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Food for thought
The Power of Letting Go
These Simple Words Can Change How You Think About The Past — Nietzsche
If right now you were told that you would relive this life exactly how it has gone and exactly how it will go, with all its ups and downs, fortunes and tragedies, pleasures and pains, over and over for eternity, what would you think? Would you be terrified? Would you want to change it? Or, would you be emboldened by the knowledge that there’s no way out?
In ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’, a fictionalized embodiment of Nietzsche’s work on the subject of eternal recurrence, the protagonist finds himself in a unique situation. After walking up a mountain and finding a large stone with the words “God is dead” carved into it, he has a vision. In this vision, he sees everything that has happened and everything that will happen and soon realizes that every action he takes will be repeated over and over again in an endless cycle of cause and effect. There is no purpose or meaning to life: every action is played out for all eternity.
This unique, personal revelation is spread throughout the work to create a sense of impending doom and foreboding. But how are we supposed to react? What will we do when we realize that the future is predetermined and our circumstances are completely out of our control?
