Perhaps Nietzsche’s will-to-power is just another way of saying humans want control over nature and other humans. In this picture there are many attempts for power all of which eventually fail because true power is absolute spirit which comes prior to creatures, which exceeds their creaturely grasp.
But Nietzsche’s will-to-power is really the cry of those who have little or no power and wish more power. They envision more power and with it more control yet they have little power and control even over themselves. In the final analysis, they are truly powerless.
Here before us is the real problem with Nietzsche’s will-to-power. Power is never achieved because we are an illusion chasing illusions wanting power over them. In this mess, we have not yet awakened from our own sleep of illusion which we are deeply attached to. We are dream chasers—players in a dream-like game.
In other words, as I have mentioned before, our actual human existence is like that of avatars in role-playing games in which our present life is the sum of knowledge of previous lives. But we will never escape this game so long as we delight in the game. The game itself does not allow avatars to escape the game.
The advice from those whom we believe have escaped the game, like the Buddha, is all that we have—and that can become very confusing. Especially when we choose to play the game on its own ironclad terms: we must not discard consciousness (vijñāna), i.e., duality. The game needs its avatar, perceiving needs its perceiver, and knowledge needs its knower.
Ultimately, we must come to the conclusion that life is suffering in virtue of the fact that we've chosen to participate in the game as one of its players. After many games, hopefully, we come to the conclusion that it is possible to leave the game.
Thus, Ananda, for beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, kamma [karma] is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture for their consciousness to be established in an inferior realm. In this way there is the production of renewed existence [punabbhava] in the future (AN III 76).
Comments