Nietzsche, Goethe and the enemy.

What if you have an enemy, who is not just some mean, despicable, carping person, but a really capable person who, for some reason or other, has really got it in for you, and perhaps quite justifiably? One could perhaps say that a real enemy who is out to harm you can do more for you than even a guru, because a guru may put you really through it and make you suffer, but you know all the time -or at least you try to tell yourself- that it is for your own good. You know that he doesn't really mean to hurt you. But to be truly patient under real provocation is much more difficult. A guru can't do that for you. For this reason enemies are really valuable. It's quite a line of thought of Nietzsche's, who said one should choose one's enemies with care - that an enemy is a quite positive and valuable element in life, and that you very rarely get on without a few good enemies to spur you on and keep you stirred up and prevent you from stagnating.

In a way, as for instance in Goethe's Faust, this is the function of the devil. Mephistopheles is to keep prodding Everyman [i.e Faust], and stirring him up, and tempting him, because otherwise he'd just stagnate. That's the devil's function in the universe: not to give man an easy time. God and the angels are too indulgent; but not the devil. That's why he is very often called the enemy: the enemy of mankind. And very useful he is too.

You can read Sangharakshita’s thoughts and reflections on:
Nietzsche, Milton, Handel and artistic inspiration.
Nietzsche, Goethe and the enemy.
Nietzsche, Zen and Sudden Enlightenment.
Kant, the Buddha and the limits of reason.
The limits of space and time.
Baudelaire and awareness of others.
Spiritual friends.
Giving style to one’s character.
Anarchism.
Schopenhauer and the will to live.
Schopenhauer and aesthetic appreciation.
Mozart and pauses.
Mozart and the unpredictable.
Mozart and the concentrated mind.

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Dernière mise à jour:
04 avril, 2007.