--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: You are that vast thing that you see far…" description: "\"You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.\" — Alan Watts" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg" --- # You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with… ![“You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.” quote by Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg) > “You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.” [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The vastness we perceive through telescopes mirrors the boundless potential within ourselves, urging inner exploration. **In simple terms:** The universe reflects inner potential. Key Takeaway Explore inner vastness. Themes philosophy mindfulness cosmology self‑discovery Mood contemplative inspiring Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - meditation practice - scientific education - creative brainstorming - personal growth Key Concepts non‑dualism perception inner potential Questions to Reflect On - How can cosmic perspective inspire daily life? - What practices help connect outer and inner vastness? A Different Perspective Inner exploration may be abstract and hard to translate into concrete action. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Far Great](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/far-great-889570/) [Great Telescopes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-telescopes-2449117/) [Telescopes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/telescopes/) [Thing Far](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thing-far-1336369/) [Vast Thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vast-thing-5723432/) ## Related quotes > [Great telescopes like the Kecks allow us to explore the River of Time back toward its source.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-faber/great-telescopes-like-the-kecks-allow-us-to-explore-the-river-of-time/) [Sandra Faber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandra-faber/) > [My jobs often end up being our family vacations, and so far it has been great.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-gorham/my-jobs-often-end-up-being-our-family-vacations-and-so-far-it-has/) [Christopher Gorham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-gorham/) > [As long as it's funny, there's no such thing as too far.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucy-punch/as-long-as-it-s-funny-there-s-no-such-thing-as-too-far/) [Lucy Punch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucy-punch/) > [look for a lovely thing and you will find it, it is not far, it never will be far](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-teasdale/look-for-a-lovely-thing-and-you-will-find-it-it-is-not-far-it-never/) [Sara Teasdale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-teasdale/) > [“The best thing to do is go as far out as you can get... what you regard as 'too far'--and when others follow, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-lloyd-wright/the-best-thing-to-do-is-go-as-far-out-as-you-can-get-what-you-regard/) [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-lloyd-wright/) > [The further and further we look out with our telescopes and the further and further we look in with our microscopes, the larger and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-further-and-further-we-look-out-with-our-telescopes-and-the/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [LSD is simply an exploratory instrument like a microscope or telescope, except this one is inside of you instead of outside of you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/lsd-is-simply-an-exploratory-instrument-like-a-microscope-or/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/psychedelic-experience-is-only-a-glimpse-of-genuine-mystical-insight/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [Rather than feeling lost and unimportant and meaningless, set against galaxies which go beyond the reach of the furthest telescopes, I feel that my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeleine-l-engle/rather-than-feeling-lost-and-unimportant-and-meaningless-set-against/) [Madeleine L'Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeleine-l-engle/) > [Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God would not have found the human mind if he had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/whoever-it-was-who-searched-the-heavens-with-a-telescope-and-found-no/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Now, almost one hundred years later, it is difficult to fully appreciate how much our picture of the universe has changed in the span…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-m-krauss/now-almost-one-hundred-years-later-it-is-difficult-to-fully/) [Lawrence M. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-m-krauss/) > [Culture implies all which gives the mind possession of its own powers, as languages to the critic, telescope to the astronomer. Culture alters the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/culture-implies-all-which-gives-the-mind-possession-of-its-own-powers/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [The hardware and the software used in the Breakthrough project will be compatible with other telescopes around the world, so they too can search…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yuri-milner/the-hardware-and-the-software-used-in-the-breakthrough-project-will/) [Yuri Milner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yuri-milner/) > [The Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be located much further away from the Earth than the Hubble Space Telescope presently is, will also…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claude-nicollier/the-next-generation-space-telescope-which-will-be-located-much/) [Claude Nicollier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claude-nicollier/) > [Astronomers have built telescopes which can show myriads of stars unseen before; but when a man looks through a tear in his own eye,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ward-beecher/astronomers-have-built-telescopes-which-can-show-myriads-of-stars/) [Henry Ward Beecher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ward-beecher/) ## More by Alan Watts > [“The self-conscious feedback mechanism of the cortex allows us the hallucination that we are two souls in one body -a rational soul and an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-self-conscious-feedback-mechanism-of-the-cortex-allows-us-the/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The more we try to catch hold of the present moment the more elusive it becomes. It is like trying to clutch water in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-more-we-try-to-catch-hold-of-the-present-moment-the-more-elusive/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The Universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-universe-is-the-game-of-the-self-which-plays-hide-and-seek/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [If my happiness at this moment consists largely in reviewing happy memories and expectations, I am but dimly aware of this present. I shall…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/if-my-happiness-at-this-moment-consists-largely-in-reviewing-happy/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [...mysticism and empiricism go together in opposition to scholasticism...they base themselves on the non-linear world of experience rather than the linear world of letters.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/mysticism-and-empiricism-go-together-in-opposition-to-scholasticism/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The hallucination of being a separate ego will not stand up to biological tests.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-hallucination-of-being-a-separate-ego-will-not-stand-up-to/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/although-profoundly-inconsequential-the-zen-experience-has/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [Everything is perpetually becoming new.