About Depression

Most people will suffer a stage of depression at least once in their life time. It is a common mental illness that is affecting many people. It is not too serious unless it is affecting our daily lives and our relationship with other people, and starting to hurt ourselves or other people in action or in speech. It is affecting our work, diet, learning capacity, sleeping pattern, mood, hormones, socialization, relationships, physical and mental fitness, self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

It is a form of deep sadness and meaninglessness. Some depressed people will tend towards self-destructive or suicidal behavior, while some people will tend to become very offensive and aggressive towards other people. Most depressed people are suffering extreme low self-esteem.

Most people are depressed due to previously had been experiencing many heart breaking and unhappy happenings in life and are attached strongly to what had happened and couldn’t let go the past. We are continuing being affected, influenced and disturbed by the past unhappy memories or experiences. Some unhappy incidents that happened when we were little, and it still haunts us in our hearts and in the mind. We tried to forget or runaway from these unhappy memories, but we couldn’t. And most of the time in all the happenings now, we will relate them with our past experience and will have pre-judging or pre-assumming mental attitude towards what is going to happen and how it is going to be. It’s like we will be afraid of being cheated or getting hurt again once we had been cheated or hurt by someone before even if it happened at a long time ago. We can’t really wipe away or forget all the memories just like that, especially those sad memories that had a huge imprint in our mind. What we can do is, when any of the sad and depressed memories come up to the surface, we need to confront with them and let them go, and not trying to runaway and supress them back into our hearts. Until one day, all these memories will have no effect on us anymore. They can’t make us feel sad or depressed anymore.

Some people are depressed due to great disappointment and sadness towards other people’s actions and reactions in love relationships or friendships, or being depressed about the bad and negative happenings in the world.

Some people are depressed mainly because of the imbalanced hormones changes in the physical body which is not in our control at all. While some people are depressed due to injuries to the nervous system or suffered brain damages. People who are paralyzed on the right side of the body due to damages in the left side of the brains, will tend to become depressed easily. And people who are always active in the right brain and less active on the left brain (breathing through the left nostril most of the time) will also tend to become depressed easily. That’s why the alternate nostril breathing exercise (Anuloma Viloma) in yoga practices can help to balance up the energy fields in the body to balance up the activeness in both side of the brains, so that we will not be too agitated or depressed.

Be with the nature. Sit down and look at the ocean, the broad horizon, the blue sky, the mountains, the forests, the rivers, the waterfalls, the animals, and feel ourselves are not separated from nature. Open up our hearts, breathe in the fresh energy from nature, be loving, be compassionate, be generous, be happy.

One thing to be remembered if we are in the path of yoga or in the path of Buddhism, is that we are learning not to attach to the body and the mind, and whatever that happens in our lives and in the world. We learn to let go the past instantly and not attached to the past experiences and happenings. We learn not to be affected, influenced or disturbed by what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think. We should not attached, nor identify with, nor associate with, nor react towards all the thoughts, feelings and sensations (both positive and negative) that we perceive in the mind through the senses, not generating any likes or dislikes, craving or aversion, remain equanomous and calm all the time. And thus neither elevation nor depression has got the opportunity to come into the mind.

If we are already suffering depression, and don’t know how to come out or detach ourselves from it, we need somebody who is wise, positive and cheerful to be there to uplift us, to support us, to help us. Reduce negative and depressive inputs like stay away from negative and depressive people, books, movies or music; mix more with high energy, happy and cheerful people, read books that are uplifting, watch positive types of movies and listen to cheerful music.

If we can manage without taking any drugs will be the best solution. And the most natural way and effective way is by letting go all the negative and unhappy thoughts and feelings, and not supressing them back into our body and the mind. Learn how to not attach to everything is the key to peacefulness. If we can detached from all the names and forms of everything that is being labeled as good or bad, happy or unhappy, positive or negative, success or failure, and not to give any values or meanings to them, then naturally we will not be affected by depression anymore.

