Take fireflies, for example. Try to imagine their beauty, the evanescent beauty of their lives, which don't even last a week.
Female fireflies flash their lights only to have sex with the males; males twinkle just to have sex with the females. Once their mating is finished, they die. Their reproductive instinct is the single absolute reason for fireflies to live. In that simple instinct and their simple world, no sadness can intervene. This is why they're beautiful.
In contrast, consider the human species this time. You will find extremely complex societies.
Modern concepts such as love and romance have made man, this creature with broken instincts, bury his original nature. Those concepts are all lies, of course. To cover up the deception, mankind has to create still more entirely new concepts. One lie to cover up for another and so forth.
However, that complexity can't hide the various contradictions born from our instincts. They create hopelessly fundamental oppositions: words and instinct, ideas and the physical self, reason, and lust. These concepts are like two snakes biting each other's tails. The two snakes are perpetually locked in a contest for superiority. In their twists and turns, they cause us pain.
Female fireflies flash their lights only to have sex with the males; males twinkle just to have sex with the females. Once their mating is finished, they die. Their reproductive instinct is the single absolute reason for fireflies to live. In that simple instinct and their simple world, no sadness can intervene. This is why they're beautiful.
In contrast, consider the human species this time. You will find extremely complex societies.
Modern concepts such as love and romance have made man, this creature with broken instincts, bury his original nature. Those concepts are all lies, of course. To cover up the deception, mankind has to create still more entirely new concepts. One lie to cover up for another and so forth.
However, that complexity can't hide the various contradictions born from our instincts. They create hopelessly fundamental oppositions: words and instinct, ideas and the physical self, reason, and lust. These concepts are like two snakes biting each other's tails. The two snakes are perpetually locked in a contest for superiority. In their twists and turns, they cause us pain.
