Post by rystiya on Mar 21, 2020 11:56:09 GMT
Hello
I have some interesting ideas and I don't know whether they are valuable or not. If they seem valuable, who will be interested and who should I send them to?
I did many stupid things which really embarrassed me in my life. I hope I can think and act in a way which I like, just as I did when I was a child. However, none of the existing religions and ideologies can satisfy me. I had no choice but to build my own theory. I keep making assumptions based on my introspection, then test them by observing my mental states as I believe in them. Not long ago, my theory became so reasonable and inspiring that I’m satisfied with it.
My theory sounds like a hybrid of Nietzsche's ideas and Christianity, although I didn't intend to make a hybrid. Perhaps that's due to my personal favor. I like how Christianity affects people (I enjoy praise songs, like 'In Christ alone', or 'Battle hymn of the republic'), but I can't agree with its opinions (Why I should obey the entity called 'god' just because it's stronger and smarter than me? How can we feel joyful when serving and praising that entity if that entity is not actually a part of ourselves? How can I imagine that the separation from that entity is the source of evil?). I agree with some of the ideas of Nietzsche and other atheists, but I don't like how they affect people (I don't think I'll like myself if I accept whatever Nietzsche or Sartre says. Some people in China say that they believe in what Confucius or Marx has said, but they think and act in a way as if they believe in cynicism, authoritarianism and social Darwinism).
A goddess within: what makes human?
'The will to survive' drives our mind to react to sensory stimuli, just like animals. Things changed when a person becomes aware of himself when he is an infant.
'I exist and I’m observing the world. I am different from my body and the world being observed', this idea is 'self-awareness'. It lies deep within our unconsciousness, yet it’s extraordinary strong and totally undeniable. Self-awareness affects us by enabling us to define meaning. Self-awareness eternally enlightens and delights everyone like a shining sun. It enables us to come up with the concept of goodness and evil (We label concepts which provide meaning or promote the pursuit of meaning as good, and label the opposite as evil. The exact definition of meaning is up to us to decide. For example, we label murder as evil because we believe it is meaningless, and it also prevents the victims to pursue meaning). If we pursuit meaning, we feel like a glorious warrior as we confront our self-awareness. If we don’t pursuit meaning, we feel like a shameful deserter and we don’t dare to confront our self-awareness. It can be said that every single person is a knight born to honor goddess of self-awareness. Self-awareness also let us be happy for our strength, goodness and other circumstances which promotes the pursuit of meaning, while be sad for our weakness, hardship, and other circumstances which hinders the pursuit of meaning. As a result, we became the only creatures which know to improve their living condition by learning, working and trading. It can be said that an ideal life is to pursue meaning while being promoted by various internal and external factors (such as strong will, healthy body, a companion who understands you, have free time), which is common in animations.
Self-awareness generates 'the will to power', just like a sun emits light. 'I come to this world not to be enslaved by it, but to pursue meaning in it', this idea is the will to power. The will to power affects us by enabling us to desire meaning. It let us prefer goodness over evil, and gives us the motivation to pursue dignity and freedom. Here, ‘power’ is the ability to dominate our (not others) purpose, lifestyle and fate. To follow and practice the will to power is the divine destiny of every human born in this world. Although such person can define meaning freely, to abandon such destiny is impossible. As a result, one can serve an evil ambition only if he is convinced that it is meaningful to do so due to self-deception or deceiving of others. Such is why evil cults in the real world need to pretend to be good guys. It seems that goddess of the will to power is the daughter of goddess of self-awareness, and it is she who lifted us from animals to humans. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face the issues of their worlds, respond to the call of their gods or destiny, arm themselves with new powers and strong will, then begin a new life as a hero. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to awaken our self-awareness, strengthen our will to power, and pursue meaning with courage and honor.
The will to power generates 'the force of life', just like the light brings energy. 'If I live to pursue meaning, then I shall do my best before the inevitable end of my existence’, this idea is the force of life. The force of life affects us by enabling us to love meaning. The force of life helps us to practice our will to power by transforming our inevitable death from a source of fear and despair to a source of passion and inspiration (Heidegger claimed that we should ‘being towards death’. However, what it takes to reach such state is not dread of death, but strong force of life). It removes our temptation to dominate others, to own what we don’t need, or to do any other meaningless activities. It also prevents our will to power from becoming a destructive force by helping us to be more sincere when defining and pursuing meaning, so we won’t refuse to conduct introspection or consider our possibility of making mistakes. The force of life feels like an invisible fairy which purifies the mind and strengthens the will to power. Its decline on modern people has inspired zombie movies. In these movies, mysterious viruses turn people into lifeless, purposeless, relentless and malicious monsters (which does not make scientific sense), such effects are entirely opposite to those of the force of life.
Nietzsche claimed that there is a terrifying ‘god’ called ‘the will to power’ within us. However if we observe closely, we can instead see a lovely trinity ‘goddess’ named ‘self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life’ (I call them goddesses not because they have super natural power, but because I hope we can accept them as something valuable, beautiful and benevolent, despite the self-doubt and self-hate many of us have accumulated in their lives. They can also be named as something like ‘axioms of humanity’)! They are a ‘trinity’ because although they are different, they are all related to other and the concept of meaning. Everyone has these great ideas, although a person does not need to be aware of their existence. Nietzsche only knew about the will to power, which is not enough, because we can't understand goddess of the will to power if we don't know about her mother and daughter. As a result, Nietzsche didn’t find out who she is, didn’t know how to find and strengthen her, and was unable to distinguish her from the desire to dominate others and the metaphysical power which dominates the universe.
The trinity goddess is just three simple ideas within our unconsciousness, yet these ideas can be interpreted by an unlimited number of ways, and an unlimited number of ideas can be derived from them. As they lift us from animal to human, they are the greatest and most important ideas in our mind. Seeing any other ideas or concepts (such as god or ideal) as the most important idea is ‘idol worshiping’. Although we have to obey them (otherwise we’ll suffer from pain or madness) despite we can’t prove them with logic, they didn’t take the freedom to define meaning away from us. Being aware of such limited freedom is a sign of maturity. Although the trinity goddess is not as powerful as gods, they are real, understandable and perceivable. Instead of condemning any of us, they are always working in our unconsciousness and affecting how we think and act.
The trinity goddess are three great ideas which cannot be justified or proven with reason, yet they are the fundamental ideas which define humanity. That indicates that humans are fundamentally irrational, and it is impossible to organize our lives with reason along. As the trinity goddess are good and strong, a person should affirm his life (as Nietzsche has said) instead of attempting to suppress or control it (as Schopenhauer has said). Such is the theme of a video game called ‘tales of beseria’, where an irrational, strong willed, often misunderstood and somewhat insane girl named Velvet Crowe (who feels like Friedrich Nietzsche) defeated Arthur (who feels like Arthur Schopenhauer), a man who is so disappointed by human nature that he wish to calm the emotion of all humanity with reason. Velvet fell in love with a boy named after ‘life’, while Arthur murdered and manipulated another boy with the same name. At the end of the game, Arthur confessed that his deepest motivation is self-hate and despair, which are obviously, irrational.
If a person mistakes the three great ideas or their effects for external entities, he will begin to imagine these entities inspired by the three great ideas. This process created all our gods and moral principles. That explains why gods are spiritual and good (by human standards), why they care about and similar to humans (in terms of moral standards, emotions and way of thinking), and why they can (at least seemingly) improve our spiritual conditions as we obey them, although they bring little physical benefits. As the three great ideas are the source of our internal goodness and strength, mistaking them as external entities or deny them with materialism (which is not backed up by science) could cause lack of passion, lack of confidence, self-hate and other negative results in the long term. By the time when most of us realize the three great ideas within us, gods and religions will be buried in the graveyard. All the harm they do to us will be no more, yet the spiritual benefits they provide us will thrive again. That would be the second enlightenment of humanity.
The trinity god of Christianity share the most similarities with the three great ideas (probably because Christianity emphasize the qualities of ‘god’ and how does he affect our minds): ‘the son’ flow out of ‘the father’ and brings ‘the spirit’, while the will to power flow out of self-awareness and brings the force of life; ‘the father’ creates the world, while self-awareness let us be aware of our own existence; ‘the son’ makes people pursue meaning and goodness, and so does the will to power; ‘the spirit’ brings strength, passion and comfort, and so does the force of life.
Forgetting your goddess: what’s wrong with us?
As we have self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life, we should have a world where everyone is passionate, benevolent and sincere. Obviously, something has gone wrong.
Well, if a person suspects that he can't or didn't practice his will to power by pursuing meaning (probably because he think he is not special, powerful or good enough to pursue meaning), he will generate a feeling called 'guilt', which makes him lose the courage to admit his self-awareness. As the will to power comes from self-awareness, this further weakens his will to power, and strengthens his guilt. At last, he has a self-worsening cycle of guilt and weakness: guilt makes weakness, weakness makes more guilt… I call it 'cycle of weakness'. Cycle of weakness has disastrous effects on our mind. It hides self-awareness, weakens the will to power, and suppresses the force of life. It affects us primarily in two ways.
