374

Schopenhauer came to a lot of the same conclusions that Buddha did, in part because he supposedly read some of the first Buddhist texts that had been translated into German. In particular, his ideas about suffering being caused by desire were very similar, although he thought it was impossible to completely elimiate desire. However, the result that these ideas had on his behavior seemed to be quite different. Schopenhauer was a generally bitter person, lashing out at his perceived rivals, and at one point kicking a woman down the stairs who was making too much noise while he was trying to write. The court ordered him to pay her for the rest of their lives. Whereas Buddha, on the other hand, well...became the Enlightened one and all.

Schopenhauer came to a lot of the same conclusions that Buddha did, in part because he supposedly read some of the first Buddhist texts that had been translated into German. In particular, his ideas about suffering being caused by desire were very similar, although he thought it was impossible to completely elimiate desire. However, the result that these ideas had on his behavior seemed to be quite different. Schopenhauer was a generally bitter person, lashing out at his perceived rivals, and at one point kicking a woman down the stairs who was making too much noise while he was trying to write. The court ordered him to pay her for the rest of their lives. Whereas Buddha, on the other hand, well...became the Enlightened one and all.