wisdom of life
Chapter 14 Stages of Life
Chapter 14 Stages of Life
Voltaire once said quite beautifully:
If a person does not have the charm of his age,
Then he would have all his age-specific misfortunes.
It is fitting, therefore, to conclude our discussion of happiness with a cursory examination of the changes which the different stages of life bring us.All our lives we just live in the present moment.The difference between the present moment of different periods is that at the beginning of life, we have a long future in front of us; but at the end of life, we see the long past behind us.While our character remains the same, our mood undergoes some marked changes.The "now and now" of different periods are therefore colored in a different way.
In Chapter 31 of the second volume of The World as Willing and Representation, I have illuminated and explained the fact that in childhood we are more in a state of knowing than of willing.It is based on this fact that in this first quarter of our lives we are able to enjoy joy.When childhood is over, what we leave behind is a heavenly time.In childhood, we have few connections and few needs, that is to say, we are not very much stimulated by desire, and most of our lives are devoted to cognitive activities.Our brains reach their maximum size by the age of seven, and likewise, our mental abilities develop very early, though not yet mature.But in the brand new world of childhood, it absorbs nourishment without stopping.In the world of childhood, everything has a certain charm of novelty.Accordingly, our childhood is a continuous poem, because, like all other arts, the essence of poetry consists in grasping from each individual thing the Platonic idea of this thing, that is, grasping this The most essential of a single thing, and therefore the whole characteristic common to such things; each single thing represents in such a way its kind, and every single thing is like a thousand.Although it seems now, we seem to have been paying attention to individual things or individual events at that time in childhood-even when a certain thing or a certain event stimulates our momentary desire at that time, we pay attention to them.But, in the final analysis, this is not the case.This is because in childhood life--in the full and complete sense of the word--is so new and fresh before our eyes that the impression it makes on us is not altered by repeated repetitions. and in our childhood activities, without knowing our purpose, we are always busy silently, from the single scene and single event we see, to understand the essence of life itself, to grasp the shape of life basic typical.We, as Spinoza said, "see people and things from the perspective of eternity."The younger we are, the more each individual thing represents the totality of the class.But that has diminished year by year.Because of this, there is a great difference between the impressions made by things when we are young, and the impressions we feel when we are old.Therefore, our contact and experience of things in childhood and early youth constitute the fixed type and category of all subsequent cognition and experience.Later life perceptions and experiences are subsumed into given types, although we are not always consciously aware that we do so.Thus, in childhood we already have a solid foundation of deep or superficial worldviews.Our world view will be expanded and improved in the future, but in essence it will not change.Because of such a purely objective, and therefore poetic, point of view—which is characteristic of childhood, which benefits from the fact that the will of the time is far from fully functioning—so, as children, our conscious The act of knowing is far superior to the act of willing.Therefore, many children's eyes are intuitive and serious.Raphael used this look very skillfully when he painted his angels—especially the angels in his painting of the Sistine Madonna.This is why childhood is such a joy, and our memories of childhood are always accompanied by nostalgia.While we are so serious about first seeing things intuitively, education is also busy instilling in us all kinds of conceptual knowledge.Conceptual knowledge, however, does not bring us knowledge of the true nature of things; on the contrary, knowledge of the nature of things—that is, the real content of our knowledge—is in our intuitive grasp of the world.But such an intuitive understanding can only be obtained through ourselves, and any form of indoctrination is powerless.Therefore, our intellect, like our morality, does not come from outside, but from deep within our own nature.No educator can turn a born fool into a brain, never!He was a fool when he was born, and he was still a fool when he died.A person's first intuitive grasp of the external world is profound, which explains why our childhood environments and experiences leave such deep imprints on our memories.We are so engrossed in our surroundings that nothing distracts us from them; we seem to regard the things before us as the only ones of their kind, as if they alone existed in the world.In the days that followed, we realized that there were many other things in this world, and we lost our courage and patience.I have stated on page 7 of The World as Will and Representation that all things without exception are pleasant when they exist as objects, that is, purely as representations; That is to say, when it exists in desire, it is immersed in pain and sorrow.Here, if the reader recalls this exposition of mine, they will accept this statement as a simple summary of my exposition: all things are pleasant in contemplation, but in concrete existence they are scary.From what has been said above, in childhood we know things more from the side of seeing than from the side of being, that is, as representations, as objects, and not as wills.Because the former is the pleasing side of things, while the other side of the subject is unknown to us, our young minds regard reality and the various shapes presented by art as objects of various pleasures. thing.We think: these things look so beautiful, then the concrete existence will be even more beautiful.Therefore, the world before us is like Eden; the place where we were born is the plateau of Arcadian.Thus, at a later date, we have a longing for real life, our eagerness to do things and suffer, and this draws us into the noisy, tumultuous life.Living in this troubled world, we learn to understand the other side of things, the existence of things is the side of desire; every step we take is fettered by desire.Then, slowly, a great disillusionment set in.After this, we can also say: the age of fantasy is gone forever.But the sense of disillusionment keeps growing, deepening, and becoming complete.From this we may say: In childhood life presents itself as a stage-scene seen from a distance; in old age we come at the closest distance to see the same decorations.
Finally, our happiness in childhood is also due to the fact that, just as in early spring the leaves are all the same color and have almost the same shape, so in childhood we are similar to each other and are therefore in harmony.But with the advent of puberty, differences and differences between people also appear, which is the same as the larger the radius of the compasses, the larger the circle drawn.
The last part of our first half of life, our youth, has many advantages over the second half of our life, but what troubles us and makes us unhappy in this youth is our pursuit of happiness.We insist that we can find happiness in our lives.Our hopes are thus constantly frustrated, and our dissatisfaction arises from it.The indistinct bliss of our dreams has before us a variety of magical images that change at will, and we chase in vain the prototypes of these images.Therefore, in youth, no matter what environment or situation we are in, we will be dissatisfied with it, because we have just begun to realize the emptiness and wretchedness of life-before that, the life we expected was It's quite another look - but we attribute the emptiness and wretchedness of life everywhere to our circumstances, our conditions.In youth, people can benefit a lot if they are taught in time to eradicate the misconception that we can gain as much as we can in this world.However, the reality is exactly the opposite.In our early years we know life chiefly through poetry, fiction, and not through reality.We are in the rising sun of youth, and the images depicted in poetry and fiction flash before our eyes; we are tormented by longing to see those images come true, and we are eager to catch the rainbow.Young people expect their life to be like an interesting novel.Hence their disappointment.On this point, I have already expounded on page 374 of the second volume of "The World as Will and Representation".The portraits have such fascination precisely because they are mere portraits, they are not real.Therefore, when we contemplate them, we are in the state of tranquility and self-sufficiency of pure awareness.To realize these portraits one by one means to be immersed in desire, and the activities of desire will inevitably bring pain.Interested readers may refer to page 427 of my above-mentioned work on this issue.
Therefore, if the first half of a person's life is characterized by the pursuit of happiness, but cannot be satisfied, then the second half of a person's life is characterized by fear and anxiety about encountering misfortune.Because in the second half of life, we more or less clearly understand that all happiness is illusory, but suffering is real.So now what we strive for is a state of freedom from pain and disturbance, not pleasure, at least for rational beings.When I was young, I was happy when there was a knock at the door because I thought, "Happiness is coming." But in later years, under the same circumstances, my reaction changed. It has become similar to fear: "Misfortune has finally arrived." Among all living beings, there are some outstanding and unique characters. Since they are such characters, they do not really belong to all living beings, but exist alone.Therefore, according to the degree of their own superiority, they have more or less only these two diametrically opposed feelings about life: in youth, they feel abandoned by everyone;The former is uncomfortable because of ignorance of life; the latter is pleasant because of understanding of life.The result of this is: the second half of life, like the second half of a musical section, has less struggle and pursuit than the first half, but contains more tranquility and peace.This is mainly because when people are young, they think that the world is full of happiness and happiness that are within easy reach, and people just suffer from not being able to find ways to obtain these happiness and happiness; but when they are old, people will know that there is no happiness in this world. There is no happiness or joy to speak of, so they chew and taste the mediocre status quo with peace of mind, and even find pleasure in the mediocrity.
All that a mature man can gain from his own life experience is to be free from prejudice; and thus he finds the world very different from what he saw in his childhood and youth.He began to look at things with a simple eye, to treat them objectively.But for children and young adults, the strange imaginations, outlandish ideas and preconceived opinions circulated in their heads combine to piece together an illusion that distorts and disguises the real world.The first task of human experience, then, is to get rid of those fantasies and false ideas which have taken root in our adolescence;An education that achieves this goal will be the most ideal education, although such an education can only be negative.To achieve this goal, we must control the gaze and field of vision of the child in childhood to the narrowest possible range from the beginning.Within this range, we provide children with clear and correct ideas; only after they have a correct understanding of things within this range of vision can they gradually widen their horizons.At the same time, always be careful not to allow any vague, half-understood, or distorted perceptions to remain in their minds.The result of this is that people's conception of things and relationships is always narrow, but very simple.It is for this reason that their ideas will be clear and correct.These concepts only need to be gradually broadened, not revised and errata.This education needs to be maintained into youth.In particular, this method of education requires people not to read novels, but to replace them with suitable biographical readings, such as the biography of Franklin, "Anton Rice" written by Moritz, etc.
When we are young, we mistakenly believe that the important people and influential events in our lives will appear and happen with great fanfare.In old age, the review and examination of life tell us that these characters and events entered our lives quietly and inadvertently through the back door.