The first way is called decadence. Cycle of weakness cripples our ability to identify, pursue and feel meaning in our lives. As a result, our life experience become painful and gloomy. We sometimes cannot resist the temptation to over satisfy our desires or get excessive entertainment, and sometimes we don’t have the courage to do what we think that is meaningful. Then, self-doubt grows and take root within us. At last, we cannot believe we actually desire meaning and goodness any more. We hope something outside of us could justify our existence, could make us pursue meaning and goodness. Therefore, we put chains such as religions, ideologies and traditions on ourselves. We give away our freedom and/or dignity to them, hoping they will bring us meaning and goodness. In reality, however, they and those institutions based upon them dominate us like evil dragons (which is unsurprising because almost everyone more or less suffers from cycle of weakness, including all those ‘elites’ and ‘leaders’). They turn us into their servants by imposing more guilt on us (Such as proposing very high moral standards without giving any realistic means to achieve them), belittling us to highlight themselves (Such as claiming we are so stupid that we have to be educated by some kind of god or authority, and we are born to be their tools), trying to convince us that they defines meaning and obeying them is goodness, and/or simply controlling what we know and what we do. Meanwhile, although our old values have utilized our decadence, they are not the cause of it. Destroying old values will neither remove cycle of weakness, nor necessarily relief its symptoms. Those who abandoned their old values will remain decadent. They tend to imprudently devote themselves to more harmful values such as cults and fascism, and thus behave even more badly then those who prefer to gradually improve their old values. As a result, although Christianity has greatly weakened in the last 100 years, not a single Übermensch has risen in Europe as predicted by Nietzsche.
The second way is called sickness. As we still have self-awareness, we feel really bad about our weakness, and our self-hate grows. We can no longer love and understand each other, because we can’t even do that to ourselves. Many of us spend a lot of time and energy raising pets or protecting wild life, just because it’s easier for us to love and understand animals than to love and understand humans. We want to change ourselves but we don’t know how, as cycle of weakness prevents us to discover and recover our trinity goddess. We can only remember that we were happier and purer when we were a child. In a desperate attempt to resolve self-hate, some of us (such as those with alt-right political opinions) pretend to be strong by despising or hurting those who seem to be inferior to them (often only in their imagination). Some of us (such as those with alt-left political opinions) pretend to be good by gaining a sense of moral or power superiority from unrealistic although seemingly glorious ideals/ideologies. Some of us see idols such as states or big guys as the most important thing in their lives, so as to forget their own weakness. Some of us try to pretend to be special, so as to feel better about themselves. Such unhealthy behaviors are motivated by the will to power, yet their consequences (such as death and destruction) are often obviously meaningless, thus betray the will to power (such inconsistency indicates the existence of false beliefs). As a result, they often worsen instead of relief self-hate. Sickest people see their sickness as sources of pleasure and honor. They justify and strengthen their sicknesses by adjusting their worldviews to them with self-deception (Such as ‘Only my race/political opinion/authority/music star/religion/worldview is great, everything else is evil and worthless, because…’). It seems that these people have fallen in love with disease.
What Christians call ‘sin’, I call it cycle of weakness. It is the source of most of our internal issues. Christians believe that sin is the separation from God, and cycle of weakness is the inability to admit self-awareness. Christians believe that sin made it difficult for us to recognize God, and cycle of weakness made it difficult for us to find the trinity goddess sleeping and waiting in the depth of our unconsciousness. They do have an important difference, though. While ‘sin’ sounds like ‘our faults and flaws’, ‘cycle of weakness’ is a difficulty or disease. Therefore, god of cycle of weakness is a black dragon named ‘Bahamut’, it blocks our self-awareness, bends our will to power and trample on our force of life. It clouds the sun and poisons the soil, transforming our mind into a sunless wasteland.
Reunite with the goddess: how to fix ourselves?
Some people believe that their feelings, desires, emotions and/or even they themselves are distracting them from their pursuit of meaning. As a result, they keep fighting against their feelings, desires and emotions, wasting their already weakened will to power in self-hate. Some people want to practice their will to power, however they can’t believe it is their nature to do so. As a result, they mistaken their will to power for external commands or principles. They try to make themselves and other people obey these commands or principles which they have 'found', which makes their cycle of weakness even stronger and makes their will to power even weaker.
So, what are the right things to do? Well, all we need is three virtues called liberty, goodness and frankness.
First, no matter how troubled a person is, his self-awareness always exists. Whenever a person senses his life experience, he can feel his self-awareness. If a person admits it as the realest and most important idea in his mind, the will to power (along with delight, comfort and dignity) will flow out of his self-awareness like a fountain. Therefore, self-awareness and the will to power are strong and reliable. The will to power (instead of gods or authorities) is the source of our desire for goodness and meaning, while evil and weakness is nothing more than its decline. Therefore, no one has reason to feel guilty or doubt and hate himself. If a person understands these facts, he will regain his courage to admit his self-awareness. Then his will to power will regain strength and his guilt will decline, which makes him feel joyful and peaceful. I call this 'liberty'.
Second, no matter how weak or sick a person had been, his desire for meaning always exists. If a person does something meaningful, he will gain healthy pleasure. Healthy pleasure gives us long lasting hope and joy. Healthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is beautiful and allow us to love ourselves (If this does not happen, it’s probably because a person does not think he did something meaningful from the bottom of his heart). If a person does something meaningless, he can only gain unhealthy pleasure. Unhealthy pleasure brings us negative feelings like shame, regret and emptiness. Unhealthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is hopeless, and let us doubt and hate ourselves. If a person understands these facts, he will like healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy pleasure. Then he will be able to feel that his will to power is a part of himself instead of external restrictions or requirements, and thus become motivated and clear-headed. I call this 'integrity'.
Third, our lifespan is short and our strength is limited. We can find true satisfaction by and only by pursuing meaning. Considering these facts, its more reasonable to see our life as a journey full of opportunity to find meaning, than a meaningless imprisonment with lots of responsibilities and little joy. If we don’t accept meaning as what we want most, self-doubt and self-hate will grow within us. Whenever we think of death, we’ll be tortured by fear and despair. Excessive entertainment or sense of superiority will not save us from such sufferings. If we do accept meaning as what we want most, fear and despair will not trouble us, and all our difficulties and pain will become our pride and honor. If a person understands these facts, he will value meaning above anything else. Then the force of life will emerge within him, filling his mind with fresh energy and new ideas. It will give him the passion and spiritual comfort he needs to enjoy happiness, to endure or overcome pain, to love what he loves, to hate what he hates. I call this 'frankness'.
It worth noticing that the supposed effects of 'liberty, integrity and frankness' it similar to that of Christians’ 'faith, hope and love', although they sound totally different. For example, ‘feel our own existence and let the will to power flow out of self-awareness’ is similar to ‘worship Jesus as son of god’, ‘like for healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy ones’ is similar to ‘be hopeful about the heaven’; ‘receive the force of life and use it to overcome difficulties’ is similar to ‘let holy spirit fill your body and give you strength and healing’. A person who achieve 'liberty, integrity and frankness' will become spiritually strong and pure, free of guilt and filled with the force of life. I call such people 'proto-Übermensch'.
By defeating a range of difficulties and lies and devoting himself entirely to the pursuit of meaning (which is god for Jesus), Jesus looks like a symbol of the will to power. When people accept, obey and love him, they replace their weakened and forgotten will to power with an artificial substitute: a 'prosthesis' called Jesus. That greatly relieved their cycle of weakness, thus made them feel stronger, freer and happier. They are so amazed and delighted that they can’t resist the temptation to honor Jesus as their god, to believe that Jesus somehow saved them with their supernatural power. Such is the true nature of Christianity, and it does not matter whether Jesus really have supernatural power or not. They invented 'faith, hope and love' because it can benefit their minds just like 'liberty, integrity and frankness' do. In fact, 'faith, hope and love' is nothing more than 'liberty, integrity and frankness' plus a religious coating. That coating made it easier for spiritually ignorant people to understand and accept 'liberty, integrity and frankness' so they can enjoy their benefits. It sounds like giving a child a pill covered with sweet coating.
It should be noticed that while Nietzsche's Übermensch might despise all Christian values, my proto-Übermensch feels like an atheist-Christian, whose trinity god is replaced by trinity goddess, whose obedience is replaced by passion. Nietzsche seem to believe that those important guys are born with strong will, while the poor are born with weak will. A person can become one of his ‘old testament Übermensch’ only if he is born to be so. But in fact, by following the steps above, each person can greatly strengthen their will to power, gain the force of life and eventually become one of my ‘new testament superman’.
Confronting the great enemy: how is this world?
Our minds can only receive and process a limited amount of information. If a person walks around and do some scientific experiments, he can feel and analyze the external world based on the information he received through his sensory organs. If a person conduct meditation, he can feel a variety of life experiences which allow him to understand the state of his mind. What else can we sense and understand? Nothing. Our minds can only receive and process two types of information: sensory stimuli, which contain information about the state of the external world around us, and life experience, which information about the state of the mind itself.
Then, there comes an issue. As the information we can receive and process is limited, what we can possibly know is also limited. For example, we can never eliminate the possibility that all the information we have is wrong or unreliable. Perhaps our life is a dream created by demons or aliens. Perhaps there is some kind of god, perhaps not. Perhaps we are gods, and our lives are actually our dream or VR games. Perhaps this universe is an imaginable entity, and both our minds and the physical world are just a part of it. No matter the truth is good or bad to us, we will never find out. We can’t be certain about anything (Including this idea itself, as the mind in which it is understood and stored could also be illusion). We can't even be certain that we are currently thinking, as we know we were thinking in the last moment because we received the life experience generated by that process a moment ago, which could also be an illusion.
