OK, Philosophy 201 students … I just finished my CD lecture on Schopenhauer. Arg! Pondering Schopenhauer is like sitting thru a 4 hour Wagner opera. Well, I only went to a Wagner opera once, while I was married. We left at around 10, so I can’t really say that I sat thru an entire Wagner opera. However, my marriage was a bit Wagnerian, so maybe it still counts.

Anyway, back to Schopenhauer. He said some really interesting things about the unapparent similarities between aesthetic experience (beauty) and ascetic practices (solitude, fasting) — how they both help to escape the will. Aesthetic beauty helps to distract the mind from the will, but ascetic practices help to weaken it.

The will is our inner reality, the “thing in itself” behind the mental illusion of our existence. But the will is conflicted and tormented. It has a death wish. As the Buddha said, it’s best to resign from the struggles in life that the will engenders.

So, to sum Schopenhauer up: I will, therefore I am. I am, therefore I’m miserable. Kill will.

Hey, that’s the fun of philosophy. No Polyannas allowed!