Dhammapada, XII. Autocontrol (Tú mismo)

(Photo by Opspin)

157. Si uno se aprecia a sí mismo, deberá protegerse bien. El hombre sabio permanece atento en cada una de las tres vigilias. (Ámate a ti mismo: cuida de ti mismo. Vigila por lo menos la tercera parte de la noche.)

158. Establézcase primero uno mismo en lo que es apropiado antes de aconsejar a los demás. Actuando de esta manera, el hombre sabio no caerá en desgracia. (Una vez confirmes el camino, enseña, y vence el sufrimiento.)

159. Según aconseja a los demás, debe él mismo actuar. Bien controlado él mismo, puede guiar a los otros. Verdaderamente es difícil controlarse a uno mismo. (Para enseñar a los demás, has de hacer primero algo muy duro: has de enderezarte a ti mismo.)

160. Uno mismo es su propio refugio. ¡Qué otro refugio podría haber! Habiéndose controlado a uno mismo, se obtiene un refugio difícil de conseguir. (Tú eres tu propio señor. ¿quién más en realidad? Aunque pocos se disciplinan, tú ríndiete a ti mismo y descubre a tu señor.)

161. Por uno mismo es hecho el mal; en uno mismo nace y uno mismo lo causa. El mal muele al necio como el diamante muele la dura gema. (De buena gana has alimentado tus propios males e infortunios: muy pronto habrán de quebrarte como el diamante quiebra la roca.)

162. La corrupción que sobrepasa al hombre es como la enredadera maluva estrangulando al árbol sala y lo convierte en aquello que para él desearía su propio enemigo. (Tus propios errores te degradan más que lo que tus peores enemigos hubieran podido imaginar. Son los venenosos frutos del mal.)

163. De fácil ejecución son las cosas nocivas y dañinas. Lo bueno y beneficioso es verdaderamente difícil de hacer. (¡Qué fácil es dejarse llevar por el error! ¡Mas que difícil es dominarse a uno mismo!)

164. El hombre estúpido que, por su falsa visión, desprecia las enseñanzas de los Iluminados, los Nobles y los Rectos, cultiva frutos que, como le sucede al kashta, producen su propia destrucción. (Hay plantas que mueren al dar fruto: así es el tonto que se burla de las enseñanzas de los transformados. Despreciando a los que siguen la ley el necio peligra, pues la estupidez madura.)

165. Por uno mismo se hace el mal y uno mismo se contamina. Por uno mismo se deja de hacer el mal y uno mismo se purifica. La pureza y la impureza dependen de uno mismo. Nadie puede purificar a otro. (El dolor y el sufrimiento son tuyos. La virtud y la pureza también lo son. Tú eres la fuente de toda pureza e impureza. Nadie puede purificar a ningún otro.)

166. Por buscar el logro (espiritual) de los otros, no obstante, no debe uno ser negligente en la búsqueda del propio logro. Percibiendo claramente la propia meta, permita que otro intente su propio resultado. (No trates de cambiar tu deber por el de otro, no descuides tu trabajo por el de otro, no importa qué tan noble pueda ser. Estas aquí para descubrir tu propio camino y entregarte a él en cuerpo y alma.)

El Dhammapada, Tú mismo.

Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, In'ei Raisan (1933)

…eso que por lo general se denomina bello es sólo una sublimación de las realidades de la vida, y así fue como… obligados a residir… en casas oscuras, descubrieron un día lo bello en el seno de la sombra y no tardaron en utilizarla con el fin de conseguir resultados estéticos… en verdad, la belleza de una habitación… producida exclusivamente por un juego sobre el grado de opacidad de la sombra, no precisa de accesorio alguno más… necesariamente la luz indirecta y borrosa es el principal elemento de la belleza de nuestras viviendas… nos deleitamos con esa claridad sutil, constituida de la luz externa cuyo semblante es incierto y permanece atrapado en la superficie de las paredes de color crepuscular y que mantiene a duras penas un último hálito de vida… esa claridad proyectada sobre una pared, o mejor dicho esa penumbra, vale por todos los adornos del mundo y su contemplación nunca nos cansa.

Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, In'ei Raisan (1933)

Søren Kierkegaard, Frygt og Bæven, Problemata (1843)

(photo by kikisdad)

El mundo exterior está sometido a la ley de la imperfección; en él se ve constantemente cómo el ocioso obtiene también su alimento, y el dormilón en mucho mayor abundancia que el laborioso. Todo está sujeto en manos del poseedor en el mundo visible, sujeto a la ley de la indiferencia… En el mundo del espíritu, donde reina un orden eterno y divino, no sucede lo mismo; allí no llueve sobre el justo o el injusto a la vez; allí no brilla el sol con indiferencia para los buenos y los malos; en verdad puede decirse allí: sólo quien trabaja tiene pan, sólo el angustiado halla reposo, sólo quien desciende a los infiernos salva a la amada, sólo quien saca el cuchillo salva a Isaac.

