The definition of futility is the engagement in an action with pointless, or useless, results. Such is, for instance, the hamster’s running the wheel, mistaking its action for an experience of living. Not only is the wheel not pointing at the doorway to real life, but the hamster is expending precious life force with no results, a way of life foreign to nature as deeply wasteful. Yet given its imprisonment and need to calm its urges for life, it is forced to put its energy into something, even if pointless.
The human version of the hamster existence is the seeking of power and love via matter, i.e. things, body pleasures, mind knowledge, and connections to other people. For a while, owning things will increase the feeling of self-worth, sensual experiences the feeling of vitality, knowledge the feeling of power, and connections the feeling of being abundant, loved and appreciated.
But this path inevitably leads to betrayal: while these sources of good feelings appear to be under the Soul’s control, things, body, mind and connections are factually all subject to loss, wear and tear lest constantly appeased, and often even despite being appeased. Every disturbance in this chain of pacifiers will cause the panic-like response of an addict, and an ensuing erosion of the Soul’s perception of power and vitality. The doorway to life is not this way.
The reason why the Soul clings to the hamster’s wheel lies in its deeply entrenched need to be loved, i.e. feel good and avoid feeling bad at all costs. Bad feelings are activated every time there is a situation of insecurity e.g. being unable to fulfill a desire or being victimized by circumstances out of control. The feeling’s message is one of impotence, prompting the Soul to quick action towards soothing its feelings and urges. However, as long as the Soul lives in the cage there is only one thing to do, and that is to run the wheel of futility and appease matter some more. In order to exit the cage, it will have to reign in its impulse to jump on the wheel, endure the feelings of impotence without reacting to them, and use the time to seek out the door.
The jump from wheel to door equals the mind’s jump from soothing its feelings and upholding its power at all cost, to seeking Truth about why it feels powerless in the first place. This change in attitude requires that the mind first release its sovereignty over Truth, i.e. its belief that it knows what is wrong and how to fix it. For the mind’s solution will always be based in its experience of the past extrapolated into the future, as it is not in the mind’s nature to take into account any element outside of its belief system. The cage of experience will thus tie the Soul to the wheel indefinitely, for that is what the mind has always done, plus, it has always worked as it has, in fact, made the bad feelings go away. The battle against feelings thus won, the mind will have completely missed the fact that the war for freedom and life has been lost, yet again.
Only when it gives up its perception of the wheel as absolute and indisputable Truth and opens itself to the wisdom of Spirit will the mind be able to finally see the door. This shift in perception is not an innate power of the mind but a gift from Spirit, bestowed upon the worthy Soul following its demonstration of humility and concession of pride. Lacking humility, the mind’s blind insistence on running the wheel will force the Soul’s body and abuse Spirit until their utter exhaustion and death. Stranded thus in the middle of the desert with a dead horse, the mind will finally realize that it has committed suicide.