The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?
Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing.

 

If the French Revolution were to recur eternally, French historians would be less proud of Robespierre. But because they deal with something that will not return, the bloody years of the Revolution have turned into mere words, theories, and discussions, have become lighter than feathers, frightening no one. There is an infinite difference between a Robespierre who occurs only once in history and a Robespierre who eternally returns, chopping off French heads.

 

Let us therefore agree that the idea of eternal return implies a perspective from which things appear other than as we know them: they appear without the mitigating circumstance of their transitory nature. This mitigating circumstance prevents us from coming to a verdict. For how can we condemn something that is ephemeral, in transit? In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.
Not long ago, I caught myself experiencing a most incredible sensation.

 

If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect. In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make. That is why Nietzsche called the idea of eternal return the heaviest of burdens (das schwerste Gewicht).
If eternal return is the heaviest of burdens, then our lives can stand out against it in all their splendid lightness.
But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
Parmenides posed this very question in the sixth century before Christ. He saw the world divided into pairs of opposites:
light/darkness, fineness/coarseness, warmth/cold, being/non-being. One half of the opposition he called positive (light, fineness, warmth, being), the other negative. We might find this division into positive and negative poles childishly simple except for one difficulty: which one is positive, weight or lightness?
Parmenides responded: lightness is positive, weight negative.
Was he correct or not? That is the question. The only certainty is: the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous of all.

 

                                                              ----Citing from "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

                                                                                                 by  MILAN KUNDERA

 

 

（谁要是无聊晃到我这里来了。建议他读读这本书。也许很无聊，但值得一看。）

 

以下为引用百度上的一个帖子：

 

在米兰·昆德拉看来，人生是痛苦的，这种痛苦源于我们对生活目的的错误把握。虽然世界上有许多人，每个人都在按着各自的生活目标而努力，但每个目的却都有着其本身的空虚，求名者无非镜花水月，求财者无非身外之物。而透过这种种幻象米兰·昆德拉感到，也许这“追求”本身，便是一种错误。 

于是，生命因“追求”而变得庸俗，人类成了被“追求”所役使的奴隶，在“追求”的名义下，不论是我们的放浪形骸，还是我们的循规蹈矩，最终却不过是无休止地在重复着前人。因此，人类的历史最终将只剩下两个字——“媚俗”。
 事实上，只要我们蓦然回首一下我们身边的人生，看看那些为着庸俗目的而挣扎的平庸的生命，我们便不难发现，其实无意义的不单是我们的目标，更重要的在于我们之所以这样做的动力本身，便是虚无的。我们的“向上精神”也许源于愚昧，而我们的“进取心”可能来自无知。而盲目的动力最终只能造就出一代又一代盲目的自我，虽然似乎幸福，却是本质上的空洞。
 然而，这也是人生悲剧的所在，盲目的进取心至少给了人生一个“重量”的感觉，使人生似乎变得有了“意义”和“满足”。而真正卓立不凡的精神往往是孤独的，当“追求”本身都值得怀疑时，便再也没有什么能支撑自我了。于是，米兰·昆德拉发出了“生命中不能承受之轻”的感慨，这感慨中包含着对命运的无奈与愤怒。 

 

THOMAS 一直都是拒绝“媚俗”，直到一次偶然的机会中结识了TEREZA。虽然THOMAS爱TEREZA，但他却不愿做家庭责任的附庸，更不愿像别人那样甘于平淡地生活。于是，他不断地与其他女人偷情，并用这个不得已的手段向TEREZA表明，他绝不属于TEREZA，THOMAS是自己的THOMAS。然而，THOMAS却又不能不承认，他嫉妒别的男人靠近TEREZA。于是，是为爱丧失自己，还是为自己丧失爱，成了THOMAS解不开的两难。

 

我不愿意在这里继续介绍其他的人物。TEREZA和SABINA 两个都是很有个性的女人，而我从来不懂女人的想法，所以想了解就自己去看把。而另外一个男人弗兰茨，在我眼中他就是个白痴。

 

THOMAS 为了对TEREZA的感情，放弃了“轻”回归了现实的“重”，因为那种轻是他的生命不能承受的。SABINA也是一个坚决反对“媚俗”者，不过她却从人们的“媚俗”中得到了好处。所以她也一直在迷茫，最终只能ALWAYS ALONE。

 

 也许尼采那个疯子说的是对的，永劫回归观（eternal return）是最沉重的负担。“If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect. In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make. That is why Nietzsche called the idea of eternal return the heaviest of burdens (das schwerste Gewicht).”我也逃不了，老老实实背在身上把。