Lama Zopa Rinpoche's advice on how to deal with depression.







Lama Zopa Rinpoche received a letter from a

student asking how to deal with her depression .



My very dear Jenny,

Thank you so much for your email.



Use your depression by experiencing it with compassion. Meditate on taking on all sentient beings' depression and suffering and the cause of that suffering. It comes to you and absorbs into your heart. Your self-cherishing thought is destroyed. Even the inherently existent "I" becomes non-existent, the "I" that appears as if it were truly existent.



Perform this practice with compassion for others who have more depression than you. Numberless beings experience depression for many lifetimes, without end. Think, "I am just one living being. No matter how much suffering I experience, others who are numberless, have so much more suffering." Think, "By my receiving all this depression, they are free of all suffering and have all happiness up to liberation and enlightenment. I experience it for them, and let them have all happiness up to enlightenment. How wonderful to be able to do this, because all my happiness is due to the kindness of each sentient being. They are the most precious objects in my life, from whom I receive all my happiness."

Then generate loving kindness: "I must cause them to have happiness and the cause of happiness." They receive whatever they want and need, all their pleasure becomes the pleasure of the pure land of the Buddha where no problems exist. They receive from you the purest, highest sense pleasures, enjoyment, beauty: everything they need. That causes them to actualize the whole path to enlightenment. Their mind becomes the Dharmakaya, their body becomes the Rupakaya. All become enlightened.

Perform this meditation, if possible, in the morning, afternoon, and night, taking and giving 5, 10, 20 times or more. Spend more time taking. While eating, walking, and at other times think, "I am experiencing this depression on behalf of all sentient beings." Think it is not your depression.

Enjoy your depression by voluntarily taking on the experience for numberless sentient beings and giving the depression to your ego, destroying it completely. Enjoy depression in this way.



Think of the depression as purification of past negative karma, "If I don't experience this now, I will have to experience the hell realms for many years, so it is good to have it now."



Also think, "I am experiencing past heavy negative karma. This is being purified by my experiencing this."



Experience the depression on behalf of all sentient beings. Use it to purify the cause of depression and all negative karma. Use the depression to achieve happiness, like transforming poison into medicine, like, for example, snake venom that is used for medicine.

Also, use depression to collect extensive merit. This way your depression becomes like many hundreds of thousands of prostrations and recitation of powerful deities' mantras. It becomes like preliminary practices for purifying and collecting extensive merit, such as by making mandala offerings.



Work for other sentient beings to collect merit and purify. Here, you are using your depression to achieve not just temporal happiness but ultimate happiness. Transform it into the path to enlightenment. Use it to develop compassion for other sentient beings and bodhicitta. It is not only the cause to achieve your own enlightenment but it brings ultimate happiness, up to enlightenment, for all sentient beings. So, enjoy depression in this way.



At the beginning it is good to accept your depression, thinking "I deserve this." That can help. Start with that. Use the depression for meditation to develop renunciation of samsara, bodhicitta, and right view. This way your depression is used so as to be totally free of depression forever. It becomes the best Dharma practice and best way of healing.

Usually, taking medicine and following psychological advice doesn't do anything for the cause of depression, although it forces the problem down for a short time. It is like drinking alcohol. When it is gone from the body, the problem is still there.

If you have depression due to a particular reason, for example, a relationship problem, meditate on that situation. If the depression is without reason, then do the mediation I have explained here.



Using depression to develop compassion enables us to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. It allows us to free sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment more quickly. So, enjoy all these benefits of depression, by thinking about them clearly.



Depression is Good



A student had been battling severe depression for some time. One day when Rinpoche was visiting the city where he lived, Rinpoche called him to suggest meeting. Rinpoche came by his home that same day, which happened to be the student's birthday. While he was visiting, Rinpoche offered the following advice.

The first thing is that having depression is good. It is good because this is a sign of purification, of having practiced Dharma.



Negative karma gets purified to different levels. With the first level, you never experience the suffering results of the actions. With the second level, you experience these results, but rather than experiencing the suffering result of the negative action for many eons of suffering in the lower realms�hell, hungry ghost, or animal�instead, the result manifests in this life in the form of some problem, such as a toothache, headache, or being criticized by people. Unbelievably, negative karma manifests as this problem, or even just as bad dreams, nightmares, often in the form of sickness, failure in business, some disaster in the family or in one's relationships, other people treating you badly, abusing you, and also in the form of depression. This way, you never have to experience the heavy suffering in other realms for an incredible length of time. Therefore, experiencing this depression is a positive thing.

This way of thinking can be related to whatever problems you have so that you feel positive and happy about them. You should understand all the rest of your problems, whatever you have, in this same way.



Then there's the next level of purifying karma. With this one, you do get reborn in the lower realms, but for a very short time, and the suffering is very light. For example, when you throw a stone on a rock, it hits in one second, like the snap of your fingers. Similarly, in that way, all those heavy sufferings for a great length of time are finished, instead, in that instant of suffering. Comparing that to heavy suffering for an incredible length of time, even though one has been reborn in the lower realms�it's very positive, very good. It's fantastic!



