Beyond boredom and depression
sounds like an interesting topic. Of course, you never know what is going to be
beyond it - it could get even worse - but I'm sure that most people expect it
to mean going beyond in the sense of getting better.
This talk will be mainly
a reflection on very common human experiences that we have. Boredom, in particular,
is an experience common to all people, but I think it is becoming much more commonly
experienced amongst people in modern society, especially young people. Depression
is also a problem for many people, so I thought this topic would provide the basis
for some interesting reflections for you. I certainly don't want to put myself
forward as an expert. I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist, so my definitions
won't be definitions in the medical sense, but rather statements by a human being
who has observed and contemplated feelings, emotions and states of mind, and has
tried to understand these states and how to deal with them.
Boredom and depression
are actually two quite different states. Boredom is a relatively simple state
of mind. The state of depression is quite a different matter, a much more complicated
emotional area. It is much more difficult to deal with, both in discussion and
in practical treatment. Nevertheless, I will try to deal with both in this short
talk.
Boredom simply means that we are not interested. The situation, the
way things are, is of no interest to us. We say we are bored, or most often we
say, "This is boring. This is a really boring place. This is a boring movie.
This is a boring talk. This is a boring book. That is a boring person"...
and so on. We keep pointing out there. The quality of being boring is seen as
something external. This is the first thing I would like to challenge. I disagree
with this statement that the quality of being boring is something external. "There
is nothing boring" is a correct statement, as is "everything is equally
boring." They are both correct statements in accordance with reality.
Boredom
results from nothing other than one's own mind. There is nothing boring, but there
//are// bored minds. The mind is bored. This is very important for us to appreciate
and consider, otherwise we will always be saying, "This is a boring place,
something is wrong with the place. This is a boring book, something is wrong with
the book, let's get another one. Fix up the boring book by throwing it out and
getting another, more interesting one." That is how we approach life. We
treat boredom by changing the circumstances, trying to make them more interesting.
We never really address the true cause or essence of the problem.
Boredom
is subjective
To illustrate this I will relate an experience of mine. As I've
sometimes mentioned, I am fascinated by science fiction. I was watching a science
fiction movie on television, and I was really enthralled. The movie was so stimulating,
the adrenaline was flowing and I was fully awake and alert. Then I noticed the
man sitting next to me - he was dozing off! How could he possibly fall asleep?
The movie was so interesting, but he was bored. That is a very interesting thing,
isn't it? It shows that it is not the object that is boring, but the mind that
is bored, the mind is not interested in that situation, that condition, that experience.
Boredom is a very subjective experience, a very personal state. You will find
that this is true of most things. You read a book and find it interesting, but
someone else can't get past the first page. "It's so boring, how can you
possibly read this?"
So what is boredom? It is a subjective experience
that occurs when the mind is not interested or stimulated, and doesn't like what
the present contains. You want something else, you are bored. You say, "This
is boring. This is not boring", but it would be more correct to say, "The
mind is bored." The mind is bored because it doesn't want this situation,
it wants something else, it wants to be somewhere else; it wants to have something
else, to experience something else, someone else, somewhere else...
It is
very important to understand that the source of boredom is within your own mind.
The consequence of not understanding this is that you will forever be trying to
avoid boredom by finding new situations and new, exciting experiences.
But
where do you think that is going to take you? Have you ever noticed that with
today's youth, fifteen and sixteen-year-olds, everything is so boring? If it lasts
longer than five minutes it's boring. It must be hell being a teacher, because
it is so hard to keep the students' attention. Why should they have to pay attention
for fifty minutes and learn something? You have to find all sorts of gimmicks,
tricks, games and other ways of entertaining them so that they will last the fifty
minutes.
Teachers tell me this when they invite me to give a talk at a school.
They say that the students' attention span is very short and not to be upset if
they become restless and start to talk as they are always like that. It's not
a very nice thing to have to say about your students, is it? Actually, when I
go to give a talk, the students are always quite interested because I'm so weird-looking.
