on Depression
Try to become aware when you are suffering
Osho,
More and more I see how my energy is either going very high or very low, how sometimes I get very excited, come down again and then feel embarrassed about what happened during this state of excitement.
Do you have a knack to give me for how to watch when the excitement comes, not to get carried away and not to get identified with depression, and how to find my grounding and balance?
“Mind is almost like the ocean, waves upon waves. Some waves are higher, and between two waves there is a depression. There are two ways to get out of this continuous up and down process.
“The easiest is that when you are ecstatic that is the moment to be aware. In depression, in agony, awareness becomes more difficult. When you are flowing with joy, blissfulness, that is the moment to be aware, but people do exactly the opposite. When they are happy who cares about awareness? And when they are in anguish, then certainly they start thinking it is time to be aware and get out of anguish. But nobody has ever been able to get out from anguish directly.
“First, one has to get out from ecstasy. If you can be aware of your joyful moments in the first place, the depression, the downs will not come. The door to get out is from ecstasy. So this is the simplest way:
“Be happy and be aware.
“Rejoice and be aware.
“Love and be aware.
“Don’t put awareness aside saying, ‘This is a kind of disturbance; I am in such a great ecstasy.’ Awareness becomes like a disturbance; it is not. It may appear like this in the beginning, but soon you will see it will take your ecstasy to higher peaks. Ultimately awareness and ecstasy become one. Then those downs, depressive moments, agonies disappear.
“The second way which is unnecessarily followed by a few people is difficult, but your being German, perhaps the second may be right for you. Try to become aware when you are suffering – and it is not only you, many people around the world throughout history have tried that. If there was no suffering, they created suffering just to be aware of it. They would fast, and that created a suffering; they would live naked in the cold winters without clothes, and that created suffering. Man is very inventive – he will torture himself in many ways…
“In your agony you are alone; far away is the heart of the universe. Your agony has created the distance. So when you are in agony – it is human and once in a while it happens – remain alert. And if you have been able to remain alert when the dance was descending on you and flowers were showering on you, it won’t be difficult at all to be aware when something has gone wrong. You can be a watcher – standing aside, unidentified.”
-Osho, "Om Shantih Shantih Shantih: The Soundless Sound, Peace Peace Peace, #10"
Depression is a contemporary phenomenon
Osho,
In the olden days it was called melancholia; today it is called depression, and it counts as one of the major psychological problems of developed countries. It is described as a sense of despair or hopelessness, a lack of self-esteem with no enthusiasm or interest in the surroundings. In addition, there are physical symptoms of poor appetite, sleeplessness and a loss of sexual energy. Electroshock treatment has largely been abandoned today, and drugs or talk therapy seem equally effective – or ineffective. Explanations for depression have varied from the chemical to the psychological.
Osho, what is this depression? Is it a reaction to a depressing world, a kind of hibernation during “the winter of our discontent”? Is depression just a reaction to repression – or oppression – or is it just a form of self-repression?
“Man has always lived with hope, a future, a paradise somewhere far away. He has never lived in the present. his golden age is still to come. It kept him enthusiastic because greater things were going to happen; all his longings were going to be fulfilled. There was great joy in anticipation.
“He suffered in the present; he was miserable in the present. But all that was completely forgotten in the dreams that were going to be fulfilled tomorrow. Tomorrow has always been life-giving.
“But the situation has changed. The old situation was not good because the tomorrow – the fulfillment of his dreams – never became true. He died hoping. Even in his death he was hoping for a future life – but he never actually experienced any rejoicing, any meaning. But it was tolerable. It was only a question of today: it will pass, and tomorrow is bound to come.
“The religious prophets, messiahs, saviors were promising him all pleasures – which are condemned here – in paradise. The political leaders, the social ideologists, the utopians were promising him the same thing – not in paradise but here on earth, somewhere far away in the future when the society goes through a total revolution and there is no poverty, no classes, no government and man is absolutely free and has everything that he needs.
“Both are basically fulfilling the same psychological need. To those who were materialistic, the ideological, political, sociological utopians were appealing; to those who were not so materialistic, the religious leaders appealed. But the object of appeal was exactly the same: all that you can imagine, can dream of, can long for, will be absolutely fulfilled. With those dreams, the present miseries seemed to be very small.
“There was enthusiasm in the world; people were not depressed. Depression is a contemporary phenomenon and it has come into being because now there is no tomorrow.
