Chapter 2 On the Suffering of the World

There is no purpose in human life except to suffer as the immediate end of life.When we observe the world, we see that everything and everything is full of pain, which is due to the needs of life itself and cannot be separated. It is really meaningless and unreasonable.Although individual misfortunes seem to be unexpected things, but as ordinary misfortunes, things happen in the same way, which can be seen as inevitable. Evil, as most philosophical systems proclaim, is negative in its nature, which does not seem to me plausible.Evil has a positive side as well as other things, and its presence is often felt.Leibniz was especially a defender of this unreasonable claim, and he tried to strengthen his argument with obvious, trivial sophistry.In fact, luck is also negative.In other words, happiness and contentment, as far as the situation in which pain is determined to disappear, often contain the meaning of the fulfillment of desire.

It may explain the fact that, as is commonly seen, pleasure is often not what we expect, and pain far exceeds what we expect. It is said that the pleasures of the world, if measured by their weight, often exceed the pains, or else there is always an equal balance between the two.For this statement, if the reader wants to examine whether it is reasonable or not, please try to take two animals that eat each other, one of which is devouring the other wantonly, and everyone can make a comparison with all their emotions. In any misfortune and trouble, there is no better consolation than to think that others are worse off than your own.This way of consolation is really something that everyone can do.But for the entire human race, it means, what a sad fate this is!

We are like sheep in the field, playing under the watchful eye of the butchers. The sheep will be slaughtered in turn, first or last.So, on good days, we are all unaware of the lurking doom—sickness, poverty, disability, blindness, stupor, and so on—that awaits us long after. Time pushes us out of breath; time often spurs us behind, like a supervisor.Time stands still only when we are caught in the misery of troubles. But bad luck also plays a role!If the air is depressurized, our shell will be ruptured.Therefore, if people's needs, difficulties, and adversities are removed from their lives, all people's deeds will achieve success. At this time, they will become proud and arrogant.Although the human body is too big to break, it will definitely expose its stupidity, and it cannot even be fettered to madness.From this point of view, considerable worries, pains, and troubles are necessary for anyone at any time.If the ship is not loaded to balance it, it will pitch and move, and it will not be able to go straight.

Indeed, it is an inevitable fact that work and troubles constitute the life experience of many people, and everyone is the same.How would a person spend his life if his desires were immediately satisfied?What can they do if they are born in the world?If this world becomes a prosperous and comfortable heaven, a land of sweet milk and honey, fair and fair ladies, full of talents, without complaint or enmity, then people will definitely be bored, or they will die of boredom. There are battles, massacres, murders, etc. ensuing.In this way, the sufferings suffered by human beings will be more serious than those suffered by nature now.

When we were young, when we imagined our future life, we were like children sitting in a theater, excitedly looking forward to the opening of the curtain.It is really a joy to know what is going to appear without knowing the bottom line.If the coming can be predicted, there must be a time.It is like children who will become innocent, innocent criminals who will not be sentenced to death, but will be ignorant of their sentence.However, everyone wants to enjoy a good old age. In other words, there is only one way to say about the life situation he is looking forward to, that is, "it is getting worse day by day, and the situation is getting worse, until there is nothing to do."

As far as imagination is concerned, just imagine, under the bright sunlight, all kinds of pain and troubles will be presented, and what will be the degree?You must say that if, on the earth, the light and heat of the sun, the phenomena which make the existence of all things possible, diminish gradually, as on the moon, or the ground is in the state of crystalline rain and snow as elsewhere, How wonderful that would be! Again, you may see life in this way: as a useless episode in a drama that breaks the sacred peace of lifelessness.Whatever happens to you, everything goes your way, but as the years go by you start to feel that your whole life has been a disappointment and a deception, the truth of which is obvious.

The old friends who had been separated for half a century, met at an octogenarian age, and when they looked at each other, all the main emotions came out, but they felt that the whole life was disappointment.And so, as these two men reflect on the past, the life of their childhood comes before them, as if in the morning light, everything is rosy, with an admirable contentment, how much hope life has to offer us Ah,—yet how many of us are successful in the end.This kind of emotion is so touching that everyone thinks that there is no need to pay for it at this time.Then, both parties acquiesce, say nothing, and use this as the basis for all conversations.

Someone who has gone through two, three, or even more generations in his lifetime is like a person who was born in a shop and watched warlocks set up a stall.To see these warlocks perform in turn, and again, and again and again.This kind of performance can only be watched once, and when there is nothing new and not enough to dazzle, it is meaningless. When people's destiny is not enough to make people envious, there are countless people who are enough to make people cry. Life is a drudgery, and everyone has to do it.A man who does his duty is said to be doing good, that is, he has been able to do his work.