In a world where there is absolutely no certainty, we have neither a reason to believe it’s real, nor a reason to believe it’s unreal; we have neither a reason to be sane, nor a reason to be insane; we have neither a reason to live, nor a reason to die; we have neither a reason to do good, nor a reason to do evil. We cannot find any meaning in this world, and none of our beliefs has any foundation at all. If a person accepts this fact sincerely, all that he once believed in will be destroyed. Including his self-deception, common sense which he took for granted, moral principles which other people taught him, etc. Even the will to power won't save us, as it could also be an illusion.
From the bottom of our hearts, we all know that the universe is uncertain and we can’t find any meaning in it by intuition. On one hand, we come up with nihilism as a result. As we notice things like god or nation cannot give us meaning, many of us give up pursuing meaning. On the other hand, we are afraid of this fact and we don’t what to accept it. Some of us accept religions, ideologies or philosophies, not because they are strongly convinced by evidence, logic and or life experiences, but because they want to hear that there is some kind of certainty and meaning in our lives (like ‘what we do will make a better society and we are destined to success’, or ‘God knows and dominates everything and he gives us meaning and purpose’). Such dire situation is reflected in the fictional world of Warhammer 40k, where humanity rely on a religion built upon lies to protect themselves from their horrific spiritual enemies. The ‘god’ humanity worship is totally overpowered by those dark gods who wish to enslave them. Our fear is so strong that some of us refuse to give up their radical religion, ideology or philosophy even if their claims are not convincing, while some others are so desperate to find definitions of meaning that they end up accepting things like money, fame, nation or the life of animals as their meanings of life (They are not terrible, but they don’t deserve to be seen as the meaning of life). It can be said that the greatest and deepest motivation behind our search for faith and desire for knowledge is our fear of meaninglessness.
I want to call these findings 'Azathoth theory', as Azathoth best exhibits our fear to the uncertain and meaningless mature of the universe. Azathoth as well as Lovecraft's other dark creatures are the manifest of our fear to the unknown, while Azathoth theory is based on the limits of our cognition capabilities of our minds. Still, we don’t need to feel terrified by Azathoth theory. After all, we don’t know whether those facts we can’t know are good or bad for us, and Lovecraft’s dark creatures are just the worst possibilities we can imagine. What’s more, it’s more reasonable to focus on what we can possibly know than to focus on those we can’t.
There is still hope, though. Although this universe has no meaning, it is still possible for us to set meanings for our lives and pursue them. Such is the only way to overcome Azathoth theory. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face despair, tortured by it, adept to it, defeat it and then become even stronger. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to overcome the uncertain and meaningless nature of this universe. However, one cannot achieve this without first becoming an ‘Übermensch’ (as Nietzsche have noticed).
The triumph of an infant god: what should we do?
One can refuse to believe Azathoth theory and pretend this world can give him meaning. He will not be sent to hell for that. However, as people’s intelligence and knowledge grows, Azathoth theory would become more and more obvious, until it become impossible for us to refuse to believe it. Azathoth is coming, the evidence is everywhere: old values are losing strength and new values cannot be found; political and religious extremism are rising; constructive criticism against existing values are lacking because we lack strong basis (such as humanism philosophies) for them; some people claim all values are equally valuable although they lack their own values. I’m afraid that there would be a time when the majority of humanity has to face Azathoth theory, either consumed by nihilism, or overcome it by becoming an Übermensch (as predicted by Nietzsche).
Accepting Azathoth theory is dangerous for those who haven’t overcome their cycle of weakness, as they might not be strong enough to complete those steps mentioned below. For a proto-Übermensch, however, accepting Azathoth theory is the first step to become an Übermensch. Here is what he should do after that.
First, a proto-Übermensch who accepts Azathoth theory will understand that he can't be absolutely certain about anything. Although that could be painful, he is gifted with the ability to never be tired with this world and see all his experiences in a way as if they are all brand new. And more importantly, he now has no reason to be concerned with what other people want him to think and act, and free to reanalyze and reevaluate everything and anything (as Nietzsche has predicted). When he begins to do so with the information he has at hand, his first finding would be that, it seems that he has self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life. The trinity goddess would be the only and the first, greatest and realest thing he would notice during his reanalyzing and reevaluation. If he assumes that they are untrue or unreal, he would come up with the conclusion that he has no reason to do or understand anything. He has no choice but to choose their existence as the first assumption to hold after accepting Azathoth theory.
Second, as Azathoth theory destroyed all old beliefs, there is nothing prevents our proto-Übermensch to experience his trinity goddess now. He becomes aware that the trinity goddess is the only ideas which are not destroyed by Azathoth theory, and he can’t destroy them even if he tries to disbelieve them. In surprise and delight, he discovers that the three great ideas are not something he believes in (although he does can believe or disbelieve their existence). Instead, they (instead of the inability to follow and practice them) are what defines him, makes him and powers him, what all his believes are based upon, and what his true-self is. Should they disappear, he as a human will cease to exist (The reason why some people feel peace and joy by obeying their gods is neither because there exists a god who gives them peace and joy, nor because humans enjoy obeying something greater than them, but because gods are imaginary concepts inspired by the three great ideas, thus obeying them is obeying the three great ideas, our true-self. Their gods didn’t shape them or satisfy their spiritual needs, their true-self did). Our proto-Übermensch is so amazed by how strong and glorious the true nature of humanity is that he cannot help but love it. Filled with delight and confidence, Azathoth theory cannot frighten him anymore. He notices that the source of its terrifying might is not uncertainty itself (which is always inevitable), but our inability to accept uncertainty (Those who are weak cannot believe that they desire meaning and goodness. They need something outside of them to justify their existence, to make them pursue meaning and goodness, and thus become vulnerable to uncertainty). He laughs at Azathoth and says: ‘I don’t know what is the true nature of this world and how did I come to it, but I’m glad to be alive anyway! I want to live and pursue meaning in this world, because nothing but I want to!’ He stops asking 'WHY affirm my life and assume the world I see is real'. Instead, he shouts out 'WHY NOT affirm my life and choose to believe that the world I see is real?' At this moment, an Übermensch is born (Although Nietzsche claimed that an Übermensch affirms his life, he didn’t say how to achieve this). When this is done, our new born Übermensch would be able to experience, explore, understand and pursue meaning in this world freely and passionately regardless of its uncertain and meaningless nature. He has little guilt and plenty of curiosity, just like a child new to this world.
Third, before our Übermensch accepted Azathoth theory, he tried to find meaning in this universe, and he failed miserably. Now, believing 'WHY NOT affirm my life and choose to believe that the world I see is real', he has the courage to accept uncertainty, and he no longer needs any external reasons to pursue meaning, such as ‘God’ or ‘absolute truth’. As a result, he now has the option to set his meaning of life for himself. Such is how his suffering ends! I choose to set 'Let me and everyone else become stronger and happier' as the meaning of my life, as I can't imagine anything sounds more meaningful to me. You can set your meaning of life for yourself freely, too. It could be to raise children with your lover, to understand and explore solar system, or whatever sounds reasonable to you. But be careful, if you are insane and you set murder as the meaning of your life, other people might fight you for their meanings of life, such as 'to protect all that I love'. This is moral relativism, but this is not moral nihilism. That’s because although different Übermensch have different definitions of meaning and may adjust such definitions as their worldview changes, ‘to pursue meaning’ is an absolute need for all of them.
As you can see, Azathoth theory brings new life along with destruction. If we see all our beliefs as a building, then it is obviously in a poor state. It has no firm foundation beneath it (thanks to Azathoth theory), while self-deception and unproven beliefs weaken it from within (we can confirm this with Socratic questioning). Azathoth theory will push it down, break it apart and wash it away like a big flood. Although this is a destructive process, it will also expose the trinity goddess from mud and rubble: a firm foundation on which a taller, stronger and more beautiful new building could be built. For an Übermensch, Azathoth theory serve as a baptism which purge his mind of questionable beliefs.
Now I have a prophecy: the god of nihilism, Azathoth, will soon descend upon our spirit realm like a giant asteroid. It will burn the earth, block the sun and freeze the air. What that we once believed in are like dinosaurs. All of them will die of hunger, darkness and coldness, and their bodies will cover the earth like carpet. Although they once ruled the spirit realm, fossils would be the only thing they leave behind. Azathoth’s abominations, such as cults, drug taking and fascism, will rampage across the realm, bringing chaos and despair wherever they go. Even the trinity goddess of self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life won’t be able to stop Azathoth. However, as the realm lies in ruins, the trinity goddess will conceive a new god: ‘the god of affirmation’. Pure, brave and newborn, the god of affirmation is both a lovely little boy and a mighty warrior. He will protect the trinity goddess, absorb and purify Azathoth, and fill the spirit realm with life again!
The humanity’s victory: who is Übermensch?
