“I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I am not a Zen Buddhist, I am not advocating Zen Buddhism, I am not trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell. I'm an entertainer.”
Alan Watts, on Zen (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-3FJs2pz8
Context: I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I am not a Zen Buddhist, I am not advocating Zen Buddhism, I am not trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell. I'm an entertainer. That is to say, in the same sense, that when you go to a concert and you listen to someone play Mozart, he has nothing to sell except the sound of the music. He doesn’t want to convert you to anything. He doesn’t want you to join an organization in favor of Mozart's music as opposed to, say, Beethoven's. And I approach you in the same spirit as a musician with his piano or a violinist with his violin. I just want you to enjoy a point of view that I enjoy.
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Alan Watts 107
British philosopher, writer and speaker 1915–1973Related quotes
“A true Zen saying: "Nothing is what I want.”
Source: Ariel: The Restored Edition
“I want to make it clear to England, I am not a party girl.”
ES Magazine, 13 Jan 2012, pages 26-29
Book of Taliesin (c. 1275?), The Fold of the Bards
Context: I am a harmonious one; I am a clear singer.
I am steel; I am a druid.
I am an artificer; I am a scientific one.
I am a serpent; I am love; I will indulge in feasting.
I am not a confused bard drivelling,
When songsters sing a song by memory,
They will not make wonderful cries;
May I be receiving them.
Like receiving clothes without a hand,
Like sinking in a lake without swimming
The stream boldly rises tumultuously in degree.
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?
"PM's favourite singer Lana Del Rey ignores the abuse", Evening Standard (24 January 2012), p. 13
“I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.”
Je ne vois qu'une règle: être clair. Si je ne suis pas clair, tout mon monde est anéanti.
Letter to Honoré de Balzac, Civita Vecchia (30 October 1840)