We can hardly find the nothingness
other than precisely where
we would not like to go.

Temptation
is in a sense the extreme moment
of sensuality.
It is to the extent that we reject it
that it makes us afraid,
that sensuality has the power
to make us attain nothingness.

Insofar as temptation is accursed,
   sensuality determines at our limit
      an abyss whose depth cannot be exhausted,
         a nothingness that is never filled
by a regular course of things.

Its ruinous disorders
and the fatality of its excess
deprive the sensual world of every possibility of happiness,
of appeasement, of quietude:
no substantifiction is conceivable if the horizon is obscenity.

We enter into this world
from the side of filth
and the impression of the void that it gives us in the first place
opens in us an evidently incurable wound.

–excerpt On Nietzsche, Notes, by Georges Bataille, p. 252-253

It was a long time ago, in those months at Northwestern that I read a translation of the writings of Nārgārjuna, founder of the middle-way school of Buddhist philosophy.  He lived 150 – 250 BCE and is considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.  His thought centered around the notion of emptiness/nothingness.

In the rumination of Georges Bataille, inspired by the writings of Nietzsche temptation is mentioned as an entrée to nothingness.  The prospect of nothingness causes us to feel dread, by going straightway into the encounter, intuitively we know we will not be the same. “Temptation” a moment of intense seduction…  The conventionally forbidden, — sexual attraction immediately comes to mind.  Women by default, ought not always bear the blame, the femme fatale.

What attracts me?  What attracts you?  What are the odds of happiness on the far side of temptation?  The larger question: is happiness life’s highest good?

What are the consequences of an always play safe policy?  What of sheltering oneself in a community regimented by rules?

You and I have to choose.  There is no splitting the difference, that compromise between running face-forward to risk, and its opposite, running for a place of refuge.

The dilemma is captured by the proverb:  Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

What do you think?

Is the hazard of a joint life-long project to create a durable relationship with another human being worth it?  Is that worth the risk?

What about the dangers involved in building a business, developing the matrix of relationships required to support a durable enterprise, one that benefits every stake holder?  Would that be worth some sleepless nights. the effort to learn new skills, and often failing in order to become better?

We need cross into forbidden zones, untrod by angels, if we are to know the exhilaration of the abyss….