Read a book every day
In the last century, Zhou Guoping gave a lecture.
That day, when the auditorium was full and more than a thousand people were crowded, Zhou Guoping had just started to speak, and the power went out, and then he lit a candle, and he continued.
It was pitch black under the stage, only a candlelight, and Zhou Guoping's voice.
At that time, Zhou Guoping felt that he was preaching, and he had just finished talking about what he was going to talk about, when the call came, the auditorium was brightly lit, and the audience cheered.
On that day, Zhou Guoping spoke publicly about Nietzsche for the first time and won a full house.
Someone asked Zhou Guoping:
What is the point of reading Nietzsche when people desperately pursue material wealth and dream of financial freedom, but never think about spiritual freedom?
Zhou Guoping said:
Reading Nietzsche itself is a questioning of such a material romance.
Reading the writings of the great philosophers can actually revive your sleeping, pent-up spiritual and romantic longings.
Who was Nietzsche?
He was mad, he was crazy and shouted, I am the sun, the sun is the golden testicles under my crotch.
He also declared that the gods did not exist, and arrogantly said with an inflated sense of self:
If there really are gods, how can I tolerate not being one of them?
He also said:
Every day when you don't dance is a disappointment to life.
He also said:
A person who knows what he lives for is able to endure all life.
People remember a lot of his words, but they don't know who he is.
Nietzsche was an ambivalent optimist, shouting optimistic slogans while living a miserable life himself.
However, he refuses to cover the sun with a fog of pain, and for that matter, he is a warrior.
01
In the history of the West, there is a scandal about faith.
At that time, in order to collect money, the pope went to sell tickets to heaven, claiming that as long as he bought this thing, he could enter heaven after death.
In the eyes of many people, the church is a very sacred thing, because the priest speaks in place of God on earth.
So, as soon as this news came out, countless people bought this kind of ticket.
The result is obvious, of course, people can't enter heaven because of this, because heaven is not an attraction, you can enter it if you are a good person or a bad person, you can enter it by buying a ticket.
In the nineteenth century, the scandal of the West selling tickets to paradise has passed.
However, many people have lost their true faith, they study dogma, they are bound by dogma, and they brutally "kill" God.
At this time, Nietzsche stood up and said that God was dead.
This announcement was earth-shattering, and Nietzsche also became a great rebel.
Nietzsche was lucky not to be burned at the stake like his ancestors who declared that the earth was round, but Nietzsche himself killed himself.
On October 15, 1844, Nietzsche came into the world with a cry.
The baby came into this world crying, but his parents were happy, and the father was so excited that he named his son Friedrich Nietzsche.
The child looked a little dumb, a little stupid, a little stubborn, and did not utter the first words until he was two and a half years old, and was always silent, and looked at everything around him with serious eyes, as if to see what he wanted to understand.
But he couldn't understand it after all, and many years later, he studied the world and himself, and he didn't know if he still remembered the way he looked at the world as a child.
All he remembered was that when he was very young, his father took him by the hand and walked on the vast plains outside the village, where small ponds were lined and distant bells echoed in the distance.
He still remembers the warmth that came from his father's hand.
However, this warmth did not last long, and in August 1848, my father fell and hit his head violently, and a year later, he was killed.
That year, Nietzsche was 4 years old.
What remained in my mind was the alarm that sounded in the middle of the night, the crying of the family in the house, and the silence of death.
Not long after, Nietzsche's younger brother also fell ill and died.
The successive deaths crushed the family, who had no expectations for life, and Heavenly Father and Heaven were the only consolation.
02
After several changes, Nietzsche's mother moved with a large family to a small town near Naumburg.
At this time, the inhabitants lived a rigid and strict life, everything was in order, and the ruler tightly controlled everyone's life and rest.
Nietzsche lived here, like everyone else, living rigorously, doing everything in a proper manner, becoming a "little old-fashioned".
In Nietzsche's mind, his father was his best role model, and he wanted to be a priest.
So since he was a child, he has held himself to the standard of a priest, and no matter what difficulties he encountered, he always looked calm.
Once, after school, it suddenly began to rain heavily, and Nietzsche did not bring an umbrella, so he walked into the heavy rain without hurrying, and walked home without any panic.
His mother asked him why he didn't hurry up when it was raining so hard.
He said:
Don't run around the streets.
Nietzsche was always strict with himself and had an eye for everything, so in school, he had the title of "little priest".