Would the human race continue to exist if childbearing was a mere act of pure reason?Are there indeed people who, in order to show sympathy for posterity, spare their birth from the burden of existence?Or in any case, they are unwilling to cruelly impose this burden on future generations. Maybe some people will tell me that my philosophy is not enough to comfort Man,—for I speak the truth.Everyone is willing to accept the old saying that God's creation is good, so they all go to the priest and pray, and ignore the philosopher.No matter what, please don't ask us to let our theories and sayings accommodate and adapt to the teachings you have received.That is only what hypocritical philosophers and the like are willing to do, and will get any doctrine they want from them.All the professors in the university are compelled to preach optimism.It is easy, and very pleasant, to overthrow their doctrines.

I have already drawn the reader's attention to the fact that all states of happiness, all emotions of satisfaction, are negative in their nature, or, in other words, free from pain, which is the positive element of life.Any happy life, therefore, for any human being, should be measured not by the amount of pleasure, but by the limit of freedom from distress—that is, from positive evil.If this may be called a sound argument, the lower animals seem to enjoy more happiness than man.Please check it out in detail! No matter how the ways of human happiness and suffering change, the material basis that guides people to give up one another is either physical pain or physical pleasure.This kind of basis is very limited, and it is nothing more than health, food, resistance to cold, heat, dryness and dampness, and satisfaction of sexual desire; otherwise, it is the lack of these things mentioned above.So, as far as physical pleasures alone are concerned, man is somewhat superior to animals only because of the higher possibility of his nervous system, which makes him more sensitive to any pleasure, but it must also be remembered that he is also sensitive to any pain. The same is true.Compared with animals, how strong are all human desires.Human emotions are profound and powerful, and they are so different from animals. —However, between man and animal, the final result is exactly the same, but health, food, clothing, etc.

