The path to all great things passes through silence.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
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Friedrich Nietzsche
In the bricks
Greatness
My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: That one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity. Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity… but to love it.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
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Amor fati
Don’t expect anything to happen. Just wait. This waiting is a deep acceptance of the moment as such. Nietzsche called it amor fati — unquestioning love of whatever has fated you to be here. You reach a point where you’re just sitting there, asking, “What is this?” — but with no interest in an answer. The longing for an answer compromises the potency of the question. Can you be satisfied to rest in this puzzlement, this perplexity, in a deeply focused and embodied way? Just waiting without any expectations?
~ Stephen Batchelor
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That’s a quote presented by Maria Popova within a much larger post… which you should totally go read. There’s a stillness, and perhaps even tranquility, which I very much hope you’ve experienced. I’ve mastered the walking meditation which is perambulation. But the fully engaged sense of simpy being, when there’s no sense of expectation, is still a surprise when I manage to get far enough out of my own way.
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Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend
To trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown—the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states. First principle: Any explanation is better than none […] the cause-creating drive is thus conditioned and excited by the feeling of fear.
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When you gaze into the abyss
Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster. For when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
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Eternal return
If you stay with your past regret, you’ll break through. You’ll realize that every moment spent in remorse is another regretful moment for eternity. You’ll finally understand, in your bones, the truth of Nietzsche’s wise advice: “Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.”
~ Kyle Eschenroeder from, https://www.artofmanliness.com/2018/01/01/eternal-return-ultimate-new-years-resolution/
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We don’t literally live this exact same life over and over, as encapsulated by the idea of “Eternal Return”.
But it IS an interesting thought experiment. It is exceedingly difficult to break outside of my own self-perspective — arguably, it impossible to break out since what perspective do I have, other than MY own. But trying to think of things from new perspectives . . . it’s like trying to catch a glimpse of the back of my own head in a fun-house of mirrors.
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