We are all caught in a comprehensive gloom, a bottomless pit,
from which we cannot release ourselves.
Altho life may frequently bring us happiness,
we still feel—behind our smiles—an all-enveloping depression.

     Our problem is not technical, to be solved by changing our lives,
but a deep disruption of spirit, much worse than unhappiness and frustration.
We are primordially split within ourselves, fragmented, lopsided, dis-integrated.
Yet we may not fully notice our Predicament
because we have been content to live without the dimension of depth.
Becoming aware of our lack of inner wholeness and balance
is itself a capacity of our emerging human spirits.
Only when we begin to develop personal depth
do we notice how splintered and lopsided we previously were.

     Or again, our Predicament is the Void at the center of our being.
This vast emptiness or hollowness makes its presence known only periodically.
But when ‘the Nothing’ bites thru the crust of our usually-well-adjusted lives,
we feel threatened by complete collapse.
Every means we employ to 'fill' this Void ultimately leaves us empty and alone:
Riches, accomplishments, marriage, children, enjoyment, and even religion
all leave us suffering an internal yearning we cannot fully understand.

     But perhaps we find the courage to affirm ourselves
despite our existential depression, fragmentation, and emptiness.
Standing thus in tension with our Existential Predicament
helps us to create our own strong and realistic Authenticities.

     However, the real solution to our Existential Dilemma comes another way.
Existential joy, wholeness, and fulfillment—the inner state-of-being
opposite to existential depression, fragmentation, and emptiness—
comes only in short glimpses or flashes at first.
From such moments of unexpected joy and peace,
we can learn how to orient ourselves inwardly
so that Existential Freedom continues to be our basic state-of-being.
Thru groping trial-and-error, we learn how to be receptive and surrendered
and how to eliminate the inner ways of being
that lead us back into depression, fragmentation, and the Void.

     After many months—perhaps years—of such sensitive, inward development,
we may create within ourselves a comprehensive life-orientation
—not striving and achieving, but receptivity and responsiveness—
that allows our inner state-of-being to be fundamentally transformed:
from irrational, pervasive depression into an inexplicable, warm, glowing joy,
from fragmentation and lopsidedness into a well-grounded wholeness and balance,
and from the hollow existential Void into a comprehensive, satisfied wholeness.

52        OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT: LONELINESS, DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, & DEATH