An Übermensch lives a romantic and thoughtful life despite the uncertain nature of the universe. He is who he is, as he is one with his true-self. He is a child who sense and understand the world unrestrained by doctrines or common sense. He is a beast who desires meaning despite everything else. He is his own god, his own priest, and his own worshipper. He is a paladin of humanism, self-awareness is his banner, the will to power is his sword, the force of life is his guardian angel, and the love for life is his blood. If I need to give my Übermensch a cartoon image, I will choose a lovely little boy or a pretty school girl, instead of a genetically modified super soldier.
An Übermensch does not feel guilt. However, he will not do something evil such as hurting or dominating others, as he does not have cycle of weakness which motivate him to do so, and he understands that is not what he truly wants and enjoys. An Übermensch loves himself, yet he is not selfish. He loves himself because he understands and realizes the awesome potential of humanity, which also makes it natural and logical for him to love others.
An Übermensch might despise certain ideas, mental states and behaviors. He might hate the foolishness of certain people, the corruption of certain elites or the flaws of certain cultures or ideologies. Yet an Übermensch will never hate or despise the lives of others. That is because he knows that he comes to this world without knowing why, he was born with the trinity goddess and he is destined to seek meaning and die: a fate which he shares with every other human being in this world.
An Übermensch might have some kind of conversation with himself, like ‘What am I thinking?”, “What do I really want and enjoy?’ ‘Do I come to this world to do something like this?’, as his lack of guilt made it easier for him to conduct introspection freely and throughly. An Übermensch understands that it is his trinity goddess who lifted him from an animal to an Übermensch, who his true-self is. He might enjoy walking, travelling, listening to music, or other activities which enables him to experience their existence.
If an Übermensch has a lover, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'My life is great, so does his/hers, so it must be a great thing for us to be with each other and create new lives together! I don't know how did I come to this world, nor do I fully understand it. However, I appreciate what he/she has brought to me and I'm glad to meet him/her in this world!' If an Übermensch is about to die, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'I have fought for my trinity goddess by pursuing meaning in this meaningless world. I have protected what I love and fought against what I hate. If such is the end of my life, then I shall rest in peace, free of guilt or regret'.
In Übermensch’s societies, there would be no external moral standards or requirements, which weakens humans by often threaten them with guilt while rarely motivate them with self-discovery and passion. Instead, there would be natural trust and good will everywhere among the society, as it becomes much easier for people to care and understand each other if they can love and understand themselves. Such trust and good will can be observed between people and their pets in today’s world (as well as cartoons and animations). There would still be laws, however they would be seen as agreements made to serves purposes such as resolving/avoiding conflicts or discouraging behaviors which severely harm the others, instead of the enforcer of justice. Übermensch will not see their authorities as idols, such as a god-like agent which leads them towards social justice. Instead, they will see authorities as what they actually are: something like ‘tools to maintain order’ or ‘entities which provide services (such as security) at the price of taxes’.
Getting along with an inconsiderate goddess: how to deal with desires?
Every single creature has the will to survive, and humanity is not an exception. The will to survives is the source of most of our desires. Many of us tend to use their will to power to deny their desires, and that have several consequences.
First, desires invoked by the will to survive will not disappear silently as a person denies them. For example, the desire for a lover are pure, healthy and controllable. Should one deny it, he will be convinced that he will never find a lover, and thus suffer from despair. Such despair will transform his original, healthy desire into anger, hatred, the desire for rape, the desire for dominating others, or other unhealthy desires or emotions. These desires and emotions are more harmful, more painful and less controllable. Mistaking these unhealthy desires as our natural instinct is the main reason why many people have the misconception that human-nature is evil.
Second, denying desires weakens instead of strengthens our trinity goddess. It requires us to constantly waste our will to power on maintaining self-deception, and it is caused by and strengthens self-hate. For example, if a person wants to deny his desire for a lover, he need to hate his desire. He has to either constantly tell himself that he doesn’t need a lover, or constantly be troubled with the spiritual discomfort which results from such false belief.
Third, the will to survive drives us to survive, not to do harmful behavior. The desires it gives us include: find clean food and water, to reproduce, to take care of offspring, etc. The satisfaction of these desires is either meaningful, or necessary for the pursuit of meaning. Therefore, the conflict between these desires and our trinity goddess is rarely unavoidable.
As you can see, goddess of the will to survive is quite hard to get along with. However, if we be honest to her, she won’t do harm to us. For an Übermensch or a person who wish to become one, there are two ways to deal with desires.
First is to accept them and assign meaning to their satisfaction. By doing so, our experiences would become more enjoyable and our desires would become more controllable. For example, if a person sees eating ice-cream as a good way to be relaxed and gain enjoyable experience, he can feel and remember the texture of ice-cream better. When his desire for ice-cream is satisfied, such desire won’t attract his attention anymore. It should be noticed that if a desire is sufficiently satisfied, it would be difficult to assign meaning to it or gain pleasure from it. Continue seeking the satisfaction of a sufficiently satisfied desire is a symptom of cycle of weakness.
Second is to accept them and endure their unsatisfaction by focusing on other meaningful activities with the will to power. By doing so, our self-awareness will become stronger and our force of life will bring us peace and joy. If our meanings are achieved or our desires are satisfied in the future, pride and honor will be our reward. It should be noticed that although ‘enduring unsatisfaction’ and ‘denying unsatisfaction’ sounds similar, the former is a sign of strength (a strong desire for meaning) and makes a person even stronger, while the latter is a sign of weakness (self-hate and self-deception) and makes a person even weaker.
Knights and princess: how to know and view ourselves?
Our minds can be seen as information processors. They can understand the external world by processing sensory stimuli. However, sensory stimuli do not contain any information about the mind itself. The reason why our minds can know itself is that our mind can receive another form of information which I call ‘life experience’.
Self-awareness came into exist when the mind noticed the difference between sensory stimuli and life experience. However, life experience can tell us much more than that. A human mind constantly generates and receives life experience. Its activities at each moment are reflected by the life experience generated by that moment, which is received by the mind itself shortly after. When a leaf is falling in, we know the leaf is falling because we can see this with our eyes, and we know we know this because we received and analyzed our life experience at that time. Life experience is a clear pond in front of the mind, whatever the mind do is mirrored by it. The warmth of sunlight, the fragrance of flowers, the pain of falling, all these feelings are not events in the external world revealed to us in the form of sensory stimuli, but the process which our minds understand sensory stimuli, which is revealed to us in the form of life experience. As life experience is impossible to recorded or shared, people use music, literature and other physical forms to record, express and/or share their life experience. It can be said that art is the result of our spiritual loneliness and the manifest of our mental activities. We tend to label those entities which brings or represents delightful life experience as beautiful, and those brings or represents painful life experience as ugly.
Life experience can be used to pacify abnormal mental activities. They are considered ‘abnormal’ because they originate from false beliefs, distract our mind from meaningful activities and cripple its intelligence. The existence of these activities is always reflected by our life experiences. Whenever there are abnormal activities within our minds (such as self-hate), pure life experience will be generated. Whenever our mind is functioning properly, morbid life experience will be generated. As a person feels his life experience, he will come up with the will to pursue pure life experience and avoid morbid ones. Such is ‘the will to purity’. The will to purity enables us to enjoy pure life experience, and to despise morbid life experience. It drives us to examine ourselves, enables us to identify faulty believes which bring about abnormal activities and then disbelieve them. This process can promote internal well-being, no matter what we previously believe in. Therefore, goddess of the will to purity is a wise and gentle girl who always help us to deal with our problems while never accuse us of having them.
If a person practices his will to purity, he can gain spiritual comfort, become more clear-minded, and avoid causing meaningless sufferings to himself and others. If everyone can do this, this world would become a much better place. However, many people are unwilling to practices their will to purity due to their self-deception. Self-deception occurs among those people who are lack confidence in their trinity goddess. These people are worried that some of their beliefs might overpower their will to power or destroy their self-awareness. So instead of using their will to power to endure or alter those external condition which brought these beliefs, they use their will to power to disbelieve these beliefs and believe in fabricated ones instead. These people tend to make up more and more false beliefs to shelter themselves from the healing light of the will to purity, just like vampires. If someone insist telling them the truth, they’ll feel insulted.
Self-deception has three forms. The first one is selective-thinking, intentionally ignore those facts or ideas which drive us to think critically and sincerely, such as ‘What is the motivation behind my action?’, ‘What if I’m wrong?’, ‘Why that instance doesn’t fit our theory?’ The second one is bigotry, let favors replace curiosity become the motivation to perceive the world. One symptom of this is asking ‘How to convince myself I’m right’ when thinking along while asking ‘How can you prove I’m wrong’ in debates. The third one is fantasy, substitute reason with feelings and emotion when making judgment (judge others or other people’s ideas are not bad, but self-deception is bad), like ‘Many people believe in my religion, we pray together every day, so my religion must be truthful’, ‘He is a stubborn person, so whatever he says must be wrong’.
The only thing a person needs to do to cure self-deception is to trust his trinity goddess. When his self-deception declines, his will to revolution will slowly recover. Then his will to revolution will motivate him to improve his mental state. It can be said that goddess of the will to purity is a princess imprisoned in the stronghold of lies. The trinity goddess is the worriers who smash the wall, burn the monsters, and free the princess from her shackles and chains. However, for those who cannot trust their trinity goddess, the only cure for their self-deception is sufferings.