The teachers always ask, "Are you going to bring something to show them in
order to keep their interest?" I don't have to take anything except myself,
that's enough. I sit there looking so strange in this garb, with no hair, talking
about something so unusual, that they generally do retain an interest and pay
attention. Fifty minutes isn't too long for them in that situation, but for normal
lessons, Social Studies, Arithmetic, English, Chemistry and so on, it is very
hard for them to last fifty minutes. I think they are trying to reduce the periods
to only thirty minutes.
Why are they so easily bored? Have you ever considered
what they are fed on? Have you ever considered the speed and the greed of the
sensory stimulation that youth is fed on? Watch television. I don't watch television
very often, but when I do, I feel I am being bombarded because it is so fast.
The amount of sight, colour and sound, particularly in the advertisements, flashing
on, bombarding, is so fast. So much is happening in thirty seconds. Do you know
how much is compacted into thirty seconds? You are flung through the air, surfing
on the waves - all in thirty seconds! The movies are also very fast, a kind of
fast lane experience; very exciting and sensational, and compacted into such a
short time. So when students have to sit listening to someone talking about chemical
reaction, they get utterly bored. Just the thought of doing something that takes
an hour is so boring. They are simply not used to the slower pace because the
sensory stimulation of the present age supplies so much so quickly.
When you
wake up in the morning and put on the radio you can hear what is happening all
over the world. In ten minutes you know what has happened in the last twenty-four
hours. How many channels can you get on television? I don't know, but with this
new-age television so much is available. And music! When you put on the radio
there is so much music, and it's so fast, with such high energy.
All this
simply means that you start to become jaded, your senses become dull. Because
there is so much stimulation the senses cannot remain sensitive, otherwise it
would be overwhelming. For me, watching television is overwhelming. I'm tired
after half an hour because the sensory stimulation is so intense. To watch television
regularly you have to become less sensitive. The result of this is that it takes
a lot more to stimulate the same reactions, to stimulate the same interest. You
need ever more and more stimulation to generate interest, excitement, and the
buzz of life.
To illustrate this point I draw your attention to what you take
to be ordinary. You go home; you've got a television, a radio and a car. You're
going to drive home or perhaps you'll go on the bus, train or tram. You don't
think it is anything special, do you? It's pretty ordinary - a boring ride on
a tram. At home you open up the refrigerator; you've got cold drinks, fruit. You
flick a switch and a light comes on. You go to the toilet, flush, and it flushes.
Turn on a tap - water comes out, hot and cold. It is all very ordinary isn't it,
and not very interesting.
Now imagine a man from say, one hundred years ago,
in the same situation - his eyes would be popping out of his head: "Look
at that! What's that? A car! And it goes, you can drive it! A television, a refrigerator,
electricity... fantastic, magical!" It is magical. Flick on a switch and
lights go on. You don't even have to get up now, just sit down and flick switches.
That's magical; sit down, flick a switch and the television, the video, or the
stereo go on. You can switch on so many things from your seat. You can drive home,
flick a switch and the door opens like magic!
People who weren't used to this
sort of situation would find it incredibly fascinating - indeed overwhelming.
They wouldn't be the slightest bit bored. They probably wouldn't be able to sleep
due to the excitement. Imagine them walking through your house: they would be
so excited at all the gadgetry, all the things you've got in your house, they
wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Do you think they would be bored? Is your house
boring? How many times have you felt bored stiff in your own house? The fact is,
most people do feel bored quite often.
The point is that it is not necessarily
the situation which is boring, but the state of mind which finds it ordinary,
no longer stimulating, no longer interesting to know. The situation doesn't excite,
it doesn't arouse any sort of interest in us, so we go into a passive state of
boredom, thinking, 'I want something else, I want to experience something else,
I want to be somewhere else. I am bored.' This is a very common experience.
The
way we normally treat this is by finding new experiences, seeking something new.
That is what we are being encouraged to do, to get something new. You are bored,
so you go out and get something new: new dress, new wardrobe, new car, new video,
new movie. In order not to be bored you just keep on getting something new.
What
is this process and where is it leading us? What is it doing to us? It is making
us less and less sensitive, less and less content, and less and less able to feel
the zest of being alive, except in rare situations when we find something new,
when we go somewhere new. The result of this is that most of life becomes boring.
