Birthday of German Philosopher Martin Heidegger

26^th September is the birthday of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Born in 1889 in a rural household, Martin’s family was too poor to send him to university. So, he enrolled at a church-funded college to study Theology, a subject patronised by the church. Later he shifted his field of study to Philosophy and, quite ironically, went on to become a hugely influential Existentialist (Religion preaches that life is meaningful and existentialists argue that life is meaningless!) In 1923 he was elected Professor of Philosophy at the University of Marburg. In 1927 Heidegger published his magnum opus ‘Being and Time’ (Sein und Zeit) that seeks to analyse the concept of Being. It is regarded as the most influential version of Existential Philosophy and comparable to the works of Hegel and Kant. In April 1933 he was elected rector at the University of Freiburg and on May 01 he joined the infamous Nazi Party. Heidegger was a supporter of Adolf Hitler and openly anti-Semitic. 

Osho has spoken extensively on Heidegger in His discourses. Osho says Heidegger’s insight is so deep, that to understand him, you need a very high-quality intelligence. His contemporaries look like pygmies. His thinking was so complex that he could never finish any of his books. He would publish the first part, and then the whole world would be waiting for the second part; but it would never appear. And that’s what he did his whole life… for the simple reason that by the end of the first part he had created so many problems for himself that now he did not know where to go or how to resolve it all. He simply kept silent and started another book! As a result, no book is complete. Yet even those incomplete pieces are simply miracles of the mind. The fineness of his logic and the depth of his approach are extraordinary.

Speaking on Existentialism, Osho says the whole philosophical movement called existentialism talks about life as meaningless, purposeless; full of anguish and despair. This is such a contrast to Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu, Bodhidharma; they talk of blissfulness, of tremendous possibilities of ecstasy, of growing into new dimensions of being. What has happened? Why this diametrical opposition? Martin Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Sartre or Jaspers are brilliant minds, as intelligent as any Gautam Buddha. But they missed one thing: they have depended only on reason. They have completely forgotten the heart. And the trouble is, all that is beautiful and meaningful belongs to the heart; all that is significant is a fragrance of the heart. Reason is perfectly good as far as dead objects are concerned; it is the best instrument for scientific research. But reason is impotent when it comes to questions about life, love, peace, joy, blissfulness.

Osho has also spoken of Heidegger’s affiliation to Adolf Hitler. Osho says, it appears a paradox that a man like Martin Heidegger, an intellectual giant, was a supporter of Adolf Hitler, an uneducated and mediocre mind. Heidegger is very profound in his writings, depths upon depths open — but he is far away from any satori or samadhi, he is far away from any enlightenment. When Adolf Hitler became powerful Heidegger became one of his supporters; became a fascist; behaved like an ordinary man with no understanding and no insight. These are the moments when you see it is very easy to talk about great things, but to show your understanding in your day-to-day life is wholly different. Your ordinary life has to become luminous; your every moment has to become a light unto itself. All that profundity was meaningless, proved futile, was not really there. He was as much a fanatic German as any other German. The others can be forgiven but not Martin Heidegger.

BELOVED OSHO,

YOU ALWAYS SAID TO US THAT WE SHOULD REJOICE IN BEING ALIVE, BUT DEEP IN MYSELF I FOUND A VERY STRONG WILL TO DIE — NOT THAT I WANT TO COMMIT SUICIDE, BUT TO DIE NATURALLY. SOMEHOW I KNOW THAT BY DYING I MIGHT FIND THAT WHICH I REALLY ENJOY, WHICH IS SILENCE. I CAN SAY THAT I AM UTTERLY BORED AND FED UP WITH THIS UGLY WORLD. THERE IS NOTHING THAT MAKES ME FEEL ATTRACTED TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN BEING WITH YOU. BELOVED OSHO, WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?

Nothing is wrong with you. Everything is wrong with the world. It is only the retarded people who don’t feel bored. You are intelligent. You can see that there is nothing meaningful. Life is a drag, a repetition. There seems to be no adventure in it, no challenge; there seems to be no hope. Tomorrow will be again the same as yesterday. It is the prerogative only of human beings to get bored; no other animal gets bored in existence. Have you seen any animal in existence being bored? Boredom is a high quality of intelligence. It means you are perceptive; you can see that there is nothing but — finally — death. Empty handed you have come, and one day empty handed you will leave, and all that happens in between birth and death is simply tedious. So I cannot say there is anything wrong with you.

Every intelligent person thinks that perhaps what is not available in life may be available in death. Psychologists have found that almost every intelligent person at least once in his life thinks of committing suicide — he may not commit it, but the idea comes. Particularly in this century, the greatest philosophers — Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, Marcel…. Almost all the topmost thinkers of the contemporary world are agreed on one thing — they don’t agree on many things, but on one thing they are all in absolute agreement — that life is meaningless. And if this is so, then the question naturally arises, why go on living? If there is no meaning, no significance, then what is the need to be dragged from the cradle to the grave unnecessarily? This is the only contemporary philosophy: existentialism.

