Alan Watts

Of course, when a stream or a bubbling spring flows out from the mountains, it is doing its thing. And if a thirsty traveler helps himself, well, that’s fine.

When a bird sings, it doesn’t sing for the advancement of music, but if somebody stops to listen and is delighted, that’s fine.

And so, I talk in the same spirit. I don’t have a group of followers. I’m not trying to make disciples, because I work on the principle of a physician rather than a clergyman.”

Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.”

When we translate that into the moral sphere (the sphere of human conduct) the equivalent is this: there are no wrong feelings.

There may be wrong actions in the sense of actions contrary to the rules of human communication, but the way you feel towards other people (loving, hating, et cetera.) [isn’t wrong]. There are no wrong feelings.

So to try and force one’s feelings to be other than what they are is absurd and furthermore dishonest.”