More and more of life is going to become boring if you continue to follow this
trend.
Rich people, people who have been everywhere and done everything, quite
often feel bored. It is so hard to find something that will stimulate them. Once
you have eaten every type of cuisine, once you have been to every restaurant in
Melbourne, it must be very boring. "Where can I go to have an interesting
night out?" Once you have seen every programme... "Oh dear, nothing
interesting on television. So boring." You become more and more bored because
you've become more and more jaded, more and more insensitive, dependent on more
and more stimulation. The youth of today suffer from this. It is not only the
youth, but the youth are going to feel it more, because they are being raised
with such a high degree of stimulation.
People quite often ask me about the
monk's life, especially when I give talks to students at schools. They ask me
what I do. Well, we get up at four in the morning and we meditate.
"What
do you do when you meditate?"
"Oh, we just sit still with our eyes
closed."
"What do you do after that?"
"We have a cup
of tea and then we do some chores, sweeping and cleaning up, we eat one meal a
day, read a little in the afternoon."
"What about sports?"
"Oh no, we don't play sports."
"Entertainment?"
"No,
we're not allowed to have entertainment, no singing, no dancing, no music, no
television, no movies..."
"No movies! Don't you get bored? Isn't
it really boring? Do you just sit there all day in the forest? Don't you have
parties?"
"No, no parties."
"Isn't it boring? Don't
you get bored?"
"Oh yes, it is very boring conventionally speaking,
completely boring. It's designed to be completely boring, a perfectly boring life
- until you become a teacher, then you don't have time to get bored, unfortunately."
Do monks get bored? Certainly, everyone who comes to stay at the monastery
gets thoroughly bored, and what happens? Do we play music for them, or take them
out to the movies to get rid of the boredom? No. Why? Boredom is a state of mind,
and it is very important for human beings to understand their minds. You don't
need to find distractions in order to get beyond boredom. If you understand what
boredom is, you need no longer be troubled by it. The source of boredom is in
the heart, in the mind, in that sense of wanting something else, needing something
else, wanting something new. This is the thirst that in Buddhism we call //tanha//,
craving.
What is the most desirable thing in the world?
One type of craving
is for sensory stimulation, and that thirst can never be fulfilled. What, for
you, is the most desirable thing? It is very subjective, everyone will have a
different answer. I was once returning from Thailand on my way to Bangkok airport
and, as is well known, Bangkok has terrible traffic jams. We were caught on a
highway in a car and I had a severe case of diarrhoea. There had been an accident
and we were stuck chock-a-block. The road was full of cars and there was nowhere
to go, no bushes, nothing - I was stuck there. It was a very unpleasant and tense
situation, thinking of what could happen. I can tell you in all honesty the most
desirable thing to me at that time was to get to a toilet. That was the most desirable
thing in the world to me at that moment, the one thing I really wanted. Everything
else had gone out of my mind.
So the most desirable thing is the one thing
that you want now. But of course, it is never the same for very long, it changes.
No matter what you want, once you get it you don't want it anymore. You want something
else. Even if you don't get it, the desire for it may last a bit longer, but soon
you will want something else.
Craving is never faithful to its object. It
always wants something else, that is its nature, that's what craving is - thirst
for something else, never for what you have already. That is why you get bored
with anything and everything. It doesn't matter how interesting or fascinating
it is, you will get bored with it, just as you got bored with driving a car, with
television, with movies, with refrigerators, even with electricity. You even get
bored with a talk on Buddhism. You get fed up with it, bored. Flying in an aeroplane
becomes boring. If you were to get an opportunity to fly a rocket to the moon
every week you would get bored with that, too. Craving knows faithfulness to no
object. It always wants something new.
You will become bored with everything,
because the mind has the disease that leads to boredom. The disease is craving.
Try to recognise that this becomes a kind of addiction. Sensory stimulation is
just like a drug: the more you have, the more you need. You smoke only ten cigarettes,
you soon need twenty. You drink only two cups of coffee, soon enough you need
four. I can speak from experience - I like coffee. Yes, you get used to it, then
you need a bit more to receive the same stimulation. It is the same with everything.