From the observations we have made so far, we can also compare life to a piece of embroidery: people in the first half of life see the front of the embroidery, while people in the second half of life see the embroidery. the back of the item.The back of the embroidery is not as beautiful, but it is instructive because it makes it clear to see the overall stitching of the embroidery.
A person's superior intelligence, even the greatest spiritual intelligence, will only show its obvious advantages in speech after the age of 40. Mature age and rich experience cannot match the superior intelligence in many aspects. Spiritual intelligence rivals, but the former cannot always be replaced by the latter.Age and experience give a certain balance to the mediocre masses against those of superior spiritual intellect--provided the latter are young.What I say here is only in terms of personal circumstances, and does not include the works created by them.
Every outstanding person, as long as he does not belong to the group that accounts for five-sixths of human beings and has only received the pitiful gift of nature, then, after the age of 40, it is difficult for him to get rid of a certain degree of respect for human beings. abomination.For naturally, by inferring others from himself, he gradually becomes disappointed in people.He saw that people were not on the same level as him, but far inferior to him, whether in thought (brain) or emotion (heart), or even both in many cases.He therefore wished to avoid associating with such persons, since in general each individual likes or dislikes solitude, that is, company with himself, according to his own inner worth.Kant also discusses this aversion to man in the introduction to Chapter 29 of the first part of the Critique of Judgment.
If a young man has an early insight into human affairs and is good at dealing with and dealing with people; therefore, when he enters into social relationships, he can handle them with ease, then, from an intellectual and moral point of view, this is a bad sign. Human beings are mediocre.But if, in similar human relations, a young man exhibits surprise, surprise, clumsiness, reversed manners and behavior, it portends a nobler quality in him.
Part of the reason we feel the joy and the courage to live in our youth is that we are walking uphill and therefore do not see death—for it is on the other side of the mountain at the foot of the mountain.When we passed the top of the mountain, we really had a face to face with death.Before that, we only learned about death from other people's mouths.By this time, our vitality has begun to decline, so that our courage to live has also weakened.At this time, the depressed and serious expression squeezed away the supercilious look of youth and branded it on our faces.As long as we are young, then, no matter what people tell us, we still waste time thinking of life as endless.The older we get, the more we appreciate our time.In old age, with each passing day, we feel akin to a condemned man who has taken another step toward the gallows.
Looking at life from the perspective of youth, life is a long and endless future; but from the perspective of old age, life is a very short past.At the beginning of life, life appears as we turn upside down the opera telescope; at the end, we use it in the usual way.Only when a man is old, that is, after he has lived long enough, does he realize how short life is.In our youth, time moves much more slowly, so that the first quarter of our lives is not only the happiest, it is also the longest.This period, therefore, leaves us with the greatest memory; and when the need arises, one speaks far more of it than of middle age and old age after it.As in the spring of the year, the days are uncomfortably long, so in the spring of life, the days are equally dull and long.But in autumn of the two the days are short, but brighter and less varied.
When life draws to a close, we don't know where life has gone.Why in old age, when we look back on our lives, do we feel that life is so short?Because we don't have many memories of this life, we feel that this life is short.All insignificant and unpleasant events are sifted from our memory, so that very few things remain in our memory.Our intellect is inherently imperfect, and so is our memory.What we have learned needs to be reviewed, and what has passed needs to be recalled. Only in this way, the two will not slowly sink into the abyss of forgetting.However, we don't try to think about unimportant things, and we usually don't think about unpleasant things.But the practice of reminiscence and recall is necessary if we are to retain these events in memory.First, the number of unimportant things increases forever, because many things that seem meaningful at the beginning gradually become meaningless after many repetitions forever.As a result, we recall our earlier years more than later times.The longer we live, the fewer meaningful and important things we can recall later.But these things can be preserved in our memory thanks to recalling this only way.So, once things are over, we also forget them.Time flies by like this without leaving a trace.Second, we don't like to relive unpleasant things, especially those that hurt our vanity.And unpleasant things are often related to our damaged vanity, because we are mostly responsible for unpleasant troubles.Many unpleasant things are thus forgotten by us.It is the little and unpleasant events of life that shorten our recollections.The more material you recall, the less memory you have.Just as the farther a person sails from the shore, the objects on the shore become fewer and more illegible, so the things we have experienced in the past years have encountered the same situation.Sometimes, our memory and imagination vividly reappear a scene of the past that has been dusty for a long time before our eyes, as if it happened yesterday, it is so close to us.The reason for this is that we cannot recall with equal vividness the interval between the time when this event occurred in the past and the present.This period of time cannot be seen at a glance like a picture, and most of the events that occurred during this period have been almost forgotten by us.Of these things we retain only a general knowledge in the abstract, which is a mere conception, not intuitive knowledge.For this reason, a long past event seems so close, as if it happened yesterday, and the rest of the time has disappeared without a trace.The whole life seems so short, it is unimaginable.When a person is old, the long years that have passed, and his own dying years, sometimes at a certain moment, it will become almost unreal.This is mainly because the first thing we see is the present moment right in front of us.Inner mental activity such as this is ultimately determined by the fact that it is not our existence itself, but the phenomenon of our existence, which is dependent on time; the present moment is the junction of subject and object.Why is it that in youth, when we look forward to life, we find that life is so endless?That's because young people need a place to place their boundless expectations, and to realize them one by one, a person does not live long enough to live in Methuselah.Besides, young people measure the future according to the few years they have lived; these past days are always full of memories and therefore seem long.In this bygone age, the novelty of things makes everything seem full of meaning.In this way, in the later time, they are repeatedly recollected and chewed in people's memory.In this way the days of youth are etched into our memory.
Sometimes we believe we are nostalgic for some distant place, when in reality we are only nostalgic for the time we spent there when we were young and lively.Time wears the mask of space to deceive us, and we only need to visit the place to know that we have been deceived.
To live a long life, the indispensable condition is to have an impeccable physique.In addition, we have two methods, which can be explained by the different burning methods of the two oil lamps: one oil lamp has less oil, but its wick is very thin, and it can be lit for a longer time; Although an oil lamp has a thick wick, it has enough oil, and it can also burn for a long time.Here, the lamp oil is like a person's vitality, and the wick is any form of consumption and squandering of the body's vitality.
As for vitality, before the age of 36, we are like people who live on interest: the money spent today can be earned back tomorrow.However, after the age of 36, it is more like we have begun to dip into the capital we live on.When this starts to happen, the signs aren't obvious; most of the money spent comes back on its own, and tiny fiscal deficits go unnoticed.But the deficit is growing and becoming apparent, its momentum is getting worse every day, and there is no hope of stopping it.The depletion of principal continues to accelerate, and its momentum is like that of a falling object.In the end, the money finally disappeared.If the two things being compared here—life and money—are really in a state of depletion, the situation is indeed rather desolate.Therefore, with the approach of old age, the attachment and possessiveness to money will only increase.In contrast, from the beginning of life to adulthood, and even to a certain period of time after adulthood, as far as human vitality is concerned, it is like depositing interest income into the principal, and the interest spent is not only automatically earned back, but also the principal keep increasing.Our money can sometimes do the same if we have a resourceful advisor who takes care of our money.What a happy youth!How miserable is old age!Nevertheless, young people should cherish their youthful vigor.Aristotle discovered that very few people are able to win the Olympic Games in both youth and adulthood.Because the hard training and preparation in their early years have consumed their vitality, and their strength is difficult to sustain after the adult stage.As with muscular strength, so with nervous vigor, the outward expression of which is all intellectual achievement.Precocious child prodigies are thus the fruit of hothouse education, who amaze people in childhood but then degenerate into rather mediocre minds.Even many polymaths spend their early years compulsively expending their brains in learning ancient languages, and in later life their minds become rigid, numb, and lose their judgment.
I have already pointed out that a man's character seems to be particularly in harmony with a certain stage of his life.Thus, at that particular stage of life, the person is at his best.Some people are likable when they are young, but this situation disappears with time; some people are very active and capable in middle age, but they become useless in old age; Bring out the best in themselves, they are gentle and tolerant, because at this time, they are more experienced in life and more poised in dealing with others.This is more common with the French.All this must be because the human personality itself has certain temperament characteristics unique to youth, middle age or old age. This temperament characteristic is quite consistent with a certain stage of life, or it plays a role in revising and adjusting a certain stage of life. effect.
Just as a person in a boat can only detect the progress of the boat by receding and shrinking the scenery on the bank behind him, similarly, if people who are older than us appear younger to us, then we can know accordingly. We grow old.