The main reason why people have such strong desires is to think about the future and things that are not present.This, which has a great influence on all human conduct, is the real source of anxiety, hope, fear, and so on. —This emotion affects man far more deeply than animals do with all their present pleasures and pains, and all that can happen to them.In the faculties of recollection, memory, and foresight, man is like a machine capable of aggregating and storing his joys and sorrows.Animals have no such function at all, so although animals suffer the same pain many times, even countless times, when they are in pain, it is still as if they are suffering for the first time.They do not have the ability to synthesize all their emotions, so they are always worry-free, docile and calm.How enviable it is!People are different, and all emotions arise because of it.It is the same element of happiness and pain as humans and animals. Once accepted, the sensitivity to happiness and suffering will be sharpened, so that in an instant, when in contact with the state of happiness, it can cause happiness to death. At that moment, I fell into the abyss of despair and suicide. If we make a further analysis, we can find that people's desires increase their happiness.Compared with animals, its desires are not difficult to satisfy at first.But people deliberately increase their wants and quantities for greater enjoyment.As a result, all kinds of prosperity and luxury came into being: such as insatiable appetite, use of opium and tobacco, strong drinks (such as wine), luxurious clothing, and all other innumerable things that are higher than the needs of their survival. Moreover, there are still different and particular sources of pleasure or pain, and consequently also sources of pain, which man himself establishes.The self-worth that is valued by others is not proportional to it, or even exceeds the sum of all other pleasures. —This is what I call the emotions of ambition, respect, and shame;Such arguments are complicated and inconsistent, and finally become the goal of all human efforts, rather than based on physical pleasure and pain.It is true that in addition to the source of happiness common to animals, man also has spiritual happiness.This spiritual happiness has all kinds of differences, starting from the trivial, mere topic of conversation, to the achievements of the highest knowledge.Conversely, in terms of distress, all kinds of nonsense will accompany it.Boredom is still a mode of distress which animals are not aware of in any state of nature.Only the most cunning among them will show faint traces after being domesticated.But for humans, it becomes a disaster.Most wretched beings, who have nothing else in their minds than the end of life to fill their purses, furnish us with a special instance of the vexation of ennui.All the money the man has becomes a fine, and the man suffers from nothing to do.In order to avoid such boredom, they have to seek diversions in various ways.So they traveled around in search, and when they arrived at a certain place, they had no time to get off the car, so they were eager to find out what entertainment there was.In this they are no different from beggars seeking where to find food.Really, need and boredom are the two extremes of human life.Finally, with regard to sexual relations, I think that people are trapped in a special system, which makes each person necessarily choose one person to be his spouse.This kind of matching feeling gradually develops, and even increases or decreases their erotic love, which gradually becomes the cause of more pain and less happiness. Wouldn't it be exciting if the edifice of human happiness and misery could undergo vast and profound changes just because of the improvement of thinking!And the edifice built on the narrow foundation of the joys and sorrows shared by humans and animals has caused people to experience such strong emotions, so many turmoil of desires, and such shocks of emotions that it makes people suffer. The sufferings suffered can be recorded and left traces on the face.Then, when people suddenly realized, they realized that what man strives for is the same as what animals have achieved, except that animals have much less desires and pains than humans. At this time, the limit enough to increase life's misery is greatly exceeded compared with happiness.Also, the increase in the pain of life makes it go from bad to worse.This is because, in fact, the meaning of death is more real to human beings.Animals avoid death out of instinct. In fact, they don't know what death is, and they are not like humans, who always think about death by nature and always keep this imagination in front of them.Therefore, although only a few animals survive to the end of life, as far as most of them are concerned, they can only pass on to the next generation. Even if the death period is not too early, they will eventually be eaten by other animals; Although there may be exceptions, it is still more beneficial to live in the end of life-the animal is still more beneficial in comparison, for the reasons that have been explained above.In fact, human beings are as rare as animals who can live their lives to the fullest. This is mainly because their lives are not in line with nature, overwork, and lust, which gradually degenerate the human species and make human beings often unable to achieve their goals. just die. Compared with human beings, animals are only satisfied with survival; plants are even worse, completely unaware of the joys and sorrows of life.The degree to which a man regards life as contentment is proportional to the degree to which he is dull.Compared with human beings, the lives of animals bring little suffering and little joy.The real reason for studying it in this respect is that animals have no worries, no torments of anxiety, no real hope for anything.Whatever gives us the greatest and most gratifying pleasures, such as the anticipation of future happiness, the excitement of fantasies, etc., all come from our imagination, but animals have none of these.If the animal is free from worry, then, in this sense, there is no hope; the animal's consciousness is limited to what is in front of it, to what it can see at the moment, and the animal is the embodiment of the immediate stimulus. , in essence, the elements of fear and hope it has - not unstoppable - are only related to the current things within the reach of the impulse; His whole life, including his past and future. It can be seen that, compared with us, at a certain point, animals show real wisdom-that is, the so-called quiet happiness enjoyed in the present.This present peace of mind often makes us feel ashamed, because our thoughts and worries often disturb us, making us restless and dissatisfied.Actually, as stated above, hope and anticipation of happiness are not meaningless.Man's hopes and expectations for particular gratifications are part of the real pleasures associated with future enjoyment.But later on, this happiness will suffer: when things are not coming, the hope is more intense, and when they come, the