He often said:
"Only when a man becomes his own master can he become the master of the world. ”
He is in charge of himself and takes care of himself according to his own requirements.
At the age of nine, Nietzsche began to learn to play the piano and could improvise, and then he tried his hand at composing music, trying to compose beautiful melodies.
He also began to write poetry, and he also drafted various principles and didactic treatises.
All in all, this is a genius child, and he also sees himself with the pride of a genius.
After graduating from primary school, Nietzsche went to secondary school in Naumburg, where his extraordinary intelligence and extraordinary talent made him stand out.
In the summer of 1858, Nietzsche returned to the countryside for a vacation, when the trees were shady, the mountains were undulating, and the villages by the river were quiet, and the river was flowing and clattering.
Every morning, Nietzsche went to bathe in the river, washed his whole body, and began to feel uncertain about his future, worried about his future.
Faced with an unknown future, Nietzsche was a little anxious, recalling the life he had just begun, he took out a pen and wrote his childhood history.
After writing it, he also wrote a few words:
"Life is like a mirror,
Brunt
It is to know oneself,
Be sure to try to find out. ”
He is going to find himself, however, there is a long way to go, and a person needs to go through a lot to get to himself, or he needs to be particularly lucky, to arrive directly, and not to get lost in the middle.
03
The more he grew up, the more Nietzsche gradually felt the pain of life.
He began to write articles and began to question God:
Even in such a beautiful world, there are still souls of suffering! But what is pain?
This young man is worried about the new words.
But he did feel painful, because the school suppressed the individuality of the students and used various rules to restrain the students.
Nietzsche was originally a student with a very personality, he kept writing a diary to clear his heart, he felt that he was getting older, and a strong desire to learn was grasping him and letting him absorb knowledge.
"A strong thirst for knowledge seized me and ignited an endless thirst for knowledge and for world civilization. ”
As a result, he developed an extensive study program that included studying geology, botany, astronomy, and various foreign languages.
And in his opinion, the most important thing is to study philosophy and pursue the truth.
He is still anxious about the future, he wants to be successful in his career, to be a successful person, but he also wants to explore in the ocean of knowledge.
He said:
"Choosing a career is like a lottery, during which most people go home and only a few people win. ”
He's confident that he'll achieve a lot of things if he wants to, but that's not what he really cares about.
But what kind of career should you choose?
According to the family's expectations, he was supposed to be a pastor, but he began to have doubts about the path.
In the end, Nietzsche decided not to be a priest but to be a knowledgeable professor.
In October 1862, Nietzsche left Naumburg to attend university.
He rode with his friends to the university, roamed the country roads, drank and chatted, and Nietzsche looked at the horse's ears and thought it was clearly a donkey.
Strict Nietzsche, looking closely, then measured the horse's ears, and then announced to his companions:
"It's a donkey. ”
They talked loudly, peeked at the innocent girl of the farmhouse, and sang love songs to her.
Eventually, an upright farmer couldn't take it anymore and drove the young men away.
When he arrived at university, Nietzsche wanted to be a good student, to be a perfect student, so he was very active, joined the student union, and joined the group.
At first, Nietzsche was hesitant to join the club, but he soon understood that if he did not join the club, he would be isolated by other students.
He felt that joining the club would suppress himself in some ways, but at the same time he would gain more.
So, he tries to fit in with the group and make himself look like everyone else.
But Nietzsche did not follow the crowd, but preserved his usual rigorous style of life.
At that time, the student who had never dueled was an imperfect student, and in order to make his student career perfect, Nietzsche also had a duel.
However, such a life, for many, may be interesting, but for Nietzsche, it is really boring, and he soon feels the emptiness of his soul.
Nietzsche felt that if he indulged for a long time, he would be able to adapt to that kind of "flowery" life:
Habit is a powerful force, but when a person does not have an instinctive reaction to the evil in front of him, then he has gone too far from himself.
Nietzsche could not grieve his soul in this way, and he called on everyone to drink less, but everyone looked at him like fools.
It is incomprehensible that Nietzsche was isolated, that he would call for the prohibition of alcohol.
The more painful Nietzsche was, the harder he studied.
However, he still could not answer the questions that life asked.
In a letter to his sister, he said:
"If you want to have peace and happiness for the soul, then you have to believe, and if you want to be a believer in the truth, then you have to explore. ”
There is no doubt that he chose to explore.