The exterior world is constrained by the law of the imperfection; it is seen constantly how the idle one obtains also hisher food, and the sleeper in much greater abundance than the laborious one. Everything is subject in the hands of the owner in the visible world, subject to the law of the indifference... In the world of the spirit, where an eternal and divine order reigns, it does not happen the same; there, it is not rained on the exactly or the unfair one at the same time; there, the sun does not shine with indifference for the good ones and the bad ones; it can really be said there: only who works has bread, only the distressed one finds rest, only who goes down to the hells rescues the loved one, only who takes the knife save Isaac.

Daisetz T. Susuki, Living by Zen (1950)

(photo by kikisdad)

Cualquier budista sincero afronta tres problemas capitales (íntimamente relacionados, pues cuando se elige uno los otros dos se presentan a la vez) que le impedirán alcanzar la paz mientras no sean resueltos por su espíritu…

1. ¿Qué es el Buda? (se refiere a la naturaleza de la iluminación): es necesario purificar los estigmas que enturbian nuestra naturaleza de Buda, ¿de dónde provienen las manchas que nos velan esta naturaleza, que nos impiden ser Budas?


2. ¿Qué es la Mente? (se refiere a la mente universal, el principio más elevado del que emana toda la multiplicidad del universo, y por ende se refiere a la naturaleza del Buda): la naturaleza del Buda es la mente y la mente es la naturaleza del Buda


3. ¿De dónde venimos y adónde vamos? (se refiere al problema del nacimiento y de la muerte): es también el problema de la mente y el problema de la naturaleza; cuando conoces la naturaleza (o la mente) sabes de dónde vienes y hacia dónde vas y este conocimiento te libera de las ataduras del nacimiento y de la muerte.
   

Daisetz T. Susuki, Living by Zen (1950)

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), Talks of Instruction

(photo by kikisdad)

"Pero en verdad yo digo que en el infierno arde la nada... En verdad digo: mientras la nada esté apegada a ti, eres imperfecto. Si quieres ser perfecto debes liberarte de la nada... Quien durante mil años preguntara a la vida: "¿por qué vives?", si pudiera responder no diría otra cosa que "vivo porque vivo"... Si un hombre verdadero, que actúa desde su propio fondo, pregunta:"¿por qué realizas tus obras?", si pudiera contestar rectamente, no diría otra cosa que "las hago porque las hago"..." (vivir sin porqué)

"Whoever possesses God in their being, has him in a divine manner, and he shines out to them in all things; for them all things taste of God and in all things it is God's image that they see.""People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.""It is a fair trade and an equal exchange: to the extent that you depart from things, thus far, no more and no less, God enters into you with all that is his, as far as you have stripped yourself of yourself in all things. It is here that you should begin, whatever the cost, for it is here that you will find true peace, and nowhere else."

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank You", that would suffice. “

“God wants nothing of you but the gift of a peaceful heart.“

“We need not destroy any little good in ourselves for the sake of a better, but we should strive to grasp every truth in its highest meaning, for no one good contradicts another.”

“The man who abides in the will of God wills nothing else than what God is, and what He wills. If he were ill he would not wish to be well. If he really abides in God's will, all pain is to him a joy, all complication, simple: yea, even the pains of hell would be a joy to him. He is free and gone out from himself, and from all that he receives, he must be free. If my eye is to discern colour, it must itself be free from all colour.”

“The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. “

“Only those who have dared to let go can dare to reenter.”

“The quieter the mind the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. “


Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), Talks of Instruction

Marie-Louise von Franz, El proceso de individuación (circa 1960)

(photo by cesarastudillo)

La gente que vive en culturas más firmemente enraizadas que la nuestra, tienen menos dificultad en comprender que es necesario prescindir de la actitud utilitaria de los proyectos conscientes con el fin de dejar paso al desarrollo interno de la personalidad.
…
Nuestra actitud debe ser como la del pino…: no se incomoda cuando su crecimiento lo estorba, ni hace planes sobre cómo vencer los obstáculos. Trata meramente de tantear si tiene que crecer más hacia la izquierda o hacia la derecha, hacia el declive o debe alejarse de él.
…
Además, es inútil echar miradas furtivas a la forma en que otro cualquiera se desarrolla porque cada uno de nosotros tiene una tarea única de autorrealización. Aunque muchos problemas son análogos jamás son idénticos.
…
El proceso de individuación efectivo.. empieza generalmente con una herida de la personalidad y el sufrimiento que la acompaña. Esta conmoción inicial llega a una especie de “llamada”, aunque no siempre se reconoce como tal.
…
Quizá todo parece exteriormente muy bien, pero, bajo la superficie, la persona padece un mortal aburrimiento que hace que todo le parezca sin significado y vacío.
…
Solo hay una cosa que parece servir, y es dirigirse directamente, sin prejuicio y con toda ingenuidad, hacia la oscuridad que avanza y tratar de encontrar cuál es la finalidad secreta y qué nos exige.
…
Luego hay que comenzar el proceso aceptando toda clase de verdades amargas.
…

