SUBWAY LINE, N o. 9 · What We Gain As We Grow Older On_Gelassenheit_Text_Final_Large_Print_WoP...

SUBWAY LINE, No. 9

Philosophical Thinking is Yoga for the Mind®

On_Gelassenheit_Text_Final_Large_Print_WoP 10/27/15 8:52 AM

Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc. provides apublication venue for original philosophicalthinking steeped in lived life, in line with ourmotto: philosophical living & lived philosophy.

Also byWilhelm SchmidHigh on Low: Harnessing the Power of Unhappiness

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Translated from the German by Michael Eskin

Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc. j NewYork

HAT WE GAIN AS

WE GROWOLDER

WILHELM SCHMID

On Gelassenheit

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Published by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc. P. O. Box 250645, New York, NY 10025, USA

www.westside-philosophers.com /www.yogaforthemind.us

English translation copyright © 2015 by Upper West SidePhilosophers, Inc. First edition published in 2016.

Originally published as: Gelassenheit: was wir gewinnen, wenn wirälter werden, Copyright © Insel Verlag Berlin 2014

Cover Image: Peter Paul Rubens, “Old Woman and Boy WithCandles,” c. 1616–1617, used by permission of The Royal Pic-

ture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, NetherlandsThe colophon is a registered trademark of

Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any formor by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record-ing, or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from thepublisher. For all inquiries concerning permission to reuse mate-rial from any of our titles, please contact the publisher in writing,or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA (www.copyright.com).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Typesetting & design: UWSP, Inc.

Schmid, Wilhelm, 1953-[Gelassenheit. English]What we gain as we grow older : on Gelassenheit / translated

from the German by Michael Eskin.pages cm

ISBN 978-1-935830-31-3 (alk. paper)1. Aging--Psychological aspects. 2. Calmness. I. Title.BF724.55.A35S36 2016155.67--dc23

2015010038


CONTENTS

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Translator’s Note on ‘Gelassenheit’ / 7

Preface / 13

1. Thoughts on the Stages of Life / 25

2. Understanding the Idiosyncrasies of Aging / 35

3. Habits Make Life Easier / 49

4. Enjoying Bodily Pleasures and Happiness / 57

5. Dealing with Pain and Tragedy / 69

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6. Experiencing Intimacy through Touch / 81

7. Love and Friendship, Being Part of a Community / 91

8. Gelassenheit and Serenity through Mindfulness / 103

9. Relating to Death, and Living with It / 113

10. Thoughts on a Possible Life after Death / 125

Acknowledgments / 137

About the Author and Translator / 139

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TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON ‘GELASSENHEIT’

(pronounced: ‘guelláhlsenlhite’)

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The common German noun ‘gelassenheit’carries an array of interrelated meanings thatit would be virtually impossible to renderwith any one of its possible English equiva-lents – such as ‘tranquility’, ‘equanimity’,‘serenity’,‘mellowness’,‘laidbackness’, ‘plac-idity’, ‘relaxedness’, ‘coolness’, ‘calmness’,

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‘impassibility’ or ‘unperturbedness’ – with-out forfeiting its semantic and stylistic rich-ness and breadth, and occluding its panoplyof shades and nuances in favor of one or theother, depending on context. Just think ofthe differences in meaning, style, connota-tion and cultural purview between ‘laidback’and ‘serene’, ‘relaxed’ and ‘equanimous’,‘cool’ and ‘unperturbed’, ‘mellow’ and‘placid’, ‘calm’ and ‘impassible’. Yet all ofthese meanings (and more) are containedand always in play in the single word‘gelassenheit’, whose semantic and stylisticgestalt by far exceeds the sum of its parts.That is why, following the example of otherforeign terms that have entered the Englishlanguage in the original (e.g. ‘schaden-freude’, ‘zeitgeist’, ‘uber’, ‘sitz- fleisch’,‘frisson’, ‘chutzpah’ or ‘chi’), I have decidedto retain ‘gelassenheit’ (and its cognate ad-jective ‘gelassen’) in the original, in the hopethat introducing this term into the Englishidiom will not only do justice to the wordand its meanings, but also broaden and en-

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WhatWe Gain AsWe Grow Older


rich our understanding of and perspective onthe real-life phenomena it signifies.*

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On Gelassenheit

* In English translations of the works of twentieth-century German existentialist philosopher MartinHeidegger, ‘gelassenheit’ is often rendered as ‘re-leasement’ – an inelegant neologism that, in myview, captures neither the mundane, everyday char-acter of ‘gelassenheit’ (which Heidegger intention-ally valorizes), nor the specific human trait(s) that‘gelassenheit’ and its adjectival cognate ‘gelassen’denote and connote. Just imagine saying: “John ap-proached this problem with releasement,” or “Yougotta be released, bro!” or “You ought to take it witha little more releasement – look at Buddha, and howreleased he was!” Yet in all of these instances youwould use ‘gelassenheit’ or ‘gelassen’ in German.


