Schopenhauer and the will to live.

Bhava-tanha or bhava-trsna, which is the thirst or craving for conditioned existence, existence on our present terms, is like Schopenhauer's and Conze's 'will to live', except that we mustn't think of 'will' here as something conscious and deliberate. It's the natural sort of urge that we have just to go on living. So, according to Buddhism, the desire for personal immortality after death is just another form of this bhava-tanha, this craving for conditioned existence. This is why Buddhism doesn't think very highly of the desire for personal immortality. I mean, in Christianity, usually if you think very seriously about personal immortality, and you want to be sure of your own personal immortality, you're considered quite a religious man, if you think in those terms. But according to Buddhism, you're just the victim of a more refined form of the will to live, or the craving for conditioned existence. It isn't anything spiritual, not in the sense of transcendental, it doesn't constitute spiritual life in the ultimate sense, it's just a more refined form of worldliness.

And then of course there's vibhava-tanha which is the craving for non-existence. It's a bit like Freud's 'Death Wish'. It's a reaction from a disappointed craving for existence, it's just a recoil from an existence which is found unsatisfactory it's not an intelligent sort of setting aside of an unsatisfactory existence, it's just like, when you can't win at a game of chess, instead of accepting your defeat you just upset the board! But according to Buddhism, it doesn't work and you'll just be reborn all over again, rather worse off than before. Suicide doesn't work.

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.