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REDEFINING DEPRESSION
Depression is a teacher, and what it has to teach is in the nature of a quest, a quest for truth, a quest for meaning, a quest for the foundations of a meaningful life.
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Today, millions of the world's population live with depression. Depression, previously second, is coming to be the first most treated medical condition, with many decades-old solutions to the problem having had only limited success in treating it. Most approaches rely on a biochemical or disease-based picture of depression's physical origins, attributing causality to various imbalances.
However, depression, as an experience of consciousness, is rarely attributed to spiritual causes which, in fact, are more fundamental to its presence, and give rise to the various physical conditions that we see, both at the brain level and elsewhere.
How is it possible today to redefine depression? In the same way that we look within ourselves at all other aspects of our consciousness to see where they arise from and what they are here to teach us.
Depression is a teacher, and what it has to teach is in the nature of a quest, a quest for truth, a quest for meaning, a quest for the foundations of a meaningful life. Many who are depressed have lost the sensibility of meaning in life and are hungering for it. No matter what their external limitations as these appear to others, within themselves they are searching for meaning and for the light that will bring them a positive answer to the question of "Who am I and why am I here?"
There is much suffering in the world today and much heartache caused by both natural and human causes. And so as onlookers, we can, with a heart of compassion, understand why given certain external conditions of loss, tragedy, disaster, or violence, any individual might respond to these circumstances with depression. Our empathy as well as our rational mind tell us that this is how we, too, faced with similar circumstances, might respond. Nevertheless, there is no external circumstance that 'just happens.' Each is a catalyst or inducer for the potential growth in consciousness of those to whom it befalls, even when it is most tragic, even when it is most painful. Depression, likewise, may be viewed in this way, as a teacher.
Can we not see that how we hold our consciousness is the interface between ourselves and our external life? There is no meaning that is built into any given situation, but only the meaning we give to it. Thus, depression can arise not merely because a situation warrants it, though it may be a 'catalyst' for it, but because our consciousness is trying to teach us something about how to live.
Depression as a teacher brings us deeper into ourselves in our search for meaning and for the positive nature of our own being that lives in hope and trust. It causes us to probe deeper with invisible feelers to the place in which hope might be found, to the place in which belief in our own potential might be found. As with any other limiting physical, emotional, or mental condition, depression is a painful way of learning. However, it may be chosen by the soul prior to incarnating as a means to leaving the surface of oneself and encountering the deeper strata of one's relationship with life.
When depression begins to be held in this way, that is, in a spiritual context in the nature of a quest, then the hunger for the light of one's own soul which is both the answer to depression and its goal will be offered as a pathway to those who are in great need of spiritual light and nourishment, but do not even know that they are looking for it. When such a perspective can be held by many, schools of thought will arise to address the problem of depression that will be light-based rather than medically based, and a whole new integration of spiritual understanding with medical or physiological understanding will take place.
For now, let us each, to the extent that we are vulnerable or know others who are vulnerable to depression, help ourselves and them with an answer to their longing that is an affirmation of what they are seeking, namely, the deepest possible connection with the light of their very own soul.
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