How To Use Depression on The Path to Enlightenment.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches us how we can rise up and defeat the Ego…

I was shocked this morning reading through a thread of Twitter posts where a number of men were openly and genuinely talking about their current struggle with depression due to Covid and the impact of related restrictions on their lives and mental health. These are difficult and unprecedented times we are living in for sure.

When we find ourselves trapped within the dank, dark cave of depression, it can be so hard to know how we can move ourselves out into a place of light, joy and happiness. Everything becomes too much for us to handle, it piles on top of us and we are powerless to fight back and we often feel we have lost our sense of purpose and value.

Buddhism can be quite ‘matter of fact’ in its theories and practices to help us deal with the realities of our existence. We are in samsara after all where everything is unstable and not ‘of the self.’ When we contemplate this we can begin to see that these feelings are not us and are temporary, therefore we can know that they will pass.

We can undertake a simple practice to help ourselves deal with overwhelming feelings and also to overcome the ego:

Since the suffering of others is more than our own suffering, when we can overcome our self-cherishing mind and put others before ourselves then we will be doing more to help ourselves than we can possibly imagine.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches:

• “Taking on the suffering of others and giving your happiness to others is the quickest way to generate bodhicitta …and the quickest way to achieve full enlightenment.”
• “Depression can be used to achieve enlightenment to benefit all beings in this and future lives, especially all those who suffer from depression.”
• “This is their depression, so the most wonderful thing would be to experience it for them and allow all those suffering from depression to have every happiness. Then rejoice that you have this opportunity to experience this problem of depression on their behalf.”

The practice of ‘taking and giving’ in this way is called tonglen and can be done in the morning, afternoon and evening through quiet reflection or meditation with a prayer or dedication. If you prefer you could write this down in the form of a short mantra whilst setting the intention to take on the depression of others whilst sending them unconditional love and compassion.

For example, you could say:

‘ I experience depression on behalf of numberless beings, this is their depression, their suffering. I give to them every happiness including freedom from their suffering and the bliss of full enlightenment.’

or, create your own if it feels more empowering and resonates better with you.

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression then I hope this short piece might be of some help. Please reach out if you would like to go deeper into any of the topics or practices mentioned.

For more on Anatta and Ego please see the following articles: