One Insight
What if your life could be experienced eternally and repeated an infinite number of times, with no possibility of changing any aspect of the life lived? If you could live the same way, follow the same routine, and change nothing, would you be content with reliving your life?
Knowing how fleeting life can be, we don’t always live our lives to the fullest and make the most of every moment to actively seek the happy possibilities and take advantage of the time we have available.
Nietzsche explores this topic in “The Greatest Weight”, a section within his book The Gay Science. What would you want to change about how you live your life so that you would be happy to relive it in a continuous loop? Nietzsche writes: What, if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life, as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh … must return to you - all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again - and you with it, speck of dust!’ Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ’You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine!” If this thought were to gain possession of you, it would change you as you are, or perhaps crush you. The question in each and everything, “do you want this once more and innumerable times more?’ would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?
Notably, Nietzsche refers to a life that has “tremendous moments” instead of implying that all of life should be “tremendous” encouraging us to reflect on how we can shape a balanced life to promote the greatest sense of happiness, one that is filled with precious, meaningful moments that can help us navigate the mundane, routine, sorrowful, and disappointing moments of life.
I think that this thought experiment requires tremendous self-awareness, passion, grit and responsibility if we had to relive our life with all its positive and negative moments. We might be choosing to centre our life on consciousness more often. We might be taking initiative to lead ourselves to attract what we want in life each moment to create our world instead of having others do it for us. We would be motivated to fearlessly overcome our internal and external obstacles and thereby inspired to expand our paradigm. This would help us close the gap between Who we are at our highest potential and Who we are being. We would live and resonate with more power and clarity about the purpose of our journey in this world. Life is more than a series of random events. Life is an endless series of events and opportunities to help us experience, learn, and grow. All events are equally important in shaping Who we are.
What are your thoughts?
Would you be content with reliving your life innumerable times the same way and change nothing? Or…how might you want to alter your life story to make the most of the time you have in life?