Modern approaches towards depression and stress are not working as they do not understand the mind that creates them. It’s time to rethink our approach.
This article does not advise substitution of prescribed treatment of depression with meditation. But it does argue for meditation to have an important role in countering depression.
Why are we failing to counter stress, depression and other mental health challenges
We inhabit two worlds. First is the physical one, which hosts our bodies. The second is the mental one, which hosts our consciousness. It is through the second (metal) that we experience the first (physical) and react to it. While we understand a lot about the physical world, we do not understand much about the mind which hosts our consciousness.1 As Science understands the physical world better than the mental world, its approach towards solving mental health challenges is through the physical world. It usually targets its solution at the brain (an entity in the physical world) mostly through chemicals (read medicines) and largely ignores the mental world. That is why depression, stress, and other mental health issues are such a widespread problem today.2 If we well understood how the mind works, we would all live much happier and stress-free lives. This ignorance about “what is the mind and how can I manage it” leads to many of today’s mental health challenges.
Depression and stress are not part of the physical world. They does not exist there; they are not created there. They are created in the mind as a reaction to what is happening in the physical world. The mind is a black box to scientists, who struggle to understand even the basics about it. They have been trying for a long time to understand the brain (a physical entity) because they are a lot more comfortable studying the physical world. But, even so, they do not fundamentally understand how this squishy organ hosts a nebulous thing like a mind. As they don’t understand the mind, the solutions they come up with to handle mental health challenges are not very effective. Judging from the widespread mental health crisis we face, the present approaches are not working.3
How do we address this problem then?
We need to peer inside the mind in order to be able to address stress properly. But how do we do that? Modern science is not in a position to help anytime soon. One possibility is to look at what ancient spiritual masters of India have taught and check if their prescriptions help. After all, they came up with meditation and yoga — exercises that are now widely accepted as beneficial,4 though science may not understand how they work. The good news is that the ancient masters also shared valuable insights to manage mental health challenges. They left us a rich body of knowledge, and from this can emerge multiple solutions that promise to be more effective than the ones most people use.
Given my reading and understanding of the ancient books, here is a 3-step process to manage depression and stress.
Step 1: Understand what’s happening inside the mind
In a series of earlier articles, I have talked about how Indian spiritual texts help us understand the workings of human mind. These are referenced below, at the end of this article as “Recommended Reading”. Here’s an overview to these articles: the mind appears to be formidably complex because it has several forces at play and different forces dominate it at different times. We struggle to understand it because we do not sense the underlying forces5 at work and only observe outcomes in terms of feelings and actions. We do not sense these forces because they are very subtle. Recommended articles below describe key mental forces at work and help us understand how they interact with each other, as though they were people. Once I understand the “personality” of each force and how this “person” behaves and interacts with other “persons”, it becomes much easier to discern what is happening inside my mind. And it becomes easier to sense the forces in my mind.
In my understanding, in many cases, depression and stress have their root cause in our inability to understand and manage the mind. Over a period of time, this lack of active mind-management can create a negative vortex of thoughts and emotions. The original triggers can come from external events or factors beyond control (like medical condition, traumatic event, and genetic predisposition).6 In most cases, there appears to be a spiralling down in the mind’s thought and emotional patterns that may be arrested and reversed with better understanding and control over the mind.
In my series of articles on understanding of the mind, the central villainous figure that emerges is “Duryodhan”, the personification of a mental-force I call “momentary desire”. This desire is what a person wants at any given moment. Duryodhan is thus the human character in the story who is equivalent of the force inside the mind. He is restless, stubborn, and implacable. He knows no morals and will go to any lengths to get what he wants. He can be restrained only with external constraints (social, familial, or legal) and not by himself. Inside the mind, if the force of Duryodhan becomes too powerful, the mind can quickly become a dark place.
A typical person would not know how to restrain Duryodhan within. His dominance makes for a restless and frustrated mind that keeps looking to satisfy an insatiable Duryodhan. Inside such a mind, there persists an unstable (and possibly unhappy) equilibrium. This state ensures that the person is not happy even if he had everything he needs. He will look around and find reasons to be unhappy based on what he wants but does not have. Such a mind remains vulnerable to be tipped into a downward spiral. It may be held together through a precarious mix of things such as daily routines, family members, social and family pressure, work requirements, and so on. Any one of these could tip the balance in a wrong direction. The person himself is not a mere observer, but he may also not be as strong as one might think. We can probably conclude this based on the increasing number of mental health cases that are coming to light today.2
Step 2: Use a targeted meditation technique
Once the lay of the (mental) land starts becoming clear, it starts becoming obvious that the central villain inside the mind is Duryodhan. He creates an unending list of problems in the mind if he does not get what he wants. These wants can change from one moment to another. Some can also persist for a lifetime, and there can be many such unfulfilled wants that can surface at anytime to make a person miserable. Such misery is co-created by a host of other bad actors that are led by Duryodhan.7 So, it becomes important to subdue him. But one needs to understand that like all key bad actors of the mind, Duryodhan cannot be defeated in a “fair fight”. Re-phrased: conventional approaches like suppressing momentary-desire or ignoring it will not subdue the underlying force. It is very strong, tenacious, and relentlessly stubborn. By its nature, it is never satisfied although it often presents its want as one whose fulfilment would lead to lasting happiness. Duryodhan abhors compromise and brushes aside consideration of any harm fulfilling his wants may cause. He has no code of ethics and will go to any limits to fulfil what he wants, including the complete destruction of everything around him.
