Thus Spoke Zarathustra

So, we all know that Nietzsche pronounced God dead. But, did you know what he was getting at?

Nietzsche’s philosophy paints the portrait of his ideal man, the ‘Uberman’ or ‘Overman’: an individual who, through self-discipline and his ‘will to power’ has overcome his social conditioning and is, in Nietzsche’s words, ‘beyond good and evil’ and no longer needs God (or anyone else for that matter) to tell him what is moral. Hence, the Overman lives. God is dead.

(For the record, Nietzsche did leave his possible belief in God open just a bit… Apparently, he “would believe only in a god who could dance.” And, of course, ultimately a friend of his stepped in for the final word on the matter: “Nietzsche is dead.” ~ God :)

This is the theme of the entire book. The time has come for the ‘Overman’—for us to overcome our fears, our conditioning, our blah and plant the seed of our highest hope.

And, as we plant that seed, let us remember:

What a beautiful image.

Feel that chaos within?!

Here’s a switch: Let’s EMBRACE it.

Let’s not fight it. Deep breath in. Exhale. Relax into it a bit. Smile. Know you’re growing and that it’s this chaos that gives birth to our dancing star…

Oh, yah. And, definitely Dance.

Reminds me of Walt Whitman’s genius statement: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.”

Or how about 50 Cent’s (yes, THAT 50 Cent): “Like it or love it, I am who I am.”

Do YOU have the courage to stand up and say to the world: “Call me whatever you like; I am who I must be.”?!?

Good. Thought so. :)

That’s a powerful statement.

It’s echoed by the (frightening) truth of Schopenhauer: “There is no vice, of which a man can be guilty, no meanness, no shabbiness, no unkindness, which excited so much indignation among his contemporaries, friends and neighbors, as his success. This is the one unpardonable crime, which reason cannot defend, nor [can] humility mitigate.”

What can I say here other than, “What those guys said!”?!

Nietzsche and Schopenhauer are obviously making bold statements. Look into them and see if you can find some truth. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to snip at someone’s faults than to admire their success?

The fact is, we must become independent of the good or bad opinion of others if we have any chance of progressing very far on our path. It was Deepak Chopra who first introduced me to a mantra I have repeated (tens of?) thousands of times:

“I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others.”
“I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others.”
“I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others.”
“I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others.”
“I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others.”

Steel yourself from being dependent on the opinion of others.

Do what your soul commands you to do and leave it at that.

Nietzsche speaks again and again about the force of our will to “overcome” our human frailties.

How’s your will-power? Can you command yourself? And then obey?

“He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.”?

Ah, Fred. Never one to mince words.

Ayn Rand likes to say that it’s easier for people to look down. It hurts their necks to look up. The higher you ascend, the smaller you will appear to those who have chosen (yes, it’s a choice) to not fly.

One of my friends and favorite modern philosophers, Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, wrote an essay describing the difference between Envy vs. Jealousy. Powerful stuff. Something like this: I see someone who has something I want. Now, if I think I could have it someday, I’m jealous. I just wish I had it. That’s about it. On the other hand, if I see that same thing, and I don’t think I could ever have it, I’m envious. Now what do I do? I don’t just go on with my day. Nope. If I don’t think I can ever have it, I DEMONIZE the person for having it. I make it inherently bad.

Envy is a frightening thing.

If someone sees you flying and they don’t think they can fly, they’ll tear off your wings and/or make you feel bad for even trying.

Stressed?

Please stop. Turn on some music. Get up. Dance.

Now how’re you feeling? :)

How true is that?

The Buddha said the same: “More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm.”

Are you working on that little chatterbox of an internal dialogue you’ve got in that head of yours? Good.

Wow. Well, you want to become new? How do you expect to do that if you aren’t willing to light a match and torch your old self?

Reminds me of one of my favorite thoughts from Joseph Campbell (see Notes): “Sir Ramakrishna said, “Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.” Love that.

* lights match * * hands it to you* * points to pond *

Do you believe yourself? Or, are you living someone else’s truth?

Beware… If you believe Nietzsche (I do), then, if you do not believe yourself, you always lie.

Be in integrity. Know your truth. Live it.

