Page 258

[Alexandr Korol]

You see, again, everything comes in threes. And it turns out that even fate is divided into three sisters: one is responsible for birth, another for death, and there is one in between who, probably, guides and controls life. Just like Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Vishnu, who maintains order, spins the thread, Shiva cuts the thread. Interesting. Alright, let’s go further. Ananke, this should be read, what it is. “The categories of necessity (ananke) and universal justice (dike) received further development among the ancient Greek philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, Parmenides, and found their completed expression in the concept of logos in Heraclitus. By contrast, in later poets (beginning with Archilochus) the role of blind chance (tyche) increases. In Sophocles, Tyche acquires traits of doom, and in the Hellenistic era converges with the Roman Fortuna, which is also associated with lot, but no longer as the will of the gods, but in the form of a random throw of dice.” Yes, a random throw of dice and a lot. Interesting, interesting. Now I feel like buying some special coin, expensive, a fine one, and dice. I feel like playing with it now. To establish contact with higher powers. Alright, so, let’s go further. “Originally the very word bog in Old Russian meant ‘share, lot.’ Alongside the good lot, as the personification of happiness in mythological and folklore texts appear the evil (unhappy, ill) lot, misfortune, calamity, sorrow, woe, evil fate, need, ill-starredness, grief, unhappiness, misery, as embodiments of a bad lot. Beliefs about Dolya (Lot) are connected with the understanding of individual fate as a portion (cf. Rus. uchast’), a certain amount of good, happiness (cf. Rus. chast’), which is allotted to a person from above at birth and which is issued to him out of the general volume of happiness belonging to all society.” Fate in the conceptions of the Chinese. “In classical Chinese culture the concept of fate is expressed by the single character 命 mìng (ming) and means predetermination, allowing for the possibility of freedom. The fatal necessity inherent in th European understanding of fate is absent, since it is assumed that predetermination can be changed or avoided. Ancient Chinese philosophers (Confucius, Mencius) considered it the duty of the ‘noble man’ to know all the ‘commands of Heaven.’” Oh, how. “Commands of Heaven,” people. “In modern Chinese the character ming is supplemented by 运 yùn (yun), which carries the idea of movement, change. Thus the concept of fate is made even more relative: fate can be changed, in many ways it lies in the power of human effort, the main thing is to behave