The Universal Will to Life

For Schopenhauer, the will is a universal force that animates and drives on the whole cosmos. As individual humans, we feel this universal will to life as the never-ending succession of desires and cravings which plague us. In its violent indifference to human life, it is terrifying, dark, and in his estimation downright evil. Most people don't know how or why they are suffering because they simply whittle away their life mindlessly, jumping from desire to desire without understanding what's happening.