So, there's no question that the problems experienced in the human realm are an incredibly great comfort, even a pleasure, when you compare them to those extremely heavy sufferings in the hell, hungry ghost, and animal realms. The negative karma that one doesn't have to experience is really fantastic. It's gorgeous! This can be related to AIDS, cancer, or whatever problems someone might have.



For example, when you wash a cloth, with water and soap, the dirt comes out. At first, there is very black dirt. You don't immediately see that the shirt has been cleaned. But that black dirt coming out is not at all negative, it's a very good sign. If the dirt doesn't come out, that's not good. You want the cloth clean, so the dirt must come out. It appears very dark, black, but it's a positive thing that you are able to clean it.



It's the same when we practice Dharma. At that time, negative karmas manifest and we can get sick. When one practices Dharma, negative karma comes out very quickly, to finish. Therefore, one should rejoice in depression.



The same thing applies to this situation. The karma is manifested and finished by this depression or other problem. What makes it come out is soap and water, which here, is your Dharma practice. That's why many Dharma practitioners encounter a lot of obstacles, sicknesses, and many other things when they engage in strong practice.



Somebody who doesn't do any practice or purification�butchers and so forth, who kill so many thousands of beings every day, people who engage in activities like that�can have a very healthy body, living for many years. But that is not a good sign. All their negative karma is stored up, to be experienced in the future for an incredible length of time. Even when it is not experienced in the lower realms, then it will be in the human realm from life to life, for many thousands of lifetimes. This is besides suffering in the lower realms.



The person who engages in many negative actions�killing and so forth�in this life but does not do any practice to purify nor engages in any virtuous activities, these people may be physically well and have a healthy body in this life, however, this life is very short. It's like one second. If you compare it with all the future lives and the length of even one lifetime in the hell realms, it's nothing.



This is the first thing, to look at your situation positively. You think, "How good to have this depression!" This also gives you inner strength.



In the Guru Puja, it says: "Should even the environment and the beings therein be filled with the fruit of their karmic debts, and unwished for suffering pour down on us like rain, we seek your blessing to takes those miserable conditions as a path by seeing them as causes to exhaust our negative karma."



Here, the way to think effectively is that where you are and what appears for you is only disaster and unpleasant suffering. Everything is unpleasant; even the place is ugly and unpleasant. Everything is harmful to you and everybody is angry at you, dislikes you, criticizes you. They even harm you bodily, beating you, disrespecting you, and making fun of you. Everybody in the country, in the whole world even, is negative toward you. You should look at these experiences as the cause of finishing the results of past heavy negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths.





In this way, you are utilizing your bad experiences on the path. Then, bad circumstances and experiences on the path are made positive. You are turning them into good circumstances. With this way of looking at the situation, you are always keeping your mental state happy. This is the correct way of thinking, the way of Buddhist psychology.



You can understand why it is important to keep the mind always in a state of happiness, and why this is emphasized in the teachings. If the mind is unhappy, first of all this makes your family and any other people surrounding you unhappy. You are caught up so much with yourself that your mind is not open to others. You cannot love others, help them, make them happy. Your mind is closed, so tied up with your own problems, such as depression. You cannot even smile at others, cannot even give that small pleasure to them. So, your unhappy mental state makes other people unhappy.



But when you enjoy your life, when your mental state is happy, you have so much space in your mind to think of others, to cherish and love them. You have room to help others and have compassion toward others, and can even give some pleasure to others by smiling. You are more relaxed. You can do your job better. Somebody who is practicing Dharma is able to continue doing his or her meditation practices, commitments, and prayers. Otherwise, if your mind is not happy due to depression, even that practice gets stopped. You cannot recite even one "Om Mani Padme Hung." There's no courage even for that.



Therefore, when life is miserable, it is very important to keep the mind happy, by utilizing the path to enlightenment and thinking in this way. This is one example of thought transformation.



Similarly, when one has success or some achievement, there is a lot of excitement at that time and again one's life becomes unstable. The mind that is not stable cannot practice. You can't do your meditation, your Dharma practice, and that can become a distraction.



Therefore, so that a miserable life and happy life do not become obstacles to achieving the path to enlightenment�to being able to liberate numberless sentient beings from suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment�one needs to practice Dharma continually. Neither of these experiences becomes an obstacle if one practices thought transformation, keeping the mind happy and positive. This keeps the mind healthy, and from that comes a healthy body. Every morning when you begin the day, make a strong determination in your mind, like this: "Whatever problem I encounter today, I won't allow my mind to be disturbed by it. I'm not going to allow myself to be weak. I'm going to challenge it."



Make this strong determination in the morning, "I am going to be strong," and also make a strong determination to transform your problems into happiness.



As it says in the Guru Puja by Panchen Lama Chokyi Gyaltsen, "Please grant me blessings to ensure that, whatever bad and good appearances happen in my life, I am able to transform them into the path which develops bodhicitta. By the practice of the five powers, the essence of the whole Dharma, meditate for the mind only to be happy."