The people that lives in cultures more firmly taken root that ours, have less difficulty in understanding that it is necessary to dispense with the utilitarian attitude of the conscious projects in order to allow the internal development of the personality.
…
Our attitude must be as that of the pine...: it is not inconvenienced when its growth bothers it, nor it does plans about how to overcome the obstacles. It tries merely to size up whether it has to grow more towards the left or towards the right, towards the decline or it must be moved away of it.
…
Besides, it is useless to throw furtive looks to the way in which any other one develops because each of us has a unique task of self-realization. Although many problems are analogous ever are identical.
…
The effective process of Individuation.. starts generally with a wound of the personality and the suffering that accompanies it. This initial shock arrives to a sort of "call", although it is not always recognized as such.
…
Perhaps everything seems exteriorly very well, but, under the surface, the person suffers a mortal boredom that makes everything seem to her without meaning and emptiness.
…
There is only a thing that it seems to serve, and it is to be directed directly, without prejudice and with every naivety, towards the darkness that advances and to try to find out which is the secret purpose and what demand us.
…
Afterwards the process has to be started accepting every class of bitter truths.

...

Marie-Louise von Franz, El proceso de individuación, The process of individuation

The Bhagavad Gita

(photo by oliyoung)

Chapter 5: Path of Renunciation

1. Arjuna said: O Krishna, You praise transcendental knowledge (the Saamkhya or Karma-Samnyasa) and also performance of unattached action, Karma-yoga. Tell me, definitely, which one is better of the two. (See also 5.05) (5.01) ( Karma-Samnyasa means renunciation of doership, ownership, and selfish motive behind an action, and not the renunciation of work, or the worldly objects. Karma-Samnyasa comes only after the dawn of Self-knowledge. Therefore, words Jnana, Saamkhya, Samnyasa, and Karma-Samnyasa are used interchangeably throughout the Gita. Renunciation is considered the goal of life, and Karma and Jnana are the necessary means to achieve the goal.)


2. The Supreme Lord said: Karma-Samnyasa, and Karma-yoga both lead to the Supreme. But, of the two, Karma-yoga is superior to Karma-Samnyasa. (5.02)


3. A person should be considered a true Samnyasi or renunciant who neither likes nor dislikes. Because, free from the dualities, O Arjuna, one is easily liberated from bondage. (5.03)


4. The ignorant, not the wise, consider Karma-Samnyasa and Karma-yoga as different from each other. The person who has truly mastered one, gets the benefits of both. (5.04)


5. Whatever goal a Samnyasi reaches, a Karma-yogi also reaches the same goal. One who sees the path of renunciation and the path of work as the same, really sees. (See also 6.01 and 6.02) (5.05)


6. But Samnyasa, O Arjuna, is difficult to attain without Karma-yoga. A Karma-yogi sage quickly attains Brahman. (See also 4.31, and 4.38) (5.06)


7. A Karma-yogi whose mind is pure, whose mind and senses are under control, and who sees one and the same Self in all beings, is not bound (by Karma) though engaged in work. (5.07)


8. A Samnyasi who knows the truth thinks: I do nothing at all. For in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing; and (5.08)


9. Speaking, giving, taking, opening and closing the eyes, a Samnyasi believes that only the senses are operating upon their sense objects. (See also 3.27, 13.29, and 14.19) (5.09)


10. One who does all work as an offering to the Lord, abandoning attachment to the results, is as untouched by sin (or Karmic reaction) as a lotus leaf is untouched by water. (5.10)


11. A Karma-yogi performs action by body, mind, intellect, and senses, without attachment (or ego), only for self-purification. (5.11)


12. A Karma-yogi, abandoning the fruit of work, attains Supreme Bliss while others, who are attached to the fruits of work, become bound by selfish work. (5.12)


13. A person who has subdued the senses and completely renounced (the fruits of) all works, dwells happily in the City of Nine Gates, neither performing nor directing action. (5.13)


14. The Lord neither creates the urge for action nor the feeling of doership nor the attachment to the results of action in people. All these are done by the (Gunas of) nature. (5.14)


15. The Lord does not take the (responsibility for) good or evil deeds of anybody. The knowledge is covered by (the veil of) ignorance, thereby people are deluded. (5.15)


16. But their knowledge, whose ignorance is destroyed by the Self-knowledge, reveals the Supreme like the sun (reveals the beauty of objects of the world). (5.16)


17. They, whose mind and intellect are absorbed in the Self, who remain firmly attached with the Self, who have Self as their supreme goal, whose sins (or impurities) have been destroyed by the knowledge, do not take birth again. (5.17)


18. An enlightened person looks at a learned and humble Braahmana, an outcast, even a cow, an elephant, or a dog with an equal eye. (5.18)


19. Everything has been accomplished in this very life by those whose mind is set in equality. Such a person has realized Brahman because Brahman is flawless and impartial. (See also 18.55) (5.19)


20. One who neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant nor grieves on obtaining the unpleasant, who is undeluded, who has a steady mind, and who is a knower of Brahman; such a person abides in Brahman. (5.20)


21. A person whose mind is unattached to sensual pleasures, who discovers the joy of the Self, and whose mind is in union with Brahman through meditation, enjoys eternal bliss. (5.21)


22. Pleasures derived from the contact of senses with their objects (or the sensual pleasures) are verily the source of misery, and have a beginning and an end. The wise, O Arjuna, do not rejoice in sensual pleasures. (See also 18.38) (5.22)


