A 70 year old Book - a Must Read

[midfielder]

Recently a very close friend sent me a link to a book he said I should read, the link was a word link and its only 69 pages long.... so easy to read and not that long...

He kept at me to read it.... finally I did .... WOW and double WOW... I have no idea how many books I have read but I guess 12 years of train trips to work for over an hour each way and that I enjoyed a good book and often read at home [pre net] my guess is I have read hundreds of books.

This book is in my top 10.

I have just finished it and I gotta say feel somewhat overwhelmed..... rarely has a written book belted me like this book arguably the best book on what it is to be human I have every read .... just unbelievable...

The book was written in 1948, by Viktor Frankl, he was an inmate of Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.

He wrote this extraordinary book titled..."""" Man's Search for Meaning"""

The book is not about how bad it was nor how cruel the Germanys were... as he says there are plenty of books like that...

This is a book on what people will do to survive and he explored why some fell apart and others had the strength of mind to fight on.

I am doing this book a great injustice... in his life prior Viktor was a psychiatrist.

The book maybe over 70 years old but still IMO is as meaningful today as it was back then

http://www.fablar.in/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Mans_Search_for_Meaning.78114942.pdf

 

[midfielder]

Just taking a part of the book to explain it...

Seen from this point of view, the mental reactions of the inmates of a concentration camp must seem more to us than the mere expression of certain physical and sociological conditions. Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him—mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevsky said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behaviour in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom— which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfilment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. But there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behaviour: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. A creative life and a life of enjoyment are banned to him. But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for selfpreservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

 

[true believer]

i like "notes from underground"