As one of the 'best read and most solidly grounded in Buddhism for his time among Europeans'
Western Buddhists sometimes use Nietzsche to champion the Eastern philosophy in traditional European Christian societies:
"It is a hundred times more realistic than Christianity - it has the heritage of a cool and objective posing of problems of its composition, it arrives after a philosophical movement lasting hundreds of years; the concept 'God' is already abolished by the time it arrives... it no longer speaks of the struggle against sin; but quite in accordance with actuality, the struggle against suffering. It already has - and this distinguishes it profoundly from Christianity - the self-deception of moral concepts behind it - it stands, in my language, beyond good and evil." (Nietzsche,
Twilight of the Idols/The Anti-Christ, p. 141.)
Nietzsche however still sees
Buddhism as a danger:
"an historical parallel between his own age and that of the Buddha. The Buddha, according to Nietzsche, saw in his own age, just like Nietzsche, that 'God is Dead'. But, rather than create a new avenue by which human potential could unfold, thereby passing beyond nihilism, the Buddha failed by creating a new religion that simply helped man adjust to nihilism. The Buddha's response to the possible 'awe inspiring catastrophe'
21 of his own time was to found a religion which, rather than help people overcome the newly felt meaninglessness of existence and create a new more meaningful vision of existence, simply helped them adjust to nihilism with a certain degree of cheerful acceptance."
A
short defense of Buddhism against Nietzsche's criticism.
Pankaj Mishra's view of Nietzsche's ideas:
He considered Buddhism a 'danger' partly because he admired it himself. He described the Buddha as a 'physiologist', administering to a depressed people, to late human beings... races grown kindly, gentle, over-intellectual who feel pain too easily'. He gave a succinct account of how he tough the Buddha dealt with the spiritual weariness caused by the collapse of old beliefs and the rise of nihilism in his time:
with life in the open air, the wandering life; with moderation and fastidiousness as regards food; with caution towards all emotions which produce gall, which heat the blood; no anxiety, either for oneself or for others. He demands ideas which produces repose of cheerfulness - he devises means for disaccustoming oneself to others. He understands benevolence, being kind, as health-promoting... His teachings resists nothing more than it resists the feeling of revengefulness, of antipathy, of
ressentiment (Nietzsche,
Anti-Christ, p. 142.)