What this means is one should keep the mind only happy, with the method of meditation that transforms the mind into happiness all the time. Another practice to perform is the five powers. The first of the five powers is the power of the white seed. The merit that you collect is like the power of a seed. From it you experience happiness in this life and future lives. Then comes the power of the attitude, which means the attitude you have every morning towards how you are going to live your life. Then the power of prayer, then the power of putting all the blame on one point, and the fifth is the power of training. These are just the titles. You should read more about the meaning.

Think, "Even though the continuation of my mind has no beginning, what has prevented me from achieving enlightenment up to now is ego. I have not achieved even the confidence within myself that, if death comes, for sure I will have a good rebirth. Because I allow myself to be under the control of self-cherishing thoughts, I don't have even that confidence."



This ego is the one that never gives me freedom to practice Dharma, giving me no peace or happiness, always disturbing me and not allowing me to liberate others from the lower realms and from samsara. It doesn't allow me to do that and doesn't even allow others to help me. What makes me harm others and what makes others harm me is this ego.



Any undesirable thing that happens in my life is caused by ego: criticism from others, bad reputation, abuse, anything that I believe to be bad. What makes the friends I have now become my enemies is ego. Those who are harmonious with me become disharmonious because of my ego.



Even though I know the Dharma, I am constantly unable to practice, meditate, even recite mantras or sadhanas. What prevents this is ego. Ego doesn't allow me to listen, reflect, and meditate on Dharma. Or retreat, what doesn't allow that is the self-cherishing thought. Only finding time to do meaningless actions, never having time to practice Dharma�this is due to ego.



When I practice, many obstacles arise due to my ego. The ego forces me to break samaya with my guru, disregard advice, and causes negative thoughts to arise, such as criticizing and giving up the guru. The self-cherishing thought creates obstacles for realizations on the path to enlightenment, and even for the happiness of day-to-day life and success in this life. This ego obliges me to harm numberless living beings from life to life.



Without this ego, there is only loving compassion and thoughts of bodhicitta. That means I only benefit all living beings from life to life. Besides the fact that this ego has been harming me up to now, it will harm me continuously in the future, as long as I keep it in my heart.



Ego is what obliged me to experience this depression. Like this, all 424 diseases are the same: they are only due to ego. If there is no ego, then there is space for bodhicitta to develop.



Therefore, the meditation for this depression is: Destroy the ego. In your mind, you give your depression to the ego by thinking, "Let the ego have it. Why do I need to experience it? Let it have the depression."



Depression becomes better than medicine for the chronic disease of the mind. This way, you use your depression for the best healing, the healing of your chronic disease�the self-cherishing thought�the continuation of which is beginningless and also the harm one receives from it is beginningless.



Here, depression becomes unbelievably useful, especially for having realizations of bodhicitta. It is extremely beneficial for eliminating all the defilements and completing realizations, to achieve full enlightenment, and to liberate numberless sentient beings who are the source of one's own past, present, and future happiness�to liberate them from the suffering of the lower realms and the entire samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. So, depression becomes extremely precious.



The conclusion is that depression is extremely precious and wish-fulfilling. It is something that we really need.



Dealing with Depression



A student came to see Rinpoche at Vajrapani Buddhist center in California, with depression problems. She said she had not seen a psychiatrist. Rinpoche asked the student whether she was depressed regularly, every month or according to some cycle. She said it was very irregular. It comes for a few days and then goes. She had never seen a pattern. It had been at a low level for the past year. Sometimes I just cry, she said, for no particular reason. She didn't know why she cried, just for some silly reason, nothing important. The mind says this is very important and she gets angry with herself for that. She thought she just had to sit still at those times. Rinpoche's response was as follows.



That is good! That is very good, otherwise you might waste your time and instead of being helped, there is more harm.



These days there is another kind of psychology, a new kind. Some of our students are studying this now, and it is like a bridge to the Dharma. This is very good, especially for non-Buddhists.



From other psychologists, there may be a lot of harm, danger to one's life and a lot of negative thoughts get created. At first, you didn't have negative thoughts toward a certain person, then by going to the psychologist, you come to blame that person, especially your parents. They become the root of your life's problems. That is terrible. That makes you have a grudge against your parents for your whole life and that grudge makes your mind negative toward them. I don't know what the parents' solution would be, who they are going to blame. It's very strange.



The new psychology is very close to Dharma and there is no harm created, nothing that makes your mind negative toward anybody. It doesn't involve that. It is presented in a very skillful way.



Some depressions run like this: We go to sleep and the next morning when we get up, the depression is just there. At that moment, it is best to sit still, or just go to sleep. That is the best. If one can't solve it with meditation, just go to bed. Go somewhere to rest. Otherwise, one gets upset, and then other people get upset. When you're angry, bad thoughts can come. You have no control. So, the best thing is just to go somewhere to rest, drive to the beach or something.



In the case of depression due to some condition or situation, relationships with others or whatever, one can apply certain meditations according to the reasons for the depression. One applies the meditation that relates to the situation. But since there are no particular reasons in your case, the best thing is to use this depression for your practice. Use it to develop bodhicitta. That is the best.

