Expert: Joe McSorley - 3/21/2004

Question
Why do I feel there is no real purpose to life?
I am fundamentally unhappy and apathetic about everything. I feel I am just going through the motions every day and can watch TV or surf the internet lathargically for hours and hours. There is just so much suffering and evil in this world.

Answer
Hi Linda,
There can be many reasons for this from biological to existential.  If you have some sort of biochemical dysfunction it could cause it or there could be some underlying self-defeating psychological mechanism at work here.  You could also just be philosophically aware, realizing that life, at first inquiry anyway, seems fundamentally empty and meaningless.  This has driven many philosophers and religious to seek a greater and deeper meaning to life.  The problem is not getting caught up in the initial malaise but to motivate yourself to move on.  At first glance all life could be said to be meaningless for all that is born is destined to die yet at the same time this is the only chance for us to fully live and express our lives.  From the flower in the field to any human we all can express fully the depth and beauty of nature and the universe.  We need to realize we are born of the universe and never removed from it and we need to awaken ourselves to the depth of our being.  While you might feel apathetic about your life now you have not opened your eyes to all of life.  We tend to have a very nearsighted view of reality, filtered through our own individual tiny consciousness, and we do not see things as they truly are.  If an ant were to complain about how limited the world is you might tell it that its view is limited for the universe is bigger than the kitchen floor.  From the ant's individual perspective this seems to be the true reality but if it were to open its mind it might see the entire world.  Humans isolate themselves in cocoons of similarity and safety never venturing either in body or mind beyond them.  You need to free yourself form the net, TV (bubble gum for the mind) and your other comforts and read, inquire and explore to have the world open up to you.  It is worth the effort to do this.  Get outside, quiet your mind and walk around everyday, look beyond human society and at the world at large, you will be amazed at what you are missing.  I hope this helps you.  Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
 Take care,
         Joe