As long as we function from craving, from thirst for stimulation, we will
always experience boredom and we will always need something else. If this is not
understood, not addressed carefully and wisely, we will become less and less contented,
less and less sensitive, less and less able to enjoy life, and more bored.
Have
you ever considered that perhaps we need not be bored with any situation? If we
have some understanding and control over the mind, maybe we don't have to be bored.
Without changing the conditions, we can overcome boredom. Could it be just a matter
of changing our attitude? Could it be simply seeing the way things are now and
being able to accept them as they are, without being overwhelmed by an excessive
thirst for something new? Then, in that moment of accepting the ways things are
now, we can experience fulfilment and peace.
Everything is interesting if
you look closely and open your mind to it. There is fascination in the smallest
thing: a grain of sand, a flower, the light of the sun through the trees, the
stars at night, in the silence or in the noise. It can all be interesting once
the mind arouses that interest. Notice that the mind arouses interest rather than
arousing craving for something else. The mind can generate interest with equal
ease. If you generate the interest, you have the gratification of being interested.
In other words you feel alive, you feel animated, you may even feel excited.
I
always talk about this when teaching meditation, because one of the techniques
we teach is concentration on the breath. Often people comment on how boring and
how un-spiritual such meditation is. At a talk in Perth entitled "Introduction
to Buddhist Meditation", I was teaching meditation on the breath. At the
end of the talk, one woman said, "Why don't you teach a more spiritual meditation?"
So I thought I would answer in a way that would lead to a follow-up question.
I said, "Oh but the breath is the most spiritual thing there is." She
replied, "Oh, really." and didn't ask anything else, which was quite
disappointing.
She just took it for granted, but the breath can be very spiritual.
It can be very interesting, even enlightening. If you arouse the interest, it
is the most interesting thing there is. As you arouse interest and your attention
becomes focused and sustained, you can experience rapture, joy and bliss. These
things arise from the intense interest of the mind, which is independent of its
object. It is something that arises in your mind and you can generate it. A neutral
object such as the breath can give you the bliss, the rapture, the experience
of joy and happiness that the most fascinating sensory experience can no longer
give you.
Getting beyond boredom
So, how to get beyond boredom? It requires
development of this inner resource, the ability to generate energy, the ability
to arouse interest within one's own mind and not fall victim to the obsessive
craving for something else.
It is always something else, someone else, somewhere
else; never now, never this. You may be eating a marvellous meal, delicious cuisine,
but already you are thinking about the movie you are going to go to afterwards.
You go to a park with beautiful flowers and you look at them. At first you are
struck by the colours and shapes, but within a few moments you are thinking about
something else. How short our attention span is: beautiful things only hold our
attention for a few moments. What hope does the ordinary object have of interesting
us?
We need to break away from this obsessive craving for something new. It
is just a habit, that's all it is; just a habit, a conditioned reaction of the
mind. It can change, we can break that habit. We can arouse interest in whatever
we wish to be interested in. We can arouse and sustain attention. That is one
of the basic practices of meditation and concentration. We train ourselves to
arouse interest, to sustain interest, to sustain attention on something, usually
the most ordinary thing.
That is why in Buddhist meditation we do not give
you fascinating meditation objects. What good is that? You develop nothing from
within yourself. No doubt you could concentrate on an exciting new movie. Most
of us could sit quite absorbed in a movie for two hours without even noticing
the time. But you'd get nothing from it except a cluttered head, a bunch of memories,
and no resource of independence. However, if you can arouse that interest, that
intensity of attention, even for five minutes, on a neutral object such as the
breath, you then have something very powerful within you. You have a resource
which can serve you well and bring great joy and happiness to your life. This
is very important. Boredom is a state of mind which occurs when the mind has lost
the ability to be interested, to be sensitive, to be contented with what is.
Relatively
speaking there are situations that are more stimulating than others. I don't deny
that, but the source of the problem is within. If we continue along this path
of seeking more and more stimulation, it will become more and more difficult for
us to find that sense of joy, or rapture, that sense of being alive. We will instead
become more and more bored and jaded.
