Reference: The Story of Philosophy
This paper presents Chapter VII Section 6.4 from the book THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY by WILL DURANT. The contents are from the 1933 reprint of this book by TIME INCORPORATED by arrangement with Simon and Schuster, Inc.
The paragraphs of the original material (in black) are accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.
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VI. The Wisdom of Life
(4) Religion
It dawned upon Schopenhauer’s maturity that his theory of art—as the withdrawal of the will, and the contemplation of the eternal and universal—was also a theory of religion. In youth he had received very little religious training; and his temper did not incline him to respect the ecclesiastical organizations of his time. He despised theologians: “As ultima ratio,” or the final argument, “of theologians we find among many nations the stake”; and he described religion as “the metaphysics of the masses.” But in later years he began to see a profound significance in certain religious practices and dogmas. “The controversy which is so perseveringly carried on in our own day between supernaturalists and rationalists rests on the failure to recognize the allegorical nature of all religion.” Christianity, for example, is a profound philosophy of pessimism; “the doctrine of original sin (assertion of the will) and of salvation (denial of the will) is the great truth which constitutes the essence of Christianity.” Fasting is a remarkable expedient for weakening those desires that lead never to happiness but either to disillusionment or to further desire. “The power by virtue of which Christianity was able to overcome first Judaism, and then the heathenism of Greece and Rome, lies solely in its pessimism, in the confession that our state is both exceedingly wretched and sinful, while Judaism and heathenism were both optimistic”: they thought of religion as a bribe to the heavenly powers for aid towards earthly success; Christianity thought of religion as a deterrent from the useless quest of earthly happiness. In the midst of worldly luxury and power it has held up the ideal of the saint, the Fool in Christ, who refuses to fight, and absolutely overcomes the individual will.”
It dawned upon Schopenhauer’s maturity that his theory of art—as the withdrawal of the will, and the contemplation of the eternal and universal—was also a theory of religion. Christianity thought of religion as a deterrent from the useless quest of earthly happiness.
Buddhism is profounder than Christianity, because it makes the destruction of the will the entirety of religion, and preaches Nirvana as the goal of all personal development. The Hindus were deeper than the thinkers of Europe, because their interpretation of the world was internal and intuitive, not external and intellectual; the intellect divides everything, intuition unites everything; the Hindus saw that the “I” is a delusion; that the individual is merely phenomenal, and that, the only reality is the Infinite One—“That art thou.” “Whoever is able to say this to himself, with regard to every being with whom he comes in contact,”—whoever is clear-eyed and clear-souled enough to see that we are all members of one organism, all of us little currents in an ocean of will,—he “is certain of all virtue and blessedness, and is on the direct road to salvation.” Schopenhauer does not think that Christianity will ever displace Buddhism in the East: “it is just the same as if we fired a bullet against a cliff.” Rather, Indian philosophy streams into Europe, and will profoundly alter our knowledge and our thought. “The influence of the Sanskrit literature will penetrate not less deeply than did the revival of Greek letters in the fifteenth century.”*
*Perhaps we are witnessing a fulfillment of this prophecy in the growth of theosophy and similar faiths.
Buddhism is profounder than Christianity, because it makes the destruction of the will the entirety of religion, and preaches Nirvana as the goal of all personal development. The Hindus saw that the “I” is a delusion; that the individual is merely phenomenal, and that, the only reality is the Infinite One.
The ultimate wisdom, then, is Nirvana: to reduce one’s self to a minimum of desire and will. The world-will is stronger than ours; let us yield at once. “The less the will is excited, the less we suffer.” The great masterpieces of painting have always represented countenances in which “we see the expression of the completest knowledge, which is not directed to particular things, but has … become the quieter of all will.” “That peace which is above all reason, that perfect calm of the spirit, that deep rest, that inviolable confidence and serenity, … as Raphael and Correggio have represented it, is an entire and certain gospel; only knowledge remains, the will has vanished.”
The ultimate wisdom, then, is Nirvana: to reduce one’s self to a minimum of desire and will. To Schopenhauer, the will or self is the same thing as the Reactive Mind of Hubbard.
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