It is like if we feel depressed when our body had put on some extra fats or when other people didn’t show appreciation about our offerings, this is because we are having the conception that being fat is not good, and when people reject to receive our gift or not saying thank you to us means that we are not good enough, people don’t like us and we don’t deserve love and appreciation.

People who suffer depression usually are very sensitive and low self-esteem. It is not a sin or a bad thing when a person suffers depression. It is not what we want, to be depressed and unhappy about life, about ourselves, about the world and everything. It just happens in us when we are attached to the sad and bad feelings that arise in our hearts.

We shouldn’t judge ourselves as a bad person, nor is anything less than other people.

Some back bendings and chest opening poses in yoga asana can help to release the negative energy and emotion in us to let them out of our system, and to develop cheerfulness, courage, confidence, positive thinking and letting go. Most important is we ourselves have to help ourselves to come out from depression, have the willpower to change our thinking habits, and be happy. We need to find out what is the real meaning of life and divert our attention away from the things that are making us depressed.

Sometimes when we see other people who are more suffering and unhappy than us, it might make us feel better about ourselves and appreciate the goodness that we are having now, like we can see, can hear, can smell, can taste, can feel and can think, and be grateful and be happy. And thus by doing selfless service can help us to remove unhappiness and dissatisfaction in us. But for people who suffer depression, seeing many other people who are in suffering and unhappy in the world might trigger deeper negativity and depression in them. But by helping other people definitely will help us to feel more meaningful in life, and feel good about ourselves that we can contribute to the society and bring happiness to other people. And thus this will make ourselves feel better and happy too. And so, doing selfless service to serve the weak, the sick and the poor can help us to divert our attention from our own personal problems and help us to be grateful about our lives, forget and letting go of our unhappiness, and be more cheerful and happy.

Life is very precious. Appreciate our lives and this body for us to be here to experience so many things and be selfless. Let go the sadness and be happy. Change a different lifestyle, or working environment, or living environment, or diet, or new clothes, or make some cheerful friends, or go travelling, or do some karma yoga selfless service. Do something that will make us feel good, meaningful and happy. At the end we will laugh at ourselves why did we had wasted so much time and energy in being sad and unhappy. We will find out that it is not the things or happenings out there that make us sad and depressed. It is not about the things that we do or not do, things that we have or don’t have. It is us, had attached to all the things out there, and feel bad and negative about ourselves and everything else.

It is nothing wrong about feeling sad and down when things are not right in our life, just that it really doesn’t worth to continue to feel sad and down all the time when time had already passed and everything had changed but we still hold on to the things that had happened long time ago. Let it go, even if it happened just a minute ago. Feel the fresh energy, open up our hearts, welcoming a new chapter in life from moment to moment.

Know that any feelings whether they are good or bad feelings, they all are very temporary and will soon disappear. They arise and pass away without asking our permission. They come and go as they like. They don’t belong to us. They are not us. We don’t have to hold on to any of these feelings. We don’t need to identify ourselves with all these feelings in us. Let them go. Be compassionate towards ourselves. Love ourselves. Be kind to “this” being. Then only we can expand this compassion and love towards other beings.

About Compassion And Wisdom

Compassion and wisdom is the path of yoga and Buddhism. We need to cultivate these two elements in our heart to overpower the selfishness and ignorance in us. Without compassion and wisdom, we will see lots of unhappy happenings, wrong and evil doings in the world, and easily get irritated, frustrated, disappointed, angry and upset about lots of things that we come in contact with in life.

All the knowledge that we can get from this world cannot guarantee us happiness nor it will remove ignorance or suffering from us. Only wisdom can remove ignorance, unhappiness and suffering in us. With wisdom, we can understand the truth of everything – the law of karma and the impermanence. And it allows us to be able to accept the truth as it is, and to be able to let go any attachments. Without attachment, there is no good or evil, comfortable or uncomfortable, likes or dislikes, craving or aversion, happiness or unhappiness.

