Synopsis:
- Kant + Buddha
- We can know reality in itself, but only from within, via self-knowledge, via the realization that we are "will" (striving nature of conscious beings)
- Mind (conscious and unconscious) is will, which assumes the idea of the body in space and time
- Will is the inner force of human life
- "Will and acting are one"
- Will is the true substance of the body
- Will is the inner reality of every natural phenomenon
- Everywhere there is will: "impulse, persistence, determination"
- All reality is will; there is one universal will
- The will's constant urge for achievement of ever more ambitious goals causes human unhappiness
- We are victims of our insatiable will
- We are either bored (because we are not letting our will act) or frustrated (because we can't achieve what our will wills)
- The will is the origin of our sufferings: the less you "will", the less you suffer
- The endless cycle of willing and suffering can be broken only by ceasing the striving, i.e. Buddhist-like resignation/contemplation
- Salvation requires an "euthanasia of the will"
- Moral virtue is a way to reduce the evil power of will
- Moral virtue is a way to realize that individuals are an illusion, that only Will (one shared will) exists
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