The way to recondition the mind is to
change our attitude. Why is the life of a monk designed to be so simple that people
often experience boredom? That is good, because then they will understand boredom,
see the source of boredom and get over it; not by changing the conditions, but
by changing the attitude in the mind and the quality of mind. It is very important
for us to understand this. Once we understand this we can avoid being bored even
in ordinary situations. At the very least we can be contented and peaceful.
Contentment
means to be peaceful, not to be irresponsible, lazy and indifferent. Contentment
in Buddhism means to be at peace with the way things are, perfectly sensitive
and open, whether the conditions are stimulating, unstimulating, pleasant or unpleasant.
This is a training of the mind and meditation is a tool to help that training.
We have to take charge of our own minds. The addictive power of craving manipulates
us into continually thinking, "I don't like this. I need something else."
That is a creation of the mind. Wrong view and wrong thought create those states
of hunger and need. We can change that if we take hold of the mind, if we develop
sufficient control of our thinking. Thinking is nothing extraordinary, you can
control it. Just to be able to control thought and say "No. stop." Just
stop and be peaceful, you can do it. Stop proliferating and thirsting for something
else. Take an interest in this, then there will no longer be boredom. There will
be peace and even intense interest.
Once you understand what I'm driving at,
just to change in attitude will help a lot. Just a simple shift in attitude, realising
that you don't have to be continually stimulated by something new in order to
be happy, you can find peace and contentment right now.
Understanding depression
Depression is more complicated than boredom. When you are bored you may often
become depressed. Depression is not associated with wanting something different,
unlike boredom which is very straightforward - I don't like this, I want something
else. Depression is a heavier emotional feeling, usually associated with sadness
and a sense of despair. It's like a dark and heavy weight; all seems dark and
hopeless, there is not much light, not much energy.
When you are bored you
usually have energy: "Well I'll just go and do something else." You
don't want to be bored and you have the energy to do something about it. But when
you are depressed you haven't got the energy, you've lost hope; it's so overwhelming
you just feel like sinking.
Depression can arise due to many factors. Emotional
difficulties, such as a failure, or a relationship that goes sour, or strong criticism
from people you love and respect, can easily bring you into a state of depression.
Instead of reacting with anger you begin to think perhaps they are right. Depression
is a very low feeling, a sense of hopelessness.
If you are chronically bored
and you know there is nothing else for you to do, then not only are you bored,
you are also depressed, because you have lost hope. So depression is quite a heavy
burden. It takes away the energy of life. It takes away hope and zest; it is a
dark, low feeling. Different degrees of depression are quite a common experience
for all of us, for some more so than others.
What do you do about it? Obviously,
because it is a complicated state, the answer is not so simple. There are many
aspects to it, but this evening I would like to offer some techniques gleaned
from one of the Buddha's teachings which can be used for dealing with depression.
One of the teachings that the Buddha gave is called the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.
These are seven spiritual qualities that are cultivated in order to move towards
enlightenment. Although the Seven Factors of Enlightenment are fairly special
qualities which are developed along the path to Enlightenment, I would like to
talk about them in a more mundane sense, as qualities that can be used effectively
in dealing with depression. My definitions of these factors may not convey the
full extent of their profundity, but you may find them useful in your everyday
lives.
There are seven factors, but this evening I will only speak about three,
because these three have the effect of uplifting, energising and exhilarating
the mind, and thus are a very good antidote for depression.
The first of the
three factors is investigation of Dhamma, or you can say, investigation of reality,
of nature, in accordance with the way life is. For example, you are in a position
where somebody starts criticising you and pointing out all your faults. If enough
people criticise you, you begin to believe them. Once you start believing it you
can get depressed. If you don't believe it you just fight back: "What are
you talking about, I know better than you. Who are you to tell me?" You are
not depressed, you are angry, fighting back. But as soon as the possibility that
they are right and you are wrong starts creeping into your consciousness, you
can get depressed. You start thinking about it: "Yes, I really made a mess
of everything. I'm really hopeless." And it really is hopeless. What can
you do now? It's too late.
