askesis

A life characterized by an emptiness,
and a pain caused by the yearning for something to fill it.
An empty vessel pained by its hollowness.
And now the yearning is gone.

This place is still and silent.
It is painless.
The emptiness is untroubling now.
Here all outcomes are equal.
Death still holds an attraction,
but not in its own positivity;
it is simply the final step away.

This is not depresssion.
This is not despair.
I have reached the place where the dead stars hang.

I have attained the opposite of enlightenment.