23. One who is able to withstand the impulse of lust and anger before death is a yogi, and a happy person. (5.23)


24. One who finds happiness with the Self, who rejoices the Self within, and who is illuminated by the Self-knowledge; such a yogi becomes one with Brahman and attains supreme nirvana. (5.24)


25. Seers whose sins (or imperfections) are destroyed, whose doubts have been dispelled by knowledge, whose disciplined minds are attached with the Self, and who are engaged in the welfare of all beings attain Supreme Brahman. (5.25)


26. A Self-realized person who is free from lust and anger, and who has subdued the mind and senses easily attains nirvana. (5.26)


27. Renouncing sense enjoyments; fixing the eyes and mind at the midbrows; equalizing the breath moving through the nostrils (by Kriya techniques); (See also 4.29, 6.13 and 8.10) (5.27)


28. With senses, mind, and intellect under control; having liberation as the prime goal; free from lust, anger, and fear; such a sage is verily liberated. (5.28)


29. The one who knows Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, as the great Lord of all the worlds, and as the friend of all beings, attains peace. (5.29)

Complete text

Multi-idiom versions at http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/

The Bhagavad Gita

Jacques Lacan, Écrits (1966)

“…el desplazamiento del significante determina a los sujetos en sus actos, en su destino, en sus rechazos, en sus cegueras, en sus éxitos y en su suerte, a despecho de sus dotes innatas y de su logro social, sin consideración del carácter o del sexo, y que de buena o mala gana seguirá al tren del significante como armas y bagajes, todo lo dado de lo psicológico.”

“El gusto del escollo es el ornamento de la perseverancia en el ser.”

“Ese juego mediante el cual el niño se ejercita en hacer desaparecer de su vista, para volver a traerlo a ella, luego obligarlo de nuevo, un objeto, por lo demás indiferente en cuanto a su naturaleza, a la vez que modula esta alternancia con sílabas distintivas –ese juego, diremos, manifiesta en sus rasgos radicales la determinación que el animal humano recibe del orden simbólico.

El hombre literalmente consagra su tiempo a desplegar la alternativa estructural en que la presencia y la ausencia toman una de la otra su llamado. Es en el momento de su conjunción esencial, y por decirlo así en el punto cero del deseo, donde el objeto humano cae bajo el efecto de la captura, que, anulando su propiedad natural, lo somete desde ese momento a las condiciones del símbolo.

A decir verdad, hay tan sólo aquí una vislumbre iluminante de la entrada del individuo en un orden cuya masa lo sostiene y lo acoge bajo la forma del lenguaje, y sobreimprime en la diacronía como en la sincronía la determinación del significante con el significado.”

Jacques Lacan, El seminario sobre “la carta robada” en Écrits

Azorín, Diario de un enfermo (1901)

¿Qué es la vida? ¿Qué fin tiene la vida? ¿Qué hacemos aquí abajo? ¿Para qué vivimos? No lo sé; esto es abrumadamente imbécil, abrumadamente imbécil… No tengo plan, no tengo idea, no tengo finalidad ninguna…

Esta mañana… la he encontrado. ¿A quién? No sé… Un momento, instintivamente, vibrantemente, nos hemos mirado sin detenernos. Ella, ha seguido; yo he seguido… Diríase que habíamos vivido juntos eternidades en otros mundos… ¿Por qué no he ido yo a ella y ella no ha venido a mí?...

Vivamos impasibles; contemplemos impávidos la fatal corriente de las cosas. El dolor es tan irreal como el placer… ¿Existimos acaso?... Sí, acaso sea la realidad una ilusión, y nosotros mismos, ilusiones que flotan un momento y desaparecen en la Nada, también quimera.

Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in pessimism (circa 1851)

[frame taken from "If Mirrors Could Speak. Self-Image Film (1976)"]

THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER: STUDIES IN PESSIMISM

TRANSLATED BY T. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A.

NOTE. The Essays here presented form a further selection from Schopenhauer's Parerga, brought together under a title which is not to be found in the original, and does not claim to apply to every chapter inthe volume.

ON THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE

THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.

This vanity finds expression in the whole way in which things exist; in the infinite nature of Time and Space, as opposed to the finite nature of the individual in both; in the ever-passing present moment as the only mode of actual existence; in the interdependence and relativity of all things; in continual Becoming without ever Being; in constant wishing and never being satisfied; in the long battle which forms the history of life, where every effort is checked by difficulties, and stopped until they are overcome. Time is that in which all things pass away; it is merely the form under which the will to live--the thing-in-itself and therefore imperishable--has revealed to it that its efforts are in vain; it is that agent by which at every moment all things in our hands become as nothing, and lose any real value they possess.

That which _has been_ exists no more; it exists as little as that which has _never_ been. But of everything that exists you must say, in the next moment, that it has been. Hence something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in
that the latter is a _reality_, and related to the former as something to nothing.

A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true. The crudest intellect cannot speculate on such a subject without having a presentiment that Time is something ideal in its nature. This ideality of Time and Space is the key to every true system of metaphysics; because it provides for quite another order of things than is to be met with in the domain of nature. This is why Kant is so great.

Of every event in our life we can say only for one moment that it _is_; for ever after, that it _was_. Every evening we are poorer by a day. It might, perhaps, make us mad to see how rapidly our short span of time ebbs away; if it were not that in the furthest depths of our being we are secretly conscious of our share in the exhaustible spring of eternity, so that we can always hope to find life in it again.

Consideration of the kind, touched on above, might, indeed, lead us to embrace the belief that the greatest _wisdom_ is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest _folly_: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort.

The whole foundation on which our existence rests is the present--the ever-fleeting present. It lies, then, in the very nature of our existence to take the form of constant motion, and to offer no
possibility of our ever attaining the rest for which we are always striving. We are like a man running downhill, who cannot keep on his legs unless he runs on, and will inevitably fall if he stops; or, again, like a pole balanced on the tip of one's finger; or like a planet, which would fall into its sun the moment it ceased to hurry forward on its way. Unrest is the mark of existence.

In a world where all is unstable, and nought can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope--in such a world, happiness in inconceivable. How can it dwell where, as Plato says, _continual Becoming and never Being_ is the sole form of existence? In the first place, a man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with masts and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.

At the same time it is a wonderful thing that, in the world of human beings as in that of animals in general, this manifold restless motion is produced and kept up by the agency of two simple impulses--hunger and the sexual instinct; aided a little, perhaps, by the influence of boredom, but by nothing else; and that, in the theatre of life, these suffice to form the _primum mobile_ of how complicated a machinery, setting in motion how strange and varied a scene!

On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflict between chemical forces, which eventually works dissolution; and on the other hand, that organic life is impossible without continual change of matter, and cannot exist if it does not receive perpetual help from without. This is the realm of _finality_; and its opposite would be _an infinite existence_, exposed to no attack from without, and needing nothing to support it; [Greek: haei hosautos dn], the realm of eternal peace; [Greek: oute giguomenon oute apollumenon], some timeless, changeless state, one and undiversified; the negative knowledge of which forms the dominant note of the Platonic philosophy. It is to some such state as this that the denial of the will to live opens up the way.

The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off. So, to gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better things, at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again. We look upon the present as something to be put up with while it lasts, and serving only as the way towards our goal. Hence most people, if they glance back when they come to the end of life, will find that all along they have been living _ad interim_: they will be surprised to find that the very thing they disregarded and let slip by unenjoyed, was just the life in the expectation of which they passed all their time. Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced into the arms of death!

Then again, how insatiable a creature is man! Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will. And why is this? The real reason is simply that, taken in itself, Will is the lord of all worlds: everything belongs to it, and therefore no one single thing can ever give it satisfaction, but only the whole, which is endless. For all that, it must rouse our sympathy to think how very little the Will, this lord of the world, really gets when it takes the form of an individual; usually only just enough to keep the body together. This is why man is so very miserable.

Life presents itself chiefly as a task--the task, I mean, of subsisting at all, _gagner sa vie_. If this is accomplished, life is a burden, and then there comes the second task of doing something with that which has been won--of warding off boredom, which, like a bird of prey, hovers over us, ready to fall wherever it sees a life secure from need. The first task is to win something; the second, to banish the feeling that it has been won; otherwise it is a burden.

Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life? If life--the craving for which is the very essence of our being--were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing. But as it is, we take no delight in existence except when we are struggling for something; and then distance and difficulties to be overcome make our goal look as though it would satisfy us--an illusion which vanishes when we reach it; or else when we are occupied with some purely intellectual interest--when in reality we have stepped forth from life to look upon it from the outside, much after the manner of spectators at a play. And even sensual pleasure itself means nothing but a struggle and aspiration, ceasing the moment its aim is attained. Whenever we are not occupied in one of these ways, but cast upon existence itself, its vain and worthless nature is brought home to us; and this is what we mean by boredom. The hankering after what is strange and uncommon--an innate and ineradicable tendency of human nature--shows how glad we are at any interruption of that natural course of affairs which is so very tedious.

That this most perfect manifestation of the will to live, the human organism, with the cunning and complex working of its machinery, must fall to dust and yield up itself and all its strivings to extinction--this is the naïve way in which Nature, who is always so true and sincere in what she says, proclaims the whole struggle of this will as in its very essence barren and unprofitable. Were it of any value in itself, anything unconditioned and absolute, it could not thus end in mere nothing.

If we turn from contemplating the world as a whole, and, in particular, the generations of men as they live their little hour of mock-existence and then are swept away in rapid succession; if we turn from this, and look at life in its small details, as presented, say, in a comedy, how ridiculous it all seems! It is like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop teeming with _infusoria_; or a speck of cheese full of mites invisible to the naked eye. How we laugh as they bustle about so eagerly, and struggle with one another in so tiny a space! And whether here, or in the little span of human life, this terrible activity produces a comic effect.

It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.