04
Nietzsche was a proud man, and after being isolated, he was so miserable that he decided to transfer schools.
So, he went to a strange city, and on the day he went to the school to report, he heard the principal say to all the students:
"Genius has his own path. ”
The headmaster was speaking of the great poet Goethe, but the headmaster went on to say:
"It is dangerous to follow the path of geniuses, Goethe was not a good student, and you should not use him as an example during your studies. ”
At this point, Nietzsche felt that he had come to the right place.
He re-engaged in his studies and set himself a lot of study schedules, however, he soon became disgusted with these things.
By chance, Nietzsche met Schopenhauer.
That day, Nietzsche was reading a book at a bookstall when suddenly, he saw "The World as Will and Appearance", he opened it casually, and after only a few pages, he was shocked by the contents of the book.
It was as if he heard a voice saying:
Take this book home with you.
So, Nietzsche bought the book.
By this time, Schopenhauer had been dead for many years.
Nietzsche liked this book so much that he read it day and night, and even felt that it was written for himself.
In Schopenhauer's writing, the essence of the world is the blind will that drives people to life.
After reading it, Nietzsche felt that his life was full, and he saw the terrible truth about himself, but he was not afraid, he said:
"All we seek is the truth, as evil as it is. ”
From then on, Nietzsche regarded Schopenhauer as his life mentor, and Schopenhauer injected energy into his soul and made him devote himself to research.
He also found that:
There aren't many people in the world who are busy with things that are important and meaningful, and most of them are intellectually mediocre.
He heard the call of his heart again:
Writing, must write.
For the sake of writing, and for his own sake, he read a lot, but Nietzsche despised many writers and philosophers, except for Schopenhauer, who favored him:
Of all philosophers, Schopenhauer was the most sincere.
In 1867, Nietzsche went to military service, determined to become a good artilleryman and serve his country.
On the battlefield, Nietzsche did not carry a cross, but Schopenhauer, and on the battlefield full of dangers, others prayed for God's blessing, but Nietzsche whispered:
"叔本华保佑."
Schopenhauer was his God.
However, before he could realize his ideals, he retired due to injury.
But it's okay, because of Schopenhauer, he feels that he is not an outlier in the world, at least Schopenhauer is like him.
The world itself is dark, but some people are like a lamp, trying to illuminate their surroundings.
05
Nietzsche was indeed a genius, he excelled in his studies and had a bright future, and before he graduated, he had a magazine ask Nietzsche to write a manuscript and receive a good salary.
But Nietzsche was unwilling:
"I am adamant not to be a stupid politician. ”
Not only that, but there were also universities that sent invitations to Nietzsche to hire him as a professor.
That year, Nietzsche was no more than twenty-four years old.
Such a young university professor has a bright future.
At this time, Nietzsche regarded the musician Wagner as his idol, and what made him even more excited was that Wagner lived in seclusion where he worked.
In this way, he had the opportunity to have an intimate relationship with Wagner.
Nietzsche became a professor, and at such a young age, he soon became a guest of honor in high society, and he was constantly invited.
In the beginning, Nietzsche enjoyed this life.
But soon, he grew tired of this life, even with his professor's work.
Fortunately, he was still able to socialize with Wagner.
Wagner was a famous musician with many followers behind him, but he, like Nietzsche, believed in Schopenhauer.
This brought Nietzsche and Wagner together tightly.
However, in the spiritual world of man, Nietzsche is always pioneering, he is always seeking the truth, and he cannot bear to stay in the same place.
Wagner could not tie him up, Schopenhauer could not tie him down, he had to look for it himself.
Believing in a ready-made thing only needs to be followed, but believing in the truth requires constant searching.
Nietzsche is always searching, he wants to find the kind of thing that really belongs to him, he wants to find the meaning of life.
Throughout our lives, we are also looking for what is truly our own.
06
Nietzsche was a professor of linguistics at the university, but he began to study philosophy and science outside of linguistics.
But he didn't decide to become a philosopher.
He said:
"I'm getting closer and closer to science, art, and philosophy, so much so that I feel like I'm creating a half-man, half-horse monster. ”
After the publication of "The Birth of Tragedy", there was an uproar.
Nietzsche was attacked by a crowd, and people in the philosophical circle could not accept him, and people in the linguistic circle could not accept him.