I have some interesting ideas and I don't know whether they are valuable or not. If they seem valuable, who will be interested and who should I send them to?
I did many stupid things which really embarrassed me in my life. I hope I can think and act in a way which I like, just as I did when I was a child. However, none of the existing religions and ideologies can satisfy me. I had no choice but to build my own theory. I keep making assumptions based on my introspection, then test them by observing my mental states as I believe in them. Not long ago, my theory became so reasonable and inspiring that I’m satisfied with it.
My theory sounds like a hybrid of Nietzsche's ideas and Christianity, although I didn't intend to make a hybrid. Perhaps that's due to my personal favor. I like how Christianity affects people (I enjoy praise songs, like 'In Christ alone', or 'Battle hymn of the republic'), but I can't agree with its opinions (Why I should obey the entity called 'god' just because it's stronger and smarter than me? How can we feel joyful when serving and praising that entity if that entity is not actually a part of ourselves? How can I imagine that the separation from that entity is the source of evil?). I agree with some of the ideas of Nietzsche and other atheists, but I don't like how they affect people (I don't think I'll like myself if I accept whatever Nietzsche or Sartre says. Some people in China say that they believe in what Confucius or Marx has said, but they think and act in a way as if they believe in cynicism, authoritarianism and social Darwinism).
A goddess within: what makes human?
'The will to survive' drives our mind to react to sensory stimuli, just like animals. Things changed when a person becomes aware of himself when he is an infant.
'I exist and I’m observing the world. I am different from my body and the world being observed', this idea is 'self-awareness'. It lies deep within our unconsciousness, yet it’s extraordinary strong and totally undeniable. Self-awareness affects us by enabling us to define meaning. Self-awareness eternally enlightens and delights everyone like a shining sun. It enables us to come up with the concept of goodness and evil (We label concepts which provide meaning or promote the pursuit of meaning as good, and label the opposite as evil. The exact definition of meaning is up to us to decide. For example, we label murder as evil because we believe it is meaningless, and it also prevents the victims to pursue meaning). If we pursuit meaning, we feel like a glorious warrior as we confront our self-awareness. If we don’t pursuit meaning, we feel like a shameful deserter and we don’t dare to confront our self-awareness. It can be said that every single person is a knight born to honor goddess of self-awareness. Self-awareness also let us be happy for our strength, goodness and other circumstances which promotes the pursuit of meaning, while be sad for our weakness, hardship, and other circumstances which hinders the pursuit of meaning. As a result, we became the only creatures which know to improve their living condition by learning, working and trading. It can be said that an ideal life is to pursue meaning while being promoted by various internal and external factors (such as strong will, healthy body, a companion who understands you, have free time), which is common in animations.
Self-awareness generates 'the will to power', just like a sun emits light. 'I come to this world not to be enslaved by it, but to pursue meaning in it', this idea is the will to power. The will to power affects us by enabling us to desire meaning. It let us prefer goodness over evil, and gives us the motivation to pursue dignity and freedom. Here, ‘power’ is the ability to dominate our (not others) purpose, lifestyle and fate. To follow and practice the will to power is the divine destiny of every human born in this world. Although such person can define meaning freely, to abandon such destiny is impossible. As a result, one can serve an evil ambition only if he is convinced that it is meaningful to do so due to self-deception or deceiving of others. Such is why evil cults in the real world need to pretend to be good guys. It seems that goddess of the will to power is the daughter of goddess of self-awareness, and it is she who lifted us from animals to humans. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face the issues of their worlds, respond to the call of their gods or destiny, arm themselves with new powers and strong will, then begin a new life as a hero. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to awaken our self-awareness, strengthen our will to power, and pursue meaning with courage and honor.
The will to power generates 'the force of life', just like the light brings energy. 'If I live to pursue meaning, then I shall do my best before the inevitable end of my existence’, this idea is the force of life. The force of life affects us by enabling us to love meaning. The force of life helps us to practice our will to power by transforming our inevitable death from a source of fear and despair to a source of passion and inspiration (Heidegger claimed that we should ‘being towards death’. However, what it takes to reach such state is not dread of death, but strong force of life). It removes our temptation to dominate others, to own what we don’t need, or to do any other meaningless activities. It also prevents our will to power from becoming a destructive force by helping us to be more sincere when defining and pursuing meaning, so we won’t refuse to conduct introspection or consider our possibility of making mistakes. The force of life feels like an invisible fairy which purifies the mind and strengthens the will to power. Its decline on modern people has inspired zombie movies. In these movies, mysterious viruses turn people into lifeless, purposeless, relentless and malicious monsters (which does not make scientific sense), such effects are entirely opposite to those of the force of life.
Nietzsche claimed that there is a terrifying ‘god’ called ‘the will to power’ within us. However if we observe closely, we can instead see a lovely trinity ‘goddess’ named ‘self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life’ (I call them goddesses not because they have super natural power, but because I hope we can accept them as something valuable, beautiful and benevolent, despite the self-doubt and self-hate many of us have accumulated in their lives. They can also be named as something like ‘axioms of humanity’)! They are a ‘trinity’ because although they are different, they are all related to other and the concept of meaning. Everyone has these great ideas, although a person does not need to be aware of their existence. Nietzsche only knew about the will to power, which is not enough, because we can't understand goddess of the will to power if we don't know about her mother and daughter. As a result, Nietzsche didn’t find out who she is, didn’t know how to find and strengthen her, and was unable to distinguish her from the desire to dominate others and the metaphysical power which dominates the universe.
The trinity goddess is just three simple ideas within our unconsciousness, yet these ideas can be interpreted by an unlimited number of ways, and an unlimited number of ideas can be derived from them. As they lift us from animal to human, they are the greatest and most important ideas in our mind. Seeing any other ideas or concepts (such as god or ideal) as the most important idea is ‘idol worshiping’. Although we have to obey them (otherwise we’ll suffer from pain or madness) despite we can’t prove them with logic, they didn’t take the freedom to define meaning away from us. Being aware of such limited freedom is a sign of maturity. Although the trinity goddess is not as powerful as gods, they are real, understandable and perceivable. Instead of condemning any of us, they are always working in our unconsciousness and affecting how we think and act.
The trinity goddess are three great ideas which cannot be justified or proven with reason, yet they are the fundamental ideas which define humanity. That indicates that humans are fundamentally irrational, and it is impossible to organize our lives with reason along. As the trinity goddess are good and strong, a person should affirm his life (as Nietzsche has said) instead of attempting to suppress or control it (as Schopenhauer has said). Such is the theme of a video game called ‘tales of beseria’, where an irrational, strong willed, often misunderstood and somewhat insane girl named Velvet Crowe (who feels like Friedrich Nietzsche) defeated Arthur (who feels like Arthur Schopenhauer), a man who is so disappointed by human nature that he wish to calm the emotion of all humanity with reason. Velvet fell in love with a boy named after ‘life’, while Arthur murdered and manipulated another boy with the same name. At the end of the game, Arthur confessed that his deepest motivation is self-hate and despair, which are obviously, irrational.
If a person mistakes the three great ideas or their effects for external entities, he will begin to imagine these entities inspired by the three great ideas. This process created all our gods and moral principles. That explains why gods are spiritual and good (by human standards), why they care about and similar to humans (in terms of moral standards, emotions and way of thinking), and why they can (at least seemingly) improve our spiritual conditions as we obey them, although they bring little physical benefits. As the three great ideas are the source of our internal goodness and strength, mistaking them as external entities or deny them with materialism (which is not backed up by science) could cause lack of passion, lack of confidence, self-hate and other negative results in the long term. By the time when most of us realize the three great ideas within us, gods and religions will be buried in the graveyard. All the harm they do to us will be no more, yet the spiritual benefits they provide us will thrive again. That would be the second enlightenment of humanity.
The trinity god of Christianity share the most similarities with the three great ideas (probably because Christianity emphasize the qualities of ‘god’ and how does he affect our minds): ‘the son’ flow out of ‘the father’ and brings ‘the spirit’, while the will to power flow out of self-awareness and brings the force of life; ‘the father’ creates the world, while self-awareness let us be aware of our own existence; ‘the son’ makes people pursue meaning and goodness, and so does the will to power; ‘the spirit’ brings strength, passion and comfort, and so does the force of life.
Forgetting your goddess: what’s wrong with us?
As we have self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life, we should have a world where everyone is passionate, benevolent and sincere. Obviously, something has gone wrong.
Well, if a person suspects that he can't or didn't practice his will to power by pursuing meaning (probably because he think he is not special, powerful or good enough to pursue meaning), he will generate a feeling called 'guilt', which makes him lose the courage to admit his self-awareness. As the will to power comes from self-awareness, this further weakens his will to power, and strengthens his guilt. At last, he has a self-worsening cycle of guilt and weakness: guilt makes weakness, weakness makes more guilt… I call it 'cycle of weakness'. Cycle of weakness has disastrous effects on our mind. It hides self-awareness, weakens the will to power, and suppresses the force of life. It affects us primarily in two ways.
