How can I use Buddhist practices to deal with depression?

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Remember that the nature of your mind is clear light, that it is Buddha-nature, so you can be free from all problems. The delusions, all the stains of the mind, are temporary. All delusions have beginnings and can be ended. Depression results from non-virtuous actions caused by delusions in the past. But suffering which comes from delusions can be pacified. The Buddha explained all the methods and the path to do that. By practising them, you can definitely overcome suffering from depression.

If you have depression because of a particular situation, say a relationship problem, meditate on that situation. If the depression comes without any reason, then meditate as I shall explain below.

You have a good heart, and you can develop this and expand it to all sentient beings. Just like what the Buddha did when he was a bodhisattva, he cherished each and every sentient being and offered extensive benefits to them.

There are many meditations on thought transformation, but the best one is to use depression as a weapon against your self-cherishing thought. The self-cherishing thought is like an enemy. It likes to harm you with depression. So use the depression that the self-cherishing thought has given you in the same way — you hit back at the self-cherishing thought, which so far hasn’t allowed you to achieve enlightenment, not even liberation from samsara, or even any realisations. It has only made you suffer for beginningless rebirths, up until now.

As long as ego, the self-cherishing thought, dwells in your heart, you will remain trapped. It will hook many problems onto you, especially obstacles that hinder you from practising the Dharma. Ego won’t allow you to have any attainment in the future, not liberation, not enlightenment. The ego keeps you mired in samsaric problems, and continuously tortures you in samsara.

When you think only about your own happiness, thinking of it as the most important thing, you are actually being dictated to by your own ego. But each time you are kind to others, you are thinking more about others’ happiness, there is not the slightest thought about your own happiness.

When depression comes, use it against the ego which has given you the depression. Think and rejoice, “ How wonderful it is to have depression. This means I have succeeded in my past prayers to experience all the sufferings of other sentient beings, especially all their depression. I am experiencing this for all sentient beings who are experiencing depression now and who will experience it in the future.” Doing so can destroy the ego.

By experiencing this for others, for countless sentient beings, depression becomes the path for you to achieve enlightenment. It becomes the path to enlighten all sentient beings, and the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. So, this should be your top meditation, it is the best one.

You can use both methods: using depression to destroy the ego and experiencing depression for all sentient beings. By using your depression to generate bodhicitta and develop bodhicitta, your life becomes more meaningful than not having depression. If you did not have depression, your life would be filled with distractions and you wouldn’t practise Dharma sincerely, experiencing suffering for all sentient beings. Your depression gives you the opportunity to do that all the time.

Bodhicitta is letting go of the “I” and cherishing others - letting go of the “I,” from which all sufferings come, and cherishing others, from which all happiness comes. All one’s past, present and future happiness come from cherishing others. This is the most precious thought. By training the mind in this, you completely illuminate the whole path explained by the Buddha. The self-cherishing thought causes depression and all the problems, all the delusions: attachment, anger and especially, the root of all sufferings — ignorance — which is not knowing the ultimate nature of the “I” and the ultimate nature of the aggregates.

Using depression to develop compassion enables you to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. It enables 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.

In this way, depression becomes like a precious wish-fulfilling jewel that fulfils your own wishes and those of all sentient beings for happiness: the innumerable hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, devas, and beings in the intermediate stage.

The secret to a happy life and the key to stopping depression and all undesirable, unpleasant things simply depends on your mind in labelling things as positive.

Even though suffering is the result and product of past negative karma, if, in this life - today, this minute, this hour, this second - you can look at a situation positively or think about its benefits, you experience a good, positive, pleasant feeling instead of a negative one.

So when you experience a problem, think about the benefits of the problem, and how the problem can help you to develop compassion, loving-kindness, patience, wisdom and all the positive qualities of the path to liberation.

By thinking of the benefits, you develop this precious quality of positive thinking, which brings happiness and stops you from harming yourself and from giving harm to your family and all living beings.

With positive thinking, you are able to transform problems, obstacles and undesirable thoughts into something meaningful and beneficial. You are able to make your life meaningful. Thinking in this way brings you inner happiness and satisfaction. This wish-fulfilling thought is an unbelievably precious gift that brings forth all positive qualities of the mind and all realisations, inner happiness, satisfaction and fulfilment.

Even a billion dollars or all the wealth on this earth cannot buy this experience. If you generate these peerless, positive thoughts, you can turn any situation (such as somebody getting angry or abusive with you, or experiencing failure, or your friend becoming an enemy or a loved one leaving you) into something precious: they become the causes for happiness.

Training the mind in this practice is the best psychology. When the mind is positive all the time, you are able to bring so much peace and happiness to the whole world, to the country, to your neighbours, to your family, and to yourself. In this way, your life is like the sun — constantly dispelling darkness and radiating warmth and light to every corner of the world, so that everyone can enjoy it. Your life shines on all living beings, giving peace and happiness not only to countless human beings but to countless animals. That’s incredible!

If one is able to think like this, then there is no better life than this; this is the best life, the most satisfying life. If one thinks like this, it doesn’t matter when death happens, because your mind is totally happy and satisfied. When death comes, you have no regrets, and you are so full of joy and bliss.