In the eyes of the professors of linguistics, you, a professor of linguistics, do not study the subtleties of classical languages, but study tragedy and criticize the great Plato.
It's just eating inside and out.
In the eyes of philosophers, what kind of thing is this? Isn't it nondescript for you, a linguist, to engage in philosophy?
Therefore, Nietzsche is not human inside and out, and is completely isolated.
In school, fewer and fewer people listened to Nietzsche's lessons.
He became an anachronism because he did something anachronistic.
He began to look at his idols, even Schopenhauer, and he saw his own direction in them.
However, Nietzsche is like a boat sailing against the current, and every step is difficult.
He and Wagner are getting farther and farther away from the world, and he feels that Wagner does not have the power to make the people around him free and great.
Later, Nietzsche even felt that Wagner was a villain, acting like a play, because he always had an atmosphere of inflammatory tendencies and strong religious overtones.
This made Nietzsche simply unbearable.
The world spat him out because he was so different.
He said:
"I am an explorer of the spirit, I roam in my own thoughts, and I will be there whenever the mind calls me. ”
He became more and more like a philosopher, always ready to die for the truth.
He arrogantly declared:
"I am the last man, and therefore I call myself the last philosopher. ”
He threw himself into his busy writing, letting his mind wander out, and after a while, Nietzsche seemed to be hollowed out, and he desperately needed to rest.
But he was never understood, and he left Wagner completely and went further and further on the road of maverick.
Being a maverick requires more courage and strength than following the crowd.
07
After deciding to become a philosopher, Nietzsche's body always had problems.
In 1876, he had poor eyesight and was recuperating at home, and his doctor told him that it was better to be in a dimly lit room and do nothing.
But you can't use your eyes, you can use your brain.
He went to the seaside for a vacation, and every morning, he lay on the seashore, the morning sun rose, he felt the warmth of the sun, the silence around him, and all superfluous sounds disappeared.
He has his own principles of life:
Maintain neutrality towards people, do not get involved in politics, maintain the economic status of the middle class, do not follow the path of the nobles, do not marry people in their own life circle, and reject any religious beliefs.
He writes on his own and thinks on his own.
After the publication of "Human, Too Human", he sent the book to Wagner, hoping that his idol would change.
Subsequently, the two broke up completely.
This dealt a heavy blow to Nietzsche, and his body collapsed.
His friends asked each other:
"I heard that Nietzsche's illness is irreparable, is this news true?"
Even Wagner, who had broken with Nietzsche, said with emotion:
"If a soul is tormented by such passions, it is not appropriate to ask him to think logically. ”
Even Nietzsche, feeling that he could not recover, told his sister his last wish:
"The only people who keep watch for me are my friends, and I can't protect myself by driving out those who are general friends and out of curiosity. ”
Later, his sister took him to an inaccessible valley to recuperate.
The air is fresh, the scenery is beautiful, the light of the grasslands is soft and pleasant, and the lakes dotted around are like stars on the ground.
Gradually, he gained vitality and vitality.
Friends walked with him and read aloud to him, and Nietzsche, after gradually recovering his vitality, began to meditate and dig into the treasure trove of his own spirit.
He passed through Genoa, was attracted by the beauty of the area, and began to think about life there.
At night, in order to protect his eyes, he turned off the lights and stretched his limbs to lie down, and the neighbors felt that this German professor was so poor that he couldn't even afford candles, and some people were very loving and took the initiative to send candles to Nietzsche.
Every morning, he jumped up, put on his clothes, stuffed a bundle of notes, a book, and some food in his pocket, and then went to the sea, found a big rock, and lay down like a big lizard to bask in the sun.
There was nothing but the sea and the pure sky in front of you.
He would stay until late afternoon and then go home with his own thoughts.
The more one thinks, the more power one has to be themselves.
08
Day after day, Nietzsche likes such times, and his thinking is getting deeper and deeper, and he writes his own thoughts, which is the work "Morning Glow".
Starting with "Sunrise", Nietzsche saw more, and he saw eternal reincarnation:
"The ultimate state of harmony between the changing world and the world of existence is to plunge all things into a never-ending cycle of samsara, and this is the highest peak that contemplation can reach. ”
Thinking of this, Nietzsche couldn't help crying, he walked while walking, and suddenly burst into tears.
He felt that he had found some kind of essence, and he was proud of his thoughts.
Finally, he found Zarathustra.