Compassion and wisdom is not something to be gained or studied from the outside. It is within us all the time. It is the true nature of our higher Self. We just need to purify the impurities in us, removing the veils of impurities and we will realize this compassion and wisdom in us. We are the compassion and wisdom. It is not separated from us. But under the veil of ignorance, we can’t see our Self clearly. And thus we are separated from compassion and wisdom, and feel emptiness and lack of love, and feel the need to be loved by other beings. When we realize that we are the love itself, we can share this love with other beings without any limits and conditions, and never get exhausted. And this is compassion.

When we realize this compassion and wisdom in us, we will be full and content. We don’t feel lack of anything. There is no need for us to look for love or fulfillment from the outside to fill up the emptiness in our hearts when we haven’t realized the compassion and wisdom in us yet. Once we realized our true nature and reconnect with the compassion and wisdom in us, we don’t have to depend on anything out there to make us happy or to feel good about ourselves. Nothing out there will make us unhappy or feel bad about ourselves. Because we are not attached to the ego anymore. It is only when we are still attached strongly to the ego, we will have the feeling of being separated from the compassion and wisdom, and thus we think we need something or to do something in life to make us happy or to feel good about ourselves. We will see many faults and imperfections in other beings and being affected or disturbed by other beings’ behavior and how they treat other beings especially towards us – ourselves. We will be upset, angry, frustrated, disappointed and dissatisfied about this and that, about the behavior and reactions of other beings. We will have lots of moanings and complaints. We will think that we are better than all these “imperfect” and “selfish” beings, and trying to convince these beings to change their attitude and they should behave the way that we think it should be, and be nice and kind to us and other beings the way that we think it should be. We will be so unhappy when other people not listening to us or not respecting us. We will think that we are the victims of other people’s selfishness and ignorance. Most of the time, we will be blaming other people for our unhappiness and suffering.

This is due to lack of compassion and wisdom in us. We are attaching strongly to the ego. Our ego is feeling “hurt”, “angry”, “upset”, “unhappy” and “disappointed”. If we know how to step back from the reactions of the ego towards how other beings behave and react, we won’t be judging anything and won’t be affected or disturbed by anything at all. It is not about what other beings do and don’t do, should do and shouldn’t do. It is about our own ego is feeling offended, being challenged or insulted, and getting irritated and frustrated.

Once we let go the attachment towards the ego, we will be fine and peaceful all the time disregard what do other beings do or don’t do, and it doesn’t matter what is happening in our lives, in our body and in the mind.

When we are compassionate, we will forgive other beings for their imperfection, ignorance and selfishness. We can see the cause of suffering in all these beings, that they are imperfect, ignorant and selfish, and thus they are behaving ignorantly and selfishly. We feel sympathy for them and only have good wishes and kind thoughts for these beings. We can accept everyone and everything as it is. Not trying to find faults in other beings, but to see the goodness in them.

We are imperfect too. How can we judge other beings being imperfect and cannot accept their imperfection? If I am unhappy and angry about how other beings treat me, that means my ego is not feeling good. It felt insulted, annoyed, disrespected and unattended. This means I, myself am not compassionate and forgiving enough to accept that these beings are actually very unhappy in their hearts and are suffering now, and thus they are treating other people in a selfish way, and they are going to suffer more later on for being selfish and ignorant now. And so, if we really are compassionate and selfless, we will be wishing these beings happiness and peace, and not being angry or upset with them, and not to give them any more hard times. They are unkind and unfriendly towards other beings is because they are very unhappy deep in their hearts. They are in suffering. Be compassionate towards their suffering.

If I start to get angry and complain about them, I am not any different from them. I am also one of them. I am selfish, ignorant and is suffering from deep unhappiness.

If I choose to do lots of activities and make myself feeling tired and exhausted, and can’t perform any of my other responsibilities anymore, I can’t be unhappy and angry when I ask other people to replace me and carry out my responsibilities for me to help me out, and the person refuses to help. People have no obligation to give help to anybody. If people do help other people is out of their own free will and generosity. We can’t be unhappy and angry about other people being reluctant to give help or not generous. We need to know our own responsibilities and be responsible for our own responsibilities. We should blame our own self if we cannot carry out our responsibilities and should not depend on other people’s help, just because we don’t know how to manage our time and energy usage. Be happy.