Seeing the way things are
This sort of attitude
and response is due to our not understanding the nature of life. What is the nature
of life? Life entails praise and blame. People will always be praised, they will
always be blamed. You'll always get some praise, you'll always get some criticism,
regardless of where you go or who you are. Wherever you go, whoever you are, you
never escape it. Listen to what they say about God - some praise him, some curse
him. Even the President of the United States - some are shouting his praise and
some are ridiculing him. Everybody is the same, even a Buddhist monk. When I'm
with Buddhist people they are usually very nice to me. When I'm amongst some other
people or when I'm walking around the streets they don't say very nice things.
Praise and blame, it is the way of the world. No one can escape that.
Investigating
your own nature is like investigating the nature of life. You're not perfect...
well, what do you know, you aren't perfect! Have you ever understood that? You
are not perfect, you do make mistakes. You don't always see everything totally
and clearly. Sometimes you misjudge, sometimes you make real blunders. Yes, you
are human, everybody makes mistakes.
Some people, especially Buddhist people,
think the Buddha never made a mistake in his whole life, because he is supposed
to be the Buddha, omniscient and omnipotent. But one particular incident recorded
in the scriptures has always intrigued me and made me feel much better when I
do make mistakes.
On this occasion the Buddha was teaching a great congregation
of monks. The meditation he was teaching wasn't mindfulness of the breath. It
was something much more specific. One of the meditation techniques which the Buddha
taught especially to monks and nuns is the contemplation of the body. Sometimes
it is called the reflection on the repulsiveness or unattractiveness of the body.
In this meditation you mentally dissect the body and see it as an unattractive
object, as a bag of skin full of various impurities. Beginning with the hair of
the head, the contemplation goes right through the body, describing all the things
inside. It sounds pretty gruesome when you start dissecting it. The Buddha gave
the monks this very good meditation, exhorting them to practise diligently while
he went off on retreat, leaving instructions that nobody was to disturb him except
the monk who was to bring his food once a day.
The Buddha left the monks to
their meditation. They did meditate, and very diligently. They meditated and meditated
on the repulsiveness of the body, and many of them started to develop a very great
disgust for the body, this bag of filth: "Oh, when will I be free of this
body? When will I be free of this filth?" This was the view they developed.
Actually it was wrong view, it is not the true objective of this meditation technique,
but without guidance, this can happen. It is just a change in perception, from
beautiful to ugly. They saw the body as disgusting.
Some of them were so disgusted
with the body that they went to a hermit who was leading some kind of meditative
life. They said to him, "Listen friend, we are thoroughly disgusted with
this body, why don't you do us a favour and kill us. If you kill us, you can have
our robes and our bowls." He was a bit simple: "Are you sure that would
be a good thing? Would that be of value to you?" "Oh yes," they
replied. "that's really what we want." So the hermit picked up his sword
and killed the young monks, thinking that he had done a good thing.
However,
when he thought on what he had done, reflecting that killing a human being was
a bad thing to do, he began to feel regret. As he went to the river to wash the
blood off his sword he was full of remorse. At that moment, as the story relates,
Mara (*) manifested in the water as some kind of deity and spoke to him, "Oh
no, great sir, that was a most noble and meritorious act of yours, in that you
helped those young men to cross over the ocean of samsara and become liberated.
That was an act of great merit from which you will derive great benefit, both
now and in the future." He became quite excited about making great merit.
Thinking he should make more, he went to the monastery of the Buddhist monks,
brandishing his sword and going from room to room, calling, "Who wants to
be led across? Who wants to be liberated?"
(*) Mara, the Buddhist personification
of all that obstructs the development of goodness.
The story states that in
one day he chopped off many heads and killed dozens, hundreds of monks. All this
was supposed to have happened without anyone reporting the matter to the Buddha.
After the time set aside for his retreat, the Buddha came out of the forest, and
as he walked through the monastery with his attendant Ananda, he looked around:
"Ananda what has happened? Why are there so few monks here? Where have all
the monks gone, Ananda?" Only then did Ananda tell the Buddha what had happened.
The Buddha then convened the monks and said, "Monks, you had better change
the meditation." He then proceeded to instruct them in the meditation on
inhalation and exhalation, mindfulness of the breathing. The Buddha stated that
this meditation was much better and gave a whole list of its advantages.
