Positive nihilism

Will Durant

 Recently I downloaded one of the volumes of Will Durant's "History of Civilization", the volume on the Reformation. It was only 99p, cheaper than a McDonalds coffee! Quite a bargain. 

Anyway, it begins:-

Religion is the last subject that the intellect begins to understand. In our youth we may have resented, with proud superiority, its cherished incredibilities; in our less confident years we marvel at its prosperous survival in a secular and scientific age, its patient resurrections after whatever deadly blows by Epicurus, or Lucretius, or Lucian, or Machiavelli, or Hume, or Voltaire.

What are the secrets of this resilience?

The wisest sage would need the perspective of a hundred lives to answer adequately. He might begin by recognizing that even in the heyday of science there are innumerable phenomena for which no explanation seems forthcoming in terms of natural cause, quantitative measurement, and necessary effect.

 

A wise sage

Well, I'm hardly the "wisest sage" (needing paroxetine to even cope) so I can't really answer the question. 

 

On the same theme, Erwin Schrodinger - of the both dead and alive cat story - has said:-

Science cannot tell us a word about why music delights us, or why and how an old song can move us to tears.

 

This made me think of a "case" (or zen koan) in the Blue Cliff Record - case two. Which goes:-

 

Joshu spoke to the assembly, saying, “The real Way is not difficult. Just avoid choices and becoming attached. A single word can induce choice or attachment. A single word can bring clarity. I do not have that clarity.” A monk asked, “If you do not have that clarity, what do you appreciate?” Joshu replied, “I do not know that either.” “If you don’t know, how can you say you don’t have that clarity?” Joshu replied, “Asking the question was good enough. Now go.” 

 

Well, whatever you make of that, one comment found on this goes:-

 

In the old city

at the head of Grafton Street

a busker plays his fiddle.

First Brahms, then Bach

and a little Paganini for fun.

Fingers run up and down strings.

Is it the vibrating air,

his skill, or the old melodies

that bring tears to my eyes?

Tell me, I need to know. 

 

Do we really "need to know"? Maybe we do need to try to understand, however futile the effort. 

The closest I get is the pre-eminence of Grace. The word covers multitudes - from the offer of a transcendent Deity that must be "accepted" to gain His approval, to the pure rest in the "nihilism" of Buddhist "emptiness" and "suchness", known in the West only as nihilism - belief in nothing. Multitudes - an unbroken seam, with all points in-between, the Circle of the Way.

"Love has no why" Meister Eckhart.

 

Anyway, it is my wedding anniversary today. 46 years! Which reminds me of the old joke, of the guy who says:-

 "I'm more in love now than on the day I first married..........the trouble is, my wife won't give me a divorce!"