The Guru Puja says, "Cherishing the I is the door to all sufferings and all problems. All come from the I, therefore the I is to be renounced, to be given up, forever. From Bodhicitta�cherishing others�comes all happiness, one's own and others'." That means all happiness and perfections come from bodhicitta, from cherishing others. All those good things, every single one, including enlightenment, come from others. All the realizations we receive come from others. Therefore, other sentient beings are only objects to be cherished forever.



Since we receive all happiness, realizations, and good things from others, now we have to repay the kindness of sentient beings by helping them. So, how can one best repay their kindness? They've been millionaires countless times, wheel-turning kings who own the whole continent. Although they've had that much wealth numberless times, they still didn't free themselves from the sufferings of samsara. Therefore, the best way to repay their kindness is to practice the Lam Rim, practice Dharma. This means transforming one's mind into positive thoughts, pure thoughts, free from attachment to samsara, free from ignorance, free from ego. By actualizing in yourself the path to enlightenment, you can liberate others without difficulties.



Then think, for those reasons, the best way to repay their kindness is meditation on bodhicitta, trying to develop bodhicitta. All past, present, and future happiness comes from others, therefore one can practice meditation on the basis of this compassion. Then, take all sentient beings' sufferings onto one's own mind. By generating compassion, one takes all sentient beings' sufferings within one's own heart and in this way one destroys the ego.



Then, after the ego has been destroyed, do a little meditation on emptiness. Just a few seconds. Then by generating loving-kindness, one gives one's own happiness, merit, and all good things to all sentient beings. By giving one's body and wealth, there is so much unbelievable merit. Think that by giving one's body, like a wish-granting jewel, all their wishes are fulfilled and all merits are given to all sentient beings. They receive everything they need and want from their point of view. Maybe they don't know what they need. They need to meet the Dharma, although they may not have any thoughts of Dharma.



Then, while you recite mantras, think you are giving them whatever they want, whatever they need. People don't think of Dharma, but this is really what they need. What they want is something else. It depends on how much their mind understands Dharma. Think that having all these enjoyments that you are offering them causes them to actualize the spiritual path. It eliminates the two obscurations, they become enlightened, and receive the rupakaya.

The conclusion is: How wonderful! So far, I've died working for my own happiness. Nothing happened. I'm still in samsara. Dying while working for others, this has never happened.



One generates compassion for others, taking upon oneself all their suffering and its causes: delusion and karma. Not only do you take their negative thoughts and problems but even their unhealthy environments: ugly, polluted, rough, and unpleasant places. For example, the hell beings' environments, where there is fire and lava, and the cold hells with their ice. You take human beings' filthy, dirty environments, full of thorn bushes. You take on those undesirable places to destroy the ego, the self-cherishing thought.

Think, "I've died numberless times while working for myself, but I have never died working for other sentient beings." Now, since every sentient being is the source of one's happiness, you can experience your depression on behalf of all sentient beings. In other words, you think the depression is not your depression, but the depression of numberless beings, and so by experiencing it for them you let them have all happiness, especially being free from samsara and all its sufferings, and most especially attaining the highest enlightenment. How fantastic this is, that you cause this for other sentient beings! This is incredible. Feel great joy about this.

Think: "Even the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha come from my prayers, purifying my negative karma, so that I can actualize realizations and achieve enlightenment. All this comes from sentient beings. So, every single sentient being is the most precious one in my life, and the source of all my past, present, and future happiness. Therefore, in my life, there's nobody to cherish except sentient beings, there's nobody to work for other than sentient beings. Other than that, everything is totally meaningless. Totally meaningless."



Thinking like this makes one experience depression for others. So, too, does thinking that because I've been praying in the past for other beings' sufferings to ripen on me, this is the suffering of others. This is others' depression. Therefore, this is the most exciting, the most pleasurable thing in my life, to work for others by experiencing their suffering for them, and leaving them all the freedom and happiness. Think, "There's no other way."

The next thing is to rejoice that you have the opportunity to experience these sufferings. Practice the taking-and-giving meditation in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Most of the time you should think, "How lucky I am that I am experiencing this sickness or depression ,which I made prayers to receive. How fantastic! This makes my life so rich, so meaningful.



"This is very good. How fortunate I am. How fantastic that I am experiencing depression on behalf of all sentient beings. Very good."



After meditating on the immeasurable kindness of sentient beings, then think how all your past, present, and future happiness is received from them. Also, think that this is the meaning of your life. This is very good. It makes a huge difference.



This is basic psychology. It makes a big difference because so much of our experience comes from our concept of pain. Suffering is exaggerated by our concepts, and we can cut down the pain or eliminate it with our mind. The purpose of my life is not just to be healthy, wealthy, have a good reputation, and many people around me. Even if I have all these things, this is not the real purpose of my life.



For example, if there is no good heart, even if one lives for a thousand years, without a good heart, life is meaningless. Being perfectly healthy for eons is just useless. There is no benefit for others. Similarly, with a good reputation. Without a good heart, they are meaningless. Life is empty, even if one lives for eons with a perfectly healthy body.