“All political ideologies have failed. There is no possibility that man will ever be equal, no possibility that there will be a time when there will be no government, no possibility that all your dreams will be fulfilled…
“In the developed countries... and remember, the problem of depression is not in undeveloped countries -- in the poor countries, people are still hopeful – it is only in the developed countries, where they have everything that they had always longed for. Now paradise will not do anymore; nor can a classless society help anymore. No utopia is going to be better. They have achieved the goal – and this achievement of the goal is the cause of depression. Now there is no hope: tomorrow is dark, and the day after tomorrow will be even darker.”
-Osho, "The Transmission of the Lamp, #2"
You need a new direction
“The first thing in life is to find meaning in the present moment.
“The basic flavor of your being should be of love, of rejoicing, of celebration. Then you can do anything; dollars will not destroy it. But you put everything aside and simply run after dollars thinking that dollars can purchase everything. And then one day you find they cannot purchase anything - and you have devoted your whole life to dollars.
“This is the cause of depression.
“And particularly in the West, the depression is going to be very deep. In the East, there have been rich people, but there was a certain dimension available. When the road to richness came to an end, they did not remain stuck there; they moved into a new direction. That new direction was in the air, available for centuries.
“In the East the poor have been in a very good condition, and the rich have been in a tremendously good condition. The poor have learned contentment so they do not bother about running after ambition. And the rich have understood that one day you have to renounce it all and go in search of truth, in search of meaning.
“In the West, at the end, the road simply ends. You can go back, but going back will not help your depression. You need a new direction.”
-Osho, "The Transmission of the Lamp, #2"
Depression is nothing but repression
“You ask me... He is a surgeon, a doctor; naturally this question has arisen in his mind. You ask me, ‘Is it justified and ethical for patients of depression to be given Dynamic Meditation?’
“What else can be more justified and more ethical – because to be a sufferer of depression simply means he has repressed too much. Depression is nothing but repression. He is depressed so much because he has not been allowed to express himself. Dynamic Meditation is expression. In expressing himself, in catharting all that has been repressed in his unconscious, he will be unburdened, he will become saner, healthier.
“Two robbers broke into a bank in a small town. ‘Alright,’ said the bigger man. ‘Line up! We are gonna rob all the men and rape all the women!’ ‘Wait a second!’ snapped his partner. ‘Let us just grab the dough and beat it!’ ‘Shut up and mind your own business,’ said the spinster from behind the counter. ‘The big fella knows what he is doing!’
“We have made everybody repressed, pushing down all kinds of things. They are boiling within.
“Before she left a friend’s house Aunt Emma was warned that a sex maniac was loose in the neighborhood. That evening when she returned to her apartment, she cautiously looked under her bed, in her closet and behind the draperies. Then Emma switched on the light. ‘Well, he is not here!’ she sighed. ‘Damn it!’
“Everybody who has been brought up in our societies needs some methods to vomit anger, sex, greed, jealousies, envies. You are sitting on a volcano. and the volcano can erupt at any moment! If catharsis is allowed – and that’s what Dynamic Meditation is all about – the volcano will disappear. You will become saner.”
-Osho, "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 7, #4"
Whatsoever you are will knock at your door
“Negative emptiness is useless. It is simply the absence of something. Positive emptiness is presence of something, not absence; that’s why positive emptiness becomes a power. Negative emptiness becomes a sad, depressed state of mind – you simply cave yourself inwards, that’s all. Feeling a failure, feeling dejected, feeling everywhere the wall that you cannot cross, feeling impotent, you denounce, you condemn.
“But this is not a growth, this is a regression. And deep inside you cannot flower, because only understanding flowers, never depression, and if you cannot flower, existence is not going to shower flowers on you. Existence simply responds to you: whatsoever you are, existence gives you more of that. If you have many flowers within your being flowering, a million times more flowers will shower on you. If you have a deep depression, the existence helps that too – a million times more depression will come to you. Whatsoever you are will knock at your door. Whatsoever you are will be given to you more and more.”
-Osho, "And the Flowers Showered, #1"
When depressed, be depressed
“Remember this: whenever you are depressed, wait for the moment that the depression goes. Nothing lasts forever: the depression will go. When the depression leaves you, wait – be aware and alert – because after the depression, after this night, there will be a dawn, the sun will rise. If you can be alert in that moment, you will be happy that you were depressed. You will be grateful that you were depressed because only through that depression, this possibility; only through that depression, this moment of happiness.
