THE ANTICHRIST
By
Friedrich Nietzsche
Translation: H.L. Mencken
21.
The things necessary to
Buddhism are a very mild climate, customs of great gentleness and liberality, and no militarism; moreover, it must get its start among the higher and better educated classes. Cheerfulness, quiet and the absence of desire are the chief desiderata, and they are attained.
Buddhism is not a
religion in which perfection is merely an object of aspiration: perfection is actually normal.--Under
Christianity the instincts of the subjugated and the oppressed come to the fore: it is only those who are at the bottom who seek their salvation in it. Here the prevailing pastime, the favourite remedy for boredom is the discussion of sin,
self-
criticism, the inquisition of con
science; here the emotion produced by power (called "
God") is pumped up (by prayer); here the highest
good is regarded as unattainable, as a gift, as "grace." Here, too, open dealing is lacking; concealment and the darkened room are
Christian. Here body is despised and hygiene is denounced as sensual; the church even ranges it
self against cleanliness (--the first
Christian order after the banishment of the Moors closed the public baths, of which there were 270 in Cordova alone) .
Christian, too; is a certain cruelty toward one's
self and toward others; hatred of unbelievers; the will to persecute. Sombre and disquieting ideas are in the foreground; the most esteemed states of mind, bearing the most respectable names are epileptoid; the diet is so regulated as to engender morbid symptoms and over-stimulate the nerves.
Christian, again, is all deadly enmity to the rulers of the earth, to the "aristocratic"--along with a sort of secret rivalry with them (--one resigns one's "body" to them--one wantsonly one's "
soul" . . . ). And
Christian is all hatred of the intellect, of pride, of courage of
freedom, of intellectual libertinage;
Christian is all hatred of the senses, of joy in the senses, of joy in general . . .