It is very good that we want to be compassionate and selfless, but we cannot ask or tell other people to be compassionate and selfless, and being very angry and unhappy about other beings have no compassion and being selfish. It is all up to each individual to be compassionate and selfless or not. Everyone has the freedom to be compassionate and nice or not.

When we ask any helps from somebody, and are being rejected or people are being unfriendly and not helpful, we cannot be angry or upset about that at all, nor should we complain about other people’s unfriendliness and selfishness. It is because when we feel unhappy or upset about a situation like that, is because we have expectation towards other people’s reactions and behavior. We think that everyone is obliged to give help whenever somebody is asking helps from them. Or else we will judge them as bad people, selfish and unfriendly. The unhappiness is all comes from our own self, our attachment towards the ego and the happenings that are irritating the ego. The ego felt insulted, rejected, disrespected, being treated badly and unfriendly. This is nothing to do with other people’s behavior or reactions.

It is like when we give help to somebody out of our own free will, not because somebody asked us to do so, and our kind act is rejected by that person, we cannot be unhappy or upset about it and complain that the person is ungrateful. It is like when we want to give something to other people and they refuse to accept our gift, we cannot be unhappy and upset about it or feel bad about ourselves thinking that why they don’t want to accept our gift or is it because they don’t like us? All these unhappiness is coming from the attachment towards our ego. Our ego is feeling upset, unhappy, rejected, disrespected, insulted or ignored.

Give and let go. Be compassionate and wise. Be happy.

Live Yoga

Many people do yoga or practice yoga asana everywhere in the world nowadays. It is a very good thing. It doesn’t matter if people are doing it for spiritual enlightenment and peacefulness, or as a fitness training to improve strength and flexibility, or as an exercise for good health, or as a hobby for passing time, or as a slimming program to achieve a desirable body image, or the combination of the above all. Because even if there is no yoga philosophy being mentioned in a yoga asana class, the exercises of different asana poses and the breathing exercise will still have an effect on the body and the mind. It helps to relax the body and calming the mind. It gives fresh energy into the system and brings cheerfulness or positivity into people’s personality. It is really great. It is life transforming even when we didn’t have the intention to transform anything.

For people who are really into yoga and wish to go deeper into the actual practice of the teachings and to cultivate the meanings of yoga, then we are not just talking about doing a few hours of asana practice or going for some regular yoga sessions in a yoga class and do some yoga once in a while or everyday, but we are actually live yoga every moment in our lives even when we are asleep.

Yoga is not so much about the ability of the physical body to perform some asana poses and it is not about the strength and flexibility of the physical body at all. The asana practice and breathing exercise is just a tool for us to influence the body and the mind for us to be able to practice concentration and meditation with a calm mind and having a strong and healthy body for us to perform all the practices for our own spiritual growth and to engage in selfless service to benefit other beings.

Yoga is every moment in our life, in our heart, practicing concentration and awareness on what we are doing at the present moment now, letting go the past instantly from moment to moment, not projecting into the future, not having fears and worries, remain peaceful and calm all the time unaffected/uninfluenced/undisturbed by what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think. We stand as a witness towards all the thoughts, feelings and sensations that is happening in the body and the mind all the time and stop identify ourselves with the body and the mind. We also observe all the phenomena of impermanence that is happening in our life and in the world and not being affected or disturbed by them. We practice detachment from the ego, the likes and dislikes, the cravings and aversions from moment to moment. We practice cheerfulness, fearlessness, determination, perseverance, tolerance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation, accommodation, humility, forgiveness, patience, loving kindness and compassion in our heart, in our thoughts, actions and speech in our daily lives.

Our self-confidence and happiness is not determined by what we can do and cannot do. It has got nothing to do with all the names and forms or activities or happenings in our lives and in the world. It is not about us feeling good or feeling bad about ourselves or about other people. It is not determined by all our feelings and thoughts. It is the true confidence and real happiness that come from within, not from the outside world of many names and forms.