We have already discussed above that the older a person lives, the less impressions he has seen and heard in his life are left on his mind.In this sense it can be said that man lives fully consciously only in youth; in old age he continues to live with only half consciousness.The consciousness of life diminishes with age; events leave no impression after they have passed, just as we have seen a work of art a thousand times and it no longer makes an impression.People do what they have to do, but don't know what they've done when it's done.Now that they are gradually losing consciousness of life, time runs faster with every step they take toward total unconsciousness.In childhood, novelty brings everything into our consciousness.Therefore, every day is lengthy.The same thing happens to us when we travel: a month spent traveling seems longer than four months at home.Notwithstanding this, the novelty of things does not prevent the seemingly longer periods of childhood and travels from becoming indeed longer and more difficult to pass than in old age and at home.But prolonged habituation to the same sense-impressions tires and dulls our intellect.In this way, everything happened and passed without leaving a trace.The days thus become less and less meaningful, and thus shorter and shorter.An hour spent in a child is longer than a day spent in an old man.Therefore, the time we live in is like a rolling ball that is constantly accelerating.Another example is that on a rotating disk, points that are farther from the center rotate faster.Likewise, time passes faster the farther away each individual is from the beginning of life.From this we can say that, in directly assessing our psychological sense of the passage of time, the length of a year is inversely proportional to the quotient obtained by dividing that year by our age.For example, if a year constitutes one-fifth of our years, it will seem ten times longer than when it was only one-fiftieth of our years.The different speeds at which time passes have a decisive influence on our entire existence at different stages of life.First, it makes the childhood phase of life—that is, a measly 15 years—seem to be the longest period of our lives, and therefore the most memorable; inversely proportional to our age.Children need entertainment to pass the time all the time, whether it's play or work.A dreadful boredom takes hold of them when diversions are absent.Even young adults are still plagued by boredom, and hours of inactivity can lead to panic attacks.In adulthood, boredom diminishes.But in old age, time is always too short, and the days fly by like arrows.It goes without saying that I'm talking about people here, not old livestock.In the second half of our lives, time speeds up and boredom mostly disappears with it.At the same time, our passions, and the pain that accompanies them, are silenced.So, as long as we are able to maintain good health, it is true that, in general, the latter half of life is less burdensome than it was in youth.That is why people call this period of time—that is, the period before the frailty and sickness of old age—the "best of times."From the perspective of living comfortably and happily, this period of time is indeed the best.In contrast, youth—the time when everything is impressed and everything enters our consciousness alive—has this advantage too: it is a time of gestation for one's spiritual thoughts. , is the spring when the spirit begins to sprout.During this period, people can only intuit deep truths, but cannot explain them.That is to say, the first knowledge that young people get is a direct knowledge, which is obtained through momentary impressions.The impression of this moment must be strong, fresh, and deep in order to bring about intuitive understanding.So in terms of acquiring intuitive knowledge, everything depends on how we use our youth.In the days to come, we can exert an influence on others, and even on the world, because we ourselves have become complete and perfect, and are no longer influenced by impressions; but the influence of the world on us is relatively reduced.Therefore, this period is the time when we do things and achieve something, but adolescence is a time when people have a primitive grasp and understanding of things.
In youth our intuition has the upper hand, but in old age our thoughts take hold.Thus, the former is a time for writing poetry, while the latter is a time for philosophizing.In practical affairs youth are at the mercy of what they perceive and the impressions they produce; but in old age men are governed by their thoughts alone.The reason is that only in old age, when a sufficient number of intuitive impressions of things have accumulated and the intuitive impressions of things are summarized into concepts, people will endow these concepts with richer content, meaning and value.At the same time, intuitive impressions are weakened by habit.In adolescence, by contrast, intuitive impressions, that is, impressions of the outward side of things, predominate in the mind, especially among those whose minds are lively and imaginative.Such people see the world as a picture, so their concern is what role they should play in the world, how to show and stand out, and their inner feeling of the world is a secondary matter.This has been reflected in the personal vanity and pursuit of finery of the young.
The period of our strongest and most concentrated mental powers is undoubtedly in adolescence.This period can be extended to a person's 35 years of age at the latest.From this age, one's mental strength begins to weaken, although this weakening process is quite slow.However, in later years, even old age, one is not without some kind of spiritual compensation.At this time, a person's experience and knowledge are truly enriched.People finally have the time and opportunity to look at things from all sides, compare things with each other, and discover what they have in common and connect with each other.In this way, until now we have been able to understand the overall context of the matter, and everything is clear.We now have a more fundamental understanding of what we already knew in our youth because we have many examples of each concept.What we think we understand when we are young, we do not really know until we are old.The most important thing is that we do know more things in old age, when the knowledge at this time becomes truly coherent and unified through repeated multi-faceted thinking.But in youth, our understanding is always fragmented and incomplete.Only when a person lives to old age can he acquire a complete and coherent perception of life, because only after old age does he see the whole of life and its natural process.In particular, he will not look at life with the eyes of just entering the world like others, and his perspective is from the perspective of leaving the world.In this way he is especially able to fully recognize the nihilistic nature of life.Others, on the other hand, are perpetually obsessed with the false belief that things will always be perfect sooner or later.Compared with old age, people have more assumptions in youth, so people don't know much, but they can amplify their limited knowledge; but in old age, people have more insight, judgment and understanding A fundamental understanding of things.Already in youth a man of high spiritual quality sets out to accumulate material for his unique and original views and perceptions, that is to say, for the contribution he is destined to give to the world.But it will take time before he can become a master at handling the material.Hence the reason, we find: a great novelist usually does not write his great novel until he is fifty.Nevertheless, youth is when the tree of knowledge takes root, though it is the leaf-tops that finally bear fruit.Just as every age, even the barrenest, thinks itself more civilized than the one that came before it—and earlier ages are even less contemptuous—so we in all stages of life also hold the same point of view.But these perceptions are usually wrong.In the years of physical growth and growth, people's physical strength and knowledge increase day by day.They are also used to value today and despise yesterday.Such a habitual view takes root in our minds, and then, when our mental strength begins to weaken, and today we want to look at yesterday with reverence, we still retain the original habit.Therefore, we often underestimate not only the achievements we made in our early years, but also our judgment at that time.
It needs to be pointed out here: Although a person's intellectual quality, like his character and feelings, is inherent in its essence, it is not as static as a person's character.It is actually subject to changing circumstances, which generally appear with regularity.One of the reasons for this is that human intelligence is based on this physical world, and the other reason is that intelligence needs to obtain the material of experience.Thus, man's mental intelligence reaches its peak through continuous development, after which it gradually declines until the final state of dementia.To engage and enliven the material of our intellect, that is, the content of our thoughts and knowledge, the objects of our practice, practice, experience, and understanding - through which we acquire the perfection of our worldview - until our mental powers begin to show a marked decline , is a continuously increasing total.After the weakening of mental strength appeared, everything began to decay.Man is made up of one element which is absolutely unalterable, plus another which changes periodically in two opposite directions.This explains why a person has different performance and value in different life stages.
One could also say in a wider sense that the first 40 years of life provided the text, and the next 30 years provided the commentary on this text.The latter helps us to appreciate the true meaning of the text and its interrelationships, and reveals its moral lessons and other subtleties.
Towards the end of life, it's like a masquerade is over and we all take off our masks.At this time, we can see clearly who we have come into contact with and related to in our life.This is the time when our character is revealed and the business we are engaged in bears fruit.Our accomplishments are getting the credit they deserve, and all illusions are gone.But to get this far, time is essential.The strangest thing is that it is only towards the end of life that we really recognize and understand ourselves, our true purpose and direction, and especially our relationship to the world and others.We accept our place - which is usually, but not always, lower than we originally thought it should be.But sometimes, we have to give ourselves a higher position. This is because we didn't have enough understanding of the base and vulgar world, so we set our goals too high for this world. Taller.By the way, it is at this time that people realize what is inside of them.
We are accustomed to call youth the happy period of life, and old age the miserable.This statement would be true if lust really could make people happy.In youth, people are tormented by lust in every possible way, feeling little pleasure but much pain. When they cool down in old age, lust let go of people, and they immediately find peace; people immediately have a kind of meditation. The temperament of meditation.Because at this time, people's cognition gets rid of the shackles and takes the dominant position.Cognition itself is painless, so the more cognition occupies a dominant position in our consciousness, the happier we feel, we just need to think of the fact that all pleasures have a negative character, while pain has a negative character. affirmative properties, then we can recognize that lust does not bring us happiness.In old age, we cannot complain about the lack of many pleasures.Because every pleasure produced is only a relief of a need.The disappearance of pleasure due to the disappearance of needs is nothing to complain about, just as a person cannot eat more after eating, or we are awake after sleeping.In the preface to the Republic, Plato rightly believes that the happiest age is the happiest, provided that people finally get rid of the constant trouble of sexual desire.We could even say this: as long as people are still under the influence of sexual desire, or at the mercy of this devil, the endless and varied melancholy and emotional impulses it creates will keep people in a constant state of mind. A mild insanity.So only when the sexual desire disappears does man become rational.Indeed, on the whole, with few exceptions, there is something melancholy and melancholy about the young, and a certain joy for the old--and the root cause of this is nothing other than the fact that young people suffer. The devil's control of sexual desire—no, it should be slavery.The devil begrudgingly refused to let go of their freedom for even an hour.Almost all misfortunes and calamities that befall or threaten people are brought directly or indirectly by this devil.But an old man who enjoys joy is like a man who has thrown off the shackles that have long held him, and is now free at last.But on the other hand, we can also say this: after a person's sexual desire declines, the real core of life is almost consumed, and what remains is just a shell of life.Indeed, it was like a comedy that began with living people and was finished by robots in their costumes.
