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Biography:(1788-1860) Certainly one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century, Schopenhauer seems to have had more impact on literature and on people in general than on academic philosophy. Perhaps that is because, first, he wrote very well, simply and intelligibly (unusual, we might say, for a German philosopher, and unusual now for any philosopher), second, he was the first Western philosopher to have access to translations of philosophical material from India, both Vedic and Buddhist, by which he was profoundly affected, to the great interest of many, and, third, his concerns were with the dilemmas and tragedies, in a religious or existential sense, of real life, not just with abstract philosophical problems. As Carl Jung said:
"He (Schopenhauer) was the first to speak of the suffering of the world, which visibly and glaringly surrounds us, and of confusion, passion, evil -- all those things which the [other philosophers] hardly seemed to notice and always tried to resolve into all-embracing harmony and comprehensibility. Here at last was a philosopher who had the courage to see that all was not for the best in the fundaments of the universe."
Q: I would like to learn to enjoy each separate moment.
Schopenhauer's Answer: Peace of mind! That is something essential to any enjoyment of the present moment, and unless its separate moments are enjoyed, there is an end to life's happiness as a whole. We should always recollect that today comes only once, and never returns, but tomorrow is another day, which, in its turn, comes once only.
Q: Feelings of inferiority have always prevented me from attempting to climb the mountain. I often think that I lack the necessary inner qualities.
A: On the other hand, we are often wiser than we fancy ourselves to be . . . In the great moments of life, when a man decides upon an important step, his action is directed not so much by any clear knowledge of the right thing to do, as by an inner impulse -- you may almost call it intuition -- proceeding from the deepest foundation of his being.
Q: How can we awaken our natural powers and turn them to practical use?
A: The mason employed on the building of a house may be quite ignorant of its general design, or, at any rate, he may not keep it constantly in mind. So it is with man: in working through the days and hours of his life, he takes little thought of its character as a whole . . . It is only when we come to view our life as a connected whole that our character and capacities show themselves in their true light; that we see how, in particular instances, some happy inspiration, as it were, led us to choose the only true path out of a thousand which might have brought us ruin.
It is only when we come to view our life as a connected whole that our character and capacities show themselves in their true light...
-- Schopenhauer Q: After searching for the answers to life for a long time, I have at least one solid conviction -- organized society knows nothing. For example, I recently attended a meeting for the promotion of world peace -- and the people spent most of their time fighting among themselves!
A: Take another example -- a roomful of guests in full dress, being received with great ceremony. You could almost believe that this is a noble and distinguished company; but, as a matter of fact, it is compulsion, pain and boredom who are the real guests. For where many are invited, it is a rabble -- even if they all wear stars. Really good society is everywhere of necessity very small. In brilliant festivals and noisy entertainments, there is always, at bottom, a sense of emptiness prevalent. A false tone is there.
Q: It is a relief to have my suspicions about deceitful human nature confirmed by those who see deeply into it. What practical procedure should we now follow?
A: You will see that, in dealing with fools and blockheads, there is only one way of showing your intelligence -- by having nothing to do with them. That means, of course, that when you go into society, you may now and then feel like a good dancer who gets an invitation to a ball, and on arriving, finds that everyone is lame -- with whom is he to dance?
Q: I am getting more conscious of how we carelessly permit other people to drain our psychic strength. Since we need to conserve our energies, will you please comment and advise?
A: If a man stands high on Nature's lists it is natural and inevitable that he should feel solitary. It will be an advantage to him if his surroundings do not interfere with this feeling; for if he has to see many other people who are not of like character with himself, they will exercise a disturbing influence upon him, adverse to his peace of mind; they will rob him, in fact, of himself, and give him nothing to compensate for the loss.
Q: We are all so impatient and so frustrated in our dealings with each other. By what method can we show more gentleness and understanding?
