it is clear that many, if not all religions promote
the ascetic vision of life… deny and you will find…
Buddhism is one such religion… and the Buddha is one
such thinker… he called for self-control, austerities
and renunciation of the self… to escape the ever ongoing
rebirth that occurs, one must deny the desires that entrap
one into ongoing rebirth… by denying, you escape
the desires that cause suffering in every lifetime…
it is by escaping suffering that allows one to escape
reincarnation…the path to salvation in Buddhism is to
escape suffering… and everything in life is about suffering…
birth, life, old age and death… that one suffers in those four
aspects of life cannot be doubted but, but suffering isn’t
the entire aspect of life… life has beauty and grace
and charm and simple pleasures that give it meaning…
to deny that which gives our live meaning such as beauty is
the failure of renunciation, asceticism…………
we can find salvation without the extremism of asceticism…
but that means we must find salvation within those aspects of life
that is denied by those thinkers and theologians that denounce
life………
to denounce life is a negative act… nihilism… why can’t we find salvation
within some positive aspect of life?
yes, desires do cause suffering, that cannot be in doubt, but
once again, we can find some middle road that brings us
between desire/suffering and asceticism/nihilism……
for if I did not desire, I wouldn’t have spent a lifetime
searching, desiring truth, knowledge, wisdom even if,
and this is important to understand, even if that truth, knowledge, wisdom
is transitory and temporary as everything in the universe is transitory and
temporary, that truth, knowledge and wisdom can mean something to
me because as truth and knowledge and wisdom is transitory, as
I am transitory, temporary………
Just because something is transitory/temporary doesn’t mean it doesn’t
have value…… values such as love is transitory because the object of our love
transitory, temporary regardless of what we love, it is transitory/temporary……
and love is still worthy of being a goal in life even if it is love of a transitory/
temporary object.
we think that we must pursue the permanent to the exclusion of all other
objects, values… but we can pursue transitory/temporary values because
those values mean something right here and right now… Take Arete, the
Greeks value of excellence… the Greeks followed the value of Arete for
generations… we do not… but that doesn’t take away the value of Arete
for the Greeks…
the reason that those values can have value even in a temporary,
transitory world is because philosophy (and religion for that matter)
is not about the pursuit of values but about philosophy/religion
as a way of life… not just an abstract study of rules and books…
we study philosophy not just as an abstract, academic study
in which we read philosophy then go out and have a beer,
totally forgetting what we just read… no, philosophy is about
a way of life and values are the measuring cup of how we are
to live that life…….values which meant something to me when I
was younger, not so much anymore… I don’t need to demand,
as the young do, respect… that pursuit of a value is no longer
needed because I am not the same person I was 30 years ago…
when I needed, demanded respect… I too, once thought I was
the “ubermensch”… just because I was enticed by Nietzsche
and I thought that I existed above the “sheep”, that I was superior
to the common masses of people, the “sheep”.
my goodness, the values that we pursue, change as we age…
values too are transitory, temporary… but that doesn’t change
what their value is… we too can pursue such values as love
and justice and charity because at this time, those values
mean something, not just to me, but to the collective,
society at large…….and those values are positive values…
values worth having because they benefit, aid those who
pursue and hold values like love and justice and peace and honor…
it is not enough to engage in asceticism… that is a negative pursuit,
to engage in asceticism is to pursue nihilism because asceticism
is about denial, renunciation, austerity… and sometimes,
sometimes asceticism is the value we should pursue, but sometimes
not… we need to understand what values we should pursue and when.
a one size fits all use of values is a path to failure…
one value at one certain time might be the wrong value to
follow at that time…we must be able to change/adapt our values
to our situation… sometimes we must be warlike and sometimes
we must be peaceful and sometimes we must be just and other times,
not so much…
But Kropotkin… how do we know when we are to use certain values?
what situation requires what values? ah, you are learning…
sometimes the situation dictates the values and sometimes the values dictate
the situation……….
so, where do we begin to understand?
begin with Socrates… know thyself. learn to read/understand the
person in the mirror…Sapere Aude… dare to know/dare to understand…
Kropotkin