But people have gone into that, and then there is the possibility that you emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness. Really what has collapsed then is the whole conceptual framework for your life, the meaning that your mind had given it. It can happen if something happens that you can’t explain away anymore, some disaster which seems to invalidate the meaning that your life had before. Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning – and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you had given your life for some reason collapses. The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example if your child dies. Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level. Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything.
The inner state in some cases is very close to what is conventionally called depression. It is a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life…an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness. Can you address this subject?ĮCKHART: The “dark night of the soul” is a term that goes back a long time. QUESTION: Have you ever experienced the dark night of the soul? Your teachings have been so helpful through this difficult period.