Complete textbook available at The Project Gutenberg

Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in pessimism (circa 1851)

Ecclesiastes (250 BC)

[frame taken from "If Mirrors Could Speak. Self-Image Film (1976)"]

Chapter 1
1: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2: Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3: What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
4: A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.
5: The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
6: The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
7: All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
8: All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9: What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
10: Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already, in the ages before us.
11: There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.
12: I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13: And I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with.
14: I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
15: What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
16: I said to myself, "I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."
17: And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
18: For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.


Chapter 2
1: I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.
2: I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?"
3: I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine -- my mind still guiding me with wisdom -- and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life.
4: I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself;
5: I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.
6: I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.
7: I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.
8: I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight.
9: So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.
10: And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
11: Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12: So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done.
13: Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
14: The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that one fate comes to all of them.
15: Then I said to myself, "What befalls the fool will befall me also; why then have I been so very wise?" And I said to myself that this also is vanity.
16: For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!
17: So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18: I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;
19: and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
20: So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
21: because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22: What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
23: For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.
24: There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;
25: for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
26: For to the man who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

complete version availiable online at University of Virginia

Ecclesiastes

Miguel de Unamuno, Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1913)

[frame taken from "If Mirrors Could Speak. Self-Image Film (1976)"]

“…lo real, lo realmente real, es irracional: que la razón construye sobre irracionalidades.”
"... what is real, the really real, is irrational: that the reason builds on irrationality."


Miguel de Unamuno, Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1913)

Vulgate (Latin): Psalms Chapter 113

[frame taken from "If Mirrors Could Speak. Self-Image Film (1976)"]

12 Simulacra gentium argentum et aurum,

opera manuum hominum.

13 Os habent, et non loquentur;

oculos habent, et non videbunt.

14 Aures habent, et non audient;

nares habent, et non odorabunt.

15 Manus habent, et non palpabunt;

pedes habent, et non ambulabunt;

non clamabunt in gutture suo.

12 The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold,
the works of the hands of men.

13 They have mouths and speak not;
they have eyes and see not.

14 They have ears and hear not;
they have noses and smell not.

15 They have hands and feel not;
they have feet and walk not;
neither shall they cry out through their throat.

Vulgate (Latin): Psalms Chapter 113

Lars Gyllenstens (1921–2006), Mandamientos

(photo's author: Mary Mollison)

1. No tendrás otros dioses más que los provisionales.
3. Piensa que los demás disfrutan tanto del confort como tú.
4. Protege aquellos que no saben protegerse a sí mismos.
6. No contagiarás nunca enfermedades venéreas ni pondrás en el mundo niños no deseados ni expondrás a los otros a violencia sexual; además, debes colaborar para que nazcan los menos niños posibles porque ya nacen demasiados. Por lo demás, puedes liberarte a la promiscuidad, masturbación, pornografía y todas las cosas buenas que estas prácticas de carácter sexual puedan proporcionarle a tu naturaleza animal en su infinita piedad.
7. Muchos están mejor de lo que se merecen, si eres uno de ellos comparte con los demás y si no, róbales.

1. You will not have other gods more than the temporary ones.
3. Think that the others enjoy the comfort as much as you.
4. Protect those that do not know how to be protected from themselves.
6. You will ever not contaminate venereal diseases nor will put in the world children unwanted nor will expose the other ones to sexual violence; besides, you must collaborate in order that few children as possible born since too many children have already been born. For the rest, you can release yourself to the promiscuity, masturbation, pornography and all the good things that these practices of sexual character can provide your animal nature with in its infinite mercy.
7. Many people are better than they deserved. If you are one of them share with the others, otherwise stole them.

Lars Gyllenstens (1921–2006), Mandamientos

Antisthenes (444-365 A.C), Máximas

"Preferiría enloquecer que sentir placer."
"I would rather go mad than feel pleasure."
"Uno debe atarse a aquellas mujeres que, por ello, se lo agradezcan."
"One ought to attach one's self to such women as will thank one for it."
"Si se casa con una mujer guapa, ella será corriente; si lo hace con una fea, ella será un castigo para Vd."
"If you marry a handsome woman, she will be common; if an ugly woman, she will be a punishment to you."
"Es un privilegio real hacer el bien, y ser malo hablando de."
"It is a royal privilege to do well, and to be evil spoken of."
"No soy el hijo de dos personas habilidosas en la lucha; sin embargo, soy un luchador hábil."
" I am not the son of two people skilled in wrestling; nevertheless, I am a skilful wrestler."
"Es mejor caer entre cuervos, que entre aduladores; porque los primeros solamente devoran a los muertos, mientras que los segundos devoran a los vivos."
"That it was better to fall among crows, than among flatterers; for that they only devour the dead, but the others devour the living."
El acontecimiento más feliz que podría tener lugar en la vida humana... "morir mientras uno es próspero."
The most happy event that could take place in human life… "To die while prosperous."
"La gente envidiosa es devorada por su propia disposición, igual que el hierro lo es por el óxido."
"Envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust."
“Los que desean ser inmortales deberían vivir piadosa y justamente."
"Those who wish to be immortal ought to live piously and justly."
"Se arruinan las ciudades cuando son incapaces de distinguir ciudadanos despreciables de aquellos virtuosos."
"Cities were ruined when they were unable to distinguish worthless citizens from virtuous ones."
“El compañerismo entre hermanos de una sola mente es más fuerte que cualquier ciudad fortificada."
"The fellowship of brothers of one mind was stronger than any fortified city."
"Las mejores cosas que un hombre podría llevar en un viaje, serían aquellas que flotarían con él si naufragara."
"Those things were the best for a man to take on a journey, which would float with him if he were shipwrecked."
"Es una cosa absurda limpiar un maizal de tara, y deshacerse de los soldados malos en la guerra, y en cambio no eliminar en la ciudad a los ciudadanos malvados."
"It was an absurd thing to clean a cornfield of tares, and in war to get rid of bad soldiers, and yet not to rid one's self in a city of the wicked citizens."
Qué ventaja había derivado siempre de la filosofía... "la ventaja de poder conversar conmigo mismo."
What advantage he had ever derived from philosophy… "the advantage of being able to converse with myself."
Qué aprendizaje es el más necesario... "desaprender las malas costumbres de uno."
what learning was the most necessary… "to unlearn one's bad habits."
Mientras estaba enfermo Diógenes venía a visitarle con una espada en su mano; y cuando Antisthenes decía, "¿quién me puede librar de este sufrimiento?" él, que señalaba a la espada, decía, "esta puede"; pero Antisthenes replicaba, "decía del sufrimiento, pero no de la vida."
While he was ill Diogenes came to visit him with a sword in his hand; and when Antisthenes said, "Who can deliver me from this suffering?" he, pointing to the sword, said, "This can;" But he rejoined, "I said from suffering, but not from life."