He found three metamorphoses of the spirit:
First, the spirit becomes a camel under a heavy load.
The spirit acts at command, it always says, I should, he ignores his own free will, driven by external objects to enslave.
The spirit is subordinate to his master, placed in life, and his master is the traditional idea, the bondage of the world, is stupid and ignorant.
Second, the spirit changes from a camel to a lion.
At this time, the spirit begins to rebel, he begins to express himself, he will say "I want" to the outside, he wants to break free and follow free will.
This is the awakening of the spirit, and when you come here, you have the spirit.
Third, the spirit changes from a lion to a child.
At this time, the spirit is not bound, he is his own freedom, so he says "I am".
Nietzsche continued to think, and in his time when faith was lost, he shouted, "God is dead."
This declaration made countless people think that Nietzsche was crazy.
How dare he speak like that.
My God.
In a word, Nietzsche pushed himself into the wind and waves, and people thought he was crazy, and he was indeed not far from going crazy.
A person who is incompatible with this world and does not know how to be false and wronged is always an outsider in this world.
09
Life is so lonely.
Looking around him, his friends betrayed him, and he was out of step with the world.
He felt lonely.
But his sister told him:
"Your loneliness is a fact, but isn't your loneliness self-inflicted?"
My sister also suggested to Nietzsche to go to a certain university to find a job, and when you have a title and a student, people will recognize you, and your work will have readers.
This time, Nietzsche did not refuse, and he wrote a letter to the university president, who wrote back that no school would allow an atheist to be in its teaching ranks.
He admonished Nietzsche and rebuked him mercilessly.
Nietzsche said:
Being misunderstood is a compulsory course for me.
The path I walked was my own.
He longs to be understood, but the outside world always misunderstands, and he works hard to create, but his works are not cared for.
But he still had to say, he said:
One must have the courage to speak the truth. ”
He couldn't even find a publisher willing to publish it, and they said coldly that readers wouldn't like it.
The language is contemptuous and incomprehensible.
Nietzsche published it at his own expense, intending to print 40 copies, and he originally wanted to give them to friends, but only 6 copies were given away.
Where are your friends?
They have all departed from him.
The spirit tormented him, and the body also tormented him, he went out to recuperate, and traveled from town to town in various countries, just looking for a suitable piece of water and soil for his sick body.
For two years, he went from place to place.
Sometimes, when friends go to see him, he points to the sky and says melancholy:
"As I accumulate my thoughts, I must have a blue sky above my head. ”
Then he took his friend to a clearing on the edge of the cliff and said to him:
"I love to lie here and brew my best thoughts. ”
He has been searching, just to find the best thoughts, he denies his own time, he denigrates modern man, he is on the other side of good and evil, trying to be a superman.
However, this land is, after all, the world of the laity.
10
For a long time, Nietzsche lived with mockery:
"I live with a mocking attitude among these stupid people. ”
He also lamented that people cannot be held accountable for themselves because they do not know when they will lose their minds.
He was getting more and more miserable.
But Nietzsche did not despair, he did not want to be a pessimistic person, he felt that it was the choice of the cowardly, he walked every day, looked for the rhythm of words, often worked all night.
Not long after he finished writing his autobiography "Look, this man",
Nietzsche was walking down the street and saw a thin horse, mercilessly abused by his owner, and Nietzsche, who was lonely and sad, stepped forward to hold the horse and howled and cried.
He probably saw his own tragedy in this abused horse.
Nietzsche went crazy.
From then on, Nietzsche became very happy, he was like a child, when he lost his mind, when he lost his spirit, he gained happiness.
For the next 10 years, he lived like this.
His sanity was completely lost, but he lived innocently.
God saw that he was living too painfully, so he took Nietzsche's pain.
Nietzsche famously said:
"Life, in its general aspect, is not empty and poor, but abundant, abundant, and even an absurd luxury. ”
Nietzsche spent his whole life seeking a positive life, and he wanted to live this life well.
He struggles to find Superman, and in the end, all he sees is loneliness.
There is a saying:
"The higher philosopher is alone, not because he likes solitude, but because he cannot find his own kind. “
Probably because of his solitude, he was not contaminated with too much worldly atmosphere, so that he could see more clearly the truth that some ordinary people can't see.
Stand tall and it will be cold.
But at the very least, you can see far away when it's sunny.
Text | Not interesting soul & plain shoes