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On Gelassenheitj


PREFACE

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At first, it was merely a phenomenon thatbaffled me, an observation I couldn’t helpcoming back to. Then, as my fiftieth birthdaywas approaching, I was invited to give myfirst public lecture on the issue that wouldn’tleave me alone: aging. After I had finished,several elderly members of the audiencecame up to me and said: “Nice lecture, youngman, but you cannot yet possibly know aboutthese things!” Indeed, my reflections werenot rooted in my own experience of growing

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older so much as my mother’s. I admired herfor the gelassenheit with which she em-braced it – so remarkably different from somany others – and I looked over her shoul-der in order to learn as much as I could fromher in the event that some day it might comein handy. Where did her gelassenheit stemfrom? How could I, too, attain it one day, inthe distant future? In that lecture I made fun of the very no-tion of ‘growing older’: isn’t ‘older’ the com-parative form of ‘old’? Does this mean thatwe would rather be ‘older’ than ‘old’?WhenI am sixty, I boasted, I will certainly not referto myself as ‘older’; being ‘old’ will beenough for me. And, anyway, I went on – asthough I were among the very last to havethe privilege of experiencing it – the ques-tion of how to deal with aging would soonbe but a distant memory of ‘old age’ at thevery point of its disappearance, on which re-searchers around the globe were busy work-ing. I, for one, was happy to take it in strideand devote all my energy to living with it as

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gelassen as I possibly could – accepting itwithout resistance, neither sugarcoating norvilifying it but, rather, embracing the entiregamut of its comforts and discomforts, its at-tractive and not-so-attractive aspects, view-ing it neither through rose-colored nor tintedglasses but, preferably, through a clear pair.After all, isn’t a sober view of things the trueprivilege of aging? In the meantime, I, too, have made it: Iam sixty now – and that means old. The truthis: it is not easy for me. Gelassen I am not.On my sixtieth birthday, I was overcome bya profound sadness about having to bidfarewell to my fifties, a wonderful decadethat I wouldn’t ever be able to experienceagain. Ten years earlier, I had already beendowncast about saying good-bye to my for-ties (which had been really intense), espe-cially since I did not expect much from theyears to come. Sure, these are only numbers;but they do signify realities that graduallycreep up on you, until you are suddenly hitby the realization that the past stretches out,

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On Gelassenheit


the future contracts and death closes in. Noamount of mental preparation can anticipatewhat it actually feels like when things startgetting serious. Catchy one-liners aiming todownplay the severity of aging only go so far:“You are as old as you feel”? Really? Comeon, let’s face it, usually you’re older. Andhow you feel will change nothing about it –on the contrary, it will only lead you to de-ceive yourself. True, not all deception is bad,but in this case you will end up doubly dis-appointed when you realize that all the hiptalk notwithstanding the truth will have itsway. For a long time I imagined old age as lifespent placidly on a sunny patio, reclining ina deck chair, looking out onto the landscape,at peace with myself and the world. What Iam still missing, though, is the patio – andconsequently all the rest. Only one thing iscertain: I never want to be one of those oldgeezers who will do anything to stay young,to the point of ridicule. I don’t want to be-come the irate old guy who releases his

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anger and frustration about his dwindling lifeupon anything that flourishes. I don’t wantto set out clad in the armor of self-righteous-ness, wasting whatever strength I may haveleft on geriatric attacks on the young, whopresumably get everything wrong. In fact, theyoung, I am convinced, are always right; andeven when they are not, they are still right,which is to say: they have all the right in theworld to gather their own experiences –good or bad, they will learn from them. We can only be gelassen about what weaccept as true; otherwise, we risk squander-ing our resources in the futile attempt atdenying the reality of what is allegedly un-true, which will remain completely unaf-fected by it. One aspect of the truth of agingis that more than any other form of becom-ing it is confronted with transience. It has al-ways been that way, but in the modern worldit has become a real nuisance: for if technol-ogy can make virtually anything happen, whynot eternal youth as well? I, too, would liketo have it, but what kind of life would that

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On Gelassenheit


be? I, too, would like it if life were all rain-bows and butterflies, but wouldn’t this actu-ally exacerbate the negative and disagree-able? So, rather than wasting my grapeshoton fighting aging, I prefer wearing the lifeetched into my every crease and wrinklewith confidence. Learning to live with one’s own aging isthe new task: making an art of what oncewas a given – growing older; turning our so-ciety’s anti-aging bias into a true art of agingthat will enable us to live with rather thanagainst the inevitable. Such an art of living withaging can help us to meet the particular chal-lenges of this life stage in a way that will en-sure that even as we get on in years wecontinue appreciating the beauty and thevery gift of life. The art of living has long been my mainphilosophical topic, not because I have mas-tered it, but because I need it. The conceptof the art of living goes back to antiquity –techne tou biou or techne peri bion in Greek, arsvitae or ars vivendi in Latin – and it implies a