Antisthenes (444-365 A.C), Máximas

Frank Kafka, Eine alltägliche Verwirrung (1917)

Un incidente cotidiano, del que resulta una confusión cotidiana. A tiene que cerrar un negocio con B en H. Se traslada a H para una entrevista preliminar, pone diez minutos en ir y diez en volver, y se jacta en su casa de esa velocidad. Al otro día vuelve a H, esta vez para cerrar el negocio. Como probablemente eso le exigirá muchas horas, A sale muy temprano. Aunque las circunstancias (al menos en opinión de A) son precisamente las de la víspera, tarda diez horas esta vez en llegar a H. Llega al atardecer, rendido. Le comunican que B, inquieto por su demora, ha partido hace poco para el pueblo de A y que deben haberse cruzado en el camino. Le aconsejan que espere. A, sin embargo, impaciente por el negocio, se va inmediatamente y vuelve a su casa.

Esta vez, sin poner mayor atención, hace el viaje en un momento. En su casa le dicen que B llegó muy temprano, inmediatamente después de la salida de A, y que hasta se cruzó con A en el umbral y quiso recordarle el negocio, pero que A le respondió que no tenía tiempo y que debía salir en seguida.

A pesar de esa incomprensible conducta, B entró en la casa a esperar su vuelta. Y ya había preguntado muchas veces si no había regresado aún, pero seguía esperándolo siempre en el cuarto de A. Feliz de hablar con B y de explicarle todo lo sucedido, A corre escaleras arriba. Casi al llegar tropieza, se tuerce un tendón y a punto de perder el sentido, incapaz de gritar, gimiendo en la oscuridad, oye a B -tal vez muy lejos ya, tal vez a su lado- que baja la escalera furioso y que se pierde para siempre.

A COMMON EXPERIENCE, resulting in a common confusion. A. has to transact important business with B. in H. He goes to H. for a preliminary interview, accomplishes the journey there in ten minutes, and the journey back in the same time, and on returning boasts to his family of his expedition. Next day he goes again to H., this time to settle his business finally. As that by all appearances will require several hours, A. leaves very early in the morning. But although all the surrounding circumstances, at least in A.'s estimation, are exactly the same as the day before, this time it takes him ten hours to reach H. When he arrives there quite exhausted in the evening he is informed that B., annoyed at his absence, had left half an hour before to go to A.'s village, and that they must have passed each other on the road. A. is advised to wait. But in his anxiety about his business he sets off at once and hurries home. This time he covers the distance, without paying any particular attention to the fact, practically in an instant. At home he learns that B. had arrived quite early, immediately after A.'s departure, indeed that he had met A. on the threshold and reminded him of his business; but A. had replied that he had no time to spare, he must go at once. In spite of this incomprehensible behavior of A., however, B. had stayed on to wait for A.'s return. It is true, he had asked several times whether A. was not back yet, but he was still sitting up in A.'s room. Overjoyed at the opportunity of seeing B. at once and explaining everything to him, A. rushes upstairs. He is almost at the top, when he stumbles, twists a sinew, and almost fainting with the pain, incapable even of uttering a cry, only able to moan faintly in the darkness, he hears B.--impossible to tell whether at a great distance or quite near him--stamping down the stairs in a violent rage and vanishing for good.

