In this episode I explore the effect that nondual awareness has on depression and other emotional and psychological problems.
In this episode I explore the effect that nondual awareness has on depression and other emotional and psychological problems.
Depression and Nondual Awareness
I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is a form of depression related to circadian rhythm, our bodies’ response to the cycle of the seasons. It is caused by the decrease in sunlight in the autumn and winter. It is a physical condition that has to do with levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. It is not related to any events happening in life other than the seasons. I am talking about this today because it has started to show its symptoms recently, like it does every September. In fact this week I had an appointment with my primary care physician to address it, like I do every year at this time.
Please do not send me all your home remedies for SAD. I have tried them all, and some help – like light boxes and Vitamin D and outdoor exercise. I have also found that it helps to change my daily routine. For that reason I will probably cut back on recording these podcasts and videos – not do them as often and focus on some other projects. I have been neglecting my blog, so I need to get back to writing that. I also have a couple of ideas for books. Possibly collecting and editing these talks into a book. Listeners have been asking for a book that interprets the Bible from a nondual perspective. So I am thinking of interpreting the Gospel of John from unitive awareness.
You might be thinking: wouldn’t Nondual Awareness stop that from happening? Wouldn’t it override conditions like depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder? Wouldn’t it prevent negative emotions from arising? I have found that not to be the case.
I have heard the stories – as perhaps you have – of people who were deeply depressed and woke up to nondual awareness, and they were permanently cured of their depression. They make for very dramatic conversion stories. I do not doubt those accounts. But I think it depends on the type and cause of depression. I think those were the type of depression and neuroses that came from identification with the egoic self. These people were literally lost in their egos and it was causing great emotional suffering.
Other types of depression are purely physical, the result of chemical imbalances in the brain. I am thinking of things like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and a hosts of other serious mental illnesses, and not so serious ones like SAD. For me the seasonal symptoms still arise. But when they do, I do not identify with the psychological self, and that helps immensely. So there is a certain degree of healing that comes with unitive awareness, even in these cases.
There is a belief held by many people that the more spiritual you are the less susceptible you would be to illness including emotional and mental illness. In Christian circles it is sometimes said that illness is due to a lack of faith. That if we just had enough faith, we would not be sick. That is the idea behind a lot of Christian faith healing ministries. This is a form of the game called: blame the victim. That is bear scat, which is what BS is called here in the woods of New Hampshire. We get our share of bear scat in our yard and there is a lot of it in Christianity.
In other spiritual traditions it is often assumed that the more spiritual you are the less sick you would be. I know that myth well because my ancestors here in this part of New Hampshire were Christian Scientists, who were really into that idea. They believed that all you have to do is get in harmony with the Divine Mind and all illnesses disappear. Another form of the idea prevalent today is that enlightenment cures all ills. That is more bear scat. I am sure you can think of a lot of good spiritual people who have been very ill and even died.
Some of you know the name of Ramana Maharshi. He is one of the most well-known of 20th century spiritual teachers. He died of cancer. The same with Ramakrishna who lived in the 19th century, who died of throat cancer. If nondual awareness cured diseases, such people would not have died of cancer. The Buddha is said to have died of food poisoning.
If spiritual maturity or spiritual enlightenment cures all physical ailments then the Buddha would have not died. He would have drifted off into Nirvana and bypassed death, like Elijah and Enoch were said to do in the Bible. They were thought to have ascended to heaven without dying – which by the way didn’t happen. Those biblical stories are just poetic and symbolic ways of describing death.
The body is part of this physical world. Depression and other mental illnesses are usually physical ailments of the brain which is part of the body. So if you have a mental illness, see a mental health professional. Don’t think that spirituality will solve all your physical and psychological problems. If you so have a physical ailment see a physician. Don’t think a faith healer will heal you.
What Unitive Awareness will do is make the problems and illnesses no longer yours. That removes a big burden. It dispels the idea that you are a vulnerable little being that suffers and dies. That realization makes illness much easier to bear. I think that is what Jesus meant when he invited us to take his yoke upon us, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. It didn’t mean his body and mind – or our bodies and minds – wouldn’t burdens. It means that they are easy to bear when we do not identify with the physical body and psychological self.
We are not our body. We are not our brains. We are not the psychological selves that compound physical problems with anxiety and neuroses and all sorts of other psychological conditions. Unitive Awareness ends the suffering that comes from identification with the individual body-mind.
In that sense you could say that Unitive Awareness is a cure for suffering. In Unitive Awareness we rest in our True Selves, which is No-self, which does not suffer or die. As the Bible says, “There is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." We are not the old self of the old order of things. We are the Universal Self of the Kingdom of God.
Christ did not free himself from all suffering and pain. In fact the Scriptures calls him a man of suffering, familiar with pain. It says that he took on the suffering of the world. The Universal Self, who is the Universal Christ, includes the suffering of the whole world. This is nonduality! That is what the Cross is all about. Not trying to escape from pain out of fear but embracing pain as part of the whole of Being. It is compassion, which means literally “to suffer with.”
A lot of people misunderstand what the Buddha meant when he taught that the four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path were about the end of suffering. It is indeed release from suffering, but not in the way that most people think. It is not the elimination of physical malfunctions and the physical and psychological pain that accompanies it. It is not a “get out of pain free” card. That is what the ego wants. The ego wants to live forever without pain.
Salvation or enlightenment includes pain as part of the whole. That is the meaning of the Cross. It embraces death with its physical and psychological pain. The Cross symbolizes the death of the body and ego and all its fantasies of having a pain-free existence. As long as there is a body, there is pain. As long as there is a psyche, there is psychological suffering.
But in Unitive Awareness we cease to identify with the body and psyche. Therefore it is not us who is suffering. Who we really are does not suffer, any more than spirit can feel physical pain. But we still see the suffering of the self and the suffering of other separate selves, and we empathize. We have compassion with those who are suffering, including our selves. But the True Self does not itself suffer.
The suffering of our little separate selves is viewed from the Big Self in the same way that the suffering of others is viewed. If you see someone hit their thumb with a hammer, your thumb does not hurt. But you feel for that person. You may actually flinch in empathy. If you have a loved one that suffers, you suffer with them, right? That is the way we relate to the suffering of our psychological selves as well, as someone other than our True Self. It is not us who suffers but we feel its suffering. Suffering is part of this One Reality, but it loses its sting. It no longer threatens us.
In this way Unitive Awareness is liberation from suffering. It takes the sting out of death, just like the apostle Paul says, because the self that dies is not the True Self. This is the way of Jesus. To quote Jesus in full: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Unitive Awareness is abiding in Christ. It is resting in the Universal Christ. It is finding our identity in the Divine Christ and living out of that identity and not as separate beings. As such we are freed from the burdens and pains and sufferings of separate existence. But we exchange it for the compassion and the cruciform love of the Eternal Christ, who is perfect love. That means bearing one another’s burdens, which the Bible says is fulfilling the Way of Christ. This is the way of Unitive Awareness. This is the Tao of Christ.