– I feel I am stuck… – the sen­tence had a pain­ful ring, but a very true one as well. – My affairs are get­ting nowhere, and even what does go well gives me no real joy.

– I hope you do not merely want to com­plain?! – came the stern reply. – If you are ask­ing how to go on, then it makes sense for us to talk; if you only want to com­plain, find someone else for that.

His startled reply was to keep silent, but the hard words also shook him out of his list­less­ness. He began to pay atten­tion. At this, his inter­locutor softened too.

– Of course, now, at around forty… what did you expect? Stag­na­tion calls on us from time to time; do not be sur­prised.

– All right, there have been low points before, but now it really seems as if all my strength had left me.

– Yes, these symp­toms… I do not want to deal in plat­it­udes, and I sup­pose you would not be sat­is­fied with a cheap remark or two either: burnout, depres­sion… I do not believe in them.

– And yet I do feel some­thing of the kind. This list­less­ness… as if all my enthu­si­asm had flown.

– Yes, that must be won back. What was good yes­ter­day is not neces­sar­ily as fruit­ful today. The sources of joy wear thin, and you your­self are mov­ing on. Do not be con­tent with what con­ten­ted you before! Go deep­er.

– How?

– It is said that one can move on to the next level only after dis­tilling every les­son of the present situ­ation. Once you have explored every nook and cranny of this plat­form, you can move on.

– But I see no way out, I see no pos­sib­il­ity of change.

– Con­sider: if you are shut in a room that has twelve doors, but every one of them is locked, then you will prob­ably have to stay inside that cham­ber. But if just one door is open, you can go out through it. This open door also gives you the right to leave. What is it that inspires you?

– Noth­ing, now. I find joy in noth­ing.

– Start at the begin­ning! Exam­ine what has brought you to your present state, and make a change. For if you repeat the same thing, you will arrive at the same place. If you are dis­sat­is­fied with your situ­ation, some­thing must be changed.

– But now even think­ing is hard for me.

– Very well, we often feel that we are on the floor. But it is pre­cisely the floor that you can push off from. When you are down, you truly know which road leads upward…

– What should I do?

– Two solu­tions lie before you. You can play your part in mov­ing on: you pon­der, ana­lyse the situ­ation, under­stand the factors at work, and act ten­a­ciously, con­sist­ently. Even if it is only one step, you take it. This is the inter­act­ive meth­od. Your other option is a subtler, almost invis­ible meth­od, and it does not rely on force. This is the inter­pass­ive way. When you wait for the time of change, you do not force the solu­tion but invite it. I am not urging you to idle­ness, but to a non-act­ing action. Attune your­self to the subtler vibra­tions of exist­ence, and learn to be con­tent. If you exper­i­ence lim­it­a­tion or list­less­ness, accept this situ­ation, but do not agree with it!

– Inter­pass­ive? I have never heard that before…

– I am glad I could tell you some­thing new. Stag­na­tion is a fact, but not the end of the line…