[Buddha-l] Nietzsche was a bachelor (was: Batchelor)

[Joy Vriens]

Richard wrote:

"The arhant hates life, fears life, seeks to escape life; he cannot face the
prospect of an eternal return. (One finds a similar appraisal of Buddhism in
some of the writings of William James, especially in his last lecture on
Pragmatism.)"

No, no and no. I will have to call good old Louis de la Vallée Poussin back
into service.

"Voici maintenant trente ans que j'ai exposé la vraie explication. Mais en
dehors de la phalange des étudiants du pâli, la vieille bourde (the old
blunder) continue à être souvent répétée". (Early Buddhism, p. 73-74 (1908)
; Buddhism, 1877, 1907 (22th éd.), p. 110) Nirvana, Editions Dharma 2001,
p.82

See the conversation between Udâyin and Ananda about "Nirvana in this very
life" (ditthadhammanibbana), "nirvana in this world" (nippariyayena) and the
felicities of the world (drstadharmasukhavihara) - Nirvana p. 80.

And if Nirvana is possible in this life and in this world, and since Nirvana
is also called the Unconditioned, then perhaps "the Unconditioned" is
possible in this life, in this world, in existence...

Perhaps the arhant, like his Christian brethren, is living the real life,
only escaping sin, a life without Life and says yes to Life.


> Although it is well known that Nietzsche knew little about Buddhism, I
> think if he had known about Buddhism what scholars today know of it, he
> would have hated it even more than the wimpy, life-fearing Buddhism he
> imagined on the basis of the scanty evidence available to Europeans of his
> day.
>
>
I think scholars of today ought to read good old Louis again.

Joy