Nietschze the Advaitin

[Jonathan Bricklin]

A word about Nietzsche's relationship to advaitism, which has come up
recently in postings.  He was a passionate disciple of Schopenhauer, who
introduced the Upanishads into Western philosophical discourse, and for
whom "Tat tvam asi"  was a core belief.  The following quotation from
Nietschze is one of many examples from his writing which demonstrate how
that belief got transmitted to him.:

"One is necessary, one is a piece of fatefulness, one belongs to the whole,
one is in the whole;  there is nothing which could judge, measure, compare
or sentence our being, for that would mean judging, measuring, comparing,
or sentencing the whole.  But there is nothing beside the whole."

As Allan Curry pointed out,  his hostility was not to religion but to what
he saw as the oppressions and narrowmindedness of  Judeo/Christianity.


Jonathan Bricklin