Say who everyone is as you go along - Faculty of Philosophy ...

22
It is fallacious because what I think of as my birth was also one of my deaths, and
what I think of as my death will also be one of my births. Besides, there is no 'you' or
'me' who exists at one moment of life and then another. There is no self, or being
who lives first one part of life then another, rather, I am my life. More accurately, I
am my lives.
Suffering has a crucial role in both Nietzsche's philosophy and Zen. In both
philosophies there is an intimate connection between suffering and death.
Nietzsche thinks that the contemplation of death leads to pessimism in life and hence
psychological suffering. Some people essentially see only death in life;
'They meet an invalid, or an old man, or a corpse - and immediately they say: "Life is
refuted!"
But they only are refuted, and their eye, which seeth only one aspect of existence'
(Z 50)
The fact that we will die spoils life;
'Shrouded in thick melancholy, and eager for the little casualties that bring death:
thus do they wait and clench their teeth' (Z 50)
Nietzsche endorses the Buddhist view that much of life is indeed suffering but says
some people mistakenly want to end their lives because that seems to promise an end
to suffering:
'"Life is only suffering": so say others, and lie not. Then see to it that ye cease! See to
it that the life ceaseth which is only suffering!' (Z 50)
If Buddhism admitted the concept of sin suicide would be a sin in Buddhism. In fact,
in Buddhism suicide is not so much immoral in any metaphysical sense but not in
one's interests, and conducive to the suffering of others. Suicide is inconsistent with
Nietzsche's insistence that we affirm life;
'[...] they want to be rid of life; what care they if they bind others still faster with their
chains and gifts!' (Z 50-1)
Suicide does not end suffering on either philosophy because death does not end
suffering. Death is the start of another life and that new life will include suffering.
Master Dogen advises
'In life identify yourself with life, at death with death' (WD 9)