To feel empty is to feel drained, beyond weariness, of all sensations, attachments, hopes, and fears. It is an emotional state of feeling as if one is beyond the point of meaningful feeling.
Whether such a state is desirable or a form of suffering is a matter of perspective.
PsychCentral describes the emotion of emptiness as a void in the heart, and frames the feeling as a problem, advising, “If you’re feeling empty, seeing a mental health professional can help.” Choosing Therapy, a web site that channels suffering people to places where they can purchase mental health services, warns that feeling empty, “can intensify to feelings of despair and hopelessness when depression worsens, which is often a risk factor for suicide.”
Practitioners of Zen Buddhism seek the experience of emptiness through the discipline of shikantaza – a term that means just sitting, but which actually involves much more than that. The Zen teacher Jundo Cohen, for example, lists four essential steps to the practice of just sitting, and emptiness begins to fill up with tips and tricks. The Jikoji Zen Center acknowledges this problem, advising that “Too much talk about zazen or shikantaza is not so good for you,” but then goes on to explore the pursuit of emptiness in-depth, in an article of around 6,000 words.
Whether we pursue it or seek to avoid it, feeling empty is full of meaning. Perhaps acknowledging that is a good place to start.