A: The art of putting up with people may be learned by practicing patience on inanimate objects, which, in virtue of some mechanical or general physical necessity, oppose a stubborn resistance to our freedom of action -- a form of patience which is required every day. The patience thus gained may be applied to our dealings with men, by accustoming ourselves to regard their opposition, wherever we encounter it, as the inevitable outcome of their nature, which sets itself up against us according to the same rigid law of necessity which governs the resistance of inanimate objects. To become indignant at their conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path.
Q: The evidence of man's self-defeating behavior is too overwhelming to dismiss, but won't we find it upsetting or depressing to give it much attention?
A: If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity . . . you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge -- a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it should be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.
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Q: Is it true that we can use all uncomfortable conditions for gaining more valuable self-insight? If so, will you please show us how?
A: Your friends will tell you that they are sincere; your enemies are really so. Let your enemies' criticism be like a bitter medicine, to be used as a means of self-knowledge.
-- Schopenhauer Q: What if a person commits a wrong, but says he is sorry about it afterwards. Should we not accept his remorse as fully genuine?
A: He will inevitably repeat the offence, or do something similar to it, should the occasion return, even though for the moment he is deep and sincere in his assurances of the contrary. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget, except himself, his own character. For character is incorrigible, because all a man's actions arise from an inward principle; he must always do the same thing under like circumstances, and he cannot do otherwise.
Q: I am very pleased at how my new insight into human nature has swept away many harmful beliefs.
A: It is very necessary that a man should be appraised early in life that it is a masquerade in which he finds himself, for otherwise, there are many things which he will fail to understand.
Q: Real teachers think from a higher level?
A: Great minds are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude.
Q: I accept the existence of this new way of thinking towards life, and I believe that certain men, like Christ and Buddha, found it. However, it is only a vague concept in my mind. Can you explain my difficulty to me?
A: No man can see over his own height. Let me explain what I mean. You cannot see in another man any more than you have in yourself. Your own level strictly determines the extent to which he comes within your understanding. If your intelligence is unawakened, mental qualities in another, even though they be of the highest kind, will have no effect on you at all . . . his higher mental faculties will no more exist for you than colors exist for those who cannot see.
Q: It is now clear to me that I have been living mostly from borrowed ideas, so I wish to start all over again and think for myself. This is possible, isn't it?
Schopenhauer's Answer: A man of intellect is like an artist who gives a concert without help from anyone else, playing on a single instrument -- perhaps a piano, which is a small orchestra in itself. Such a man is a small world in himself, and the effects produced by various instruments together, he produces all by himself, in the unity of his own consciousness.
Q: What benefit comes to us as we carry these principles into our daily life in business and at home?
A: The chief result gained by experience is clearness of view. This is what distinguishes the man of mature age . . . it is only then that he sees things plainly, and takes them for what they really are, while in earlier years he saw a phantom-world, put together with the whims of imaginations of his own mind . . the real world was hidden from him, or the vision of it distorted. The first thing that experience does is to free us from the phantoms of the mind.
Q: What mental technique might we put into operation for abolishing unhappiness?
A: It is most important for anyone who is capable of higher and nobler thoughts to keep his mind from being so completely engrossed with private affairs and ungracious troubles as to let them take up all his attention and crowd out worthier matters, for that is, in a very real sense, to lose sight of the true end of life.
Q: If we could only find a way to make this fact a guiding light in everything that happens to us.
A: Courage comes next to prudence as a quality of mind very essential to happiness . . . Our motto should be 'No Surrender', and far from yielding to the ills of life, let us take fresh courage from misfortune . . . Let our attitude be such that we would not quake even if the world fell in ruins around us.
Q: My imagination is constantly running off unhappy scenes from my past. I don't like the strange hold these scenes have on me.
A: This pulling out of the imagination which I am recommending, will also forbid us to summon up the memory of past misfortune, to paint a dark picture of the injustice or harm that has been done us, the losses we have sustained, the insults, slights and annoyances to which we have been exposed, for to do that is to arouse fresh life into all those hateful passions long laid asleep -- the anger and resentment which disturb and pollute our nature.