Now
whether this story is an historical event or not, I do not know. However, since
it is part of the scriptures it indicates that even the Buddha could have misjudged
the results of his teaching. I have never had such a thing happen to me, but I
think I would be very upset if I taught something and it resulted in such a way.
So from this story, it seems that even the Buddha could have made what we would,
conventionally speaking, call a mistake.
Well what do you know - so you do
make mistakes! Perhaps the way that you brought up your children... maybe you
were not the perfect father, the perfect mother. Well, you are not perfect, you
are not omnipotent, not omniscient.
Investigation of Dhamma means investigating
the nature of life; life is like that, it is dualistic. There is praise, there
is blame, there is success, there is failure. We don't know everything, we are
limited in our view, we make mistakes. Yes, that is the way it is. The understanding
of the way things are makes us begin to appreciate the way nature works and helps
to raise us up. Then we don't feel so downtrodden when things go wrong, when we
fall, when we are criticised or are sick.
These days if you are told that
you have contracted cancer, not only have you got a physical problem, but you
start feeling depressed and guilty: "Oh cancer, that's caused by tension
and stress - there must be something wrong with me mentally." So what? You're
not perfect, you aren't enlightened. We do make mistakes in life.
This understanding
of the way things are, appreciating the state of nature, understanding our own
mortality and our limitations, means that we won't be so oppressed or depressed
by situations. This is the way the world is. As soon as you realise that you are
not perfect, that you do make mistakes, a burden has been thrown off. This results
from having an appreciation of the way things are, from investigating, looking
closely at the nature of life and our humanity, the nature of the body and mind.
This is an example of what in Buddhism we call investigation of Dhamma, the
first of three important factors that can help overcome depression.
The second
factor is energy, arousing energy, which is similar to arousing interest. We have
to be able to arouse energy in our lives, we can't just wait for energy to flow
into us, just as we can't wait for something to interest us. We have to be able
to arouse energy ourselves. Get up and do something. What do you do if you are
depressed? Get up, arouse the energy to try something. Do something good. Do some
gardening, go for a walk, get some fresh air and sunshine, go and look at the
trees and listen to the birds. If you just arouse a little bit of energy, it will
help you to generate a bit more energy, and that uplifts you and gets you out
of the depression. Anything that is energising can help. Don't just wait for life
to put energy into you, you've got to put energy into life; generate it from within
yourself.
In the same way that I was saying that we can arouse interest during
meditation, we can arouse energy in our daily lives. If we are depressed we can
arouse energy. Do something for someone else. Go to the Buddhist Society and do
something for them. Do something for the community, because when you generate
the energy to do something for someone else, something good, the depression very
rapidly becomes less oppressive.
The next factor is rapture or joy. When we
arouse energy we arouse interest. In meditation, when we arouse interest in the
object, the mind becomes full of joy as a result of the concentration. So too,
if we arouse energy and interest in our lives, doing that which is good, that
which is of service, the heart experiences joy. You feel joyful when you do good
things. When your life is of service you feel fulfilled.
It's amazing, isn't
it? When you are completely selfish we feel utterly empty and miserable; when
we are living our life so that it is of service to others, cultivating goodness
in its various forms, strangely enough we feel fulfilled, we feel joyful, we feel
self-respect. Arousing energy to get up and do something good makes you feel joyful
because that uplifts the mind. It is not like the happiness of gratification.
Happiness in its ordinary sense sometimes makes you feel down, especially when
it is associated with unskilful, unwholesome things. You don't feel joyful. You
may feel excitement and pleasure, but not joy. Joy in this sense is always associated
with goodness, because it makes the mind feel light. There is self-respect and
joy in the heart.
These three qualities can help you deal with or rise above
depression. Investigate, really get to know the way life is. A lot of depression
is due to the fact that we just don't appreciate, or haven't come to terms with,
the nature of mortality, the nature of our lives. The more we understand that,
the less we suffer from depression. That is the way things are. If we can arouse
energy to do that which is good, it brings joy. This can be done in our everyday
lives and it can be done in meditation. If you do it in meditation the mind will
no longer be depressed. If you do it in everyday living you will not be afflicted
by depression.
Ajahn Jagaro
(now John Cianciosi)