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/everything-is-perpetually-becoming-new/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The psychotherapist ... tries to help the individual to be himself and to go it alone without giving unnecessary offense to his community, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-psychotherapist-tries-to-help-the-individual-to-be-himself-and-to/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [“As you make more and more powerful microscopic instruments, the universe has to get smaller and smaller in order to escape the investigation. Just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/as-you-make-more-and-more-powerful-microscopic-instruments-the/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [We are at the moment looking at space as something to be entered by the tremendous thrust of a rocket because that is the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/we-are-at-the-moment-looking-at-space-as-something-to-be-entered-by/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [A philosopher is a sort of intellectual yokel who gawks at things that sensible people take for granted.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/a-philosopher-is-a-sort-of-intellectual-yokel-who-gawks-at-things/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The best way to convince someone is by making him realize that what you speak came from his own mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-best-way-to-convince-someone-is-by-making-him-realize-that-what/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/the-myths-underlying-our-culture-and-underlying-our-common-sense-have/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [To feel that life is meaningless unless “I” can be permanent is like having fallen desperately in love with an inch.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/to-feel-that-life-is-meaningless-unless-i-can-be-permanent-is-like/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) [Explore all 460 Alan Watts quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) ## More Telescopes quotes > [Astronomers have built telescopes which can show myriads of stars unseen before; but when a man looks through a tear in his own eye,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ward-beecher/astronomers-have-built-telescopes-which-can-show-myriads-of-stars/) [Henry Ward Beecher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ward-beecher/) > [The Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be located much further away from the Earth than the Hubble Space Telescope presently is, will also…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claude-nicollier/the-next-generation-space-telescope-which-will-be-located-much/) [Claude Nicollier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claude-nicollier/) > [The hardware and the software used in the Breakthrough project will be compatible with other telescopes around the world, so they too can search…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yuri-milner/the-hardware-and-the-software-used-in-the-breakthrough-project-will/) [Yuri Milner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yuri-milner/) > [Culture implies all which gives the mind possession of its own powers, as languages to the critic, telescope to the astronomer. Culture alters the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/culture-implies-all-which-gives-the-mind-possession-of-its-own-powers/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Now, almost one hundred years later, it is difficult to fully appreciate how much our picture of the universe has changed in the span…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-m-krauss/now-almost-one-hundred-years-later-it-is-difficult-to-fully/) [Lawrence M. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-m-krauss/) > [Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God would not have found the human mind if he had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/whoever-it-was-who-searched-the-heavens-with-a-telescope-and-found-no/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Rather than feeling lost and unimportant and meaningless, set against galaxies which go beyond the reach of the furthest telescopes, I feel that my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeleine-l-engle/rather-than-feeling-lost-and-unimportant-and-meaningless-set-against/) [Madeleine L'Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeleine-l-engle/) > [There are many ways in which people are made aware of their power to believe in the supremacy of Divine guidance and power: through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernst-boris-chain/there-are-many-ways-in-which-people-are-made-aware-of-their-power-to/) [Ernst Boris Chain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernst-boris-chain/) > [Those who pretend to investigate the transcendental truths of the Being based on pure reasoning fall in the same mistake as someone who, ignoring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samael-aun-weor/those-who-pretend-to-investigate-the-transcendental-truths-of-the/) [Samael Aun Weor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samael-aun-weor/) > [Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edsger-dijkstra/computer-science-is-no-more-about-computers-than-astronomy-is-about/) [Edsger Dijkstra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edsger-dijkstra/) > [We debase the richness of both nature and our own minds if we view the great pageant of our intellectual history as a compendium…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-jay-gould/we-debase-the-richness-of-both-nature-and-our-own-minds-if-we-view/) [Stephen Jay Gould](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-jay-gould/) > [Astronomy may be revolutionized more than any other field of science by observations from above the atmosphere. Study of the planets, the Sun, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-spitzer/astronomy-may-be-revolutionized-more-than-any-other-field-of-science/) [Lyman Spitzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-spitzer/) > [It happens to be one of those days when I see everybody in the family, including myself, through the wrong end of a telescope.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/it-happens-to-be-one-of-those-days-when-i-see-everybody-in-the-family/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Our eyes see very little and very badly – so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dziga-vertov/our-eyes-see-very-little-and-very-badly-so-people-dreamed-up-the/) [Dziga Vertov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dziga-vertov/) > [I wanted to understand things and then be free of them. I needed to learn how to telescope things, ideas. Things were too big…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bob-dylan/i-wanted-to-understand-things-and-then-be-free-of-them-i-needed-to/) [Bob Dylan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bob-dylan/) [Browse all 232 Telescopes quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/telescopes/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alan Watts" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far-far-off-with-great-telescopes/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Telescopes" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far-far-off-with-great-telescopes/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e8/alan-watts-587_telescopes_you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far_3162685.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.” — Alan Watts", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Alan Watts", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "You are that vast thing that...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far-far-off-with-great-telescopes/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/you-are-that-vast-thing-that-you-see-far-far-off-with-great-telescopes/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```