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life consciously and purposefully lived. Of-ten, ‘art of living’ is taken to mean a kind offootloose and fancy-free existence. Certainly,that is an option for anyone who wishes topursue it; but it is not an endeavor that de-serves to be called an ‘art’.A quite different,more sophisticated approach consists in con-sciously steering and, if need be, creativelyredirecting one’s life. This kind of awarenessis not always possible, nor is it always neces-sary. For it is enough to stop and reflect fromtime to time – as, for instance, right now –on the fact that we are all headed for old age.But what does that mean? How does it hap-pen? Where am I at this particular juncturein my life? What am I to expect? How can Iprepare myself for it? What lies within mypower, and what does not? This is where theart of living comes in, understood as a cer-tain awareness that will allow us to findmeaning in this life stage as well, to live con-sciously and meaningfully, lest the tempta-tion to aimlessly drift along gets the betterof us.

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On Gelassenheit


The problem with aging in the modernworld is that it has, for the most part, beenviewed as meaningless, as a ‘disease’ even,which must be detected early and treated ag-gressively before it can be surgically re-moved. This negative view of aging as devoidof meaning and requiring massive interven-tion could be one of the side effects of themodern Me-ism epidemic, which preachesthe ever-youthful Me: Me, forever and ever –a longing that is most pointedly articulatedin the much-covered 1984 pop anthem-cum-battle cry Forever Young by Alphaville. How-ever, as soon as one view begins to dominate,competing views are called for, for interpre-tive monopolies threaten life itself by puttingit to sleep. Contradiction alone can revive it.A different approach, then – one that couldbecome the hallmark of a modified, alterna-tive modernity – conceives of aging as rifewith meaning. But what exactly is it? A natural sense of aging might consist inthe fact that our initiation into the inexorable

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truth that life is forever on the wane occursgradually, as though nature itself were intenton being extra careful with its creature, thathypersensitive tyrant called ‘human being’.Nature, too, is familiar with the forever-young-principle, of course – only in nature this prin-ciple operates in a completely different wayfrom modern culture, for it is nature itselfthat remains forever young in letting old lifepass on and new life emerge. Nature couldalso end each life with a swift cut – the kindof death many dream of, but one destined toelude most, for nature prefers the slow proc-ess of senescence. This way sufficient time re-mains to tend to young, budding life, to shareone’s experiences and continue gatheringnew ones. Living by this natural sense ofaging means, metaphorically speaking, goingon flourishing for one’s own and others’ sakefor as long as it may be given to a more orless indestructible plant, and consenting tothe inevitable onset of wilting. It means cel-ebrating life – all life, including one’s own –for as long as it lasts, and beyond; it means

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On Gelassenheit


experiencing life’s plenitude and acceptingits temporal limits with gelassenheit. Are wecapable of that? A cultural sense of aging might consist inthe discovery of resources that will enrichand alleviate our life in this stage in particu-lar. Gelassenheit is one such resource. Thereseems to be a shortage of it these days. Themodern world makes us restless, casting ourlives in such turmoil as to make us long forgelassenheit. An important topic in Westernphilosophy and Christian theology goingback to Epicurus’ (341-270 B.C.E.) notionof ataraxia and Meister Eckhart’s (c.1260-c.1328) concept of gelazenheit, it has beenforgotten in modern times, having fallenprey to militant activism and scientific-tech-nological optimism. Its gentle reserve is nolonger rated a virtue; yet, the would-be cool-ness that has come to replace it still retainsthe memory of its human warmth. For cen-turies, one life stage in particular appearedto have been made for gelassenheit: old age.But it, too, has now become a time of up-

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heaval – gelassenheit doesn’t seem to be ableto succeed as easily anymore. How can it beregained? Can a society that is growing in-creasingly older grow more gelassen as well? I don’t possess gelassenheit, but for me itis something I ought to aspire to if I wish tolive a beautiful life. It is certainly a gift in anylife stage, but it is particularly beneficial aswe get on in years, as life gets harder andmore scant. It may actually be the case thatgelassenheit only becomes possible as wegrow older. After all, it is easier to be ge-lassen when no longer everything is at stake,when our hormones are no longer raging,when we have a lifetime’s worth of experi-ence, a broadened outlook and a time-testedsense for people and things to rely on. This book outlines ten steps to gelassen-heit based on observation, experience andreflection. It is about the kind of gelassenheitthat is itself gelassen, and not at all boastfuland provocative (“Look at me and how gelas-sen I am!”). And it is about staking out, to-getherwith the reader, a sensible and practi-

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On Gelassenheit


On_Gelassenheit_Text_Final_Large_Print_WoP 10/27/15 8:53 AM Page 140

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