In any case, youth is a time of restlessness, and old age is a time of tranquility.From this one can deduce the happiness of the people in these two periods.The child stretched out his hands greedily all around: he wanted to get all the colorful and different shapes he saw before his eyes.He is seduced by what is in front of him because his sense-consciousness is so young and fresh at this moment.The same thing happens with greater energy in the puberty of a person.The youth is equally seduced by the world's colors and its rich shapes, and his imagination exaggerates what it has to offer him.Therefore, young people are full of longing and yearning for the unknown and uncertain.Longing and yearning robbed him of his peace, and without peace, happiness is impossible.In old age, by contrast, everything has calmed down, partly because the blood of old people has cooled so much that their senses are no longer so easily stimulated; another reason is that life experience has taught them to recognize The value of things and the connotation of all pleasures.Thus they are gradually freed from illusions, illusions, and prejudices, which, before old age, cloud and distort their free and pure perception of things.Now people see things more correctly and clearly as they are objectively; they see more or less the smallness and nothingness of all earthly things.It is this which gives almost all old men, even those of rather mediocre talent, an air of wisdom to some degree.This distinguishes them from young people.The first and foremost result of this is peace of mind—an essential component of, and indeed the precondition and essence of, happiness.Therefore, when young people take it for granted that there are wonderful and beautiful things everywhere in the world—as long as they can find the way and direction—the old people firmly believe that everything said in the book of Ecclesiastes is illusory. .They know well that all nuts are hollow inside, no matter how gilded they may be.
It is only in the later stages of old age that people really reach the state that Horace said: "Don't let yourself lose your calm and composure in the face of desire and fear."That is to say, it is only at this time that people have a direct, real and firm belief in the nothingness of all things, the emptiness and dullness behind the prosperity and joy in this world, and the illusory portraits are eliminated.They no longer mistakenly imagine that there is another, more special kind of happiness in this world, to dwell in some palace or hut, besides that which is enjoyed in freedom from physical and mental suffering.Those who are great or small, noble or humble according to the value standard of the world, for these old people, there is actually no big difference between them.This gives the elderly a special peace of mind.With this state of mind, they overlook this illusory world from a height with a smile on their faces.They have no hope, they know that despite all the efforts to decorate and beautify life, through those cheap and dazzling lights, life still presents its barren face; In principle, it is nothing more than such an existence: its real value can only be measured by its lack of pain, not by its lack of pleasure, still less by the luxury of life.The essential characteristic of the octogenarian is the disillusionment of hopes, the disappearance of illusions--before that illusions gave life a charm, spurred us to activities, to pursuits.At this time, people clearly recognize the splendor and magnificence of this world, especially the emptiness and meaninglessness behind the glitz and honor on the surface.People realize that behind the things that everyone desires, expects, and enjoys after hard work, most of them actually hide tiny and unbearable contents.People have gradually reached a consensus on the barren, empty nature of this existence.One does not understand the meaning of the first verse of Ecclesiastes until one has lived to the age of seventy.It is this which gives the old man a certain morose air.
People even think that the fate of the elderly is disease and boredom.Illness does not necessarily accompany old age, especially to those who live to the highest age, because "with age comes an increase in health or disease"; Young people suffer less from boredom.Old age does lead us into loneliness, for obvious reasons.But boredom does not necessarily accompany this solitude, boredom only necessarily accompanies those who have no other pleasures than sensual and social pleasures.These people have not developed and enriched their spiritual potential.It is true that when people live to an advanced age, their mental strength begins to decline, but if a person originally had a rich spiritual world, then he will always have more than enough mental strength to resist boredom.As mentioned above, through experience, understanding, practice and reflection, people have more accurate views on things.Their judgment is sharper, the connections between things become clearer; people have a more comprehensive overview of things.We are constantly recombining our accumulated knowledge, enriching our knowledge at every opportunity—this constant inner self-cultivation and edification in every direction occupies our minds and gives us satisfaction and reward.Due to these activities, the decline in mental strength of the elderly discussed above is compensated to a certain extent.Plus, like I said, time passes more quickly in old age, which kills boredom.The decline of the physical strength of the elderly is not a particularly regrettable thing, if the elderly do not need to use their physical strength to earn money.Poverty is a great misfortune to old age.If this misfortune can be warded off, and our health preserved, our old age will be a fairly good, bearable, and manageable life.Comfort and security of life are the first needs of men: therefore, old people love money more than they did when they were young, because money is a substitute for lost physical strength.After being abandoned by Venus, people will turn to Bacchus for pleasure.The need to watch, travel, and learn is gone, replaced by the need to express opinions and teach others.If the elderly maintain the fun of exploration and research, or are keen on music and drama, especially retain a certain sensitivity and acceptance of external things-many elderly people still enjoy the above things in their later years-this is a kind of luck.The benefits of one's "self-possession" in old age are incomparable at any time.Of course, most human beings are dumb to begin with, and as they get older they become more and more robotic.They always think, say, and do the same thing, and the impression of external things cannot change them in the slightest, or bring about something new in them.Talking to such old people is like writing on sand, and the impression left on them disappears almost immediately.Of course, such elderly people are the "embers" in life.In some unique cases, the third tooth erupted in the elderly, and nature seemed to want to symbolize by this third set of teeth the second childhood that these old people began.It is indeed tragic enough that all our vitality is lost as we grow older; die.Therefore, if a person lives to an advanced age and finally dies without illness, he is a great beneficiary.A dying death is not accompanied by sickness, convulsions, it is not even felt. 【1】
No matter how long we live, we have nothing but the indivisible present moment.Every day, the contents of our memories are lost by forgetting more than the contents of new memories are gained as people age.The older one gets, the more insignificant the events of life appear, and what seemed fixed and unchanging in youth now appears to be but a blip, a fleeting phenomenon.We feel the meaninglessness of life.
The fundamental difference between youth and old age is always that the former has life as its prospect, the latter death; and while youth has a short past and a long future, old age is just the opposite. Old age is like In the fifth act of a tragedy: people know the end is near, but they don't know what it will be.In any case, when people are old, they only face death, but when they are young, they face life.Nevertheless, we might as well ask ourselves, which of the two is worrying?On the whole, which is better, life first, or life last? The book of Ecclesiastes has already said, "The day of death is better than the day of birth", because it is rash to pursue too long life anyway, because a Spanish proverb says: "The longer you live, the more you suffer." The more harm there will be."
A specific individual's life is not predicted on the planets as astrology says, but if the various periods of life are related to the corresponding series of planets, then the life of a human being is roughly shown on the planets. .A person's life is thus controlled by those planets in turn.At the age of 10, people are ruled by the messenger star [2].Like the Messenger God, people move easily and quickly in narrow circles, swayed by trivial details, but under the command of the witty and clever Messenger God, they learn many things easily.By the age of 20, the planet Venus [3] rules life: love and women completely control a person.At the age of 30, Ares[4] takes over, and people become strong, bold, aggressive and stubborn.When a person reaches the age of 40, the four asteroids take over the baton, and life becomes broader from this.He becomes frugal, that is, lives for practical purposes—this is why Ceres works; he has his comfort zone—thanks to Vesta; He needs to know things, and the mistress of his home—the wife—rules the house as the diva [5].At 50, Jupiter [6] is on the throne, and the 50-year-old has outlived most people and feels he has more advantages than his contemporaries.He enjoys his power to the fullest, he is experienced and knowledgeable, he (according to his personality and situation) has authority over those around him, and therefore he no longer takes orders from others.Instead, he is calling the shots now.Now, it was only fitting that he be the guide and ruler around him.At fifty a man is like Jupiter at the apex of his glory.But then at the age of 50 in life, Saturn [60] came, accompanied by lead-like bulkiness, slowness and tenacity.
Old people, many of them seem to be dead
Stiff, slow, heavy and gray, like lead
—Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V
And finally Uranus.At this time, as people say, people go to heaven.I do not here consider Neptune (which has unfortunately been misnamed through carelessness), because I cannot call its real name "Eros" [8].Otherwise, I would point out the way in which the end and the beginning of life are connected, that is, how Eros is connected with death in a secret way-it is because of this connection that Egypt What one calls an orc or amentus (according to Plutarch) is not only the receiver but also the giver; death is the great source of life.Therefore everything originates from the Ochs, and everything with life passes through the Ochs stage.If we can really understand the magic mystery on which life depends, then everything will become clear.
注释
[1] The reader may find my account of this situation in Chapter 41, Volume II of my The World as Will and Representation.
To be honest, a person’s life is neither long nor short. After all, human life is fundamentally just a standard by which we measure other lengths of time—the Upanishad in the Indian Veda believes that, The natural lifespan of a human being is 100 years.I believe this to be true, as I have found that only people who have lived past the age of 90 die peacefully, that is, without disease, stroke, convulsions, or even turning pale sometimes; they are usually sitting, eating after.They are not dead, they just cease to live.Before that age, people just die of disease, so it's premature death. The Old Testament (Psalm 90.10) puts lifespan at 70 years, or as high as 80 years.In addition, Herodotus also holds the same view, but this is all wrong, which is just the result of a rough and superficial understanding of daily life experience.For if life expectancy is 70 to 80 years, then people die between 70 and 80 years old, but what actually happens is not like this: the old people who reach these years are as old as the young people who die young. died of various diseases.Death due to illness is an abnormal thing, so this kind of death is not the natural end of life.According to the general rule, only when a person dies between 90 and 100 years old does he die at the end of his lifespan.They had no disease, no struggle with death, no grunt or convulsion of breath.Sometimes their faces never turn pale.This death may be called the end of life.Therefore, India's "Vedas" set a person's life span at 100 years.
【2】It is Mercury. - translator
【3】It is Venus, and Venus is the god of love. - translator
【4】It is Mars. - translator
【5】The more than 60 asteroids discovered later are new creations that I have no interest in knowing about.I therefore treat them as a professor of philosophy treats me, ignoring them because they do not suit the needs of my purposes.
