Alan Watts on Aging

When you grow old, something extraordinary begins to happen. Not to your body, which inevitably weakens, but to your awareness. You start to see time not as a road that stretches endlessly ahead, but as a circle closing in on itself. You realize that all the things you once thought mattered, possessions, opinions, victories, begin to lose their grip on you. And in that moment, a quiet voice seems to whisper, "Be careful." When the body begins to slow and the years seem to slip through your ...

 How to Prevent Others from Making You Angry

Peace doesn't come by stiffening against life, but by realizing there's no one to stiffen. The waves rise and fall and the ocean never minds. In the same way, anger, irritation, frustration, they come and go, but they are not you. To be unbothered is not to build a wall around yourself, but to see that there was never a separate self to defend in the first place. You see, when something happens, a disrespecting word, a sudden disappointment, a rude interruption, there's a tiny instant before ...