Depression is a disease of the mind. Depression is a common mental disorder affecting millions of people around the world.
However, according to Zen, there is no such a disease as “depression” as Western medicine would label it. The reason is that, in Zen, human sickness is just a physical or mental condition, and not a disease.
In Western medicine, depression is a mental disease due to the imbalance of certain brain chemicals, such as neurotransmitters. The symptoms of the disorder are reflected in a general lack of interest in life. Modern psychiatry seeks analysis and explanation of the mental and psychological pain associated with depression.
Typically, those suffering from depression or any type of mental disorder demonstrate the following characteristics:
They have a distorted perception of self-worth. Either they have low self-esteem, or they want to be what they would like to become. That is a major cause of confusion and distress characteristic of most depressive individuals.
They cannot confront life’s problems, whether they are relationship, work, or financial problems. Due to their inability to face or cope with these problems, they resort to avoidance, which often aggravates the mental condition.
Zen may provide the ultimate solution to depression.
Zen focuses on who you are, not what you are. In Zen, there is no low self-esteem, because you are what you are—a unique individual. You need not be someone else.
Longing for something you cannot have is the root cause of human misery; it is the source of anguish and mental pain. In Zen, every moment remains with that moment, and hence everything is changing and is therefore impermanent. So, craving permanence in something impermanent is only a disease of the mind.
When a depressive individual is confronted with life’s problems, that individual may strive to avoid them. In Zen, you embrace all that life hands to you—the good as well as the bad. In avoiding the problems, you are in fact creating more problems that require more solutions down the road. According to Zen, problems are unavoidable, but suffering is. The way of Zen is the way of living without stress and depression because one learns to let go and live from moment to moment.
In Zen, there is no depression.
Living By Zen provides a blueprint for healthy living in contemporary society.
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