[6] That is Jupiter. - translator
[7] That is Saturn. - translator
【8】The god of sex. - translator
Attached
(End of this chapter)
Voltaire once said quite beautifully:
If a person does not have the charm of his age,
Then he would have all his age-specific misfortunes.
It is fitting, therefore, to conclude our discussion of happiness with a cursory examination of the changes which the different stages of life bring us.All our lives we just live in the present moment.The difference between the present moment of different periods is that at the beginning of life, we have a long future in front of us; but at the end of life, we see the long past behind us.While our character remains the same, our mood undergoes some marked changes.The "now and now" of different periods are therefore colored in a different way.
In Chapter 31 of the second volume of The World as Willing and Representation, I have illuminated and explained the fact that in childhood we are more in a state of knowing than of willing.It is based on this fact that in this first quarter of our lives we are able to enjoy joy.When childhood is over, what we leave behind is a heavenly time.In childhood, we have few connections and few needs, that is to say, we are not very much stimulated by desire, and most of our lives are devoted to cognitive activities.Our brains reach their maximum size by the age of seven, and likewise, our mental abilities develop very early, though not yet mature.But in the brand new world of childhood, it absorbs nourishment without stopping.In the world of childhood, everything has a certain charm of novelty.Accordingly, our childhood is a continuous poem, because, like all other arts, the essence of poetry consists in grasping from each individual thing the Platonic idea of this thing, that is, grasping this The most essential of a single thing, and therefore the whole characteristic common to such things; each single thing represents in such a way its kind, and every single thing is like a thousand.Although it seems now, we seem to have been paying attention to individual things or individual events at that time in childhood-even when a certain thing or a certain event stimulates our momentary desire at that time, we pay attention to them.But, in the final analysis, this is not the case.This is because in childhood life--in the full and complete sense of the word--is so new and fresh before our eyes that the impression it makes on us is not altered by repeated repetitions. and in our childhood activities, without knowing our purpose, we are always busy silently, from the single scene and single event we see, to understand the essence of life itself, to grasp the shape of life basic typical.We, as Spinoza said, "see people and things from the perspective of eternity."The younger we are, the more each individual thing represents the totality of the class.But that has diminished year by year.Because of this, there is a great difference between the impressions made by things when we are young, and the impressions we feel when we are old.Therefore, our contact and experience of things in childhood and early youth constitute the fixed type and category of all subsequent cognition and experience.Later life perceptions and experiences are subsumed into given types, although we are not always consciously aware that we do so.Thus, in childhood we already have a solid foundation of deep or superficial worldviews.Our world view will be expanded and improved in the future, but in essence it will not change.Because of such a purely objective, and therefore poetic, point of view—which is characteristic of childhood, which benefits from the fact that the will of the time is far from fully functioning—so, as children, our conscious The act of knowing is far superior to the act of willing.Therefore, many children's eyes are intuitive and serious.Raphael used this look very skillfully when he painted his angels—especially the angels in his painting of the Sistine Madonna.This is why childhood is such a joy, and our memories of childhood are always accompanied by nostalgia.While we are so serious about first seeing things intuitively, education is also busy instilling in us all kinds of conceptual knowledge.Conceptual knowledge, however, does not bring us knowledge of the true nature of things; on the contrary, knowledge of the nature of things—that is, the real content of our knowledge—is in our intuitive grasp of the world.But such an intuitive understanding can only be obtained through ourselves, and any form of indoctrination is powerless.Therefore, our intellect, like our morality, does not come from outside, but from deep within our own nature.No educator can turn a born fool into a brain, never!He was a fool when he was born, and he was still a fool when he died.A person's first intuitive grasp of the external world is profound, which explains why our childhood environments and experiences leave such deep imprints on our memories.We are so engrossed in our surroundings that nothing distracts us from them; we seem to regard the things before us as the only ones of their kind, as if they alone existed in the world.In the days that followed, we realized that there were many other things in this world, and we lost our courage and patience.I have stated on page 7 of The World as Will and Representation that all things without exception are pleasant when they exist as objects, that is, purely as representations; That is to say, when it exists in desire, it is immersed in pain and sorrow.Here, if the reader recalls this exposition of mine, they will accept this statement as a simple summary of my exposition: all things are pleasant in contemplation, but in concrete existence they are scary.From what has been said above, in childhood we know things more from the side of seeing than from the side of being, that is, as representations, as objects, and not as wills.Because the former is the pleasing side of things, while the other side of the subject is unknown to us, our young minds regard reality and the various shapes presented by art as objects of various pleasures. thing.We think: these things look so beautiful, then the concrete existence will be even more beautiful.Therefore, the world before us is like Eden; the place where we were born is the plateau of Arcadian.Thus, at a later date, we have a longing for real life, our eagerness to do things and suffer, and this draws us into the noisy, tumultuous life.Living in this troubled world, we learn to understand the other side of things, the existence of things is the side of desire; every step we take is fettered by desire.Then, slowly, a great disillusionment set in.After this, we can also say: the age of fantasy is gone forever.But the sense of disillusionment keeps growing, deepening, and becoming complete.From this we may say: In childhood life presents itself as a stage-scene seen from a distance; in old age we come at the closest distance to see the same decorations.
Finally, our happiness in childhood is also due to the fact that, just as in early spring the leaves are all the same color and have almost the same shape, so in childhood we are similar to each other and are therefore in harmony.But with the advent of puberty, differences and differences between people also appear, which is the same as the larger the radius of the compasses, the larger the circle drawn.
The last part of our first half of life, our youth, has many advantages over the second half of our life, but what troubles us and makes us unhappy in this youth is our pursuit of happiness.We insist that we can find happiness in our lives.Our hopes are thus constantly frustrated, and our dissatisfaction arises from it.The indistinct bliss of our dreams has before us a variety of magical images that change at will, and we chase in vain the prototypes of these images.Therefore, in youth, no matter what environment or situation we are in, we will be dissatisfied with it, because we have just begun to realize the emptiness and wretchedness of life-before that, the life we expected was It's quite another look - but we attribute the emptiness and wretchedness of life everywhere to our circumstances, our conditions.In youth, people can benefit a lot if they are taught in time to eradicate the misconception that we can gain as much as we can in this world.However, the reality is exactly the opposite.In our early years we know life chiefly through poetry, fiction, and not through reality.We are in the rising sun of youth, and the images depicted in poetry and fiction flash before our eyes; we are tormented by longing to see those images come true, and we are eager to catch the rainbow.Young people expect their life to be like an interesting novel.Hence their disappointment.On this point, I have already expounded on page 374 of the second volume of "The World as Will and Representation".The portraits have such fascination precisely because they are mere portraits, they are not real.Therefore, when we contemplate them, we are in the state of tranquility and self-sufficiency of pure awareness.To realize these portraits one by one means to be immersed in desire, and the activities of desire will inevitably bring pain.Interested readers may refer to page 427 of my above-mentioned work on this issue.
Therefore, if the first half of a person's life is characterized by the pursuit of happiness, but cannot be satisfied, then the second half of a person's life is characterized by fear and anxiety about encountering misfortune.Because in the second half of life, we more or less clearly understand that all happiness is illusory, but suffering is real.So now what we strive for is a state of freedom from pain and disturbance, not pleasure, at least for rational beings.When I was young, I was happy when there was a knock at the door because I thought, "Happiness is coming." But in later years, under the same circumstances, my reaction changed. It has become similar to fear: "Misfortune has finally arrived." Among all living beings, there are some outstanding and unique characters. Since they are such characters, they do not really belong to all living beings, but exist alone.Therefore, according to the degree of their own superiority, they have more or less only these two diametrically opposed feelings about life: in youth, they feel abandoned by everyone;The former is uncomfortable because of ignorance of life; the latter is pleasant because of understanding of life.The result of this is: the second half of life, like the second half of a musical section, has less struggle and pursuit than the first half, but contains more tranquility and peace.This is mainly because when people are young, they think that the world is full of happiness and happiness that are within easy reach, and people just suffer from not being able to find ways to obtain these happiness and happiness; but when they are old, people will know that there is no happiness in this world. There is no happiness or joy to speak of, so they chew and taste the mediocre status quo with peace of mind, and even find pleasure in the mediocrity.
All that a mature man can gain from his own life experience is to be free from prejudice; and thus he finds the world very different from what he saw in his childhood and youth.He began to look at things with a simple eye, to treat them objectively.But for children and young adults, the strange imaginations, outlandish ideas and preconceived opinions circulated in their heads combine to piece together an illusion that distorts and disguises the real world.The first task of human experience, then, is to get rid of those fantasies and false ideas which have taken root in our adolescence;An education that achieves this goal will be the most ideal education, although such an education can only be negative.To achieve this goal, we must control the gaze and field of vision of the child in childhood to the narrowest possible range from the beginning.Within this range, we provide children with clear and correct ideas; only after they have a correct understanding of things within this range of vision can they gradually widen their horizons.At the same time, always be careful not to allow any vague, half-understood, or distorted perceptions to remain in their minds.The result of this is that people's conception of things and relationships is always narrow, but very simple.It is for this reason that their ideas will be clear and correct.These concepts only need to be gradually broadened, not revised and errata.This education needs to be maintained into youth.In particular, this method of education requires people not to read novels, but to replace them with suitable biographical readings, such as the biography of Franklin, "Anton Rice" written by Moritz, etc.
When we are young, we mistakenly believe that the important people and influential events in our lives will appear and happen with great fanfare.In old age, the review and examination of life tell us that these characters and events entered our lives quietly and inadvertently through the back door.
