I would be wrong to say that the voyage to the other shore (i.e., nirvana) is not a parlous crossing. First of all, to make such a dangerous voyage we must surpass nihilism. In short, we must have been nihilists, at one time, who became disgusted with nihilism. If we are not, then looking back as mere nihilists will be crushing. Nietzsche, in fact, warns us,
"We have abandoned the land and gone aboard ship! We have demolished the bridges behind us—more than that, the land behind us! Now little ship! Take care. . . . Woe to you if you become homesick for the land, as though more freedom has existed there—when there is no more "land"!"
Yes, it takes lots of courage to cross the great ocean of samsara to reach blessed nirvana!
To reiterate Nietzsche's warning, the greatest concern for those whom are crossing is that they will become, eventually, homesick and fondly look back to land. This means that while it appears that they have devaluated everything, including the self, they have not grown sufficiently tired of their nihilism—enough, we might say, to seek a new reality that is unoriginated (abhuta) and increate (akata) that lies beyond the all-too-human wharf.
What led spiritual mariners of the past into uncharted waters was their unswerving belief in new, greater lands that surpassed human imagination. What today leads so many nihilists down to the quay is not the search for new lands—far from it—it is the desire to stop the spiritual mariners from boarding ship, calling out to them, “There is no beyond!”
I can easily detect the Buddhist nihilists who are still fond of the land of their birth even though they claim otherwise. They are the ones who extoll the Void or the same, oblivion. However, they are not real mariners. They have yet to lay down the burden of nihilism. They are still liable to becoming homesick for aimlessness.
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