satisfaction is reduced.All the happiness of animals is not what it expected, so it will not be compromised.Therefore, they are complete and intact to the actual happiness of the present moment.In the same way, the persecution of evil by animals only comes from knowing its real and inherent pressure.As for man, it is dreaded by its coming, and often becomes a tenfold unbearable burden. It is precisely because animals have this quality of placing themselves entirely in the present that our interest in them increases.At this time, the anthropomorphic status of animals makes us know the preciousness of every moment in many ways, so that we can get rid of troubles and disturbances.It's just that this kind of preciousness at present has become the least noticed thing because of our existing thoughts and the opinions of our ancestors.Man, however, is a selfish and heartless animal, who only abuses all the characteristics of animals for his own entertainment, and often uses them to the point of This limit, that is, makes animals have nothing but life.Birds can fly and swim all over the world, but people are imprisoned in a cubic foot of space. Although they long for freedom, they often sing their horns and die slowly. Birds in cages can never sing happy songs Come.When I see men ill-treating the dogs they have made their best friends, and how they keep the shrewd animal in chains, I feel great sympathy for the animal, and indignation at its master, Abhorred. Human misery, viewed with a noble sense, may be justified, as we shall see later on, but this argument does not apply to animals.Most of the sufferings of animals are caused by human beings, although sometimes there are also things that are not caused by human beings.So we should ask, why is this happening?Why does this kind of distress exist?There is nothing in the world that can stop the activity of the will, nor can it deny the existence of the will itself and get compensation at will.There is only one way of explaining the suffering of animals, namely: the will to live is hidden behind all the phenomenal world.In the animal way, they eat each other to satisfy their desire for food.The will to live thus creates hierarchies in the phenomenal world, each of which kills the next in order to survive itself.Yet I have shown that the possibility of animal suffering is less than that of man.If the fate of the animals were to be explained in any detail, it would, in fact, be hypothetical, if not mystical, in its nature.For the time being, I won’t talk about this matter anymore here, and leave it to the readers to think for themselves! It is said that Brahma produced this world due to some kind of mistake.In order to make up for its fault, it puts itself in the world until it manages to make up for it.How commendable it is to explain the origin of all things in this way!According to the teachings of Buddhism, the creation of the world is due to some inexplicable disturbances that break the sacred tranquility of the Nirvana heaven and earth—the appearance of this change is due to a predestination.It should be noted that this kind of statement can be interpreted as a theory held within the scope of material science, that is, the origin of the sun can be attributed to an incredible line of clouds and mist in ancient times. As for how the clouds and mist were formed, there is no way to understand. , really has a little moral significance.As a result, the world gradually deteriorated due to numerous moral faults - and the physical order as well - until it became the horrible state it is today.Great!It is still possible to say that the Greeks saw the world and its gods as an inescapable corollary.Before we get a satisfactory statement, we can only be satisfied with this for the time being.Furthermore, it is not a bad thing to say that Ormozda and Ahliman are two hostile gods who are often at war.But a god like Yahweh, who created this world of misery out of sheer fancy, and delighted in it, celebrated its success, and then pronounced all things good—that is not going to work.When it comes to the origin of the universe, Judaism is inferior to any religious teaching and cultured people.Because of this, there is no trace of the immortality of the soul anywhere but in the teachings of Judaism. ① Ormazd: a mythological figure of the fire sect, the main god, representing light, truth, life, and goodness, protecting mankind and creating a beautiful world in the struggle with Ahriman, another mythical figure of the fire sect .The latter is an evil god, ruling darkness, evil and death, against Ormozda. Even though Leibniz was justified in arguing that the earth is the most perfect form of all possible worlds, it does not prove that God created the world.All creations can not only create the world, but also create its possibilities.So, it should be arranged in such a way that a more perfect world is allowed to emerge. There are two aspects that make it impossible to believe that this world was created by an all-wise, all-good, all-powerful God: first, that in this world, there is suffering everywhere; Obviously not quite, far from being human as it should be, a mockery of what it should be.These two aspects are incompatible with faith.On the contrary, the facts just mentioned provide evidence for everything I have said. It proves that this world can be regarded as the result of our own sins, and therefore it is also a wart that should not exist in the first place.According to the old version, such a fact would be an impeachment to creation and a matter of ridicule; if according to today's version, it would only attack our nature, our will, and teach us to be Be humble.Under this guidance, we see ourselves as fatherless sons, who came into this world with a burden of sin; and only from this is the constant atonement, so our existence must be so suffering, until death can end everything. . It is an undoubted universal truth that the wretched evil of the world has produced its wretched misery, not in the sphere of human life, but in the material relation between the two, I mean the superempirical .So the only thing that fascinates me in the "Old Testament" is the story of the exile from the kingdom of heaven.In my opinion, although the story is written in the form of an allegory, it is still the only metaphysical truth in the book.I think there is no better description of human life than the consequences by which we are punished by fault or sin.I cannot fail to introduce to the thoughtful reader the treatise of Claudius on this subject, which reveals the principal pessimistic spirit of Christianity, popular and in-depth, entitled Sufferings for Your Good. There is a diametrically opposite point between the ethics of the Greeks and the ethics of the Indians.The ethics of the Greeks (with the exception of Plato) were aimed at exhorting man to live a happy life; whereas the ethics of India were at liberating man from such a life altogether—as in the Sankhya As indicated in the First Truth. Similarly, there are opposites in the Greek and Christian concept of death.In the Palace of Fine Arts in Florence, there