Therefore, the meaning of life, no matter what happens, whether one is healthy, not healthy, depressed, not depressed, or whatever happens, the main meaning and real purpose of life is that at the time of death, one's life becomes beneficial for others. So, even if one has cancer, to make the experience of cancer beneficial for all sentient beings, you can use it to develop bodhicitta for the sake of others. You can use the situation to achieve realizations of the path. Using the experience of depression or cancer to develop bodhicitta, which means the path to achieve enlightenment, means your depression becomes the cause of happiness. The depression is used, like turning snake venom into medicine. When you use depression to achieve enlightenment, this becomes a cause of happiness for all sentient beings experiencing depression.



The main purpose of life is to be beneficial for all other sentient beings, to free them from suffering and obtain happiness for them. To be beneficial for others means causing happiness in this life, but not only that. It means also causing happiness in future lives for others. Even if there is cancer, AIDS, or depression, the purpose of life is to cause happiness for all sentient beings by experiencing those things on behalf of all sentient beings, so that one accomplishes one's work for others. That way, the depression becomes a cause to achieve enlightenment. The quick path means to achieve enlightenment. If one has cancer, the same thing applies. You can use it on the path to quickly achieve enlightenment. Experiencing it for the benefit of other sentient beings becomes a quick path to enlightenment, because experiencing the suffering for others is incredible purification. It's very, very good.

Then the other thing is, it's good to have depression because then you can see other sentient beings' sufferings easily. You can understand how they're suffering, the numberless beings who are experiencing depression and those who are creating the negative karma to experience it later. There are so many! In this way, experiencing depression and problems becomes a really quick way to enlightenment.

I think it may even be better than tantra, in one sense, because tantra does not become a quick path to enlightenment if it's not performed well with the three principal paths, if Lam Rim is missing from tantra.

The other thing is when depression comes, think, "The past negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths is ending. The karma of this depression is ending. When depression comes, I'm ending my negative karma. This is purifying my negative karma." Then rejoice. Be happy instead of regarding it as harmful.

The third thing about depression is to think about how it happened. First of all, there has been ego in past lives, then attachment or anger, the cause of depression, then depression. Rather than taking it on oneself you give the depression back to the ego. In the past, due to broken samayas (commitments), depression happened, or due to having disturbed the minds of holy beings or of a virtuous friend. These things are the cause of depression, so it came from the ego.

What caused the depression is the ego. So, you use this depression like an atomic bomb to destroy the ego. You give it back to the ego and destroy the ego. The ego becomes non-inherently existent. Then meditate on emptiness.

These are three basic ideas. These are very important techniques for transforming suffering into happiness and peace. The same thing goes for any other problems. You use them to develop bodhicitta so therefore they are used on the path to enlightenment. They are used as a cause for the happiness of all sentient beings.

How are you using the depression to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible? By using the depression to develop bodhicitta for sentient beings, you collect merit as vast as the sky. You purify unbelievably negative karma. This is most powerful.

The third was is you use the depression like an atomic bomb to destroy the ego because it was given to you by the ego. You destroy the demon that doesn't allow enlightenment, that doesn't allow one to become enlightened, that doesn't allow liberation from samsara, that doesn't allow any realizations. This is the doorway to all the problems, all the harms I receive.

Basically, that's it. The other thing is to perform some preliminary practices to purify negative karma, such as Vajrasattva mantra recitation. You can also recite10,000 Samaya Vajra.

Long-Term Depression



Rinpoche wrote this letter to a person who had suffered from a low-grade depression for a long time.



It is very understandable that it is difficult to live in the West, where all the objects that give rise to desire are advertised constantly, in a society that puts particular effort into advertising those objects. When you are living in the family-life environment, also, you must expect hardships. This involves always fighting with the enemy, your own delusions, and having to defeat them. You have to do that as much as possible, for your own benefit, your own good rebirth and liberation, and, most importantly, in order to bring about all sentient beings' happiness now, in future lives, and up to liberation and enlightenment. One has to try as much as possible. It doesn't mean you must succeed all the time. It's as if you are living in the nest of a poisonous snake. Such an environment is not like the places where the ancient Tibetan, Nepali, and Indian yogis lived as hermits, in caves. For example, when you go sightseeing in Tibet, all you go to see is caves and statues. There's nothing other than that. So, of course, the overall environment is different, with much less distraction. Nowadays, there is more distraction in Tibet, since the communist Chinese brought in movies and other entertainments.

It is very important, too, to have a stable morning and evening practice. This is extremely important for stabilizing your life. It helps always to purify and collect merit, and if you are doing lam rim meditation, this brings you closer every day to enlightenment, for yourself and for all sentient beings.



Please read the book that explains where such problems like yours come from, called The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. Any problem you have, including depression, you can read about in this book, which explains how to use the problem to cut through the ego and self-cherishing thoughts. Self-cherishing is the main enemy to bodhicitta, which is what you need to achieve enlightenment and to enlighten all sentient beings. This is the best technique for you to heal your depression.



