How are my studies of fate coming along?, W. wonders. Fate, he says. It's das Geschick in German. It comes from schicke, to send. Geschick means the events themselves, not the power that determines them, W. says, I should take a note of that. Schicksal, on the other hand – now that means events and the power determining them, but it only refers to human beings, not things.
There's Das Fatum, of course. It comes from the Latin, W. says. Leibniz writes about fate, doesn't he? He writes about Mohammedan Fatum, which is inscrutable, Stoic Fatum, which is knowable and can become the object of inner tranquillity, and Christian Fatum, whch we should be happy about, since it comes from God.
Fate's moira in Greek, of course, meaning that which is allotted to you. There are the Fates, the Moirai. But then there's anake, too – necessity. That's the word Heraclitus uses. And the Stoics spoke of himarmene.
For the Jew, of course, Messianism trumps fate, W. says. Fate, fate, what does it matter to the Jew?
Of course, Hinduism is all about fatalism, W. says. Isn't our fate written on our foreheads before we are sent into the world? But then, of course, fate is really a product of the karma of one's previous life, the burden of the past. And there's the possibility implicit to the karmic work in this life too, isn't there? Developing detachment. Cultivating mental stability. Performing good actions. Surrending to God. – 'All the things of which you're incapable'.
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