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DHARMIC RELIGIONS The concept of cyclical patterns is very prominent in Dharmic Religions , including Hinduism and Buddhism among others. The spoked Dharma Wheel (or Wheel of life) is an endless cycle of birth, life, and death from which one seeks liberation. In Tantric Buddhism , a Wheel Of Time concept, known as the Kalachakra expresses the idea of an endless cycle of existence and knowledge. External link: CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY In Ancient Egypt , the Scarab (or Dung Beetle ) was viewed as a sign of eternal renewal and reemergence of life, a reminder of the life to come. See also Atum and Maàt . External link: In Ancient Greece , the concept of eternal return was more connected with Empedocles , Zeno Of Citium , and Stoicism . External link: RENAISSANCE The symbol of the Ouroboros , the Snake or Dragon devouring its own tail, is the alchemical symbol ''par excellence'' of eternal recurrence. The alchemist-physicians of the Renaissance and Reformation were aware of the idea of eternal recurrence; an attempt to describe eternal recurrence was made by the physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne in his '' Religio Medici '' of 1643 : : ''And in this sense, I say, the world was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a beginning; and thus was I dead before I was alive, though my grave be England, my dying place was Paradise, and Eve miscarried of me before she conceived of Cain''. (R.M.Part 1:59) FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE The ''thought of eternal recurrence'' is central to the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche . As Heidegger pointed out, Nietzsche doesn't ever speak about the reality of "eternal recurrence" itself, but about the "thought of eternal recurrence". Nietzsche first encountered the idea in the works of Heinrich Heine , who speculated that there would one day be a person born with the same thought processes as himself, and that the same was true of every other person on the planet. Nietzsche expanded on this thought to form his theory, which he put forth in '' The Gay Science '' and developed in '' Thus Spoke Zarathustra ''. On a few occasions in his notebooks, Nietzsche discusses the possibility of the Eternal Recurrence as cosmological truth, but in the works he prepared for publication, it is treated as the ultimate method of life affirmation. According to Nietzsche, it would require a sincere ''Amor Fati'' (Love of Fate), not simply to endure, but to ''wish for'' the eternal recurrence of all events exactly as they occurred---all of the pain and joy and the embarrassment and glory. Nietzsche calls the idea "horrifying and paralyzing", and he also states that the burden of this idea is the "heaviest weight" imaginable (''das schwerste Gewicht''). The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life: : ''What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine. As described by Nietzsche, the thought of the eternal return is more than merely an intellectual concept or challenge, it is akin to a Koan , or a psychological device that occupies one's entire consciousness stimulating a transformation of consciousness known as Metanoia . In Nietzsche scholarship the stance on the cosmological hypothesis of the eternal recurrence is extremely interesting, being a crucial axiom of his philosophy. In '' Thus Spoke Zarathustra '' Part III, Ch. 2, #2, '' "Of the Vision and the Riddle" '' ('' German '')), Nietzsche confronts his aforementioned inner demon and proves to him the eternal recurrence—this leads to a self-awakening in which the demon is exorcised. Much effort is still exerted in attempting to understand Nietzsche's notebooks' various fragmentary mentions of the eternal recurrence. REFERENCES IN CULTURE
::''While not the original inspiration for our film Groundhog Day , was one of those confirming cosmic affirmations that we had indeed tapped into one of the great universal problems of being... P. D. Ouspensky suggests the antidote to the existential dilemma at the core of Groundhog Day : that trapped as we are on the karmic wheel of cause and effect, our only means of escape is to assume responsibility for our own destiny and find the personal meaning that imparts a purposeful vitality to life and frees us from the limitations of our contempt''.
::''Greeting! I am recalled home by One who may not be denied. In much that I came to do I have failed. Much that I have done I would undo; some little I have undone. Out of fire I came—the smoldering fire of a thing one day to be a consuming flame; in fire I go. Seek not my ashes. I am the lord of the fires! Farewell.'' —Fu-Manchu
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