From the observations we have made so far, we can also compare life to a piece of embroidery: people in the first half of life see the front of the embroidery, while people in the second half of life see the embroidery. the back of the item.The back of the embroidery is not as beautiful, but it is instructive because it makes it clear to see the overall stitching of the embroidery.
A person's superior intelligence, even the greatest spiritual intelligence, will only show its obvious advantages in speech after the age of 40. Mature age and rich experience cannot match the superior intelligence in many aspects. Spiritual intelligence rivals, but the former cannot always be replaced by the latter.Age and experience give a certain balance to the mediocre masses against those of superior spiritual intellect--provided the latter are young.What I say here is only in terms of personal circumstances, and does not include the works created by them.
Every outstanding person, as long as he does not belong to the group that accounts for five-sixths of human beings and has only received the pitiful gift of nature, then, after the age of 40, it is difficult for him to get rid of a certain degree of respect for human beings. abomination.For naturally, by inferring others from himself, he gradually becomes disappointed in people.He saw that people were not on the same level as him, but far inferior to him, whether in thought (brain) or emotion (heart), or even both in many cases.He therefore wished to avoid associating with such persons, since in general each individual likes or dislikes solitude, that is, company with himself, according to his own inner worth.Kant also discusses this aversion to man in the introduction to Chapter 29 of the first part of the Critique of Judgment.
If a young man has an early insight into human affairs and is good at dealing with and dealing with people; therefore, when he enters into social relationships, he can handle them with ease, then, from an intellectual and moral point of view, this is a bad sign. Human beings are mediocre.But if, in similar human relations, a young man exhibits surprise, surprise, clumsiness, reversed manners and behavior, it portends a nobler quality in him.
Part of the reason we feel the joy and the courage to live in our youth is that we are walking uphill and therefore do not see death—for it is on the other side of the mountain at the foot of the mountain.When we passed the top of the mountain, we really had a face to face with death.Before that, we only learned about death from other people's mouths.By this time, our vitality has begun to decline, so that our courage to live has also weakened.At this time, the depressed and serious expression squeezed away the supercilious look of youth and branded it on our faces.As long as we are young, then, no matter what people tell us, we still waste time thinking of life as endless.The older we get, the more we appreciate our time.In old age, with each passing day, we feel akin to a condemned man who has taken another step toward the gallows.
Looking at life from the perspective of youth, life is a long and endless future; but from the perspective of old age, life is a very short past.At the beginning of life, life appears as we turn upside down the opera telescope; at the end, we use it in the usual way.Only when a man is old, that is, after he has lived long enough, does he realize how short life is.In our youth, time moves much more slowly, so that the first quarter of our lives is not only the happiest, it is also the longest.This period, therefore, leaves us with the greatest memory; and when the need arises, one speaks far more of it than of middle age and old age after it.As in the spring of the year, the days are uncomfortably long, so in the spring of life, the days are equally dull and long.But in autumn of the two the days are short, but brighter and less varied.
When life draws to a close, we don't know where life has gone.Why in old age, when we look back on our lives, do we feel that life is so short?Because we don't have many memories of this life, we feel that this life is short.All insignificant and unpleasant events are sifted from our memory, so that very few things remain in our memory.Our intellect is inherently imperfect, and so is our memory.What we have learned needs to be reviewed, and what has passed needs to be recalled. Only in this way, the two will not slowly sink into the abyss of forgetting.However, we don't try to think about unimportant things, and we usually don't think about unpleasant things.But the practice of reminiscence and recall is necessary if we are to retain these events in memory.First, the number of unimportant things increases forever, because many things that seem meaningful at the beginning gradually become meaningless after many repetitions forever.As a result, we recall our earlier years more than later times.The longer we live, the fewer meaningful and important things we can recall later.But these things can be preserved in our memory thanks to recalling this only way.So, once things are over, we also forget them.Time flies by like this without leaving a trace.Second, we don't like to relive unpleasant things, especially those that hurt our vanity.And unpleasant things are often related to our damaged vanity, because we are mostly responsible for unpleasant troubles.Many unpleasant things are thus forgotten by us.It is the little and unpleasant events of life that shorten our recollections.The more material you recall, the less memory you have.Just as the farther a person sails from the shore, the objects on the shore become fewer and more illegible, so the things we have experienced in the past years have encountered the same situation.Sometimes, our memory and imagination vividly reappear a scene of the past that has been dusty for a long time before our eyes, as if it happened yesterday, it is so close to us.The reason for this is that we cannot recall with equal vividness the interval between the time when this event occurred in the past and the present.This period of time cannot be seen at a glance like a picture, and most of the events that occurred during this period have been almost forgotten by us.Of these things we retain only a general knowledge in the abstract, which is a mere conception, not intuitive knowledge.For this reason, a long past event seems so close, as if it happened yesterday, and the rest of the time has disappeared without a trace.The whole life seems so short, it is unimaginable.When a person is old, the long years that have passed, and his own dying years, sometimes at a certain moment, it will become almost unreal.This is mainly because the first thing we see is the present moment right in front of us.Inner mental activity such as this is ultimately determined by the fact that it is not our existence itself, but the phenomenon of our existence, which is dependent on time; the present moment is the junction of subject and object.Why is it that in youth, when we look forward to life, we find that life is so endless?That's because young people need a place to place their boundless expectations, and to realize them one by one, a person does not live long enough to live in Methuselah.Besides, young people measure the future according to the few years they have lived; these past days are always full of memories and therefore seem long.In this bygone age, the novelty of things makes everything seem full of meaning.In this way, in the later time, they are repeatedly recollected and chewed in people's memory.In this way the days of youth are etched into our memory.
Sometimes we believe we are nostalgic for some distant place, when in reality we are only nostalgic for the time we spent there when we were young and lively.Time wears the mask of space to deceive us, and we only need to visit the place to know that we have been deceived.
To live a long life, the indispensable condition is to have an impeccable physique.In addition, we have two methods, which can be explained by the different burning methods of the two oil lamps: one oil lamp has less oil, but its wick is very thin, and it can be lit for a longer time; Although an oil lamp has a thick wick, it has enough oil, and it can also burn for a long time.Here, the lamp oil is like a person's vitality, and the wick is any form of consumption and squandering of the body's vitality.
As for vitality, before the age of 36, we are like people who live on interest: the money spent today can be earned back tomorrow.However, after the age of 36, it is more like we have begun to dip into the capital we live on.When this starts to happen, the signs aren't obvious; most of the money spent comes back on its own, and tiny fiscal deficits go unnoticed.But the deficit is growing and becoming apparent, its momentum is getting worse every day, and there is no hope of stopping it.The depletion of principal continues to accelerate, and its momentum is like that of a falling object.In the end, the money finally disappeared.If the two things being compared here—life and money—are really in a state of depletion, the situation is indeed rather desolate.Therefore, with the approach of old age, the attachment and possessiveness to money will only increase.In contrast, from the beginning of life to adulthood, and even to a certain period of time after adulthood, as far as human vitality is concerned, it is like depositing interest income into the principal, and the interest spent is not only automatically earned back, but also the principal keep increasing.Our money can sometimes do the same if we have a resourceful advisor who takes care of our money.What a happy youth!How miserable is old age!Nevertheless, young people should cherish their youthful vigor.Aristotle discovered that very few people are able to win the Olympic Games in both youth and adulthood.Because the hard training and preparation in their early years have consumed their vitality, and their strength is difficult to sustain after the adult stage.As with muscular strength, so with nervous vigor, the outward expression of which is all intellectual achievement.Precocious child prodigies are thus the fruit of hothouse education, who amaze people in childhood but then degenerate into rather mediocre minds.Even many polymaths spend their early years compulsively expending their brains in learning ancient languages, and in later life their minds become rigid, numb, and lose their judgment.
I have already pointed out that a man's character seems to be particularly in harmony with a certain stage of his life.Thus, at that particular stage of life, the person is at his best.Some people are likable when they are young, but this situation disappears with time; some people are very active and capable in middle age, but they become useless in old age; Bring out the best in themselves, they are gentle and tolerant, because at this time, they are more experienced in life and more poised in dealing with others.This is more common with the French.All this must be because the human personality itself has certain temperament characteristics unique to youth, middle age or old age. This temperament characteristic is quite consistent with a certain stage of life, or it plays a role in revising and adjusting a certain stage of life. effect.
Just as a person in a boat can only detect the progress of the boat by receding and shrinking the scenery on the bank behind him, similarly, if people who are older than us appear younger to us, then we can know accordingly. We grow old.
