Finding Strength in a World Falling Apart

Nearly everything was taken from him.

Thousands upon thousands of dollars vanished in days, leaving him with little choice but to hop on a plane to an Asian country to teach English—just to pay his bills.

With the turmoil before him,

It was hard to imagine that just a week prior, he had been living comfortably on investments, free to do nearly anything he wanted.

Yet, as chaos swept through the world, chaos struck the market, and the seemingly solid ground of security he had depended on crumbled beneath him.

“But you know what, man,” he said to me, his voice calm and sweet.

“I’ve been feeling called to pray, and for some reason,

I’ve felt happier and freer than I have in a long, long time.”

I smiled deeply as I listened to my client’s realization—because in that moment, he touched upon a universal truth many of us spend our entire lives searching for.

That truth is this:

We cannot find our security in the material world.

Why not?

Because the nature of the material universe is impermanent.

The Buddha discovered this 2,500 years ago, teaching that everything in this universe shall pass—that all things are essentially empty and not real.

Since then, science has reached the same conclusion: despite the seemingly solid nature of this world, only 0.0000000000000000000042 percent of it contains any matter.

The rest? Empty space.

Yet, despite the fleeting nature of this world, how many of us still run to it for our salvation?

How many of us seek security in our finances, careers, or material achievements—believing they will keep us safe?

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with these things.

But the problem arises when we look to them for our security—because eventually, they will be stripped away.

For my client, it happened in one weekend. For others, it happens at the moment of death. But whether we admit it or not, sooner or later, everything of this material world that we cling to, will eventually pass away.

So then the question is, if we cannot find refuge in this impermanent world, where can we turn?

Where to Seek Refugee?

You may have heard the parable of the wise and foolish builders.

The foolish man builds his house on the sand. And when the storms come, the foundation crumbles, and he loses everything.

On the contrary, the wise man digs deep and builds his house on the rock, so when the storms come, he is grounded in a foundation so strong that nothing can shake him.

What is the rock the wise build their lives on?

In logotherapeutic terms, you would call it the noetic dimension. Or in other words, the spiritual dimension. Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy, understood that while we have bodies and minds, we also have a spiritual nature, the noetic. The noetic nature is our higher nature. It’s our conscience that knows right from wrong, our freedom of will, and the part of us that possesses the ability to find meaning in the face of suffering.

In Frankl’s observation through supporting thousands of patients, he noted that it was through tapping into the noetic dimension, that humans were given the strength they needed to rise above life challenges. Stating that:

“The noetic dimension allows man to transcend his own psychological and biological determinants.”

We see this truth profoundly expressed through my client, who—despite having everything taken from him—still found peace through prayer.

We see it in the countless patients that thrived after Frankl and other logotherapists supported them using techniques that tapped into their patients’ spiritual nature.

Pointed to again and again, science, philosophy, and spiritual traditions all converge on the idea that beneath the transient material world lies an enduring spiritual or metaphysical reality—Frankl found this, and used the spiritual side of life to create the highly effective techniques found in logotherapy.

Whether we believe it or not, the noetic dimension is there. And it’s the foundation that will give us strength to face the inevitable storms of life.

What to do from here?

Now, as the global storms grow by the day and everything we thought was stable is being stripped away, we’d be wise to remember to build our house on that which will last and turn attention to the noetic nature of life.

Note, that this is much more than a philosophical idea; it can and should be applied in a very practical way.

Like my client took constructive actions, we need to “practice” to bring this spiritual wisdom and energy into our daily lives.

What that practice looks like for you will be unique, but there are some common ways found in logotherapy, as well as traditions from all around the globe, such as:

Listening to Your Conscience
Making Meaningful Choices
Choosing Your Attitude
Meditation and Prayer

The trick in these times of great change is to find out what works for you and take refuge in the practice again and again. And if you already have a practice, then double, triple, or even quadruple down on your efforts.

Because just like an athlete will need to train harder for a more challenging event, we need to do the same. Because we are up against a challenge greater than many of us have seen in our entire lives. As such, we need to train our spiritual muscles so we can be those beacons of light in a very dark night.

With that, let us remember that despite the chaos we see in the world today, we are connected to a power greater than any trail we see.

That power is our noetic nature. It’s always there, and it’s where we can draw our strength from in trying times like these.