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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Om Swami
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June 10 - June 14, 2020
At the root of all emotions patients of depression experience, there are three primary feelings: first, a sense of insecurity; second, a sense of vulnerability; and finally, a sense of isolation.
You feel trapped and helpless, like the leviathan elephant that is cowed into submission by a small goad. You still have strength and abilities, but the tiny piercing of the goad is so powerful (the unpleasant surprise) that you just bow down and submit.
Deep somewhere the giant in you knows that you are much stronger than the mahout, and you are far bigger than the goad; but recalling the pain and the fear of that pain being inflicted again enfeebles you.
Like Oscar Wilde said, ‘All of us are in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Pain may linger for a little while, but suffering starts to subside when you accept: ‘Fine, it has happened now. Let me deal with it. I’m not going to let my past ruin my present or dictate my future. I’ve come to the realization that it’s not the goad (event) itself but the mahout (life) who is causing my pain.
And I have only two options: either I break free and go to live in the woods where I belong or I negotiate with the mahout.’
This breaking free has nothing to do with the physical world; it is but a mental perspective. When you negotiate ...
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Depression is a fracture of not just your mind, it’s a fracture of your very being – everything you thought you were or stood for feels broken.
Sometimes, strange as it may sound, depression is the body’s way of telling you that certain things you’ve long been ignoring need your attention. Any event that triggers depression may thus be viewed as a wake-up call. If you don’t wake up yourself, though, life will then wake you up the hard way.
You sit here for days saying, This is strange business. You’re the strange business. You have the energy of the sun in you, but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine. You’re some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace, so you won’t have to become coins. – Rumi
Happiness should be natural to us, because we are beings of joy; we are born out of love. Even the umbilical cord that nourishes us for nine months – the very connection with our mothers – is cut right at birth to mark our freedom. There are no strings attached. We are happy, we are free. Or are we? Happiness should be natural to us, but it almost seems we have to constantly work towards it – we feel that we should catch the cloud and hold it in our grasp rather than just be as it is.
It is as if you thought happiness were your soulmate, but she turned out to be a courtesan instead.
Sadness, though, can easily become depression when it chooses to stay in your mind longer than you can bear it. It no longer remains just sadness then – which may just be a temporary emotional state – it becomes depression, which is a lingering state of being.
When you don’t allow time for yourself, you can’t receive the light in your life. It’s like you are in a sunny place, but you have built a room around yourself with no windows or door.
Depression is disconnection. The more disconnected you feel from yourself, the more distant and stranger everyone else appears.
The more you feel ‘I don’t know me’, the more you feel ‘I don’t know you’.
it’s never too late to work towards what you find meaningful. Passion creates opportunities automatically; and purpose fulfils them effortlessly. It’s far more gratifying to dance with your dreams than to be deprived of them.’
Ayurveda states that 95 per cent of all diseases in the body originate from the gastrointestinal tract.
‘You see, it’s not how much the water pot weighed but how long you carried it. The longer you hold it, the heavier it feels. Gradually, you feel weaker and weaker before you find it unbearable.’
Desires are just that – desires. No one has ever gained eternal happiness by chasing their desires, for they are endless.’
Rumi once said, ‘O seeker, these thoughts have such power over you. From nothing you become sad, from nothing you become happy.’
Meditation, not sleep, is the true restful state.
The practice of still gazing is called trataka.
Do trataka for ten minutes before going to bed, and you will have a peaceful sleep and a calmer mind when you waken.
When you no longer react to your thoughts with this meditation, a strange thing starts to happen: the gap between one thought and the next increases. This gap is a sort of quietude, a type of mental stillness.
When you go to sleep, make sure you start by sleeping on your right side. This activates the lunar channel, left breath, and brings down your body temperature.
‘I don’t know yesterday,’ Buddha said. ‘I know only today.’
This great emotion, this most healing of all processes, is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the hardest of all human emotions. It is also easily the most divine.
Whatever it is that you are holding on to, it’s restricting your freedom – it’s limiting you. Freedom is strength, it is love. Let go.
Not all sadness is depression, and peace is not about being free from stressful work. It is about seeing purpose and finding joy in what we have to do.
The American psychotherapist and author Eric Maisel expresses a most interesting view of sadness, which he refers to as ‘unhappiness’: Let us be mature and truthful and accept the reality of unhappiness. It is not the coloration of life, but it is certainly one of life’s colors. Moments of unhappiness happen. Days of unhappiness happen. Unhappiness can cloud a year or a decade. This does not make you ‘disordered,’ and it is nothing you should feel embarrassed about.
If depression is comparable to a physical disease, it’s certainly not just a common cold – it’s more like a tumour. It could be benign in some or downright cancerous in others. Either way, it needs attention, because it is debilitating. Unlike many physical afflictions, though, it is curable; we can emerge from depression and lead happy, healthy lives. And that’s just about the only kind side of depression.
As William Cowper wrote once, ‘Your sea of troubles you have passed, and found the peaceful shore; I, tempest-tossed and wrecked at last, come home to port no more.’
This is how suffering feels in depression: that it will never end, or that your world has ended. But you know that this is simply not true. You have had countless beautiful moments also – and you will continue to have beautiful moments if you persevere with wisdom.
Gratitude is the antidote to intense sadness. You can either be grateful or you can be sad. Take your pick.
Go. Serve and grow. Gratefully.
food chart of acidic and alkaline foods, http://omswami.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ acid-alkaline-chart.pdf.
