XPost: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, alt.zen   
   From: peter@dharma.dyndns.info   
      
   Depression’s Truth   
      
   We are normally charmed by the world, under the spell of samsaric   
   entertainment. But it's when we're depressed, says TRALEG KYABGON   
   RINPOCHE, that we can see through that.   
      
   Depression is something we all experience. For some people depression is   
   mild, while for others it is very intense and debilitating. For some   
   people it lasts for a short time and then disappears, while for others   
   it may persist over many years, or even an entire lifetime. We generally   
   think of depression as a terrible state to be in: it is something we   
   think we have to overcome, and we go to great lengths to hide it from   
   others. This is probably because when we suffer from depression, our   
   energy levels and motivation go down and we become withdrawn,   
   uncommunicative, irritable, resentful and basically very difficult to be   
   with. There is also often a lot of anger, jealousy or envy mixed with   
   depression, because seeing someone who is happy only makes our   
   depression worse. The point is that depression, in terms of its   
   symptoms, can be debilitating and paralyzing because of what the   
   Buddhists call the “conflicting emotions” associated with it. When we   
   are depressed, our self-esteem and self-confidence plummet. We begin to   
   doubt ourselves. We begin to think that we have become a failure at   
   everything.   
      
   Western psychotherapists say that you can learn a person's reasons for   
   experiencing depression if you look into their biographical or   
   biological history. From the Buddhist point of view, though, the   
   fundamental understanding is that depression is based on our   
   interpretations of our life situations, our circumstances, our   
   self-conceptions. We get depressed for not being the person we want to   
   be. We get depressed when we think we have not been able to achieve the   
   things that we want to achieve in life.   
      
   But depression is not necessarily a bad state to be in. When we are   
   depressed, we may actually be able to see through the falsity and   
   deceptive nature of the samsaric world. In other words, we should not   
   think, “When I am depressed my mind is distorted and messed up, while   
   when I am not depressed I am seeing everything clearly.”   
      
   According to Buddhism, the world that we perceive—the world we interact   
   with and live in—is insubstantial. Through the experience of depression   
   and despair we can begin to see things more clearly rather than less   
   clearly. It is said that we are normally charmed or bedazzled by the   
   world, like a spell has been put on us by the allure of samsaric   
   excitements and entertainment. When we get depressed, though, we begin   
   to see through that—we are able to cut through the illusions of samsara.   
   Depression, when we work with it, can be like a signal, something that   
   puts a brake on our excesses and reminds us of the banality of the   
   samsaric condition, so that we will not be duped into sliding back into   
   the old habits again. It reminds us of the futility, insignificance and   
   non-substantiality of the samsaric condition.   
      
   That is extremely important, according to Buddhism, because if we are   
   not convinced of the illusory nature of the samsaric condition, we will   
   always be two-minded. We will have one foot in the spiritual realm and   
   the other in the samsaric realm, never being fully able to make that   
   extra effort.   
      
   We are not talking, though, about chronic or clinical depression here,   
   depression that has got way out of hand. We are talking about the kind   
   of depression that makes us stop and think and re-evaluate our lives.   
   This kind of depression can aid us in terms of our spiritual growth,   
   because it makes us begin to question ourselves. For all these years we   
   may have been thinking, “I'm this kind of person,” “I'm that kind of   
   person,” “I'm a mother,” “I'm an engineer,” or whatever. Then suddenly   
   that familiar world crumbles. The rug is pulled out from under our feet.   
   We have to have experiences like that for our spiritual journey to be   
   meaningful; otherwise we will not be convinced of the non-substantial   
   nature of the samsaric world. Instead, we will take the world of   
   everyday life to be real.   
      
   With a genuinely constructive form of depression, we become nakedly in   
   touch with our emotions and feelings. We feel a need to make sense of   
   everything, but in new ways. Now, making sense of everything from the   
   samsaric point of view does not work. All the old beliefs, attitudes and   
   ways of dealing with things have not worked. One has to evaluate, say   
   and do things differently, experience things differently. That comes   
   from using depression in a constructive fashion.   
      
   Depression can be used to curb our natural urges to lose control, to   
   become distracted and outwardly directed, dispersing our energy in all   
   directions. The feeling of depression always reminds us of ourselves; it   
   stops us from becoming lost in our activities, in our experiences of   
   this and that. A genuinely constructive form of depression keeps us   
   vividly in touch with our feelings. In that sense, a modest form of   
   depression is like a state of mental equilibrium.   
      
   Everything we experience is normally experienced from an egoistic or   
   narcissistic point of view. But a constructive form of depression takes   
   away the brashness, the security and the illusory forms of   
   self-confidence that we have. When we are depressed, instead of thinking   
   with such confidence, “I know what is going on, I know where things are   
   at,” we are forced to be more observant and to question our assumptions,   
   attitudes and behavior. That is what we have to do if we are to make   
   progress on the spiritual path.   
      
   The individual is then open to new ways of doing things, new and   
   creative ways of thinking. As the Buddhist teachings say, we have to   
   ride with life, we have to evolve. Life itself is a learning process and   
   we can only evolve and learn when we are open. We are open when we   
   question things, and we only question things when we are aware of our   
   inadequacies as much as of our abilities. Being aware of what we do not   
   know is more important than being aware of what we do know: if we   
   concentrate on what we do not know, we will always be inquisitive and   
   want to learn. And we want to learn if there is that slight experience   
   of depression, which in Tibetan is called yid tang skyo pa, which has   
   the connotation of being tired of all that is unreal, of all that is   
   sham and illusory. The mood of depression can, in fact, propel us forward.   
      
   Even though many people who experience depression say that they feel   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)