The first way is called decadence. Cycle of weakness cripples our ability to identify, pursue and feel meaning in our lives. As a result, our life experience become painful and gloomy. We sometimes cannot resist the temptation to over satisfy our desires or get excessive entertainment, and sometimes we don’t have the courage to do what we think that is meaningful. Then, self-doubt grows and take root within us. At last, we cannot believe we actually desire meaning and goodness any more. We hope something outside of us could justify our existence, could make us pursue meaning and goodness. Therefore, we put chains such as religions, ideologies and traditions on ourselves. We give away our freedom and/or dignity to them, hoping they will bring us meaning and goodness. In reality, however, they and those institutions based upon them dominate us like evil dragons (which is unsurprising because almost everyone more or less suffers from cycle of weakness, including all those ‘elites’ and ‘leaders’). They turn us into their servants by imposing more guilt on us (Such as proposing very high moral standards without giving any realistic means to achieve them), belittling us to highlight themselves (Such as claiming we are so stupid that we have to be educated by some kind of god or authority, and we are born to be their tools), trying to convince us that they defines meaning and obeying them is goodness, and/or simply controlling what we know and what we do. Meanwhile, although our old values have utilized our decadence, they are not the cause of it. Destroying old values will neither remove cycle of weakness, nor necessarily relief its symptoms. Those who abandoned their old values will remain decadent. They tend to imprudently devote themselves to more harmful values such as cults and fascism, and thus behave even more badly then those who prefer to gradually improve their old values. As a result, although Christianity has greatly weakened in the last 100 years, not a single Übermensch has risen in Europe as predicted by Nietzsche.
The second way is called sickness. As we still have self-awareness, we feel really bad about our weakness, and our self-hate grows. We can no longer love and understand each other, because we can’t even do that to ourselves. Many of us spend a lot of time and energy raising pets or protecting wild life, just because it’s easier for us to love and understand animals than to love and understand humans. We want to change ourselves but we don’t know how, as cycle of weakness prevents us to discover and recover our trinity goddess. We can only remember that we were happier and purer when we were a child. In a desperate attempt to resolve self-hate, some of us (such as those with alt-right political opinions) pretend to be strong by despising or hurting those who seem to be inferior to them (often only in their imagination). Some of us (such as those with alt-left political opinions) pretend to be good by gaining a sense of moral or power superiority from unrealistic although seemingly glorious ideals/ideologies. Some of us see idols such as states or big guys as the most important thing in their lives, so as to forget their own weakness. Some of us try to pretend to be special, so as to feel better about themselves. Such unhealthy behaviors are motivated by the will to power, yet their consequences (such as death and destruction) are often obviously meaningless, thus betray the will to power (such inconsistency indicates the existence of false beliefs). As a result, they often worsen instead of relief self-hate. Sickest people see their sickness as sources of pleasure and honor. They justify and strengthen their sicknesses by adjusting their worldviews to them with self-deception (Such as ‘Only my race/political opinion/authority/music star/religion/worldview is great, everything else is evil and worthless, because…’). It seems that these people have fallen in love with disease.
What Christians call ‘sin’, I call it cycle of weakness. It is the source of most of our internal issues. Christians believe that sin is the separation from God, and cycle of weakness is the inability to admit self-awareness. Christians believe that sin made it difficult for us to recognize God, and cycle of weakness made it difficult for us to find the trinity goddess sleeping and waiting in the depth of our unconsciousness. They do have an important difference, though. While ‘sin’ sounds like ‘our faults and flaws’, ‘cycle of weakness’ is a difficulty or disease. Therefore, god of cycle of weakness is a black dragon named ‘Bahamut’, it blocks our self-awareness, bends our will to power and trample on our force of life. It clouds the sun and poisons the soil, transforming our mind into a sunless wasteland.
Reunite with the goddess: how to fix ourselves?
Some people believe that their feelings, desires, emotions and/or even they themselves are distracting them from their pursuit of meaning. As a result, they keep fighting against their feelings, desires and emotions, wasting their already weakened will to power in self-hate. Some people want to practice their will to power, however they can’t believe it is their nature to do so. As a result, they mistaken their will to power for external commands or principles. They try to make themselves and other people obey these commands or principles which they have 'found', which makes their cycle of weakness even stronger and makes their will to power even weaker.
So, what are the right things to do? Well, all we need is three virtues called liberty, goodness and frankness.
First, no matter how troubled a person is, his self-awareness always exists. Whenever a person senses his life experience, he can feel his self-awareness. If a person admits it as the realest and most important idea in his mind, the will to power (along with delight, comfort and dignity) will flow out of his self-awareness like a fountain. Therefore, self-awareness and the will to power are strong and reliable. The will to power (instead of gods or authorities) is the source of our desire for goodness and meaning, while evil and weakness is nothing more than its decline. Therefore, no one has reason to feel guilty or doubt and hate himself. If a person understands these facts, he will regain his courage to admit his self-awareness. Then his will to power will regain strength and his guilt will decline, which makes him feel joyful and peaceful. I call this 'liberty'.
Second, no matter how weak or sick a person had been, his desire for meaning always exists. If a person does something meaningful, he will gain healthy pleasure. Healthy pleasure gives us long lasting hope and joy. Healthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is beautiful and allow us to love ourselves (If this does not happen, it’s probably because a person does not think he did something meaningful from the bottom of his heart). If a person does something meaningless, he can only gain unhealthy pleasure. Unhealthy pleasure brings us negative feelings like shame, regret and emptiness. Unhealthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is hopeless, and let us doubt and hate ourselves. If a person understands these facts, he will like healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy pleasure. Then he will be able to feel that his will to power is a part of himself instead of external restrictions or requirements, and thus become motivated and clear-headed. I call this 'integrity'.
Third, our lifespan is short and our strength is limited. We can find true satisfaction by and only by pursuing meaning. Considering these facts, its more reasonable to see our life as a journey full of opportunity to find meaning, than a meaningless imprisonment with lots of responsibilities and little joy. If we don’t accept meaning as what we want most, self-doubt and self-hate will grow within us. Whenever we think of death, we’ll be tortured by fear and despair. Excessive entertainment or sense of superiority will not save us from such sufferings. If we do accept meaning as what we want most, fear and despair will not trouble us, and all our difficulties and pain will become our pride and honor. If a person understands these facts, he will value meaning above anything else. Then the force of life will emerge within him, filling his mind with fresh energy and new ideas. It will give him the passion and spiritual comfort he needs to enjoy happiness, to endure or overcome pain, to love what he loves, to hate what he hates. I call this 'frankness'.
It worth noticing that the supposed effects of 'liberty, integrity and frankness' it similar to that of Christians’ 'faith, hope and love', although they sound totally different. For example, ‘feel our own existence and let the will to power flow out of self-awareness’ is similar to ‘worship Jesus as son of god’, ‘like for healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy ones’ is similar to ‘be hopeful about the heaven’; ‘receive the force of life and use it to overcome difficulties’ is similar to ‘let holy spirit fill your body and give you strength and healing’. A person who achieve 'liberty, integrity and frankness' will become spiritually strong and pure, free of guilt and filled with the force of life. I call such people 'proto-Übermensch'.
By defeating a range of difficulties and lies and devoting himself entirely to the pursuit of meaning (which is god for Jesus), Jesus looks like a symbol of the will to power. When people accept, obey and love him, they replace their weakened and forgotten will to power with an artificial substitute: a 'prosthesis' called Jesus. That greatly relieved their cycle of weakness, thus made them feel stronger, freer and happier. They are so amazed and delighted that they can’t resist the temptation to honor Jesus as their god, to believe that Jesus somehow saved them with their supernatural power. Such is the true nature of Christianity, and it does not matter whether Jesus really have supernatural power or not. They invented 'faith, hope and love' because it can benefit their minds just like 'liberty, integrity and frankness' do. In fact, 'faith, hope and love' is nothing more than 'liberty, integrity and frankness' plus a religious coating. That coating made it easier for spiritually ignorant people to understand and accept 'liberty, integrity and frankness' so they can enjoy their benefits. It sounds like giving a child a pill covered with sweet coating.
It should be noticed that while Nietzsche's Übermensch might despise all Christian values, my proto-Übermensch feels like an atheist-Christian, whose trinity god is replaced by trinity goddess, whose obedience is replaced by passion. Nietzsche seem to believe that those important guys are born with strong will, while the poor are born with weak will. A person can become one of his ‘old testament Übermensch’ only if he is born to be so. But in fact, by following the steps above, each person can greatly strengthen their will to power, gain the force of life and eventually become one of my ‘new testament superman’.
Confronting the great enemy: how is this world?
Our minds can only receive and process a limited amount of information. If a person walks around and do some scientific experiments, he can feel and analyze the external world based on the information he received through his sensory organs. If a person conduct meditation, he can feel a variety of life experiences which allow him to understand the state of his mind. What else can we sense and understand? Nothing. Our minds can only receive and process two types of information: sensory stimuli, which contain information about the state of the external world around us, and life experience, which information about the state of the mind itself.
Then, there comes an issue. As the information we can receive and process is limited, what we can possibly know is also limited. For example, we can never eliminate the possibility that all the information we have is wrong or unreliable. Perhaps our life is a dream created by demons or aliens. Perhaps there is some kind of god, perhaps not. Perhaps we are gods, and our lives are actually our dream or VR games. Perhaps this universe is an imaginable entity, and both our minds and the physical world are just a part of it. No matter the truth is good or bad to us, we will never find out. We can’t be certain about anything (Including this idea itself, as the mind in which it is understood and stored could also be illusion). We can't even be certain that we are currently thinking, as we know we were thinking in the last moment because we received the life experience generated by that process a moment ago, which could also be an illusion.
