When humans think, God laughs. But since we have been alive, we can't help but think, so there are a vast number of writings from ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, and thousands of years ago, which are the crystallization of human beings' ridiculous thinking. And the eternal paradox that entangles human beings is death. Regardless of pain or happiness, poverty or wealth, ordinary people or celebrities, white men or scholars, they will eventually gain equality in the face of death and return to the unknown reincarnation.
Facing this cruel reality, Hamlet left an eternal question: "TO BE OR NOT TO BE"! To live or to die, that is the question. Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection" is not only famous for his calligraphy, but also embodies deep emotions about life. , it will end at the end! The ancients also had to go to death and rebirth, wouldn’t it be painful?” Tolstoy once said that if a person learns to think, no matter what his thoughts are, he will think of his own death.
The inevitability of death has become an eternal pain in people's hearts, making people doubt the meaning of life. A speaker once gave a speech on the value of life at a university. A student asked him a question on the spot and asked him to answer it truthfully. Do you think life is meaningful? The speaker was silent for a long time and said that I have thought about this question before facing the rough sea, facing the brilliant sea of ??stars like a river, and facing the mountains rising up. Now I will tell you my answer, life is meaningless! The whole place was as quiet as death, and suddenly thunderous applause broke out. Because he told a truth that no one wanted to admit in public.
In order to fight against death, human beings have created religions. Any religion will have this life and the next life; a series of equivalent concepts such as heaven and hell, etc., all to make believers believe that death is not an end, but a beginning. .
In order to fight against death, throughout the ages, countless philosophers and artists have expressed and elaborated their thoughts on death in the form of art and incisive language.
I used to be convinced by Schopenhauer's view that life is a meaningless journey, a pendulum between pain and boredom. Desire makes you suffer when you don't get it, but you fall into boredom when you get it. , even so people still have to face a helpless end. At that time, what joy in life and what fear in death became my life creed.
And Nietzsche’s philosophy changed my attitude towards life. Zhou Guoping's "Standing at the Turning Point of the Century" introduced me to Nietzsche, who studied under Schopenhauer but also pointed out a unique life choice.
"God is dead!" Nietzsche made a deafening voice, and all values ??must be revalued.
Schopenhauer believes that tragedy shows the pain and destruction of individual life to people, and its function is to make people see through the futility of individual life and desires as a phenomenon, and then see through the freedom behind the phenomenon. Things are the nihility and self-contradiction of the will of life in the universe, so one becomes apathetic and even gives up the entire will of life. But Nietzsche believes that "no matter how the phenomena change, the life in the foundation of things is still indestructible and full of joy." To affirm life, we must affirm the pain and destruction that life inevitably contains. To put it in Nietzsche's classic language: "The affirmation of life even in its most alien and difficult problems; the will to life, in its highest type of sacrifice, rejoices in its own inexhaustibility - I call this For the spirit of Dionysus. "The spirit of Dionysus requires people to look at their own individual life from the perspective of endless life. It is said that nature plays tricks on people, and nature creates and destroys individual lives like a game, and it seems that unimaginable things can be obtained from it. hapiness. For nature, everything is joy, even the pain and destruction of individual life are its joy. If we adhere to the spirit of this "primitive artist" and enter a mysterious and intoxicating state after our individual life disintegrates and merges with the life will of the world ontology, we can enjoy pain and destruction as aesthetic pleasure. . So Nietzsche pushed the Dionysian spirit from the small world of art to the big stage of life. From this point on, the Dionysian spirit can be understood as a broad aesthetic attitude towards life.
The meaning of life lies in the maximum development of vitality. Pain and stimulation increase vitality, strengthen the sense of strength and life, and thus turn into happiness. The essence of life lies in strength. Pursuing and experiencing this strength will realize the meaning of life. Nietzsche's Dionysian spirit can be described as the protein of life, allowing us to appreciate and create while walking on the irreversible journey of life, and walk through a life of openness with an aesthetic attitude towards life. Life is as bright as lightning, death is as quiet and beautiful as autumn flowers, it is the wish of life.
Pascal, the great seventeenth-century French thinker, has a famous saying in "Thoughts": People are just reeds, the most fragile reeds in nature. To destroy him, you don't need to use the power of the entire universe. A wisp of smoke or a drop of water is enough to kill him. But though the universe may destroy man, man is still nobler than his destroyer. Because man understands that he is going to die and that the universe is stronger than him; but the universe knows nothing about it.
In fact, let’s try to think about it. If there is really no death in life and it can last forever, is life still valuable? Death certainly means destruction, but it is death that creates the value of life.
No? There is a poem in the West:
If there is no terror for you,
Where can I find courage?
If it is not to resist you,
What is the meaning of love?
You both took and gave.
Although you did your best,
you left us more than you destroyed.
French Beauvoir once wrote a novel "Everyone is Mortal". The protagonist Phocas is immortal and has experienced 600 years of history. However, in the long journey of life, he understands the eternal life he once longed for. In fact, it is a kind of natural punishment that makes love, family affection, health, success, wealth and other valuable things meaningless. If there is no loss, what is gain? In an unforgettable scene in the novel, Phocas sits in the rain, asking only for illness and death, but he cannot get it. Rousseau said in "Emile", "If we were allowed to live forever in this world, who would be willing to accept this gift?"
Friends, one day we will all be on the road, the universe is vast, Where do you go? The stars are so long, where do you start?
So what, where are you, where are you going, are you sure and cherishing it in this life?
I once watched "Child's Dream" starring Andy Lau. I thought it was just an entertainment movie, but it also explored the themes of life and death. When Xiao Guang didn't understand the adult world, he hoped to become an adult. , but he understood the world of adults, and when he wanted to look back, he was old. There is no turning back in life, even if it is only one day, we must spend it seriously, complain less, blame less, cherish more, and be moved more.
Every day is the best day.