We have already discussed above that the older a person lives, the less impressions he has seen and heard in his life are left on his mind.In this sense it can be said that man lives fully consciously only in youth; in old age he continues to live with only half consciousness.The consciousness of life diminishes with age; events leave no impression after they have passed, just as we have seen a work of art a thousand times and it no longer makes an impression.People do what they have to do, but don't know what they've done when it's done.Now that they are gradually losing consciousness of life, time runs faster with every step they take toward total unconsciousness.In childhood, novelty brings everything into our consciousness.Therefore, every day is lengthy.The same thing happens to us when we travel: a month spent traveling seems longer than four months at home.Notwithstanding this, the novelty of things does not prevent the seemingly longer periods of childhood and travels from becoming indeed longer and more difficult to pass than in old age and at home.But prolonged habituation to the same sense-impressions tires and dulls our intellect.In this way, everything happened and passed without leaving a trace.The days thus become less and less meaningful, and thus shorter and shorter.An hour spent in a child is longer than a day spent in an old man.Therefore, the time we live in is like a rolling ball that is constantly accelerating.Another example is that on a rotating disk, points that are farther from the center rotate faster.Likewise, time passes faster the farther away each individual is from the beginning of life.From this we can say that, in directly assessing our psychological sense of the passage of time, the length of a year is inversely proportional to the quotient obtained by dividing that year by our age.For example, if a year constitutes one-fifth of our years, it will seem ten times longer than when it was only one-fiftieth of our years.The different speeds at which time passes have a decisive influence on our entire existence at different stages of life.First, it makes the childhood phase of life—that is, a measly 15 years—seem to be the longest period of our lives, and therefore the most memorable; inversely proportional to our age.Children need entertainment to pass the time all the time, whether it's play or work.A dreadful boredom takes hold of them when diversions are absent.Even young adults are still plagued by boredom, and hours of inactivity can lead to panic attacks.In adulthood, boredom diminishes.But in old age, time is always too short, and the days fly by like arrows.It goes without saying that I'm talking about people here, not old livestock.In the second half of our lives, time speeds up and boredom mostly disappears with it.At the same time, our passions, and the pain that accompanies them, are silenced.So, as long as we are able to maintain good health, it is true that, in general, the latter half of life is less burdensome than it was in youth.That is why people call this period of time—that is, the period before the frailty and sickness of old age—the "best of times."From the perspective of living comfortably and happily, this period of time is indeed the best.In contrast, youth—the time when everything is impressed and everything enters our consciousness alive—has this advantage too: it is a time of gestation for one's spiritual thoughts. , is the spring when the spirit begins to sprout.During this period, people can only intuit deep truths, but cannot explain them.That is to say, the first knowledge that young people get is a direct knowledge, which is obtained through momentary impressions.The impression of this moment must be strong, fresh, and deep in order to bring about intuitive understanding.So in terms of acquiring intuitive knowledge, everything depends on how we use our youth.In the days to come, we can exert an influence on others, and even on the world, because we ourselves have become complete and perfect, and are no longer influenced by impressions; but the influence of the world on us is relatively reduced.Therefore, this period is the time when we do things and achieve something, but adolescence is a time when people have a primitive grasp and understanding of things.
In youth our intuition has the upper hand, but in old age our thoughts take hold.Thus, the former is a time for writing poetry, while the latter is a time for philosophizing.In practical affairs youth are at the mercy of what they perceive and the impressions they produce; but in old age men are governed by their thoughts alone.The reason is that only in old age, when a sufficient number of intuitive impressions of things have accumulated and the intuitive impressions of things are summarized into concepts, people will endow these concepts with richer content, meaning and value.At the same time, intuitive impressions are weakened by habit.In adolescence, by contrast, intuitive impressions, that is, impressions of the outward side of things, predominate in the mind, especially among those whose minds are lively and imaginative.Such people see the world as a picture, so their concern is what role they should play in the world, how to show and stand out, and their inner feeling of the world is a secondary matter.This has been reflected in the personal vanity and pursuit of finery of the young.
The period of our strongest and most concentrated mental powers is undoubtedly in adolescence.This period can be extended to a person's 35 years of age at the latest.From this age, one's mental strength begins to weaken, although this weakening process is quite slow.However, in later years, even old age, one is not without some kind of spiritual compensation.At this time, a person's experience and knowledge are truly enriched.People finally have the time and opportunity to look at things from all sides, compare things with each other, and discover what they have in common and connect with each other.In this way, until now we have been able to understand the overall context of the matter, and everything is clear.We now have a more fundamental understanding of what we already knew in our youth because we have many examples of each concept.What we think we understand when we are young, we do not really know until we are old.The most important thing is that we do know more things in old age, when the knowledge at this time becomes truly coherent and unified through repeated multi-faceted thinking.But in youth, our understanding is always fragmented and incomplete.Only when a person lives to old age can he acquire a complete and coherent perception of life, because only after old age does he see the whole of life and its natural process.In particular, he will not look at life with the eyes of just entering the world like others, and his perspective is from the perspective of leaving the world.In this way he is especially able to fully recognize the nihilistic nature of life.Others, on the other hand, are perpetually obsessed with the false belief that things will always be perfect sooner or later.Compared with old age, people have more assumptions in youth, so people don't know much, but they can amplify their limited knowledge; but in old age, people have more insight, judgment and understanding A fundamental understanding of things.Already in youth a man of high spiritual quality sets out to accumulate material for his unique and original views and perceptions, that is to say, for the contribution he is destined to give to the world.But it will take time before he can become a master at handling the material.Hence the reason, we find: a great novelist usually does not write his great novel until he is fifty.Nevertheless, youth is when the tree of knowledge takes root, though it is the leaf-tops that finally bear fruit.Just as every age, even the barrenest, thinks itself more civilized than the one that came before it—and earlier ages are even less contemptuous—so we in all stages of life also hold the same point of view.But these perceptions are usually wrong.In the years of physical growth and growth, people's physical strength and knowledge increase day by day.They are also used to value today and despise yesterday.Such a habitual view takes root in our minds, and then, when our mental strength begins to weaken, and today we want to look at yesterday with reverence, we still retain the original habit.Therefore, we often underestimate not only the achievements we made in our early years, but also our judgment at that time.
It needs to be pointed out here: Although a person's intellectual quality, like his character and feelings, is inherent in its essence, it is not as static as a person's character.It is actually subject to changing circumstances, which generally appear with regularity.One of the reasons for this is that human intelligence is based on this physical world, and the other reason is that intelligence needs to obtain the material of experience.Thus, man's mental intelligence reaches its peak through continuous development, after which it gradually declines until the final state of dementia.To engage and enliven the material of our intellect, that is, the content of our thoughts and knowledge, the objects of our practice, practice, experience, and understanding - through which we acquire the perfection of our worldview - until our mental powers begin to show a marked decline , is a continuously increasing total.After the weakening of mental strength appeared, everything began to decay.Man is made up of one element which is absolutely unalterable, plus another which changes periodically in two opposite directions.This explains why a person has different performance and value in different life stages.
One could also say in a wider sense that the first 40 years of life provided the text, and the next 30 years provided the commentary on this text.The latter helps us to appreciate the true meaning of the text and its interrelationships, and reveals its moral lessons and other subtleties.
Towards the end of life, it's like a masquerade is over and we all take off our masks.At this time, we can see clearly who we have come into contact with and related to in our life.This is the time when our character is revealed and the business we are engaged in bears fruit.Our accomplishments are getting the credit they deserve, and all illusions are gone.But to get this far, time is essential.The strangest thing is that it is only towards the end of life that we really recognize and understand ourselves, our true purpose and direction, and especially our relationship to the world and others.We accept our place - which is usually, but not always, lower than we originally thought it should be.But sometimes, we have to give ourselves a higher position. This is because we didn't have enough understanding of the base and vulgar world, so we set our goals too high for this world. Taller.By the way, it is at this time that people realize what is inside of them.
We are accustomed to call youth the happy period of life, and old age the miserable.This statement would be true if lust really could make people happy.In youth, people are tormented by lust in every possible way, feeling little pleasure but much pain. When they cool down in old age, lust let go of people, and they immediately find peace; people immediately have a kind of meditation. The temperament of meditation.Because at this time, people's cognition gets rid of the shackles and takes the dominant position.Cognition itself is painless, so the more cognition occupies a dominant position in our consciousness, the happier we feel, we just need to think of the fact that all pleasures have a negative character, while pain has a negative character. affirmative properties, then we can recognize that lust does not bring us happiness.In old age, we cannot complain about the lack of many pleasures.Because every pleasure produced is only a relief of a need.The disappearance of pleasure due to the disappearance of needs is nothing to complain about, just as a person cannot eat more after eating, or we are awake after sleeping.In the preface to the Republic, Plato rightly believes that the happiest age is the happiest, provided that people finally get rid of the constant trouble of sexual desire.We could even say this: as long as people are still under the influence of sexual desire, or at the mercy of this devil, the endless and varied melancholy and emotional impulses it creates will keep people in a constant state of mind. A mild insanity.So only when the sexual desire disappears does man become rational.Indeed, on the whole, with few exceptions, there is something melancholy and melancholy about the young, and a certain joy for the old--and the root cause of this is nothing other than the fact that young people suffer. The devil's control of sexual desire—no, it should be slavery.The devil begrudgingly refused to let go of their freedom for even an hour.Almost all misfortunes and calamities that befall or threaten people are brought directly or indirectly by this devil.But an old man who enjoys joy is like a man who has thrown off the shackles that have long held him, and is now free at last.But on the other hand, we can also say this: after a person's sexual desire declines, the real core of life is almost consumed, and what remains is just a shell of life.Indeed, it was like a comedy that began with living people and was finished by robots in their costumes.
