Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.
Interpretation
The quote explores the idea of self-discovery and the different societal reactions to the realization of one's true nature.
In this quote, Alan Watts highlights the profound journey of self-awareness and awakening to one's own divinity. He contrasts the reaction of Western society, which often stigmatizes such revelations as madness or blasphemy, with the more accepting response one might experience in Eastern cultures, such as India, where such self-realizations are celebrated. This reflects deeper philosophical questions about identity, spirituality, and the nature of consciousness in different cultural contexts.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, you could begin with this quote to emphasize the importance of self-discovery.
What we see as death, empty space, or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endlessly waving ocean. It is all part of the illusion that there should seem to be something to be gained in the future, and that there is an urgent necessity to go on and on until we get it. Yet just as there is no time but the present, and no one except the all-and-everything, there is never anything to be gained - though the zest of the game is to pretend that there is.
There is only this now. It does not come from anywhere; it is not going anywhere. It is not permanent, but it is not impermanent. Though moving, it is always still. When we try to catch it, it seems to run away, and yet it is always here and there is no escape from it. And when we turn around to find the self which knows this moment, we find that it has vanished like the past.
Many people never grow up. They stay all their lives with a passionate need for external authority and guidance, pretending not to trust their own judgment.
There are two specific objections to use of psychedelic drugs.First,use of these drugs may be dangerous.Howev er,every worth-while exploration is dangerous-climb ing mountains,testi ng aircraft,rocket ing into outer space,or collecting botanical specimens in jungles.But if you value knowledge & the actual delight of exploration more than mere duration of uneventful life,you are willing to take the risks.
The Godhead is never an object of its own knowledge. Just as a knife doesn't cut itself, fire doesn't burn itself, light doesn't illuminate itself. It's always an endless mystery to itself.
The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right.
Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.
There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions.
I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.
Because he is a living divinity, when he acts, the universe acts.
In this treacherous world Nothing is the truth nor a lie. Everything depends on the color Of the crystal through which one sees it
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