Eternal Recurrence and the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Arising: Sati, Amor Fati, and Phenomenological Freedom from Existential Repetition

This paper offers a phenomenological reinterpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s doctrine of Eternal Recurrence through the lens of the Buddha’s Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Arising (Paṭicca-samuppāda). Rather than treating Eternal Recurrence merely as a cosmological speculation on the infinite repetition of identical events, this study conceptualizes it as a phenomenological description of the endless regeneration of ignorance, attachment, discrimination, and egoic fixation. In this reading, what eternally returns is not simply external circumstance, but the conditioned structure through which suffering continuously reproduces itself. ​Drawing upon the author’s previous reflections on momentary dependent arising, the "Manas-fication" of consciousness (viññāṇa), the sub-conscious formation of the “Fixed Subject,” and the radical role of sati (awareness), the paper argues that the Twelvefold Chain and Eternal Recurrence converge as precise descriptions of existential repetition. The recurring cycle of ignorance (avijjā), formations (saṅkhāra), consciousness (viññāṇa), craving (taṇhā), clinging (upādāna), becoming (bhava), birth (jāti), and aging-and-death (jarāmaraṇa) mirrors Nietzsche’s vision of recurrence as the perpetual return of existence. Specifically, from the author's perspective, this repetitive return is driven by the subtle, continuous operation of Manas-consciousness, which incessantly rigidifies fluid experience into a dualistic prison of a fixed self confronting a fixed world. ​However, this paper further proposes that awareness fundamentally transforms the meaning of recurrence. Through momentary sati, the chain of Dependent Arising becomes observable as a contingent process rather than an absolute destiny, leading to the deconstruction of Manas-consciousness. Conditioned existence continues to unfold, yet awareness no longer remains entirely bound to its movement. In this sense, freedom does not require escaping recurrence, but seeing through the ignorance-driven structure that generates bondage within recurrence itself. ​From this perspective, Nietzsche’s concept of amor fati acquires a new interpretation. The affirmation of fate becomes possible not because suffering disappears, but because awareness liberates the individual from total identification with the repetitive structures of attachment and self-construction. The “Will to Power” is thus reinterpreted not as external domination or force, but as the supreme inner power of awareness—a spiritual mastery that deconstructs the Fixed Subject to maintain freedom within conditioned existence. ​The paper also proposes a developmental interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought. The early Dionysian vision is interpreted as an ecstatic but still partially resigned immersion into tragic recurrence, while the later figure of Zarathustra and the Übermensch represents the awakening to the structure of recurrence itself and the possibility of liberation through value-creation. Here, “value-creation” is understood as the effortless freedom born from awareness (sati)—manifesting as the Ordinary Mind (평상심)—within the endlessly recurring wheel of Dependent Arising. Ultimately, this study argues that the overcoming of Eternal Recurrence does not consist in denying repetition or escaping existence, but in dismantling the ignorance-based structure that continuously reproduces suffering. The wheel of becoming may continue to turn, yet awareness is no longer bound to the wheel. In that freedom, recurrence itself becomes transparent, and existence can finally be affirmed without bondage.