When the Inner Light Goes Out...

The end of the world isn’t some grand catastrophe or thunderous collapse of reality. It’s the dimming of the inner light — the fading of awareness — when a person stops illuminating the corners of their own consciousness.

It’s that moment when the darkness within grows denser than the light, when the outside noise drowns out the voice of the soul, and the search for meaning turns into a kind of escape — into approval, circumstances, opinions, traditions — instead of owning that meaning personally.

Viktor Frankl, in his book Psychotherapy and Religion, speaks about the shift from the unconscious “It” to the conscious “I,” endowed not only with freedom of choice, but with a deep sense of responsibility.

But responsibility to whom? To society? Religion? Family? No. This responsibility is to oneself. But not only that. Frankl emphasizes that meaning isn’t found only within, but also in serving others, in love, and in commitment to values that give life direction.

What matters most is not where we seek meaning, but the awareness and inner honesty with which we do it.

So is the end of the world near?

Only if we allow it. Only if we lose connection with the meaning that gives our life depth. Only if we extinguish the light that always burns within us — our own, steady light, independent of circumstances, but still in need of being guided.