We Are All Suffering From Mental Illness

If we weren’t, we’d be enlightened!

When the mind wanders, it suffers, because of ideas it holds about itself and the world in which it lives: this is conventional, relative reality. The mind imagines*. Unfortunately, the mind becomes so accustomed to going up and down and round in circles that it believes that is its natural state. It may worry about the past or future, and this obscures the moment of now. In the pure instant of now, there is just pure experience without judgements, and therefore, peace. It is when we come out of now, that anxiety and depression may arise as a consequence, and so we spiral down into darkness. This happens to all of us. Any emotion that anyone else has ever experienced, we have also experienced. We are not vegetables: we are all healers.

Most people find ways to distract their minds: they keep busy, but this masks the suffering being experienced, and is the cause of further suffering in the future. We are all on the same conveyor belt of worry about life and inevitable death. Being given drugs merely masks what is going on underneath. There is therapy, but its effectiveness will depend on the therapist and their understanding of reality: this usually entails getting us back to what they consider to be ‘normal’. We need to get to the cause quickly.

So, what to do?

Actually, the question is, “What do I do?” No one can do this for us. We may talk to others, and although this may be helpful for a boost, we might find that we are taking on their hopes and fears as well! If we are fortunate to meet with the Dharma and meditation, we have the key to freedom from suffering (‘fortunate’ here means having good karma, so we could say that the dharma and the way of meditation found us).

Meditation – whether it be watching the breath or awareness – means that we are training or taming the mind directly. We are being aware of thoughts and thinking, and how the mind wanders. If we find that the mind is wild or over-excited, we can mentally say the word, “thinking”, every time a thought arises and we start to wander off again. This serves as a reminder and brings us back to the present moment. The mind will wander off again, and we repeat the word “thinking”: this is training and taming the mind into clarity.

We will find that we are thinking all the time! That could sound depressing in itself, but it isn’t, as we are becoming aware, and facing in the right direction. It doesn’t matter how bad you think your meditation is, just being aware of what is going on IS the meditation!

This may sound strange, but it starts to become fun : we’re not putting ourselves in a strait jacket, but rather, we are allowing the jacket to untie itself. We become relaxed and at peace, noting “there it goes again!” Gradually, the mind does quieten and inner peace is noticed – even if it’s just for a moment. It is not about being clever, or becoming a fine scholar: it is all about awareness – and being happy – and most of all, confident that we can heal ourselves NOW!

It’s simple but not easy. We need determination, and that comes with the recognition and admittance that we are suffering, even if that suffering is just being ‘not totally happy’. The cause of that suffering is the fixated idea about who we ‘think’ we are, when we are the awareness that has been aware of the thinking all along.

Do I have to stop thinking altogether?

No. During meditation, we are just resting and relaxing, and we don’t need to be doing anything. Once this is understood, our thoughts become clearer, more effective and creative, because we have learned how to cut out superfluous thoughts. Through clarity, natural intelligence reveals itself as the confusion drops away, and we become kinder and more empathetic to others’ mental suffering.

The Light sees in the imagined darkness.

* Utopia in Dystopia

An imaginary good place in an imaginary bad place

Dystopia: an imaginary place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian a system of government that is centralised and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state. The opposite of Utopia.

Utopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is perfect and free. Paradise, Heaven, Garden of Eden, Shangri-La, Elysium, Nirvana, bliss. The opposite of Dystopia.

A belief in an imaginary good place within an imaginary bad place
merely keeps us going round in circles.

When moments of goodness occur within the badness,
that keeps us addicted through hope and fear.
This is samsara.

Seeing Utopia in Dystopia and Dystopia in Utopia
is the meaning of the two truths.
This is the middle way to reality beyond imagination.