BRIEF INSTRUCTION ON OVERCOMING DEPRESSION --- by Nyanamoli Thero
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2019
- The reasons for depression are secondary to the most immediate attitude of resisting the painful feeling. If this craving for cancelling or getting rid of displeasure is removed, no unpleasant mental states can affect one any more, even while they persist (depression, anxiety, fear, etc.) They would just arise and having arisen they would cease. In this manner, one's own depression will not cause one to suffer, and by doing so it would cease to count as "depression".
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This is so true. I've suffered depression for decades and started meditation daily about 10 years ago. Things changed very slowly but recently I made some drastic changes to my sila and started to meditate more and focus on right view, understanding etc and practicing metta and I feel I have had a breakthrough. I felt like a victim for many years always thinking I couldn't be happy alone but now I'm the happiest I have ever been and love being alone!!
I'd been depressed for decades, too. Since I knew about Buddhism (and Stoicism), I've been feeling better. I can't say I'm happy, am just not suffering anymore.
Buddha said, like fever depression is not a disease but a symptom. Like an infection is the reason for fever, an untrained mind is the reason for depression. There are tools in Buddhism (such as mindfulness meditation) to train the mind so the the impact of negative physical and mental outcomes can be mitigated.
First time I’ve come across this guy, he’s great.
Dear Bhante Nanamoli i bow to your wisdom and your ability to explain the dhamma. Sadhux3!
May you reach nibbana in this very life.🙏
In fact depression is a rather complicated psychophysical condition. Rather than craving for getting rid of displeasure thoughts and associated feelings, it is the uncontrollable craving and clinging (addiction) to these negative thoughts cum feelings that put one into a totally helpless, powerless mental state which then causes one unable to see a possibility of getting rid of depression.
But wouldnt it be then the other extreme? He mentions both extremes of resistance and indulgence. These extremes apply especially on the mental level. Perhaps in practice like you dont try to deny those negative thoughts, but you dont indulge (so actively think them and get pulled in into them) either, you just endure a thought if it arises.
@@sahassaransi_mw sometimes endure means falling into hell... your only wish is to see the bottom
@@veronique8225 and by enduring all things cease. Yes the feeling may be awful but if you endure then it ceases by itself. I had a kidney stone on a long hours retreat in Myanmar some years ago. No medicine or medical aid was available so I endured. For 3 days it was very hard but then a thought arose saying ‘I don’t care if this pain never goes…it’s my teacher … a friend.’ I didn’t purposefully think the thought….it just arose and I felt it to be true and in that moment of non resistance it felt like the mind or something wrapped itself around the pain and it totally disappeared and has never come back. It was a huge lesson on the benefits of endurance and that all that arises ceases if we don’t interfere with it.
I understand that people say depression is hell and they are unable to endure it …as the wise ones say …prevention is better than cure but if you fall into terrible depression, at least when you come out of it learn the lessons so you are less likely to go back again….sense restraint, precepts, enduring, wise company etc…
You formulated this very well
Thank you. I've never understood how living moderately could help train the mind to handle unpleasant mental states like depression until watching this video.
I've experienced chronic depression for many years despite periods of meditation (& medication) , but now realise that my behavior has actually been quite hedonistic during this time.
It seems that meditation is given a higher priority in 'western countries' than living ethically and following precepts, which seems more prevalent in 'buddhist countries'. I'll pay attention to both from now.
Thich Nhat Hahn suggested that if we feed depression it will grow..he also suggested medication for some people but also to look deeply into feeding it nutriments..this is a wise talk mentioning an unrestrained mind
Beautifully explained. Thank you
Excellent explanation. TQ so much Ajahn
Thank you for your uploads. 🙏
Very explanatory, thank you for this.
Very true 🙏🙏🙏
Explained succinctly 🙏
Just what i needed🙏🏾
Thank you for this Bhante. Very helpful.
Well explained 🙏
Thank u.
🙏
❤️🙏
Great video, thank you i related to this a lot.
My one question is on how are the positive and negative sides linked by the same 'overdoing'?
If i indulge in sensual pleasures, but am able to not resist the negative feelings, have i not eliminated the negative side and kept the positive?
Clearly i know it's not as black and white as that but i wanted to introduce the conversation with this context.
@@medhini000 Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu
Free remedy given to all.. Dhammosadha samang naththi .. How true !
Well said
Great talk. I'm slightly unclear about your last point about "toned down" life. Is music off the table because it's designed to indulge the senses? Some music might inspire dhamma practice, but so might a simple talk. How could this vary from person to person?
my understanding of what the venerable monk was saying: ..........if 2 people listen to the same song/eat the same food or any other sense based pleasure...... the impact it has on the 2 people are different based on a lot of things such as inclination/habit/enjoyment/repulsion/biology etc. Lets say 2 people eat the same chocolate, in same amount. One might feel its the best taste in the world, and want more of it. The other person might like it too, but not to the same extent, or might even dislike it. Another example: one might be in a room with 100 odd women, talking/laughing with them and might not be too distracted, where as another man might be in a room with just 2 or 3 women, where he's going bonkers just looking at them. Theres an ancient story of 2 hermits living in a forest, renouncing worldly pleasures/or some kind of good practice. One was senior to the other. One day when they were out searching for food(or something... i cant remember details), they found a young girl who had fallen unconcious near a rock(or somewhere), being bitten by a snake or some other kind of misfortune. Under the circumstances, the senior hermit decided to take the girl to their abode to give her medicine/rest. Since the girl was unconcious, he carried her in his arms to their dwelling. The other hermit did not even tough the girl at this point. After a few days the girl got better, thanked the hermits and left(in short). After this incident, there was a difference in the behaviour/practice of the junior hermit and the way he interacted with the senior hermit. The senior hermit was practicing as usual, but after some time, it became obvious to both of them, that something had changed. So, the senior hermit brought it up, and asked what was wrong. (cant rememberr exact dialogue)...... in the end of that dialogue, the junior hermit expresses" how could you carry/touch that female, ........isn't that going completely against what we have been trying to do, .... we're trying to curb our worldly pleasures/control our senses etc." To this, the senior hermit responds: " i carried that woman with my arms and laid her on the ground.........but , you , are still carrying her in your mind".
Could someone just enlighten me on something. Is he saying that if you are in a depression then you should not eat too much ice cream 🍦
Greetings! Can anyone recommend literature that discusses this practice, please?
You can buy bhantes Nanamoli's book " Dhamma within reach" and read the original EBT Nikāyas collection of Buddhas teachings.
There is a kind of depression caused by biological reasons, like thyroid dysfunction, and other instances due to hormonal lack of balance.
this is actually one of the greatest lies taught to Doctors in the west. The reality is that depression/anxiety caused SOLELY by biological function is so rare that you likely don't have it. The biological aspect has to do with who is more susceptible to it but it's not the cause. And to suggest that something so awful and complex can be explained by the lack of a production of one hormone, and nothing else, is a lack of respect and understanding of the illness.
Buddha had taught my body was not ours. So if we consider anatomy body everday , it not myself , we would have accept it and lighten up .
Those hormonal imbalances are physical manifestations of your feelings. They are there but that doesn't mean that they are the cause. Correlation does not mean causation.
@@aabrakadaabra7058 Sometimes they are the cause. Telling people they just can get rid of depression with a bit of effort and willpower is not knowing what real depression is.
@@veronique8225depressed people unwittingly cling to their depression.
Not all depressions are caused by external environmental factors. This is overly simplistic.
Depression is a insidejob
Easy to say for you. Do you have to work for your living, have a boy/girlfriend you truly love, but outer circumstances seperate us now. No income, no job in sight, health issues, death in the family, etc etc
Consider putting yourself in his 'easy' position of not having a family, home, income, job etc. Does it sound 'easy' ? Is that something you can pull off by giving up all you have ? If your answer is no it isn't easy because I have to give up xyz; consider that he too once had all that you have (job, family, significant other etc.) and CHOSE to give them all up. So no, its not easy for him to say because he had it easy to begin with. It EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to get to where he is ; from where it might be easy to say.
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