is an ancient Greek sarcophagus with raised reliefs, showing all the etiquette of marriage in ancient times: from the formal proposal to the eve of marriage, the Haimen torch shines on the newlyweds until they enter the bridal chamber.This is to show the idea in a visible way.The coffin used by Christianity is decorated with sad black curtains and a cross is placed on it: both of them seek comfort in death, and the significance of this is so obvious!Although the two are opposite to each other, each has its own correctness.The former indicates the positive aspect of the will to live, and the change of the form of life, no matter how rapid, affirms the existence of the will to live; the latter, in the symbols of distress and death, indicates the negative aspect of the will to live, seeking to escape This world is beyond the reach of death and the power of the devil.On the issue of the positive and negative will to live, in the final analysis, Christianity still has its right place. Where the New Testament differs from the Old Testament, in terms of its ecclesiastical views, as my system of ethics differs from that of European moral philosophy. The "Old Testament" shows that people are under the management of the law, and there is no escape between heaven and earth; the "New Testament" declares that the law has failed, so that people can get rid of the management of the law and replace them with the holy kingdom of heaven. Faith, love for neighbor, and personal sacrifice are the way to escape from the suffering and evil of the world.No matter how Protestants and rationalists distort it, in order to suit their will, the spirit of the "New Testament" is to encourage people to practice asceticism, there is no doubt about it.Asceticism, the negative side of the will to live.Transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament; from the sphere of law to the sphere of faith; from the judgment of right conduct, to the relief of divine protection in men; , in its true sense, is nothing but the transition from engaging in morally good deeds to the passivity of the will to live.My philosophy reveals the metaphysical basis of justice and love, and indicates the ends to which such morality necessarily leads.If these virtues can be fully practiced.At the same time, it should be frankly admitted that people must face the world, and the passivity of the will to survive is the way to save the world.This is combined with the spirit of the "New Testament", then other philosophical systems coincide with the spirit of the "Old Testament", that is to say, in theory and in practice, the result is Judaism. —belonging to authoritarian monotheism only.On this point, therefore, my doctrine may be called the only Christian philosophy--although this statement may seem anecdotal to those who are always shallow, rather than deeply penetrating into the nature of things. contradictory. If you want to find a reliable guide in life, to find the right way of life and get rid of all doubts, then, except get used to this world as the world of criminals, a kind of concentration camp for criminals, as the ancient philosophers called it .Among the Christian elders, Orijan held this view with admirable courage, further confirmed by the objective theory of life.Here I mean not only the coincidence with my philosophy, but also with all the wise teachings of ancient times, as already shown in Brahmanism and Buddhism; the Greek philosophers Empedocles and Pythagorean Geras and others have also said; similarly, Cicero has said: The wise men of ancient times used to teach people that we are born in this world, and the reason for being punished is because we want to redeem the crimes committed in other worlds. sin. ——This kind of preaching makes people feel like falling into the clouds.Another example is Vanini - burned to death by his contemporaries, because it is difficult to argue with him, so it is better to kill him - explained this truth in powerful language.He said: "Mankind is full of all kinds of hardships. If it does not contradict Christianity, I dare to say that even if there is a devil, it has put on a human face and was born, and now it has received evil retribution." Christianity—— In its true sense - also sees our existence as the result of sin and error. If you get used to this outlook on life, you will base your hopes on life on this basis, and see all unfortunate things, no matter whether they are big or small, suffering or annoyance, you will not think it strange or as an exception, but will think of it as an exception. It is natural to think that in this world we shall experience the punishment of existence in our own particular way.Interacting with prisoners in prison can be very embarrassing.If the reader doesn't bother to associate with this, I don't need to spend more time reminding him that he should pay attention to what kind of people he is dealing with now.If you are outstanding, or a person with extraordinary talents and abilities, you will feel that you are a political prisoner who is neither humble nor overbearing, and you have to join the crew of ordinary prisoners who are in the same boat. . In short, generally speaking, this kind of outlook on life will make us not surprised by the incompleteness of most people's character, lack of morality and knowledge, and the triviality of their faces, let alone express anger and slander them.Because we often think, what kind of world we live in, and the people we live with are all conceived of sin, which is inherent in the body, accompanied by the common reward of life, this is the so-called sinful nature of man in Christianity . "'Evil' is the proper language for all people!" No matter what mistakes people make, no matter how their shortcomings and sins are, we should bear it.Remember that when others see these sins, we see our own folly and flaws too.This is the shortcoming that we all have in common as human beings, and it is a shortcoming and a fault that occurs again and again.Of course, the faults make people furious because they have not yet appeared in us, but they are indeed lurking in the depths of our nature, and if there is any chance to bring them to appear, they will appear and appear. revealed, as we now see the behavior of others.It is true that man may be guilty of what others are not, yet sometimes most of the total sin cannot be denied.Therefore, the difference in personality, between people, cannot be measured. In fact, it is better to think that there are no people in this world than there are.This kind of belief enables us to communicate with each other, to tolerate each other, and to bear with each other.Therefore, starting from this point of view, we should abandon the honorary titles such as adults and gentlemen, and be commensurate with friends in adversity and suffering!Although this view is a bit shocking, it is in line with the facts.Therefore, for others, you can give correct insights, and for yourself, make them often remember,-tolerance, patience, respect, love, etc., are the most important things in life and what everyone needs. Everyone's duty to their peers!