In other words, Push yourself! That’s when we grow.

Find your edge. And push it. Embrace the challenges life throws at us.

Rumi (see Notes) says it beautifully: “This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.”

And William James shares this brilliant comment: “You have enormous untapped power you’ll probably never tap, because most people never run far enough on their first wind to ever find they have a second.”

All this reminds me of the “training effect.” Let’s take a quick look at that, shall we? The same principle that applies to building muscles in the gym applies to building excellence in our lives: In order to grow, we must consistently push ourselves just a little bit past our current comfort zone. In exercise physiology parlance, this is called the Training Effect. The principles involved?

Overload: You must “overload” your body with more stress than it can currently handle. (Not too much as this may lead to injury, but enough so you’re out of your current comfort zone.) Overcompensation: Your body is smart. It doesn’t like to get its butt kicked. So, what does it do? It overcompensates and repairs itself so that next time it’s stronger–and capable of withstanding the level of stress you put on it previously.

The training effect explains how muscles grow, how your heart is trained to beat more efficiently, and how your lungs are trained to distribute oxygen more efficiently. It’s also the same principle that dictates growth in other aspects of our lives: from our ability to give presentations at work to our ability to have challenging conversations with our significant other at home. Go out and “train.” Push yourself a little further today… Praised be what hardens!!

I love that. And I like to look at it two different ways: First, Nietzsche’s talking about suffering here. It’s out of our greatest suffering that our greatness rises. Look at a Lincoln or an Oprah. It’s out of our deepest suffering that our greatness rises.

I also think of the “foundation” from which a skyscraper is built. You’ve probably heard the truism that if you want to see how tall a building is going to be you need to look at how deeply they’re digging the foundation. Want a 2-story house? No big deal. Don’t need to dig too deep. Don’t need to spend much time or energy on the foundation. Want a 200-story building? Totally (!) different story. Your foundation is perhaps your most important work. It had better be deep. How about you? Are you willing to go deep?

Society does one heck of a job of conditioning us, doesn’t it? Nietzsche railed against this. He refused to be domesticated. How about you? Are you merrily plodding along getting pats on your back and stroked behind your ear when you behave well? Any possibility you might need to change that just a bit?

I love that. One of my closest friends and deepest inspirations likes to say, “Everything in moderation. Including moderation.”

How’s your moderation? Do you need to use it in moderation? Yes, there’s the middle path. But you know what? You only find that by testing the extremes. Mediocrity? I don’t think that’s our destiny. Let’s push some edges, shall we?

And, you didn’t think Nietzsche was full of love? Quite the contrary.

Of course, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is a wonderful ideal. However, there are (at least) two primary issues with that: 1. It presupposes we love ourselves. Tragically, for the most part, we don’t. And, 2. Why our neighbor and not “the farthest”? We get in a lot of trouble when all we care to love are those closest to us. I dig Nietzsche’s wisdom: “I recommend to you love of the farthest.”

Beyond Good and Evil. It’s the title of another great book by Nietzsche. The theme? We do not need a priest or others to tell us what is good and evil. WE need to discover it for OURSELVES. When we touch the eternal and internal truths of our own deep knowing, we don’t need a “mole or a dwarf” or a priest to tell us what is good and what is evil. We say with force: “This is my good and evil.”

Maslow, in his brilliant description of the self-actualizing individual (see Notes), described the ethics of a self-actualizing individual this way: “They do right and do not do wrong. Needless to say, their notions of right and wrong and of good and evil are often not the conventional ones.”

What is your good? What is your evil? Are you sure they’re yours or did you kinda get em like hand me downs that don’t really fit that well anymore? (And never did?)

Wow. That’s hot.

What is YOUR way? MY way (or anyone else’s way) will not work for you.

YOU must discover your own truth for it to have any real impact on your life.

As Nietzsche says, there is no THE way.

So what is your way?

I absolutely love that.

Imagine a life in which we seek to GIVE joy.

A life in which we enter relationships to GIVE joy. A life in which we work to GIVE joy.

Can you even imagine how much we would ENjoy that and how beautiful of a world we’d live in if we all did that?!? Stunning…