Tolstoy's Confessions
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Description
Book Introduction
“My life has come to a standstill.”
A World-Class Literary Master's Honest Confession About Suicidal Impulses
Tolstoy's life came to a standstill in his forties.
He didn't even know what he wanted.
Tolstoy was afraid of living and tried to escape from it.
And yet, I still expected something from life.
So he constantly explored the purpose of life that had plagued him since his youth.
I tried to find the answer by reading books on various fields such as science, history, philosophy, and literature.
However, he did not get much help in academics.
Eventually, Tolstoy suffers a mental crisis.
This crisis reached its peak at age 51, and he even considered suicide.
The book written at that time was 『Confessions』.
How should humans live, and for what purpose? Tolstoy spent half his life searching for an answer to this question.
And finally, just before I jumped off the cliff of life, I found the answer.
『Confessions』 contains the answers to the questions I have been searching for and the long journey to find them.
The first half is a jumble of thoughts about one's own life and people, and a lot of other things.
But he gradually gathers his thoughts and calmly presents the answer he found.
Based on that answer, I advise others on how to live their lives.
Through this book, readers will gain a clear understanding of the ambiguous reality of life.
Through Tolstoy's serious and weighty confession, you will be able to take the first step into a new life like him.
A World-Class Literary Master's Honest Confession About Suicidal Impulses
Tolstoy's life came to a standstill in his forties.
He didn't even know what he wanted.
Tolstoy was afraid of living and tried to escape from it.
And yet, I still expected something from life.
So he constantly explored the purpose of life that had plagued him since his youth.
I tried to find the answer by reading books on various fields such as science, history, philosophy, and literature.
However, he did not get much help in academics.
Eventually, Tolstoy suffers a mental crisis.
This crisis reached its peak at age 51, and he even considered suicide.
The book written at that time was 『Confessions』.
How should humans live, and for what purpose? Tolstoy spent half his life searching for an answer to this question.
And finally, just before I jumped off the cliff of life, I found the answer.
『Confessions』 contains the answers to the questions I have been searching for and the long journey to find them.
The first half is a jumble of thoughts about one's own life and people, and a lot of other things.
But he gradually gathers his thoughts and calmly presents the answer he found.
Based on that answer, I advise others on how to live their lives.
Through this book, readers will gain a clear understanding of the ambiguous reality of life.
Through Tolstoy's serious and weighty confession, you will be able to take the first step into a new life like him.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Chapter 1: Memories of Childhood
Chapter 2 My Youth
Chapter 3: Superstitious Belief in Progress and the Death of My Brother
Chapter 4: My Life Stopped
Chapter 5: Questions about Academics and My Life
Chapter 6: The Wise Men's Outlook on Life
Chapter 7: Four Approaches to Life
Chapter 8: What I Learned from the Public
Chapter 9 Knowledge Not Based on Reason
Chapter 10: Discoveries and Questions About a New Life
Chapter 11: How Should Humans Live?
Chapter 12: The Process of Finding God
Chapter 13: The Purpose of Human Life: The Essence of Faith
Chapter 14 Questions about Religious Ritual
Chapter 15 True Faith
Chapter 16: Seeking Truth
Reviews
Commentary / Aylmer Mode
Tolstoy's life
Tolstoy Chronology
Chapter 2 My Youth
Chapter 3: Superstitious Belief in Progress and the Death of My Brother
Chapter 4: My Life Stopped
Chapter 5: Questions about Academics and My Life
Chapter 6: The Wise Men's Outlook on Life
Chapter 7: Four Approaches to Life
Chapter 8: What I Learned from the Public
Chapter 9 Knowledge Not Based on Reason
Chapter 10: Discoveries and Questions About a New Life
Chapter 11: How Should Humans Live?
Chapter 12: The Process of Finding God
Chapter 13: The Purpose of Human Life: The Essence of Faith
Chapter 14 Questions about Religious Ritual
Chapter 15 True Faith
Chapter 16: Seeking Truth
Reviews
Commentary / Aylmer Mode
Tolstoy's life
Tolstoy Chronology
Detailed image
Into the book
Another event that made me realize that superstitious beliefs about progress are not enough to guide my life was the death of my brother.
