maverick philosopher
If our unnecessarily large brains have concocted a farrago of comforting illusions might not this solemn philosophy be just another one of them? However for those who have entered the Zapffian the view from outside is obstructed. The door to that doomy portal closes after you enter it and besides there are many teachings of the traditional wisdom schools that echo the cool pessimism of the view from the mountain top. At the pinnacle near the bench mark will be scratched, Nietzsche was here. Vedanta and Buddhist sages may have added stones to the cairn also. cf.Vedanta and Anti Natalism
Whatever happened? A breach in the very unity of life, a biological paradox, an abomination, an absurdity, an exaggeration of disastrous nature. Life had overshot its target, blowing itself apart. A species had been armed too heavily – by spirit made almighty without, but equally a menace to its own well-being. Its weapon was like a sword without hilt or plate, a two-edged blade cleaving everything; but he who is to wield it must grasp the blade and turn the one edge toward himself.(from The Last Messiah essay by Peter Wessel Zapffe pub.1933
trans. The Last Messiah )
The symbolic meaning of hollow Mount Kailas and Arunachala, wherein dwell Shiva and deathless sages, is a rebuttal of the ultimacy of the absurd. Saints and rishis have penetrated that adamantine rock through the practice of gnothi seauton (know thyself) and atma vichara (inquiry into the self). Yes, they agree, man cannot know truth but he can realise it. The good as a categorical or utilitarian slogan is otiose but the action of one who embodies the good is a safe template which we can apply to our work.
(general review of Zapffe by Gisle Tangenes: The View from Mount Zapffe)
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