💗 Self-Love Quotes by Alan Watts & My Art 💗

teamtruth (41)in #quotes • 6 years ago

There is no problem of how to love. We love. We are love, and the only problem is the direction of love, whether it is to go straight out like sunlight, or try to turn back on itself like a “candle under a bushel.”

Released from the circle of attempted self-love, the mind of a human draws the whole universe into its own unity as a single dewdrop seems to contain the entire sky.

A mind that is single and sincere is not interested in being good, in conducting relations with other people so as to live up to a rule. Its interest is not in itself, but in the people and problems of which it is aware; there are “itself”.

Everyone has love, but it can only come out when they are convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love themselves.

*The alternative to self-love is self-destruction. Because you won’t take the risk of loving yourself properly, you will be compelled instead to destroy yourself. So which would you rather have? *

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

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 W. Watts

As one of the most celebrated orators of modern history, English philosopher Alan Watts (1915-1973) had a knack for getting to the heart of life’s biggest questions. While Watts is no longer with us today, his wisdom and legacy most certainly are. Perhaps the quotes I love to share will enliven you, like they have me and so many others, or inspire you to explore the incredible body of Watts’ written and recorded work.