Let’s smell roses !
Rajesh Bhola
People come to see me because they feel that their
lives are meaningless. Many people feel this
dreadful inner emptiness. An acute sense of
emptiness or a void does come in almost
everybody’s life at
some point of time.
We humans often feel that we
are stuck in a game designed
and controlled by others. Often,
people feel they have been
cheated. They feel that they have
done all the things that should
have yielded them happiness,
but this desired prize has eluded
them. They are not sure whom
to blame.
While Western sociologists
and psychologists view a state of
emptiness as a negative,
unwanted condition, in some
Eastern philosophies this emptiness is a
realized achievement. Modern
philosophers, meanwhile, argue that the
spiritual emptiness of our times is a
symptom of its religious poverty.
We all take some things for granted. We
believe that, say, a good position at work, a
good income, a good and caring wife or
successful children means that we should
be happy – and yet we are not. Hence the
feeling of emptiness. It is a kind of
unhappy equilibrium. This void, emptiness
or hollowness of life makes us conscious of
many wasteful efforts that we put in to attain happiness.
Some philosophers believe that there is a wind blowing
inside us, through a wasteland of emptiness; and we are like
seeds being blown around this desert, with no possibility of
germinating – and hence unable to fulfill our potential. In this
situation our lives feel hollow, lacking inner strength and vigour.
This void within us gives a painful, drawn feeling to our faces.
We know we should be doing something, but we do not know
what. This devastating hollowness and screaming internal void
is really a deep encounter with our existential predicament.
There is no painless place in our being to which we can fly for
refuge. We need to isolate the malaise and encapsulate the
gnawing void, before it devours our whole being.
Emptiness normally indicates a lack of something specific:
‘the room is empty’ means it lacks either people or furniture;
‘the glass is empty’ means there is no liquid in it; however, ‘my life is empty’ does not suggest what might be missing (from our
lives).
Let us start to smell the
roses, feel the sunlight, taste
the food, see the beauty and
listen to our heart’s calling.
We should create our own
meaning for our life and feel
no hesitation in respectfully
enlisting the help of others.
Nevertheless, we often try to heal this deeper sense of nullity
and void by trying to ‘fill’ it with something: we believe that ’if I
had money’, or ‘if someone
would love me’, all would be
fine. But what if we already
have it all - family, friends,
status, security, health and
money - to go anywhere and
do anything? There are more
than a few who have felt an
existential void, especially
when they have had it all.
We all have felt this
hollowness and emptiness:
when a relationship has
collapsed, when we have left
a job/career, or when our
children have grown up and
moved out. However, below these
superficial aches often lies an
inexplicable emptiness, a deeper
spiritual longing - which nothing
can seem to fill. The fulfillment will
come not by doing, having, loving
or being entertained - by living it
up. We all want to accomplish
something in our lives.
We seek self-esteem, a feeling
of worth, through our
occupations. Love and marriage
are also supposed to fulfill us. We
might devote considerable time to enjoying ourselves.
Perhaps we enrich our lives through travel, reading and
education. Finally, we might even attempt spiritual selffulfillment,
through ritual practices, metaphysical beliefs and
spiritual self-help.
However, the first step toward accepting true release
should be to recognize our malaise. Only when we
have truly confronted our existential void, when we no longer
believe that our feeling of emptiness can be filled by
possessions or achievements, can we begin our quest for
existential freedom. We need to start finding meaning in the
simple pleasures of life - through our senses. Let us start to
smell the roses, feel the sunlight, taste the food, see the beauty
and listen to our heart’s calling. We should create our own
meaning for our life and feel no hesitation in respectfully
enlisting the help of others.