With the popularity of mindfulness based cognitive therapy, many people have begun to take a look at Buddhist practices with the hope that some of them will help with their depression. It doesn’t take long before you find many varieties of Buddhism and many interesting practices. A form popular in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China, and in many other places is called “Zen Buddhism.” A koan is a fundamental part of the Zen practice and is thought to help people to see much deeper into themselves.

In the West, there are many who think that a koan is a meaningless statement meant to confound the mind, but it only seems meaningless until you work with it. As you keep churning the phrase in your mind, you go through a progression of feelings along with various interpretations of what you think it means. If you stick with it long enough, the mind eventually finds great meaning in it and begins to see the world in a new way.

I have said “Depression Is Beautiful” thousands of times. I know it makes no sense at all to many people, but I have seen how it works enough to keep using the phrase. I am starting to recognize a pattern in how people work through it and have seen it create changes that most would think impossible – they actually begin to see depression as a beautiful part of their lives.

When people first hear it, they think it makes no sense at all: depression is a horrible and painful experience that destroys lives — how can it possibly be beautiful?

Often right away, but usually within a month, the next reaction is anger: People get very upset with me for saying such an absurd thing. It pushes back against what they have been taught, what they have experienced, and what they believe is true. They resort to calling me dangerous or a masochist because it is easier than trying to figure out what I mean.

The next step for many people is to come up with a simple explanation. “He is talking about the beautiful understanding we gain after surviving it.” “He doesn’t really mean the experience is beautiful, it is a way to get our attention.” This is often enough to justify not thinking about it any more. They want to convince themselves that suffering depression is easier than trying to understand it.