Q: What might we see in ourselves which would finally prove to be valuable self-knowledge?
A: To affect a quality, and to plume yourself upon it, is just to confess that you do not have it. Whether it is courage, or learning, or intellect, or wit, or success with women, or riches, or social position, or whatever else it may be that a man boasts of, you may conclude by his boasting about it that this is precisely the direction in which he is rather weak, for if a man really possesses any faculty to the full, it will not occur to him to make a great show of affecting it; he is quite content to know that he has it.
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Q: What is the connection between inner strength and periods of solitude? It seems we must sometimes stand apart from others to prevent drainage of our energies?
A: Petrarch gives a similar reason for wishing to be alone -- that tender spirit, so strong and constant in his love of seclusion! The streams, the plains and woods know well, he says, how he as tried to escape the perverse and stupid people who have missed the way to heaven.
Q: History proves over and over again that the masses never follow a teacher of genuine strength, at least not for long. I this because, as the teachers themselves point out, darkness dislikes the light?
A: Mental superiority of any kind always tends to isolate its possessor; people run away from him out of pure hatred, and say all manner of bad things about him by way of justifying their actions.
Q: What is an example of self-defeating effort?
A: The effort people make as far as possible to conceal their misfortunes, and to put the best face they can upon them, for fear lest their misfortunes ma show how much they are to blame.
Q: Why do we fail to use our minds with full power?
A: Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Q: Anger is a major problem with most of us, even more so because we keep this particular emotion well concealed. Do you have suggestions for dealing with other people with calm and poise?
A: If you want your judgment to be accepted, express it coolly and without passion. All violence has its origin in the will, and so, if your judgment is expressed with vehemence, people will consider it an effort of will, and not the outcome of knowledge, which is in its nature calm and unemotional.
Q: I have an important business project which I must put into the hands of a responsible man. How can I estimate the reliability of several prospective employees?
A: A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles -- for then he is off his guard. This will often afford a good opportunity of observing the boundless egotism of a man's nature, and his total lack of consideration for others; and if these defects show themselves in small things, or merely in his general manner, you will find that they also underlie his action in matters of importance, although he may disguise the fact . . . Do not trust him beyond your door.
Q: You say that we make authentic gain by first experiencing a loss. Will you provide an example of this basic teaching?
A: It is only after a man has rid himself of all pretence, and taken refuge in mere unembellished existence, that he is able to attain that peace of mind which is the foundation of human happiness.
Q: Why are the most useless people always those who are the most noisy and demanding?
A: It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.
Q: I sense the folly of depending upon others, so would appreciate counsel for breaking away.
A: If a man comes to think that I am more dependent upon him that he is dependent upon me, he feels as though I had stolen something from him, and his aim will be to have revenge and get it back. The only way to obtain superiority in dealing with men is to let it be seen that you are independent of them.
-- Schopenhauer Q: Then through right self-work we can win command over our circumstances, regardless of their nagging nature?
A: Self-control, too, is something which we have in our own power.
Q: Why do we fail to see false ideas as false?
A: Hardly one in ten thousand will have the strength of mind to ask himself seriously and earnestly, "Is that true?"
Q: Mine is a familiar question about self-independence, but the answer is not so easily found. Is there a method by which I can learn to cast aside my artificial personality traits and to simply be myself?
A: A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. Restraint is always present in society, like a companion of whom there is no riddance, and in proportion to the greatness of a man's individuality, it will be hard for him to bear the sacrifices which all contact with others demands.
Q: Please connect self-independence with self-happiness.
A: Himself is the source of the best and most a man can be or achieve. The more this is so -- the more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself -- the happier he will be . . . For all other sources of happiness are in their nature most uncertain.
Q: I recently suffered severe humiliation in my relation with another person. Before meeting esotericism, I would have wanted revenge, but now I wish to use the experience for inner elevation. How?