In any case, youth is a time of restlessness, and old age is a time of tranquility.From this one can deduce the happiness of the people in these two periods.The child stretched out his hands greedily all around: he wanted to get all the colorful and different shapes he saw before his eyes.He is seduced by what is in front of him because his sense-consciousness is so young and fresh at this moment.The same thing happens with greater energy in the puberty of a person.The youth is equally seduced by the world's colors and its rich shapes, and his imagination exaggerates what it has to offer him.Therefore, young people are full of longing and yearning for the unknown and uncertain.Longing and yearning robbed him of his peace, and without peace, happiness is impossible.In old age, by contrast, everything has calmed down, partly because the blood of old people has cooled so much that their senses are no longer so easily stimulated; another reason is that life experience has taught them to recognize The value of things and the connotation of all pleasures.Thus they are gradually freed from illusions, illusions, and prejudices, which, before old age, cloud and distort their free and pure perception of things.Now people see things more correctly and clearly as they are objectively; they see more or less the smallness and nothingness of all earthly things.It is this which gives almost all old men, even those of rather mediocre talent, an air of wisdom to some degree.This distinguishes them from young people.The first and foremost result of this is peace of mind—an essential component of, and indeed the precondition and essence of, happiness.Therefore, when young people take it for granted that there are wonderful and beautiful things everywhere in the world—as long as they can find the way and direction—the old people firmly believe that everything said in the book of Ecclesiastes is illusory. .They know well that all nuts are hollow inside, no matter how gilded they may be.
It is only in the later stages of old age that people really reach the state that Horace said: "Don't let yourself lose your calm and composure in the face of desire and fear."That is to say, it is only at this time that people have a direct, real and firm belief in the nothingness of all things, the emptiness and dullness behind the prosperity and joy in this world, and the illusory portraits are eliminated.They no longer mistakenly imagine that there is another, more special kind of happiness in this world, to dwell in some palace or hut, besides that which is enjoyed in freedom from physical and mental suffering.Those who are great or small, noble or humble according to the value standard of the world, for these old people, there is actually no big difference between them.This gives the elderly a special peace of mind.With this state of mind, they overlook this illusory world from a height with a smile on their faces.They have no hope, they know that despite all the efforts to decorate and beautify life, through those cheap and dazzling lights, life still presents its barren face; In principle, it is nothing more than such an existence: its real value can only be measured by its lack of pain, not by its lack of pleasure, still less by the luxury of life.The essential characteristic of the octogenarian is the disillusionment of hopes, the disappearance of illusions--before that illusions gave life a charm, spurred us to activities, to pursuits.At this time, people clearly recognize the splendor and magnificence of this world, especially the emptiness and meaninglessness behind the glitz and honor on the surface.People realize that behind the things that everyone desires, expects, and enjoys after hard work, most of them actually hide tiny and unbearable contents.People have gradually reached a consensus on the barren, empty nature of this existence.One does not understand the meaning of the first verse of Ecclesiastes until one has lived to the age of seventy.It is this which gives the old man a certain morose air.
People even think that the fate of the elderly is disease and boredom.Illness does not necessarily accompany old age, especially to those who live to the highest age, because "with age comes an increase in health or disease"; Young people suffer less from boredom.Old age does lead us into loneliness, for obvious reasons.But boredom does not necessarily accompany this solitude, boredom only necessarily accompanies those who have no other pleasures than sensual and social pleasures.These people have not developed and enriched their spiritual potential.It is true that when people live to an advanced age, their mental strength begins to decline, but if a person originally had a rich spiritual world, then he will always have more than enough mental strength to resist boredom.As mentioned above, through experience, understanding, practice and reflection, people have more accurate views on things.Their judgment is sharper, the connections between things become clearer; people have a more comprehensive overview of things.We are constantly recombining our accumulated knowledge, enriching our knowledge at every opportunity—this constant inner self-cultivation and edification in every direction occupies our minds and gives us satisfaction and reward.Due to these activities, the decline in mental strength of the elderly discussed above is compensated to a certain extent.Plus, like I said, time passes more quickly in old age, which kills boredom.The decline of the physical strength of the elderly is not a particularly regrettable thing, if the elderly do not need to use their physical strength to earn money.Poverty is a great misfortune to old age.If this misfortune can be warded off, and our health preserved, our old age will be a fairly good, bearable, and manageable life.Comfort and security of life are the first needs of men: therefore, old people love money more than they did when they were young, because money is a substitute for lost physical strength.After being abandoned by Venus, people will turn to Bacchus for pleasure.The need to watch, travel, and learn is gone, replaced by the need to express opinions and teach others.If the elderly maintain the fun of exploration and research, or are keen on music and drama, especially retain a certain sensitivity and acceptance of external things-many elderly people still enjoy the above things in their later years-this is a kind of luck.The benefits of one's "self-possession" in old age are incomparable at any time.Of course, most human beings are dumb to begin with, and as they get older they become more and more robotic.They always think, say, and do the same thing, and the impression of external things cannot change them in the slightest, or bring about something new in them.Talking to such old people is like writing on sand, and the impression left on them disappears almost immediately.Of course, such elderly people are the "embers" in life.In some unique cases, the third tooth erupted in the elderly, and nature seemed to want to symbolize by this third set of teeth the second childhood that these old people began.It is indeed tragic enough that all our vitality is lost as we grow older; die.Therefore, if a person lives to an advanced age and finally dies without illness, he is a great beneficiary.A dying death is not accompanied by sickness, convulsions, it is not even felt. 【1】
No matter how long we live, we have nothing but the indivisible present moment.Every day, the contents of our memories are lost by forgetting more than the contents of new memories are gained as people age.The older one gets, the more insignificant the events of life appear, and what seemed fixed and unchanging in youth now appears to be but a blip, a fleeting phenomenon.We feel the meaninglessness of life.
The fundamental difference between youth and old age is always that the former has life as its prospect, the latter death; and while youth has a short past and a long future, old age is just the opposite. Old age is like In the fifth act of a tragedy: people know the end is near, but they don't know what it will be.In any case, when people are old, they only face death, but when they are young, they face life.Nevertheless, we might as well ask ourselves, which of the two is worrying?On the whole, which is better, life first, or life last? The book of Ecclesiastes has already said, "The day of death is better than the day of birth", because it is rash to pursue too long life anyway, because a Spanish proverb says: "The longer you live, the more you suffer." The more harm there will be."
A specific individual's life is not predicted on the planets as astrology says, but if the various periods of life are related to the corresponding series of planets, then the life of a human being is roughly shown on the planets. .A person's life is thus controlled by those planets in turn.At the age of 10, people are ruled by the messenger star [2].Like the Messenger God, people move easily and quickly in narrow circles, swayed by trivial details, but under the command of the witty and clever Messenger God, they learn many things easily.By the age of 20, the planet Venus [3] rules life: love and women completely control a person.At the age of 30, Ares[4] takes over, and people become strong, bold, aggressive and stubborn.When a person reaches the age of 40, the four asteroids take over the baton, and life becomes broader from this.He becomes frugal, that is, lives for practical purposes—this is why Ceres works; he has his comfort zone—thanks to Vesta; He needs to know things, and the mistress of his home—the wife—rules the house as the diva [5].At 50, Jupiter [6] is on the throne, and the 50-year-old has outlived most people and feels he has more advantages than his contemporaries.He enjoys his power to the fullest, he is experienced and knowledgeable, he (according to his personality and situation) has authority over those around him, and therefore he no longer takes orders from others.Instead, he is calling the shots now.Now, it was only fitting that he be the guide and ruler around him.At fifty a man is like Jupiter at the apex of his glory.But then at the age of 50 in life, Saturn [60] came, accompanied by lead-like bulkiness, slowness and tenacity.
Old people, many of them seem to be dead
Stiff, slow, heavy and gray, like lead
—Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V
And finally Uranus.At this time, as people say, people go to heaven.I do not here consider Neptune (which has unfortunately been misnamed through carelessness), because I cannot call its real name "Eros" [8].Otherwise, I would point out the way in which the end and the beginning of life are connected, that is, how Eros is connected with death in a secret way-it is because of this connection that Egypt What one calls an orc or amentus (according to Plutarch) is not only the receiver but also the giver; death is the great source of life.Therefore everything originates from the Ochs, and everything with life passes through the Ochs stage.If we can really understand the magic mystery on which life depends, then everything will become clear.
注释
[1] The reader may find my account of this situation in Chapter 41, Volume II of my The World as Will and Representation.
To be honest, a person’s life is neither long nor short. After all, human life is fundamentally just a standard by which we measure other lengths of time—the Upanishad in the Indian Veda believes that, The natural lifespan of a human being is 100 years.I believe this to be true, as I have found that only people who have lived past the age of 90 die peacefully, that is, without disease, stroke, convulsions, or even turning pale sometimes; they are usually sitting, eating after.They are not dead, they just cease to live.Before that age, people just die of disease, so it's premature death. The Old Testament (Psalm 90.10) puts lifespan at 70 years, or as high as 80 years.In addition, Herodotus also holds the same view, but this is all wrong, which is just the result of a rough and superficial understanding of daily life experience.For if life expectancy is 70 to 80 years, then people die between 70 and 80 years old, but what actually happens is not like this: the old people who reach these years are as old as the young people who die young. died of various diseases.Death due to illness is an abnormal thing, so this kind of death is not the natural end of life.According to the general rule, only when a person dies between 90 and 100 years old does he die at the end of his lifespan.They had no disease, no struggle with death, no grunt or convulsion of breath.Sometimes their faces never turn pale.This death may be called the end of life.Therefore, India's "Vedas" set a person's life span at 100 years.
【2】It is Mercury. - translator
【3】It is Venus, and Venus is the god of love. - translator
【4】It is Mars. - translator
【5】The more than 60 asteroids discovered later are new creations that I have no interest in knowing about.I therefore treat them as a professor of philosophy treats me, ignoring them because they do not suit the needs of my purposes.
[6] That is Jupiter. - translator
[7] That is Saturn. - translator
【8】The god of sex. - translator
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