If I were to ask you, in your loneliest moment, one of utter despair, where merely lifting your gaze to look at the moon, in a starless night, would seem a titanic task - if you would choose to live the life you have lived, repeated innumerable times, with every sorrow, joy, disappointment, and scream —— would you grab me by the neck and squeeze with all your might for even uttering such oppressive words, or would you tenderly hold my hand, and look directly into my eyes, and say: “Yes. I would stare into the hourglass of existence, without hesitation, and profess my love for life.” If your answer to the question is closer to the former than the latter, what type of life must you live; what sort of character must you be in the drama that is your life, to accept endlessly reliving your fate, not only without reluctance, but with open arms, and peace within your soul?

 That is the question that 19th century German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche asked in his aphorism The Greatest Weight in section 341 of his philosophical treatise The Gay Science. In this aphorism, Nietzsche introduces his idea of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. 

Why does this matter?

The main aim of philosophy is asking, and perhaps trying to answer the most important questions in life. Whether it is on the nature of reality, the process of acquiring and developing knowledge, or what it means to live a good life. In a philosophical tradition that can be traced back to Sumnerian civilization, when one takes into consideration the influence ideas from that period have had on “Western Philosophy” [it is debated whether one can construe the tradition as a single cannon], we come to realize thatwe are still asking the same questions, and alas, without much progress. Today, we still debate the most important questions, swaying from one philosophical tradition to the next, trying to understand what living a good and proper life consists of, and even what good means. 

In this aphorism, Nietzsche does not aim at telling us how we should live, nor does he impose his morality or philosophy on us. He is articulating, in part, a thought experiment, which many people have not conducted, or perhaps even considered. When you look back at your life, and recount the events that you consider essential, trivial, painful, or joyful; would you run that sequence endlessly, and if so, would you “gnash” at yourself, or love what you see? 

What can we learn from this thought experiment?

When you venture into your past, and try to piece together the significance and value of the events that have shaped you, do they remain the same? Does examining your past, with the knowledge you now have, change the way you understand it? Perhaps not, and that can give you a sense of comfort in the concreteness of your experience; but perhaps it can. You might realize that moments you used to recall with pain, have guided you towards greater self awareness. Relationships you held dear might have been part of rationalizations you used to hide a deeper truth you perhaps were not yet ready to understand. We can change our past through interpretation.

By putting your life as you have lived it through an analytical lens, whilst trying to be as honest with yourself as humanly possible, much knowledge can be gained. It is never too late to make positive changes, and by using the faculties that Nature or God has given you, the path towards a better life can start, or continue. In a sense, this question begins a process of self-discovery, “For how should we seek to know ourselves if we have never sought ourselves?” asked Nietzsche.

Amort Fati

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to bear what is necessary, still less conceal it - all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary - but love it.”

Amor Fati is Nietzsche’s love of his fate. 

Nietzsche wants to overcome nihilism, the modern state of an empty and bleak outlook of a world without guiding principles. He fights the current ideas that govern our perceptions, of being wanderers in a cold and indifferent universe, as being no different than random meteorites aimlessly floating around the cosmos without purpose, where nothing matters, where we cannot seem to create any meaning beyond what we see, or think we see. The world to him is not made of matter but rather, of what matters. 

The combination of The Eternal Recurrence of the Same and Amor Fati are, to me, the most profound and useful ideas in all of Philosophy. They affirm life, and the pursuit of a life that is worth living. Together, they place us on a mountain-top on which to look at reality. We stare into the beyond, above the clouds, with the beaming rays of the sun invigorating our mind and soul, and we say: “YES!” to life.

Original quote

“The greatest weight.-- 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 and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to 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 upside down 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 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?”