A: How is inner unity even possible under such circumstances? . . . To be sure, the best thing he can do is to recognize which part of him smarts the most under defeat, and let it always gain the victory. This he will always be able to do by the use of his reason . . . Let him resolve of his own free will to undergo the pain which the defeat of the other part involves. This is character.
Q: Several of us in our study group have been helped by seeing the folly of wasting our time in the social beehive. Will you please make this even clearer to us?
A: The social impulse does not rest directly upon the love of people, but upon the fear of solitude. It is not just the charm of having the company of others that people seek; it is the dreary oppression of being along -- the monotony of their own consciousness -- that they would avoid. They will do anything to escape it, even put up with bad companions, and tolerate the feeling of restraint which all society involves, which is very burdensome.
Q: Is it correct to say that we need not strain to add anything to ourselves, but to live within our own natural and unpretentious self?
A: Simplicity, therefore . . . will contribute to happiness . . . Our existence will glide on peacefully like a stream which no waves or whirlpools disturb.
Q: I am like a man in a haunted house who has at least made his way to the windows to see the outside world. I know I can eventually break out.
A: In the meantime, of course, you must have patience. He who can see truly in the midst of general infatuation is like a man whose watch keeps good time, when all clocks in the town in which he lives are wrong. He alone knows the right time.
Q: Please enlarge your explanation of obtainments.
A: A thousand illusions and follies are overcome . . . A thousand things become clear which were formerly enveloped in obscurity, and results are obtained which give a feeling of difficulties overcome.
Q: What is an example of self-deception, of believing what we prefer to believe?
A: Were you to hear how your dear friends speak of you behind your back, you would never speak another word to them.
Q: I have been helped by your advice to not tie myself to either the past or the future. May I have further comment on it?
A: The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively. Therefore we should always be glad of it, and give it the welcome it deserves, and enjoy every hour.
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Q: Can you give us something which will explain and reduce our fears of exploring the unknown? This is my major roadblock.
A: Our life is like a journey in which, as we advance, the landscape takes a different view from that which is presented at first, and changes again, as we come nearer. This is just what happens, especially with our desires. We often find something else, no, something better than what we were looking for . . . Instead of finding, as we expected, pleasure, happiness, joy, we get experience, insight, knowledge -- a real and permanent blessing, instead of a disappearing and illusory one. In their search for gold, the alchemists discovered other things -- gunpowder, china, medicines, the laws of nature. There is a sense in which we are all alchemists.
Q: By personal experience I know that it is a thousand times easier to find a religious charlatan than to find a man who truly knows what life is all about. Why is it like this?
A: It is natural for great minds -- the true teachers of humanity -- to care little about the constant company of others, just as little as the schoolmaster cares for joining in the frolic of the noisy crowd of boys which surrounds him. The mission of these great minds is to guide mankind over the sea of error to the harbor of truth, to draw men back from the dark abyss of barbarous crudeness into the light of culture and refinement. Men of superior intellect live in the world without really belonging to it . . . they let no one approach them who is not in some degree freed from the prevailing crudeness.
Q: I have made up my mind to never give up following these esoteric guides, but what reminder can help a person who feels he has taken a wrong turn?
A: Gradual practice makes him perfect, through a long series of slips, blunders, and fresh starts. It is just the same as in other things you learn.
Q: I have made a list of all the sensible reasons why I should be free of others, which I should never trade my inner integrity for foolish rewards, why I must live my own life. What might I add to the list?
A: There is one thing that, more than any other, throws people absolutely off their balance -- the thought that you are dependent upon them. This is sure to produce an insolent and domineering manner towards you . . . they soon come to fancy that they can take liberties with you, and so they try to transgress the laws of politeness. This is why there are so few people with whom you care to become more intimate, and why you should avoid familiarity with shallow people.
-- Schopenhauer Q: I am certainly in error with other people. I appear to be at ease with others, but underneath I feel that the smallest wrong word on my part will cause an explosion between us. I would like esotericism to work for me in this area.
A: That is no reason for despair. You need not fancy it is impossible to regulate your life in accordance with abstract ideas and maxims . . . the first thing to do is to understand the rule; the second thing is to learn the practice of it. The theory may be understood at once with an effort of reason, and yet the practice of it acquired only in the course of time.
Q: What prevents people from making clear and realistic thinking a permanent power for self-guidance?
A: With a large number of people, it is quite evident that their power of sight wholly predominates over their power of thought; they seem to be conscious of their existence only when they are making a noise.
Q: I am wondering if this is why self-reliance is so highly prized by those who have found their way out of the cave? I mean, if we cease to lean on others, we must lean on ourselves, which forces our slumbering energies to awaken.
A: A man is best off if he is thrown upon his own resources, and can be all in all to himself, and Cicero goes so far as to say that a man who is in this condition cannot fail to be very happy.
Q: You are teaching us to look in an entirely new direction, which I know is the only right way. As an aid, please illustrate how we look in the wrong direction.
A: Suppose that, with the exception of some sore or painful spot, we are physically in a sound and healthy condition. The pain of this one spot will completely absorb our attention, causing us to lose the sense of general well-being, and destroying our comfort in life. In the same way, when all our affairs but one turn out as we wish, the single instance in which our aims are frustrated is a constant trouble to us, even though it is something quite trivial.
Q: I feel myself almost in possession of lasting contentment, but the secret is still inches from my grasp.
A: Whether we are in a pleasant or a painful state depends, finally, upon the kind of matter that pervades and engrosses our consciousness.
Q: Our study group is at present exploring false escapes from fear and tension. I believe you include most social activities as a wrong route.
A: I have said that people are rendered sociable by their inability to endure solitude, that is to say, their own society. They become sick of themselves. Their mind is wanting in flexibility; it has no movement of its own, so they try to give it some -- by drink, for instance . . . They are always looking for some form of excitement, of the strongest kind they can bear -- the excitement of being with people of like nature with themselves; and if they fail in this, their mind sinks by its own weight, and they fall into grievous lethargy.
Q: Please point out a cause of anxiety of which we may be unaware.
A: We often try to banish the gloom and despondency of the present by speculating upon our chances of success in the future; a process which leads us to invent a great many unreal hopes. Every one of them contains the seed of illusion, and disappointment is inevitable when our hopes are shattered.
Q: As a school teacher, I wish to show my students how immodesty and arrogance bring self-punishment. Do you have a lesson I might use?
A: It is the tall pine which is cruelly shaken by the wind, and the lofty towers that fall so heavily, and the highest peaks which are struck by the storm.
Q: It would be much easier for me if I understood human nature better. It is true that like attracts like, and if so, how does it work?
A: Take the case of a large number of people who have gathered together for the purpose of carrying out some practical project. If there are two rascals among them, they will recognize each other quickly, as if each wore a similar badge, and they will at once conspire for some selfishness or treachery . . . It is really curious to see how two such men, especially if they are morally and intellectually inferior, will recognize each other at first sight, with what zeal they will try to become friends, how affably and cheerfully they will rush to greet each other.
-- Schopenhauer Q: I am surprised at a recent discovery I made while talking with people about truth and reality. Many people get tense and defensive, as if they see the truth as an enemy, instead of as a friend.
A: The man who comes into the world with the notion that he is really going to instruct it in matters of the highest importance, may thank his stars if he escapes with a whole skin.
Q: I feel compelled to do so many things which are useless and boring. Need I submit to this mysterious pressure?
A: Nothing will protect us from external compulsion so much as the control of ourselves, and, as Seneca says, to submit yourself to reason is the way to make everything else submit to you.
Q: I view esoteric teachings as a vast sea, upon which we must bravely dare the voyage. What is the good news for whoever sails all the way to the other side?
Schopenhauer's Answer: Nothing can trouble him more, nothing can more him, for he has cut all the thousand cords of will which hold us bound to the world . . . as desire, fear, envy, anger, drag us here and there is constant pain. He now looks back smiling and at rest on the delusions of the world, which once were able to move and agonize his spirit also.