Try to always have deep in your heart, in your mind, an awareness of impermanence and death. Death can happen at any time. If you are able to keep this awareness, it will help you continue to practice, and will remind you to practice. It will also help stop a strong desire and clinging to this life, which lead to all the distractions and interruptions to your practice, to your mind, and to your life, and prevent you from putting an end not only to samsaric sufferings, but particularly to the sufferings of the lower realms. These sufferings are the result of desire. Detachment�renunciation�brings liberation, which helps to develop bodhicitta, which leads to enlightenment.

After getting up in the morning, rejoice that you did not die in the night. Rejoice in your perfect human rebirth, and at having met the Dharma. This human rebirth gives you the opportunity to create the cause of happiness, unbelievable happiness. Then rejoice at having met Mahayana teachings, which makes it possible to achieve enlightenment, and at having met tantra, which allows you to achieve enlightenment quickly, using every second of your perfect human rebirth�your one precious rebirth, which is like a whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. Without a human body, however much wealth you have, you cannot achieve enlightenment in this life and cannot stop rebirth in the lower realms.



Rejoice. This gives you a strong determination to practice, to live your life in bodhicitta. Think, "I must practice and live in bodhicitta, no matter how much unhappiness I have, and no matter how many problems or ups and downs I have with anybody, in any circumstance or any place."



The most important thing is to make efforts to develop bodhicitta. No matter how easy or how hard it is, keep in mind the thought of benefiting others and achieving enlightenment for others. That is the best attitude to have, toward your family and toward all others. As much as possible, perform all your other activities with that attitude.



Even if you are just going to the beach, go with that thought, wishing to benefit others. You might not succeed all the time, but you must try, since you want happiness and others' happiness and to eliminate suffering. This is the most important thing.



If possible, recite "Om Mani Padme Hung" while meditating on bodhicitta, the shortcomings of self-cherishing, and the benefits of cherishing others.

Make sure you set your motivation strongly before going to work. Make sure your motivation for all the activities in daily life is the enlightenment of all sentient beings. The important thing is bodhicitta. Set your motivation so that many actions become Dharma, the purest cause of enlightenment. And try to control anger by practicing compassion and patience.



With bodhicitta, you can change your life. Depression in the Family



Rinpoche spoke with a student who explained that difficulties with depression and mental illness ran in her family.



We need to see self-cherishing as the enemy. Everything we do should go toward defeating this inner enemy, and reducing the amount of self-cherishing. This then gives space for bodhicitta to grow.



Anything that happens today, positive or negative, if we look at it all as positive then we don't see the negative. There is no room for the negative, and then we get happiness. The root is our own mind. When we are mistreated, we are purifying past negative karma, and it helps teach us compassion, which leads us straight to enlightenment. Anything that hurts our self-cherishing mind can help us to actualize the path. When you are patient with sentient beings, they receive no harm from you. So, if you put a positive label on all occurrences, the rest becomes easy.



Bodhisattvas have no thought that arises for themselves. They only think of others, with their whole heart: all sentient beings.



If it were a simple thing to remove all the sufferings from a being, then all beings would be enlightened. Therefore, even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, there are still numberless sentient beings. This means it is not easy to help others. Buddha's job is to show us the path, to explain it.



Battling with Depression

Rinpoche heard that an old student, who had been battling depression intermittently for some time, had recently lapsed into a severe depression. Rinpoche wrote him the following letter, unsolicited. My very dear --,



Hi! I heard you went to another realm these days.

Remember many times in a day that if things can be mended, what is the need to be unhappy? Even if some things cannot be mended, what is the benefit of feeling dislike and being unhappy?

Change your attitude in life. Instead of cherishing the "I," cherish others. For one day, just think of others. Think only of their needs, their happiness, their liberation, and their enlightenment. Take that as your object of concentration for that day. Then try again the next day. Continue like that. Then eating, sleeping, whatever you do, try to do that for others.

The next thing is, any negative thought you have�"This is bad, that is

bad"�try to put it positively, thinking of it on the positive side. For example, when you think of samsara, think that you can be liberated from it and others can be liberated from it, because of emptiness. The main reason why you can be liberated, even from the sufferings of samsara, and others can be liberated is because things are empty and because of dependent arising.

Those are the main reasons.

If you think of your past negative karma, do the same thing. Think that it can be purified. Even the unhappiness that you experience, your depression, through this you are finishing your past negative karma that otherwise would have to be experienced as unbearable suffering in the lower realms for eons.

Not only that, because you made prayers so many times when doing Guru Puja to be able to experience others' suffering, praying for those sufferings to ripen on yourself when doing tonglen, you can think, "Now I have succeeded! Now I'm experiencing depression on behalf of other sentient beings, who are numberless. Each time I experience this unhappiness for sentient beings, I collect merit as vast as the sky and it becomes unbelievable purification of so many lifetimes of negative karma. I will experience this strongly on behalf of others."



Think: "Each time I experience depression or unhappiness for others, I become closer to enlightenment. That means each time I experience depression and unhappiness, I become closer to being able to bring others to enlightenment and free them from suffering."

