is that I am.

Children have a way of forcing you back into the present moment.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

I like to stay in the moment.

I've just learned to enjoy every moment for what it is and take it all in.

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what's around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

Sometimes, what you're looking for is already there.

I live in the present; there is nothing more important than that.

I try to take each moment at a time.

Everyone wants to look to the future and into the past. I stay focused on now.

Don't think too hard. Just be present, and things will reveal themselves.

Awareness means to listen to me unfocused - alert of course, not fallen asleep, but alert to these birds, their chirping, alert to the wind that passes through the trees, alert to everything that is happening. Concentration excludes much, includes little. Awareness excludes nothing, includes all. Awareness is a state of no-mind. You are, yet you are not focused. You are just a mirror reflecting all, echoing all; see the beauty of it and the silence and the stillness.