What Does It Mean When You’ve Lost Interest in Life?
It is a natural phenomenon that is happening more and more today. Many people live ordinary lives, work, and they might be passionate about their job and career, or about other aspects of their lives, and then they suddenly become consumed by a feeling of emptiness. They might have everything that we seemingly need in life, a good job, enough money, positive relationships, a family, and good health, but become struck by an empty feeling that makes everything feel meaningless.
We need to understand about such states that they are normal and natural aspects of human development. Our self-serving desire that once enjoyed work, money, respect, fame, and knowledge, and the chance to realize itself, can no longer sustain a fulfilling sensation. Other people’s opinions no longer matter, nor does climbing some ladder. It feels like fatigue, similar to how metal or material wears out.
It is called “burnout,” which is indeed a suitable term for such a state. What really happens is that egoism switches to the next operating mode. It no longer accepts what once satisfied it, such as success, fulfillment, vanity, and gratification. Now nothing attracts it. We then feel that we should not do anything. Why should we live or work? We do not know. We simply become uninterested. There is no satisfaction or fulfillment. Why live? Why work? There is no reason. People will even say, “Give me a pill and let me sleep.” They will reach this point since it is a way out of suffering, a desire to forget and fall asleep.
But here comes the real turning point. Such a state of feeling emptiness does not come about in order to simply feel that our lives are meaningless. It is part of a larger-scale process humanity is undergoing, which is the beginning of a true cry. That cry is the awareness of a genuine desire to understand and feel the meaning of life. We might have absolutely everything, yet be unable to motivate ourselves to even do the easiest of mechanical tasks. Nothing. This is a state of despair from the emptiness of the egoistic vessel.
Deliverance will come only when this immense wail rises to the heavens, when humanity begins to understand why it really exists. When a true need arises to discover the meaning of life, liberation come. And we will live to see it.
Is It Necessary to Make Mistakes?
One of my students asked me about this in relation to a statement Elon Musk once made: “I want to be part of what changes the world. Making mistakes is not scary. The main thing is to make new mistakes each time.”
It is an accurate statement. It is indeed necessary to make mistakes. While it has always been said that “we learn from mistakes,” do we really learn from them? Well, not everyone does, but mistakes come precisely so that we can learn from them.