More Light!
"A spirit thus emancipated stands in the middle of the universe with a joyful and trusting fatalism"
In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche writes of Goethe, “A spirit thus emancipated stands in the middle of the universe with a joyful and trusting fatalism, in the faith that only what is separate and individual may be rejected, that in the totality everything is redeemed and affirmed—he no longer denies… But such a faith is the highest of all possible faiths: I have baptised it with the name Dionysus.” Goethe was a renaissance man out of his element, like a hummingbird in the desert.
Goethe exists as healing balm for everything which seeks and has sought to destroy all that is hallowed, beautiful, and noble about the world. He brought back vitality to philosophy. He brought subversion of values back to the West. He did not live by any category; he refused to categorized himself. When something became unhealthy, he quit doing it. He was a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman. He discovered caffeine and met Napoleon. He embodied as a renaissance man the vitality of Napoleon. He was the healing balm for Western philosophy. The East survived, fortunately, but unfortunately has become Westernized. Buddhism was always a more practical form of philosophy. As Nietzsche put it, “Buddhism promises nothing, but actually fulfils; Christianity promises everything, but fulfils nothing.”
Expanding on this, he wrote: “Buddhism is the only really positivistic religion in history ... It is based on two physiological facts that it always keeps in mind: first, an excessively acute sensitivity that is expressed as a refined susceptibility to pain, and second, having lived all too long with concepts and logical procedures, an over-spiritualization that has had the effect of promoting the ‘impersonal’ instincts at the expense of the personal ones ... These physiological conditions give rise to depression. The Buddha took hygienic measures against this, including: living out in the open, the wandering life, moderation and a careful diet; caution as far as liquor is concerned; caution when it comes to all affects that create bile or raise the blood temperature; no worrying about either yourself or other people. He insists on ideas that produce either calm or amusement - he comes up with methods for phasing out all the others. He sees goodness and kindness as healthy. ... Buddhism presupposes a very mild climate, extremely gentle and liberal customs, the complete absence of militarism, and the existence of higher, even scholarly classes to give focus to the movement. The highest goals are cheerfulness, quiet, and an absence of desire, and these goals are achieved.”
The main attack against life is based on the existence of pain and suffering. Suffering and pain, being the experiences that people fear most, are also the greatest reasons most we use to deny life. However, perhaps we should not see this a fault of existence but as a fault of the sufferer. For instance, I remember once a story of a Chinese general who, having sustained some kind of wound, had to dig deeply into his own flesh. He took a knife and thrust it so deeply into his arm that it it was scraping against the bone. Yet this man was so used to pain that he did so without even wincing, and was talking merrily the whole time.
The idea that this story has always imparted in me was that suffering is not an adequate charge against life but against the sufferer. In modern times, suffering and everything that causes suffering, have been seen as the greatest evils. Had we achieved proper schooling in suffering, as in a more primitive, more rugged time, we would might not think of it as a charge against life. Imagine what the human organism could endure if exposed to the same stimulus enough times. Buddhism is in Nietzsche’s view a life denying religion, but one that succeeds at exactly what it is meant to do. “Show, don’t tell” should be the official motto of every religion. The Buddha shows that suffering can be understood and conquered. It is not the conquering that Nietzsche wants, but it is a form of victory. To Nietzsche, to deny attachments is to deny the very things that make life meaningful. But Buddhism achieves something important nonetheless; it reminds us that life is beautiful in spite of suffering.
How is any of this related to Goethe? The Renaissance reminded us that life can beautiful even after horror. The birthplace of the Renaissance was Florence, a city in which 90% of the residents died of the plague. Goethe existed in an age of filth and war, but he shined all the brighter. His last words were: Mehr Licht! (More Light!).