We are always content with simplicity and worry-less. We are not being lead by our body, the mind or the ego. We are not being determined by the ever-changing mood swing or mix feelings in the heart and not being controlled by the craving and aversion of the body and the mind. We are not being determined by the impermanent conditions of the physical body, its ability and its state of health, and remain peaceful, calm and content all the time. We accept the conditions of our body and the mind as they are, as it is, at this present moment now for what we can do and cannot do, for what we did and haven’t done. We accept the world and everyone as they are, not trying to interfere, or to control, or to change the law of karma and the impermanence. We can do our best for the benefits of the world and to share wisdom and knowledge with all the living beings, and be kind and compassionate towards all beings and give what we can give, do what we can do, but remain unattached to all our efforts and the results. We should be wise, compassionate and generous to give and share, and do everything without any intentions or differentiations, just like the sun, the space, the air, the water and the earth provide everything to all but without any intentions or differentiations of likes or dislikes, favorable or not favorable, good beings or bad beings, spiritual or not spiritual, wise or ignorant, healthy or not healthy, fit or not fit, beautiful or not beautiful, young or old, men or women, friends or enemies, can move or cannot move, normal or abnormal, and all other qualities of different names and forms etc. And above all, give without any expectations of the result. Just give and let go. Not attached to the actions and the fruit of action.

We also let go any judgments, comparisons, competitions, criticisms, and vandalisms. We only have good wishes and good will for all beings. We are not affected or disturbed by other people’s judgment, comparison, competition, criticism and vandalism. We don’t mind about all these things and not pay any interests in what other people do and don’t do. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care, but simply because we cannot control how other people want to think, act and speak. We can only control our own thoughts, actions and speech, and watch our own mind all the times, minding about our own practice of what we should do and should not do.

We are totally aware of the wrong doings or evil doings that is happening in the world, but we don’t have to be influenced or affected or disturbed by them. We don’t have to be irritated, agitated, frustrated, angry or hate, and disappointed by all these happenings. But we can try our best to prevent more wrong doings and evil doings in the world, and to share the knowledge of selflessness and educate people about the awareness of right conducts, right views, right thinking, right thoughts, right actions, right speech, right livinghood, right understanding, and be kind, be compassionate, be selfless and be wise. We can perform all these selfless service for mankind and humanity, but remain calm, peaceful, happy, cheerful and energetic. Most important is detached from our efforts and the results.

We cannot stop the earth from spinning. We cannot stop anyone from being good or being bad. We cannot interfere, control or change the law of impermanence and the karma of other people, we can only control or change our own karma and accepting the law of impermanence. Once we were born, we cannot avoid growth, changes, weakening, decaying, old age, illness and death to this physical body. We cannot stop other people from feeling happy or unhappy, doing good or doing bad, but we can choose to be happy or unhappy, to do good or do bad, in ourselves.

It is up to each individual to be aware, to change, to evolve, to improve, to be happy, to be kind, to be compassionate, to be wise, to be selfless and to know the Truth. We can only help the world by engaging in selfless service sharing the wisdom and educating the people with right knowledge, sending our compassionate thought waves and good will into the world to all beings wishing all beings peace, selflessness, compassionate and wise. Do whatever we can with our thoughts, actions and speech for the well-being of all but without attaching to it. Be happy, be free. Be ourselves, be true.

We do not just “do” yoga for a few hours a day. We live yoga every moment in our lives, like the breathing and the heartbeat, unceasingly even when we are asleep. Keep purifying our mind, watching our mind, detaching from our mind, the ego and the senses, be kind and compassionate to all and to our own self. Not attached to all the names and forms – fame, wealth, health, appearance, knowledge, titles, achievements, relationships, success or failure, good or bad feelings, happiness and unhappiness, likes and dislikes, craving and aversion, praise and censure, birth and death, past and future. Not attached to “I”, “myself’, “my life”, “my believe”, “my practice”, “my understanding”, “my knowledge”, “my achievement”, and “my world”; not attached to all beings, happenings, good and evil, and the world.

Live yoga.