Friday, January 2, 2009

To spread joy, you have to have it


I am a huge fan of Alan Watts. During our long drive to Florida and back over Christmas vacation, I listened to several CDs from one of his lecture series. I usually find every point he makes to be thought-provoking and worthy of hours of pondering, and I wanted to share the following thought which I think would be wonderful for us to start off the New Year with:

To spread joy, you have to have it.
To impart delight, yo have to more or less be delightful.
To be delightful is to do things that are delightful to you. You thereby become delightful to others.

People who are interesting are people who are interested. Because they are fascinated with other things and people, they become a fascinating person. A person who does not think about anyone else and has very little going on inside their skull is boring. In other words, your engagement with the external world -- the more you are involved, the more your personality is enriched.

Oh, and one more thought to ponder ~
Watts quoted the following statement from a letter written by a Japanese Zen master:

The sound of the falling rain needs no translation.

Don't you think that fits so perfectly with my #1 motto: RES IPSA LOQUITUR (as written in a previous post)?

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