What else is there more enjoyable to experience than this? What else besides experiencing problems or unhappiness for other sentient beings?

Bodhicitta is the source of all your happiness and success, and your bodhicitta is the source of the happiness of numberless sentient beings.

Each time you perform this practice, you develop bodhicitta. Therefore enjoy your life. Have a good time and good luck.

With much love and prayer...





More talks by Lama Zopa on this topic:

Transforming Depression







The best solution to purify the karma of having depression is to do the purification practice of Vajrasattva. As long as the karma isn't purified, you'll continue to suffer from depression again in future lives. Maybe you wake up in the morning feeling depressed for no particular reason. If you can't solve this problem through meditation it might help to just go to sleep, or go somewhere to rest, or take a nice drive somewhere. Otherwise you'll get upset, disturbing the people around you as well. When you're angry, all sorts of bad, uncontrolled thoughts can come into your mind. If you're depressed due to a certain situation then you can apply the meditation techniques that relate to that particular set of conditions. But if you just feel sad for no particular reason, it's best to practice bodhicitta. You can recite the verse from the Guru Puja, "Please bless me to realize that the disease of the self cherishing thought is the door to unwanted suffering." Blame the demon, the self-cherishing thought, for your problem of depression. Then recite the next verse, 'Bless me to realize that cherishing others, bodhicitta, the attitude that leads all mother living beings to happiness, is the door to every excellent quality." Another quote from Guru Puja is, "Even if all living beings become my enemy, may I cherish them more than my life." It's very good if you can recite these verses daily, especially when you feel depressed. Then you'll be using your depression to practice the meaning of these two verses; that all problems and suffering come from cherishing the 'I', therefore the I is the object to be renounced, to be given up. All your own and others' happiness, including all the realizations up to enlightenment- all perfections and happiness come from cherishing others- bodhicitta. Because all these good things come from the attitude of cherishing others, they depend on other living beings. Therefore living beings are to be cherished forever. You need to repay the kindness of all these precious beings, to help them however you can. How best to do this? They've been millionaires countless times, they've even been universal kings but none of this power or wealth has freed them from the sufferings of samsara. The best way to repay their kindness is to practice Lamrim, to transform the mind from ignorance, attachment and self-cherishing into wholesome, pure thoughts. By actualizing the path to enlightenment you can easily liberate other beings. Therefore the best way to repay their kindness is to meditate on and develop bodhicitta in your own mind. Taking Every living being is the source of all your past, present, future happiness. Generate compassion by thinking, "I'll take all their suffering and its causes (afflictive emotions and negative karmic imprints) including the fires of the hot hells, the ice of the cold hells and the unpleasant, unhealthy, ugly, unpeaceful and polluted environments of human beings into my heart." This eliminates the self-cherishing attitude. Once the self-cherishing attitude has been destroyed do a short meditate on emptiness. Giving After the self-cherishing has been destroyed, generate love by giving your own happiness, your merit, all the good things you have, including your body, wealth and possessions. All their wishes are fulfilled as if they had a wish-granting jewel. By giving them all these things you create unbelievable amounts of merit. You can recite mantra while they're receiving everything they want and need. Actually they don't know they really need. What they need is to meet the dharma. But if they don't understand the benefits of the dharma, they want something other than dharma. Receiving all these good things causes them to actualize the spiritual path, to purify the two obscurations (to liberation and enlightenment). They achieve the rupakaya (the form bodies of a buddha) and become enlightened. Think, "How wonderful it is that I can do all this for others! I've died many times in past lives while working for my own happiness, but it didn't accomplish anything. I'm still in samsara. I've never died while working for others. Even if I have to die for the benefit of others, for them to stop creating negative karma, to not be reborn in the lower realms and for their minds to become the dharmakaya and rupakaya and enlightened, it would be immensely worthwhile. Mediate on the extensive kindness and precious of all beings. "Every living being is the source of all my past, present, future hap. My own future buddha, dharma and sangha come from purifying my negative karma enabling me to attain all the realizations and to achieve enlightenment. All this happens on the basis of other beings. Therefore every sentient being is the most precious thing in my life. Anything other than working for living beings is totally meaningless." This includes experiencing depression for them. There's nothing to work for other than sentient beings. Anything else is totally meaningless. Experience depression on their behalf by thinking this isn't my depression but the depression of numberless beings, this is their depression, their suffering. To give them every happiness; including freedom all the sufferings of cyclic existence and the bliss of full enlightenment is fantastic! Feel the joy of it! This is their depression, so the most wonderful thing would be to experience it for them and allow all those suffering from depression to have every happiness. Then rejoice that you have this opportunity to experience this problem of depression on their behalf. "How fantastic it is that I'm experiencing this depression on behalf of all beings!" Do this practice of tonglen (taking and giving) in the morning, afternoon and evening. Think again and again, 'How lucky I am that I can experience this depression for them. I've made many prayers to take others' suffering onto myself, so now those prayers are being actualized. How fantastic this is! It makes my life so rich, so meaningful! How fortunate I am to experience this depression on behalf of all living beings." Think about the meaning of your life, a psychological method that makes a huge