“But what do we do? – we move in an infinite regression. We get depressed, and then we get depressed because of the depression: a second depression follows. If you are depressed, that’s okay, nothing is wrong in it. It is beautiful because through it you will learn and mature. But then you feel badly: ‘Why do I get depressed? I should not get depressed.’ Then you start fighting with the depression. The real depression is good, but the second depression is unreal - and this unreal depression will cloud your mind. You will miss the moment that would have followed the real depression.
“When depressed, be depressed. Simply be depressed. Don’t get depressed about your depression. When depressed, simply be depressed. Don’t fight it, don’t create any diversion; don’t force it to go. Just allow it to happen, it will go by itself. Life is a flux, nothing remains. You are not needed: the river moves by itself, you are not to push it. If you are trying to push it, you are simply foolish. The river flows by itself – allow it to flow.”
-Osho, "The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, #8"
If you get depressed, be happy that you are depressed
“When there is depression, allow it to be. Don’t get depressed about it. If you want to remove it sooner, you will get depressed. If you fight it, you will create a secondary depression, which is dangerous. The first depression is beautiful, God-given. The second depression is your own. It is not God-given, it is mental. Then you will move in mental grooves - they are infinite.
“If you get depressed, be happy that you are depressed and allow the depression to be. Then, suddenly the depression will disappear and there will be a breakthrough. There will be no clouds and the sky will be clear. For a single moment, heaven opens for you. If you are not depressed about your depression you can contact, you can commune, you can enter this heavenly gate. And once you know it, you have learned one of the ultimate laws of life: life uses the opposite as a teacher, as a background.”
-Osho, "The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, #8"
Whatsoever you do the depression will follow
“If you are depressed, so be depressed; don’t do anything. And what can you do? Whatsoever you do will be done out of depression, so it will create more confusion. You can pray to God, but you will pray so depressingly that you will even make God depressed through your prayers. Don’t do that violence. Your prayer is going to be a depressed prayer.
“You can meditate, but what will you do? The depression will be there. Because you are depressed, whatsoever you do the depression will follow. More confusion will be created, more frustration, because you cannot succeed. And when you cannot succeed you will feel more depressed, and this can go on ad infinitum. It is better to remain with the first depression than to create a second circle and then a third circle. Remain with the first; the original is beautiful. The second will be false, and the third will be a far-off echo. Don’t create these. The first is beautiful. You are depressed, so this is how existence is happening to you at this moment.”
-Osho, "The Book of Secrets, #38"
Acceptance is transcendence
“A non-accepting mind will ‘non-accept’ anything, but if you can accept your loneliness, your depression, your sadness, you are transcending already. Acceptance is transcendence. You have taken the very ground away, and then the depression cannot stand there.
“Try this: Whatsoever your state of mind, accept it and wait for when the state changes itself. You are not changing it; you can feel the beauty that comes when states change by themselves. You can know that it is just like the sun rising in the morning and then setting in the evening. Then again it will rise and again it will set, and it will go on. You need not do anything about it. If you can feel your states of mind changing by themselves, you can remain indifferent, you can remain away, miles away, as if the mind is going somewhere else. The sun is rising, setting; the depression is coming, the happiness is coming, going: but you are not in it. It goes and comes by itself; the states come and move.”
-Osho, "The Book of Secrets, #38"
I never suggest anything that can create frustration, depression, sadness
Osho,
Dynamic Meditation is very active, very strenuous. Can one not go into meditation just by sitting silently?
“If you begin with sitting, you will feel much disturbance inside. The more you try to just sit, the more disturbance will be felt; you will become aware only of your insane mind and nothing else. It will create depression, you will feel frustrated. You will not feel blissful; rather, you will begin to feel that you are insane. And sometimes you may really go insane.
“If you make a sincere effort to ‘just sit,’ you may really go insane. Only because people do not really try sincerely does insanity not happen more often. With a sitting posture you begin to know so much madness inside you that if you are sincere and continue it, you may really go insane. It has happened before, so many times; so I never suggest anything that can create frustration, depression, sadness – anything that will allow you to be too aware of your insanity. You may not be ready to be aware of all the insanity that is inside you; you must be allowed to get to know certain things gradually. Knowledge is not always good; it must unfold itself slowly as your capacity to absorb it grows.”
-Osho, "Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy, #5"