My older brother, a wise, kind, and serious man, fell ill at a young age and, after a difficult year-long struggle with the illness, died in agony without even knowing why he had lived or why he had to die.
As my brother slowly and painfully died, no theory could answer those questions for him or for me.
--- p.21
I already knew that by following the path of knowledge based on reason, I could discover nothing but the negation of life.
But what I found in my faith was only those things that could be accepted only by denying reason, and this was to me even more impossible than denying life.
--- p.71
A contradiction arose, and there were two ways out of this contradiction.
One was to admit that what I had previously called rationality was not as rational as I had thought, and the other was to admit that what had previously seemed irrational to me was not as irrational as I had thought.
--- p.72
In this way, I was forced to acknowledge that, in addition to the rational knowledge I had hitherto considered the only knowledge, there existed another kind of knowledge possessed by all mankind, a knowledge not based on reason: the knowledge of faith, which gave all mankind the meaning of life and enabled them to live.
Faith remained as irrational to me as ever, but I could not help but admit that only faith can provide humanity with answers to life's questions and enable it to live.
--- p.75
So, what should humans do? Like animals, humans must work for their own survival. However, unlike animals, humans cannot survive if they work solely for themselves, as they must work for everyone, not just themselves.
And when a human being works for everyone, I feel very clearly that such a human being is happy and his life has meaning.
My older brother, a wise, kind, and serious man, fell ill at a young age and, after a difficult year-long struggle with the illness, died in agony without even knowing why he had lived or why he had to die.
As my brother slowly and painfully died, no theory could answer those questions for him or for me.
--- p.21
I already knew that by following the path of knowledge based on reason, I could discover nothing but the negation of life.
But what I found in my faith was only those things that could be accepted only by denying reason, and this was to me even more impossible than denying life.
--- p.71
A contradiction arose, and there were two ways out of this contradiction.
One was to admit that what I had previously called rationality was not as rational as I had thought, and the other was to admit that what had previously seemed irrational to me was not as irrational as I had thought.
--- p.72
In this way, I was forced to acknowledge that, in addition to the rational knowledge I had hitherto considered the only knowledge, there existed another kind of knowledge possessed by all mankind, a knowledge not based on reason: the knowledge of faith, which gave all mankind the meaning of life and enabled them to live.
Faith remained as irrational to me as ever, but I could not help but admit that only faith can provide humanity with answers to life's questions and enable it to live.
--- p.75
So, what should humans do? Like animals, humans must work for their own survival. However, unlike animals, humans cannot survive if they work solely for themselves, as they must work for everyone, not just themselves.
And when a human being works for everyone, I feel very clearly that such a human being is happy and his life has meaning.
--- p.89~90
Publisher's Review
How should humans live, and for what purpose?
From a very young age, Tolstoy tried to comprehensively understand the meaning of life in one way or another.
It was in his forties that he felt compelled to dedicate his life and intellect to that work.
Tolstoy looked into the lives of the common people as well as the aristocracy like himself to find the key to understanding the riddle of life.
And I spent over ten years reading and studying major religious, scientific, and philosophical works.
But I found nothing that I could accept with my own reason.
He expressed himself in a fable:
“My appearance was the same, hanging on to the branches of life, knowing full well that soon the dragon of death would be waiting to tear me to pieces.
And I couldn't understand why I had ended up in such a painful situation.
I used to try to lick the honey that eased my pain, but now it no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night were gnawing at the branch on which I was hanging.
Since I saw the dragon clearly, honey was no longer sweet to me.
All I could see were dragons and rats that I couldn't avoid, and I couldn't take my eyes off them.
And this was not a fable made up by people, but a stark reality that everyone knew but could not find the answer to.”
Is there a way to solve life's questions?
He believed there were four ways to escape from the questions of life.
The first way was “ignorance.”