In a world where there is absolutely no certainty, we have neither a reason to believe it’s real, nor a reason to believe it’s unreal; we have neither a reason to be sane, nor a reason to be insane; we have neither a reason to live, nor a reason to die; we have neither a reason to do good, nor a reason to do evil. We cannot find any meaning in this world, and none of our beliefs has any foundation at all. If a person accepts this fact sincerely, all that he once believed in will be destroyed. Including his self-deception, common sense which he took for granted, moral principles which other people taught him, etc. Even the will to power won't save us, as it could also be an illusion.
From the bottom of our hearts, we all know that the universe is uncertain and we can’t find any meaning in it by intuition. On one hand, we come up with nihilism as a result. As we notice things like god or nation cannot give us meaning, many of us give up pursuing meaning. On the other hand, we are afraid of this fact and we don’t what to accept it. Some of us accept religions, ideologies or philosophies, not because they are strongly convinced by evidence, logic and or life experiences, but because they want to hear that there is some kind of certainty and meaning in our lives (like ‘what we do will make a better society and we are destined to success’, or ‘God knows and dominates everything and he gives us meaning and purpose’). Such dire situation is reflected in the fictional world of Warhammer 40k, where humanity rely on a religion built upon lies to protect themselves from their horrific spiritual enemies. The ‘god’ humanity worship is totally overpowered by those dark gods who wish to enslave them. Our fear is so strong that some of us refuse to give up their radical religion, ideology or philosophy even if their claims are not convincing, while some others are so desperate to find definitions of meaning that they end up accepting things like money, fame, nation or the life of animals as their meanings of life (They are not terrible, but they don’t deserve to be seen as the meaning of life). It can be said that the greatest and deepest motivation behind our search for faith and desire for knowledge is our fear of meaninglessness.
I want to call these findings 'Azathoth theory', as Azathoth best exhibits our fear to the uncertain and meaningless mature of the universe. Azathoth as well as Lovecraft's other dark creatures are the manifest of our fear to the unknown, while Azathoth theory is based on the limits of our cognition capabilities of our minds. Still, we don’t need to feel terrified by Azathoth theory. After all, we don’t know whether those facts we can’t know are good or bad for us, and Lovecraft’s dark creatures are just the worst possibilities we can imagine. What’s more, it’s more reasonable to focus on what we can possibly know than to focus on those we can’t.
There is still hope, though. Although this universe has no meaning, it is still possible for us to set meanings for our lives and pursue them. Such is the only way to overcome Azathoth theory. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face despair, tortured by it, adept to it, defeat it and then become even stronger. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to overcome the uncertain and meaningless nature of this universe. However, one cannot achieve this without first becoming an ‘Übermensch’ (as Nietzsche have noticed).
The triumph of an infant god: what should we do?
One can refuse to believe Azathoth theory and pretend this world can give him meaning. He will not be sent to hell for that. However, as people’s intelligence and knowledge grows, Azathoth theory would become more and more obvious, until it become impossible for us to refuse to believe it. Azathoth is coming, the evidence is everywhere: old values are losing strength and new values cannot be found; political and religious extremism are rising; constructive criticism against existing values are lacking because we lack strong basis (such as humanism philosophies) for them; some people claim all values are equally valuable although they lack their own values. I’m afraid that there would be a time when the majority of humanity has to face Azathoth theory, either consumed by nihilism, or overcome it by becoming an Übermensch (as predicted by Nietzsche).
Accepting Azathoth theory is dangerous for those who haven’t overcome their cycle of weakness, as they might not be strong enough to complete those steps mentioned below. For a proto-Übermensch, however, accepting Azathoth theory is the first step to become an Übermensch. Here is what he should do after that.
First, a proto-Übermensch who accepts Azathoth theory will understand that he can't be absolutely certain about anything. Although that could be painful, he is gifted with the ability to never be tired with this world and see all his experiences in a way as if they are all brand new. And more importantly, he now has no reason to be concerned with what other people want him to think and act, and free to reanalyze and reevaluate everything and anything (as Nietzsche has predicted). When he begins to do so with the information he has at hand, his first finding would be that, it seems that he has self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life. The trinity goddess would be the only and the first, greatest and realest thing he would notice during his reanalyzing and reevaluation. If he assumes that they are untrue or unreal, he would come up with the conclusion that he has no reason to do or understand anything. He has no choice but to choose their existence as the first assumption to hold after accepting Azathoth theory.
Second, as Azathoth theory destroyed all old beliefs, there is nothing prevents our proto-Übermensch to experience his trinity goddess now. He becomes aware that the trinity goddess is the only ideas which are not destroyed by Azathoth theory, and he can’t destroy them even if he tries to disbelieve them. In surprise and delight, he discovers that the three great ideas are not something he believes in (although he does can believe or disbelieve their existence). Instead, they (instead of the inability to follow and practice them) are what defines him, makes him and powers him, what all his believes are based upon, and what his true-self is. Should they disappear, he as a human will cease to exist (The reason why some people feel peace and joy by obeying their gods is neither because there exists a god who gives them peace and joy, nor because humans enjoy obeying something greater than them, but because gods are imaginary concepts inspired by the three great ideas, thus obeying them is obeying the three great ideas, our true-self. Their gods didn’t shape them or satisfy their spiritual needs, their true-self did). Our proto-Übermensch is so amazed by how strong and glorious the true nature of humanity is that he cannot help but love it. Filled with delight and confidence, Azathoth theory cannot frighten him anymore. He notices that the source of its terrifying might is not uncertainty itself (which is always inevitable), but our inability to accept uncertainty (Those who are weak cannot believe that they desire meaning and goodness. They need something outside of them to justify their existence, to make them pursue meaning and goodness, and thus become vulnerable to uncertainty). He laughs at Azathoth and says: ‘I don’t know what is the true nature of this world and how did I come to it, but I’m glad to be alive anyway! I want to live and pursue meaning in this world, because nothing but I want to!’ He stops asking 'WHY affirm my life and assume the world I see is real'. Instead, he shouts out 'WHY NOT affirm my life and choose to believe that the world I see is real?' At this moment, an Übermensch is born (Although Nietzsche claimed that an Übermensch affirms his life, he didn’t say how to achieve this). When this is done, our new born Übermensch would be able to experience, explore, understand and pursue meaning in this world freely and passionately regardless of its uncertain and meaningless nature. He has little guilt and plenty of curiosity, just like a child new to this world.
Third, before our Übermensch accepted Azathoth theory, he tried to find meaning in this universe, and he failed miserably. Now, believing 'WHY NOT affirm my life and choose to believe that the world I see is real', he has the courage to accept uncertainty, and he no longer needs any external reasons to pursue meaning, such as ‘God’ or ‘absolute truth’. As a result, he now has the option to set his meaning of life for himself. Such is how his suffering ends! I choose to set 'Let me and everyone else become stronger and happier' as the meaning of my life, as I can't imagine anything sounds more meaningful to me. You can set your meaning of life for yourself freely, too. It could be to raise children with your lover, to understand and explore solar system, or whatever sounds reasonable to you. But be careful, if you are insane and you set murder as the meaning of your life, other people might fight you for their meanings of life, such as 'to protect all that I love'. This is moral relativism, but this is not moral nihilism. That’s because although different Übermensch have different definitions of meaning and may adjust such definitions as their worldview changes, ‘to pursue meaning’ is an absolute need for all of them.
As you can see, Azathoth theory brings new life along with destruction. If we see all our beliefs as a building, then it is obviously in a poor state. It has no firm foundation beneath it (thanks to Azathoth theory), while self-deception and unproven beliefs weaken it from within (we can confirm this with Socratic questioning). Azathoth theory will push it down, break it apart and wash it away like a big flood. Although this is a destructive process, it will also expose the trinity goddess from mud and rubble: a firm foundation on which a taller, stronger and more beautiful new building could be built. For an Übermensch, Azathoth theory serve as a baptism which purge his mind of questionable beliefs.
Now I have a prophecy: the god of nihilism, Azathoth, will soon descend upon our spirit realm like a giant asteroid. It will burn the earth, block the sun and freeze the air. What that we once believed in are like dinosaurs. All of them will die of hunger, darkness and coldness, and their bodies will cover the earth like carpet. Although they once ruled the spirit realm, fossils would be the only thing they leave behind. Azathoth’s abominations, such as cults, drug taking and fascism, will rampage across the realm, bringing chaos and despair wherever they go. Even the trinity goddess of self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life won’t be able to stop Azathoth. However, as the realm lies in ruins, the trinity goddess will conceive a new god: ‘the god of affirmation’. Pure, brave and newborn, the god of affirmation is both a lovely little boy and a mighty warrior. He will protect the trinity goddess, absorb and purify Azathoth, and fill the spirit realm with life again!
The humanity’s victory: who is Übermensch?