difference because much of the problem comes from your exaggerated concept of pain. It's possible to reduce or completely eliminate pain with the mind. "The purpose of my life isn't just to be healthy, wealthy, to have a good reputation, to be popular and have lots of friends. Even if I had all these things, it isn't the actual purpose of my life. Even if I live for 1,000 years or am perfectly healthy for eons, if I don't have love and compassion in my heart my life it's meaningless and useless because my life isn't benefiting others. Leading such a life would be empty. Therefore it doesn't matter what happens; if in my life there's health or no health; depression or no depression; cancer or no cancer, wealth or no wealth. The real purpose of my life is to make my death beneficial for others. Even if I have cancer, I'll make that experience beneficial for all beings by using it to develop compassion and bodhicitta, to achieve realizations and enlightenment." In this way the cancer becomes the cause of happiness. Depression can also be used to achieve enlightenment to benefit all beings in this and future lives, especially all those who suffer from depression- just like using snake venom to produce it's own anti-venom. You're using your depression to achieve enlightenment. In this way it becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings experiencing depression. Think, "The main purpose of life is to benefit all living beings, to free them from suffering and bring them happiness in this and future lives. Even if I have cancer, aids, depression or whatever, the purpose of my life is to bring happiness to all sentient beings by experiencing these problems on their behalf. " In this way depression becomes a quick way to achieve enlightenment. The same with cancer. Use it to quickly achieve enlightenment. If it's experienced for the benefit of others it becomes the quick path to enlightenment because experiencing suffering for others is incredible, unbelievable purification. This is excellent! There was one monk in Thailand who was walking around the country. He came across a big river. On the banks of the river was a woman with leprosy, with pus oozing out of her sores. She begged the monk to carry her across the river. He refused, on the basis that his monk's vows prevented him from touching women. After some time one of the monk's disciples came along and when he saw the poor woman, unbelievable compassion arose in his mind. Without hesitation he picked her up and carried her across the river, even though her body was covered with open wounds. When he reached the middle of the river the woman transformed into Vajra Yogini and took him � not just his consciousness, but also his body, to Vajra Yogini's pure land. This means that by now this monk has attained full enlightenment, because anyone who goes to Vajra Yogini's pure land is enlightened there. Being in a pure land is a quick way to achieve enlightenment if it hasn't yet happened in your present life. In this case Vajra Yogini took the aspect of an ordinary, pitiful woman with leprosy in order to stimulate compassion in the disciple's mind. This compassion quickly purified the heavy negative karma blocking him from seeing Vajra Yogini. In the case of the great Tibetan yogi, Milarepa, the karmic blocks preventing him to see Vajrayogini were purified by his pure service to his holy guru, Marpa. It's the same for you. If on the basis of feeling strong compassion you experience depression on behalf of all beings, this meditation of taking and experiencing the suffering for others is a quick path to enlightenment, just like the example of the monk. It's a quick way to achieve enlightenment because experiencing cancer, depression or any suffering for the benefit of living beings is unbelievably purifying. Suffering from depression can be a good thing because it allows you to easily see the pain of other people. By using your own experience of depression you can clearly feel the unbearable pain of many, many other people. There are so many people who are depressed and many others creating karma for future bouts of depression. Experiencing depression on their behalf might be even more powerful than practising tantra because if tantra isn't done correctly, on the basis of the three principal paths, it's not a quick path to enlightenment. When feeling depressed you can think, "I'm exhausting so much of my negative karma to have depression that I've accumulated throughout countless past lives." Rejoice! You should feel great joy about finishing the karma instead of seeing the depression as something bad. As it's said in Guru Puja, living beings and their environments are filled with unbelievable problems and sufferings, coming one after another like rainfall, sufferings that are the results of negative karma. "Please grant me blessings to see my depression as exhausting the results of my negative karmic imprints, and bless me to be able to always transform bad conditions into the path to enlightenment." You can recite mantra while doing this meditation. For example when you wash a dirty piece of cloth, the water becomes black with dirt. You don't see the black dirt as a negative thing since it means the cloth is getting clean. In the same way, when you practice dharma negative karmas can ripen causing you to get sick because you're purifying so much negative karma by practising dharma. So you should rejoice when you get depressed! Depression happens in the first place due to being under the control of the ego, self-cherishing, attachment, anger, broken vows and pledges and having disturbed the minds of holy beings and your spiritual teachers in past lives. This depression is caused by the ego, the self-cherishing attitude and the self-existent "I". So rather than accepting the depression, give it back to the self-cherishing attitude. Use the depression like a bomb to destroy the wrong conception of the I. Then meditate on the emptiness of the self-existent I. These are some ways to use depression to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. By using it to develop compassion and bodhicitta you collect merit as vast as limitless space and purify unbelievable amounts of negative karma. It's being used like a powerful bomb to destroy the wrong conception of the inherently existent I, the thing that caused the depression in the first place. It's the demon that has prevented your enlightenment, your liberation from samsara, all the realizations, and is the door to all your problems. You can also do some preliminary practices such as Vajrasattva to purify the negative karma that causes depression.