Ignorance here means not recognizing or realizing that life is evil and absurd.
The second way was “hedonism.”
Hedonism is about enjoying the pleasures we have at hand to the fullest extent possible, shunning the dragons and rats, even though we know full well that life is hopeless, and licking the honey that is abundantly on the leaves before our eyes as deliciously as possible.
The third way is to try to solve it with “force.”
It means realizing that life is evil and meaningless and trying to artificially eliminate life.
This is the approach taken by some people who have a strong desire and determination to get their way.
The fourth way comes from “weakness.”
The way of weakness means clinging to life despite knowing that life is evil and meaningless and that nothing can come of it.
People in this category know that death is better than life.
But he lacks the determination and tenacity needed to quickly end this deceptive life through suicide.
So, they wait, stalling for time, without giving up the glimmer of hope that there might still be something in our lives.
Finally find answers to life's questions!
So how should humans live? Did Tolstoy find the answer to this question? He spent half his life searching for the answer.
And finally, just before I jumped off the cliff of life, I found the answer.
Tolstoy says:
“Humans, like animals, must work for their own survival, but they differ from animals in that they cannot survive if they work only for themselves, because they must work for everyone, not just for themselves.
And when a human being works for the benefit of all, I feel very clearly that such a human being is happy and his life has meaning.”
Tolstoy wrote his Confessions entirely about the answers to the questions he had been searching for and the long journey he took to find them.
From a very young age, Tolstoy tried to comprehensively understand the meaning of life in one way or another.
It was in his forties that he felt compelled to dedicate his life and intellect to that work.
Tolstoy looked into the lives of the common people as well as the aristocracy like himself to find the key to understanding the riddle of life.
And I spent over ten years reading and studying major religious, scientific, and philosophical works.
But I found nothing that I could accept with my own reason.
He expressed himself in a fable:
“My appearance was the same, hanging on to the branches of life, knowing full well that soon the dragon of death would be waiting to tear me to pieces.
And I couldn't understand why I had ended up in such a painful situation.
I used to try to lick the honey that eased my pain, but now it no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night were gnawing at the branch on which I was hanging.
Since I saw the dragon clearly, honey was no longer sweet to me.
All I could see were dragons and rats that I couldn't avoid, and I couldn't take my eyes off them.
And this was not a fable made up by people, but a stark reality that everyone knew but could not find the answer to.”
Is there a way to solve life's questions?
He believed there were four ways to escape from the questions of life.
The first way was “ignorance.”
Ignorance here means not recognizing or realizing that life is evil and absurd.
The second way was “hedonism.”
Hedonism is about enjoying the pleasures we have at hand to the fullest extent possible, shunning the dragons and rats, even though we know full well that life is hopeless, and licking the honey that is abundantly on the leaves before our eyes as deliciously as possible.
The third way is to try to solve it with “force.”
It means realizing that life is evil and meaningless and trying to artificially eliminate life.
This is the approach taken by some people who have a strong desire and determination to get their way.
The fourth way comes from “weakness.”
The way of weakness means clinging to life despite knowing that life is evil and meaningless and that nothing can come of it.
People in this category know that death is better than life.
But he lacks the determination and tenacity needed to quickly end this deceptive life through suicide.
So, they wait, stalling for time, without giving up the glimmer of hope that there might still be something in our lives.
Finally find answers to life's questions!
So how should humans live? Did Tolstoy find the answer to this question? He spent half his life searching for the answer.
And finally, just before I jumped off the cliff of life, I found the answer.
Tolstoy says:
“Humans, like animals, must work for their own survival, but they differ from animals in that they cannot survive if they work only for themselves, because they must work for everyone, not just for themselves.
And when a human being works for the benefit of all, I feel very clearly that such a human being is happy and his life has meaning.”
Tolstoy wrote his Confessions entirely about the answers to the questions he had been searching for and the long journey he took to find them.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: August 1, 2018
- Page count, weight, size: 160 pages | 304g | 150*225*20mm
- ISBN13: 9791187142515
- ISBN10: 1187142514
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