There have been many philosophies born in different ages, but in this age there has been only one philosophy and that is existentialism. And its basic ground is so strange that one feels that all these people are mad. If they are not mad, then we are mad — there is no other alternative. The whole philosophical movement called existentialism talks about life as meaningless, accidental, there is no purpose behind it; it is full of anxiety and anguish — which are incurable. It is a nightmare. This is such a contrast. Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu, Nagarjuna, Bodhidharma, they talk of blissfulness, of tremendous possibilities of ecstasy, of growing into new dimensions of being. What has happened? Why this diametrical opposition?

And Jean-Paul Sartre or Jaspers or Martin Heidegger are not unintelligent people; they are as intelligent as any Gautam Buddha. One thing is missing: they have depended only on reason. They are very rational people, they have completely forgotten the heart. They live in the mind and mind is a desert. Nothing grows there — no flowers, not even an oasis. The modern man slowly slowly has forgotten the language of the heart. The possibilities that open only through the heart are completely forgotten. Only one thing has remained, and that is your reason, your rationality. And the trouble is, all that is beautiful belongs to the heart, all that is meaningful belongs to the heart, all that is significant is a fragrance of the heart.

Reason is perfectly good as far as objects, dead objects are concerned; for scientific research it is the best instrument. For things, reason is the right method of discovery. But the moment the question arises about anything living, reason is impotent. And if you ask reason a question concerning life, love, peace, joy, blissfulness, it simply negates, as if these things don’t exist. It is almost like a blind man. If you talk about light to the blind man, he is going to say that there is no light. Because to see light… your hands cannot do anything to see light, your ears cannot see it, you cannot taste it, you cannot smell it. All your senses are perfect, but only eyes have the capacity to see light and colours and rainbows. Reason has a limitation. It is a perfect tool for dead things.

And this is one of the mistakes of this whole century: we have been asking blind people about light, or asking the deaf about music. Asking reason about love, meaning, significance, ecstasy is futile. Reason will simply say these things don’t exist — because reason has never come in contact with any of these things. Reason is not intentionally denying you anything, it is just not its capacity; you are stretching it beyond its capacity. It is good that at least in your life one thing is still significant: your love for me. But you cannot give any reason for it. Or can you? Is it something rational? Is there some arithmetic behind it? — some scientific evaluation? Can your mind support it?

It is not from the mind that you are related to me; it is that a part of your heart is still alive with me, is still dancing, is still singing. And that is the great hope: your heart is not dead, you have not completely denied it. This small loophole is enough. If I can enter through it, I can bring the whole of paradise behind me — don’t be worried. And you are such a nice man that you are not thinking of committing suicide. So there is time, you are waiting for a natural death. Don’t be worried. Before natural death, I will give you the taste of natural life.

And once you are drunk with natural life, death disappears; you become part of an eternal flow of life which knows no end. Every moment is a new discovery, every moment a new peak. Every moment you think, what can be more than this? — yet the next moment something more becomes possible. This is an unending process. Just let me in. And the way to help me is to meditate. Sit silently….Life is boring — so there is no harm in sitting with closed eyes, because there is nothing to see. Sit silently, peacefully. You have looked outside and you have found nothing but meaninglessness. Now give a chance to your inner world: look inwards. And I promise you that the same eyes which have not found anything outside will find inside everything, a constant hallelujah.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse series: Beyond Enlightenment Chapter #22

Chapter title: The forgotten language of the heart

24 October 1986 pm in

References:

Osho has spoken on eminent philosophers Aristotle, Berkeley, Confucius, Descartes, Feuerbach, Hegel, Heidegger, Heraclitus, Huxley, Jaspers, Kant, Kierkegaard, Marx, Moore, Nietzsche, Plato, Pythagoras, Russell, Sartre, Socrates, Wittgenstein and many others in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. What Is, Is, What Ain’t, Ain’t
2. One Seed Makes the Whole Earth Green
3. Sufis: People on the Path Vol.1-2
4. The Sun Rises in the Evening
5. The Empty Boat
6. Dang Dang Doko Dang
7. Beyond Psychology
8. Zarathustra, the laughing prophet
9. From Personality to Individuality
10. From Death to Deathlessness
11. Guida Spirituale
12. Even Being Gawd Ain’t a Bed of Roses
13. The Miracle
14. That Art Thou
15. The Rebel
16. The Messiah Vol.1-2
17. The Heart Sutra
18. The Last Testament Vol.1-2
19. The Perfect Master Vol.2
20. The Golden Future