An Übermensch lives a romantic and thoughtful life despite the uncertain nature of the universe. He is who he is, as he is one with his true-self. He is a child who sense and understand the world unrestrained by doctrines or common sense. He is a beast who desires meaning despite everything else. He is his own god, his own priest, and his own worshipper. He is a paladin of humanism, self-awareness is his banner, the will to power is his sword, the force of life is his guardian angel, and the love for life is his blood. If I need to give my Übermensch a cartoon image, I will choose a lovely little boy or a pretty school girl, instead of a genetically modified super soldier.
An Übermensch does not feel guilt. However, he will not do something evil such as hurting or dominating others, as he does not have cycle of weakness which motivate him to do so, and he understands that is not what he truly wants and enjoys. An Übermensch loves himself, yet he is not selfish. He loves himself because he understands and realizes the awesome potential of humanity, which also makes it natural and logical for him to love others.
An Übermensch might despise certain ideas, mental states and behaviors. He might hate the foolishness of certain people, the corruption of certain elites or the flaws of certain cultures or ideologies. Yet an Übermensch will never hate or despise the lives of others. That is because he knows that he comes to this world without knowing why, he was born with the trinity goddess and he is destined to seek meaning and die: a fate which he shares with every other human being in this world.
An Übermensch might have some kind of conversation with himself, like ‘What am I thinking?”, “What do I really want and enjoy?’ ‘Do I come to this world to do something like this?’, as his lack of guilt made it easier for him to conduct introspection freely and throughly. An Übermensch understands that it is his trinity goddess who lifted him from an animal to an Übermensch, who his true-self is. He might enjoy walking, travelling, listening to music, or other activities which enables him to experience their existence.
If an Übermensch has a lover, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'My life is great, so does his/hers, so it must be a great thing for us to be with each other and create new lives together! I don't know how did I come to this world, nor do I fully understand it. However, I appreciate what he/she has brought to me and I'm glad to meet him/her in this world!' If an Übermensch is about to die, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'I have fought for my trinity goddess by pursuing meaning in this meaningless world. I have protected what I love and fought against what I hate. If such is the end of my life, then I shall rest in peace, free of guilt or regret'.
In Übermensch’s societies, there would be no external moral standards or requirements, which weakens humans by often threaten them with guilt while rarely motivate them with self-discovery and passion. Instead, there would be natural trust and good will everywhere among the society, as it becomes much easier for people to care and understand each other if they can love and understand themselves. Such trust and good will can be observed between people and their pets in today’s world (as well as cartoons and animations). There would still be laws, however they would be seen as agreements made to serves purposes such as resolving/avoiding conflicts or discouraging behaviors which severely harm the others, instead of the enforcer of justice. Übermensch will not see their authorities as idols, such as a god-like agent which leads them towards social justice. Instead, they will see authorities as what they actually are: something like ‘tools to maintain order’ or ‘entities which provide services (such as security) at the price of taxes’.
Getting along with an inconsiderate goddess: how to deal with desires?
Every single creature has the will to survive, and humanity is not an exception. The will to survives is the source of most of our desires. Many of us tend to use their will to power to deny their desires, and that have several consequences.
First, desires invoked by the will to survive will not disappear silently as a person denies them. For example, the desire for a lover are pure, healthy and controllable. Should one deny it, he will be convinced that he will never find a lover, and thus suffer from despair. Such despair will transform his original, healthy desire into anger, hatred, the desire for rape, the desire for dominating others, or other unhealthy desires or emotions. These desires and emotions are more harmful, more painful and less controllable. Mistaking these unhealthy desires as our natural instinct is the main reason why many people have the misconception that human-nature is evil.
Second, denying desires weakens instead of strengthens our trinity goddess. It requires us to constantly waste our will to power on maintaining self-deception, and it is caused by and strengthens self-hate. For example, if a person wants to deny his desire for a lover, he need to hate his desire. He has to either constantly tell himself that he doesn’t need a lover, or constantly be troubled with the spiritual discomfort which results from such false belief.
Third, the will to survive drives us to survive, not to do harmful behavior. The desires it gives us include: find clean food and water, to reproduce, to take care of offspring, etc. The satisfaction of these desires is either meaningful, or necessary for the pursuit of meaning. Therefore, the conflict between these desires and our trinity goddess is rarely unavoidable.
As you can see, goddess of the will to survive is quite hard to get along with. However, if we be honest to her, she won’t do harm to us. For an Übermensch or a person who wish to become one, there are two ways to deal with desires.
First is to accept them and assign meaning to their satisfaction. By doing so, our experiences would become more enjoyable and our desires would become more controllable. For example, if a person sees eating ice-cream as a good way to be relaxed and gain enjoyable experience, he can feel and remember the texture of ice-cream better. When his desire for ice-cream is satisfied, such desire won’t attract his attention anymore. It should be noticed that if a desire is sufficiently satisfied, it would be difficult to assign meaning to it or gain pleasure from it. Continue seeking the satisfaction of a sufficiently satisfied desire is a symptom of cycle of weakness.
Second is to accept them and endure their unsatisfaction by focusing on other meaningful activities with the will to power. By doing so, our self-awareness will become stronger and our force of life will bring us peace and joy. If our meanings are achieved or our desires are satisfied in the future, pride and honor will be our reward. It should be noticed that although ‘enduring unsatisfaction’ and ‘denying unsatisfaction’ sounds similar, the former is a sign of strength (a strong desire for meaning) and makes a person even stronger, while the latter is a sign of weakness (self-hate and self-deception) and makes a person even weaker.
Knights and princess: how to know and view ourselves?
Our minds can be seen as information processors. They can understand the external world by processing sensory stimuli. However, sensory stimuli do not contain any information about the mind itself. The reason why our minds can know itself is that our mind can receive another form of information which I call ‘life experience’.
Self-awareness came into exist when the mind noticed the difference between sensory stimuli and life experience. However, life experience can tell us much more than that. A human mind constantly generates and receives life experience. Its activities at each moment are reflected by the life experience generated by that moment, which is received by the mind itself shortly after. When a leaf is falling in, we know the leaf is falling because we can see this with our eyes, and we know we know this because we received and analyzed our life experience at that time. Life experience is a clear pond in front of the mind, whatever the mind do is mirrored by it. The warmth of sunlight, the fragrance of flowers, the pain of falling, all these feelings are not events in the external world revealed to us in the form of sensory stimuli, but the process which our minds understand sensory stimuli, which is revealed to us in the form of life experience. As life experience is impossible to recorded or shared, people use music, literature and other physical forms to record, express and/or share their life experience. It can be said that art is the result of our spiritual loneliness and the manifest of our mental activities. We tend to label those entities which brings or represents delightful life experience as beautiful, and those brings or represents painful life experience as ugly.
Life experience can be used to pacify abnormal mental activities. They are considered ‘abnormal’ because they originate from false beliefs, distract our mind from meaningful activities and cripple its intelligence. The existence of these activities is always reflected by our life experiences. Whenever there are abnormal activities within our minds (such as self-hate), pure life experience will be generated. Whenever our mind is functioning properly, morbid life experience will be generated. As a person feels his life experience, he will come up with the will to pursue pure life experience and avoid morbid ones. Such is ‘the will to purity’. The will to purity enables us to enjoy pure life experience, and to despise morbid life experience. It drives us to examine ourselves, enables us to identify faulty believes which bring about abnormal activities and then disbelieve them. This process can promote internal well-being, no matter what we previously believe in. Therefore, goddess of the will to purity is a wise and gentle girl who always help us to deal with our problems while never accuse us of having them.
If a person practices his will to purity, he can gain spiritual comfort, become more clear-minded, and avoid causing meaningless sufferings to himself and others. If everyone can do this, this world would become a much better place. However, many people are unwilling to practices their will to purity due to their self-deception. Self-deception occurs among those people who are lack confidence in their trinity goddess. These people are worried that some of their beliefs might overpower their will to power or destroy their self-awareness. So instead of using their will to power to endure or alter those external condition which brought these beliefs, they use their will to power to disbelieve these beliefs and believe in fabricated ones instead. These people tend to make up more and more false beliefs to shelter themselves from the healing light of the will to purity, just like vampires. If someone insist telling them the truth, they’ll feel insulted.
Self-deception has three forms. The first one is selective-thinking, intentionally ignore those facts or ideas which drive us to think critically and sincerely, such as ‘What is the motivation behind my action?’, ‘What if I’m wrong?’, ‘Why that instance doesn’t fit our theory?’ The second one is bigotry, let favors replace curiosity become the motivation to perceive the world. One symptom of this is asking ‘How to convince myself I’m right’ when thinking along while asking ‘How can you prove I’m wrong’ in debates. The third one is fantasy, substitute reason with feelings and emotion when making judgment (judge others or other people’s ideas are not bad, but self-deception is bad), like ‘Many people believe in my religion, we pray together every day, so my religion must be truthful’, ‘He is a stubborn person, so whatever he says must be wrong’.
The only thing a person needs to do to cure self-deception is to trust his trinity goddess. When his self-deception declines, his will to revolution will slowly recover. Then his will to revolution will motivate him to improve his mental state. It can be said that goddess of the will to purity is a princess imprisoned in the stronghold of lies. The trinity goddess is the worriers who smash the wall, burn the monsters, and free the princess from her shackles and chains. However, for those who cannot trust their trinity goddess, the only cure for their self-deception is sufferings.