I don't know where or when this myth started. Honestly I don't care. Knowing how myths came to be is less appealing than knowing something true. But the myth about Nietzsche is far too widespread and hard to miss. It also came up while I was having a conversation with a steemit friend. So I thought of addressing that.

Now I were to guess, the myth or misconception originate from meshing together 2 types of beliefs in then nihil which is Latin for "nothing". Postmodernism is kind of a nihilism as it's functionality revolves around poking fun at existing philosophies. Postmodernism is like that guy in the room who always spoil everything and contribute nothing. I've touched upon this idea in my previous post: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@vimukthi/deconstructing-postmodernism

 Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious. 

-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

That's not what generally comes into mind. One dictionary definition says: "  Philosophy The doctrine that nothing actually exists or that existence or values are meaningless. " and another describes nihilism as, "  Relentless negativity or cynicism suggesting an absence of values or beliefs " Now contrast that with the following quote from Nietzsche.

 What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. 

Who on Earth could call that nihilistic. But I'm not stopping yet.

 Hope, in its stronger forms, is a great deal more powerful stimulans to life than any sort of realized joy can ever be. Man must be sustained in suffering by a hope so high that no conflict with actuality can dash it—so high, indeed, that no fulfilment can satisfy it: a hope reaching out beyond this world. 

I find those quotes inspiring. Not only that, I find Nietzsche to be much closer to Lao Tzu and Zen Buddhism when I look deep into the roots. Lots of people royally and magnificently screw up when it comes to Nietzsche's denial of objective reality. Many uneducated, uninformed and stupidly educated people take this as a way of denying existence or calling everything meaningless. But that's just what SJW postmodernist idiots are claiming. It's the postmodernist nihilism. It's what Nietzsche condemned.

 A favorite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: "Become what you are." 

It's not about you are nothing or be nothing or everything is worthless. It's about becoming something that isn't nothing; something that isn't insignificant.

 

This is the great mystery
You do and do not exist.

— Shen T'sing  

That's one of many quotes from my previous post you can view here:https://steemit.com/buddhism/@vimukthi/25-insightful-zen-quotes-to-meditate-upon-secret-extras-at-the-bottom-of-the-post

 

The Unborn is the ground of everything;
the Unborn is the beginning of everything.
Because there is no ground for anything
outside of the Unborn
and because before the Unborn
there was no beginning for anything,
the Unborn is the foundation of all Buddhas.

- Bankei (1622-1693)  

 Nietzsche's philosophy can be connected to Buddhism Like this: 

"A is A because you people fucking call it A". 

@vimukthi

Re-read the above quotes with my quote in your mind. Ayn Rand's "A is A" philosophy of objectivism was a reactionary one against everything that was going wrong in the society at he time. Everything was being made fluid and we've come to 72 genders and counting. Ayn Rand's "A is A" was an act against this garbage postmodern nihilism. Nietzsche never denied that "A is A" just as Buddhism never denies the existence of things.

 

If we have presence of mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know right and wrong continually. There is plenty of time to meditate, we just don't fully understand the practice, that's all. While sleeping we breathe, eating we breathe, don't we? Why don't we have time to meditate? Wherever we are we breathe. If we think like this then our life has as much value as our breath, wherever we are we have time.

— Ajahn Chah  

I'd use a simple thought experiment I've made up while in middle school (It makes me look smarter than using 9th Grade). You need 2 kids.Could be twins but ultimately it won't really have an effect. It's said that the Visible Light has the wave length between  390 to 700 nm and frequency between 430–770 THz. The experiment is to take one child and augment that child biologically or mechanically soon after birth or while still in the womb. The augmentation would flip the wavelength making 390nm=700nm and 700nm=390nm and every wavelength in between also be adjusted in the same way. In simple term, one kid would see Red when shown Blue and Blue when Shown Red.

At the end of it all, unless the experiment and augmentation gets revealed it will be impossible by any means to figure out this kind of tampering has happened. The kid who see colors altered will describe colors using the same words despite seeing a different reality from the other kid. You can stretch this experiment to ask how do we know which is normal or real. This is the kind of nihilism Nietzsche was trying to bring up. "A is A only because you people call it A". 

 

Outwardly in the world
of good and evil,
yet without thoughts
stirring the heart,
this is meditation.
Inwardly seeing
one's own true nature
and not being distracted from it,
this is meditation.

- Hui-neng  

Here is where I see the connection between Nietzsche, Lao Tzu and Zen Buddhism. Here is a quote from Wikipedia on Nietzsche's work. 

In all religious history, Nietzsche believed, Buddhism was the only positivistic religion because it struggles against actual suffering, which is experienced as fact or illusion (the concept of Maya) in various Buddhist traditions. Christianity, by contrast, struggles against sin, while suggesting that suffering can have a redemptive quality.

Nietzsche claimed that Buddhism is "beyond good and evil" because it has developed past the "...self–deception of moral concepts... ." Buddha created the religion in order to assist individuals in ridding themselves of the suffering of life. "The supreme goal is cheerfulness, stillness, absence of desire, and this goal is achieved." Buddhism had its roots in higher and also learned classes of people, whereas Christianity was the religion of the lowest classes, Nietzsche wrote. He also believed Christianity had conquered barbarians by making them sick. Buddhism objectively claims "I suffer". Christianity, on the other hand, interprets suffering as related to sin.] Buddhism is too positivistic and truthful, according to Nietzsche, to have advocated the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. He called these virtues the three Christian shrewdnesses. Faith and belief are opposed to reason, knowledge, and inquiry, he believed. Hope, to him, in the Beyond sustains the unhappy multitudes.

I hope I did enough to help you realize that Nietzsche has nothing to do with modern day nihilism. In fact it was one of the very things Nietzsche was against. In my personal experience I'd say better understanding of Zen leads to better understanding of Nietzsche. I'd probably talk more about this in a future post involving Quantum Mechanics. Untill then as Oracle said it: "Bake your noodle"