Frank Kafka, Eine alltägliche Verwirrung, Una confusión cotidiana, A Common Confusion (1917)

Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena (1851)

(photo's author: steenslag)

“La denominada buena sociedad estima las virtudes de todas clases excepto las intelectuales; estas son como contrabando. Nos obliga a exhibir una paciencia ilimitada para toda tontería, toda chifladura, toda absurdez, toda bobada; los méritos personales por el contrario se ven obligados a suplicar su perdón o a ocultarse sin más, pues la superioridad intelectual, sin concurso alguno de la voluntad, ofende por su sola existencia. Además esta supuesta buena sociedad no sólo tiene el inconveniente de ponernos en contacto con personas a quienes no podemos ni aceptar ni amar, sino que no nos permite ser nosotros mismos, ser como precisa nuestra naturaleza; nos fuerza, con tal de adecuarnos al diapasón de los demás, a empequeñecernos y hasta a deformarnos. “

"The so-called good society appreciates the merits of all classes except the intellectual ones; these are as smuggling. It imposes having to express an unlimited patience for every silly thing, every madness, every absurdity, every stupidity; the personal merits on the contrary are seen obliged to beg for its pardon or to be hidden, because the intellectual superiority, without competition of the will, hurts for its single existence. Besides, this supposed good society has not only inconvenience of contacting us with people to whom we can not neither to pass nor to love, but does not allow being ourselves, being as our nature needs it; it obliges us to become small and even to become deformed, in order to accommodate us to the diapason of the others. "

Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena (1851)

Georges Bataille, Ma Mére (1966)

(photo's author: juliaf)

“DIOS es el horror en mí de lo que fue, es y será tan HORRIBLE que a toda costa debería negar y gritar con todas mis fuerzas que niego que eso fue, es o será, pero mentiría.”

“Ese destello que del cielo se desploma es el de la muerte. Mi cabeza da vueltas en el cielo. Las vueltas que da la cabeza jamás han sido mejores que en la propia muerte.” 

"GOD is the horror in me of what was, is and will be so HORRIBLE that, at any price, I should deny and shout with all my forces that I deny that went so, is or will be, but I would lie."

"This flash that of the sky collapses is that of the death. My head gives turns in the sky. The turns that the head gives have ever been best that in the death itself."

Georges Bataille, Ma Mére (1966)

Friedrich Nietzsche, Fragmentos póstumos (1887-1888)

(photo's author: Colin Gregory Palmer)

"Hay un solo mundo, y es falso, cruel, contradictorio, corrupto, sin sentido [...]. Un mundo hecho de esta forma es el verdadero mundo [...]. Tenemos necesidad de la mentira para vencer a esta "verdad", es decir para vivir [...]. La metafísica, la moral, la religión, la ciencia [...] son tomadas en consideración sólo como diversas formas de mentira: con su ayuda se cree en la vida. "La vida debe inspirar confianza": el deber planteado en estos términos es inmenso. Para cumplir con él, el hombre debe de ser por naturaleza un mentiroso, debe ser, antes que ninguna otra cosa un artista [...]. Metafísica, moral, religión, ciencia, no son más que criaturas de su voluntad de arte [...]."

"There is a single world, and it is false, cruel, contradictory, corrupt, meaningless [...]. A world done this way is the real world [...]. We need this lie to beat to this "truth", that is to live [...]. Metaphysics, morality, religion, science [...] are taken in consideration only as different forms of lie: with their help we believe in living. "The life must inspire confidence": the duty considered in these terms is immense. To comply with it, man must be a liar, must be, before that no other thing, an artist [...]. Metaphysics, morality, religion, science, are not more than creatures of hisher will of art [...]."

Friedrich Nietzsche, Fragmentos póstumos (1887-1888)

E.M. Cioran, Écartèlement (1979)

(photo's author: wormis)

"Sufrimos, nos debatimos, nos sacrificamos, aparentemente por nosotros mismos, en realidad por cualquiera, por un futuro enemigo, por un enemigo desconocido."

"No hay nadie a quien, en un momento o en otro, no le haya deseado la muerte."

"Fundar una familia. Creo que me hubiese sido más fácil fundar un imperio."

"Es reconfortante poder decirse: mi vida se corresponde punto por punto con el tipo de encenegamiento que deseaba para mí."

"Decir que la muerte es la meta de la vida no es decir nada. Pero, ¿qué otra cosa decir?"

"Entre una bofetada y una falta de delicadeza, siempre es más soportable la bofetada."

"We suffer, we debate ourselves, we make sacrifices, in a apparent way for us, in fact for any, for an enemy future, for an unknown enemy."

"There is not anybody to whom, in a moment or in another, I have not wanted his/her death."

"Founding a family. I think that founding an empire had been easier to me."

"Being able to be said is soothing: my life exactly corresponds with the type of dirtiness that wanted for me."

"Saying that the death is the goal of the life is saying nothing at all. But, which other thing to say?"

"Between a slap and a lack of delicacy, the slap is always more bearable."

E.M. Cioran, Écartèlement (1979)

Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life's Way (1845)

(photo's author: Zela)

"The more one suffers, the more, I believe, one has a sense of the comic. It is only by the deepest suffering that one acquires the authority in the art of the comic."

Variacione canoniche...

"The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic. It is only by the deepest suffering that one acquires true authority in the use of the comic, an authority which by one word transforms as by magic the reasonable creature one calls man into a caricature."

Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life's Way (1845)