To be defeated, Duryodhan must be transcended, not suppressed. And, that means that each time the force he represents tries to acquire strength inside the mind, it is detected and then defused through a technique learnt through the TAME meditation (with practice, this becomes as easy as breathing).8 Meditation is the most effective thing because forces like Duryodhan are subtle and so, cannot be countered at the more gross level at which our normal thoughts and actions work. One needs to counter Duryodhan at the level at which he operates.
When this meditation technique is practiced over a period of time, it starts becoming available to the person outside of the meditation time as well. This availability is a huge blessing since it allows a person to subdue bad mental actors and instil peace within the mind. After some practice, this technique is just one-breath away.
It is also important to remember that the aim here is to address the problem at it’s level of origin. The problem at hand (depression or stress) is being tackled at the mental level. This will not directly change the reality of the physical world (although it could indirectly, if it is used to improve our thinking, behaviour, or problem solving). Regardless, it can help reduce the distress in the mind. It is important to remain conscious of this separation. When we face challenging situations, that is when we most need the mind to remain calm and focused. After using this technique, our externally-visible response to the problem may or may not remain the same. But, the mental reaction can become a lot more comfortable. Besides, if stress or depression is not going to change reality for the better, it makes sense to cast them out using this meditation technique.
Step 3: Persevere and Practice
Learning this meditation is like learning to walk. And just as a child demonstrates perseverance when faced with stumbles till he is able to walk, similarly one may need to push through initial wobbles while learning this meditation. The more one practices, the easier this technique is to apply reflexively when the mind faces any stressful or depressing situation. The best way to do this is to practice this technique routinely, ideally through meditation everyday. And, it works best when combined with adequate sleep, a healthy diet, and exercise.9
Closing note: Different stages of advancement
As a person gets more skilled at this meditation technique, she will see an improvement in how she is able to handle stressful, depressing, or other negative situations. At first, the thoughts permeate the mind and are then removed from there using TAME skills after they have created some level of distress. With advancement, a person is able to block out thoughts that are formed from permeating the mind, thus preventing the distress they may have caused. So, as soon as the negative thoughts spring up in the mind they are thrown out with TAME technique. As a result, the mind is stopped from dwelling upon the thoughts or getting bogged down in a morass of negativity. In more advanced state, the thought can be prevented from even forming. Just as a negative thought is about to be formed, it is sensed and discarded in its embryonic stage itself using the same TAME meditation skills. Finally, the mind is so completely at peace that negative thoughts do not arise at all. For most people, this last state usually happens only during deep meditation and does not stay during non-meditation time.
Each advance takes practice and self-awareness to sustain. Surprisingly, even while a person is elated by the ability to cast away negative thoughts with ease, she may sometimes “forget” to use the skill. That is to say that she still knows how to use it but did not use it when could have because she was so engrossed in her work or thinking. She may go about her day and suddenly realise that she is wallowing in negative thoughts or emotions and should have thrown them out earlier. She just did not act when she could have. This “forgetfulness” is normal, especially in early stages of mastering this technique. The good news is that as soon as a person becomes conscious of the negativity in the mind, she can cast it out with the next breath.
Recommended Reading
The Advanced Meditation Exercise (TAME): This meditation technique is an incredibly powerful way to keep the mind peaceful. It is prescribed in Bhagwad Gita, the primary book of Indian spiritual heritage. It derives its power by activating three key things in us: detachment, stillness, and transformation.
Why TAME meditation appears to work better than other techniques: TAME meditation appears to be more effective than other meditation techniques because it activates three essential elements of meditation: detachment, transformation, and stillness. Meditation needs all three.
Scientific Spirituality: A scientific, experiment-based approach towards spiritualism and ancient Indian texts could serve us well.
Controlling the mind: It is possible to acquire significant level of control over one’s mind. The approach may need to be radically different from what you might expect.
Controlling the mind – Article 2: Second in the series of articles on controlling the mind based on learnings from the Indian epic of Mahabharat. Here I cover the bad actors within the mind.
Controlling the mind – Article 3: Third in the series of articles on controlling the mind based on learnings from the Indian epic of Mahabharat. This post covers the good actors within the mind that bring peace and happiness.
Footnotes
1: Refer this article. Modern science struggles to understand the human brain. And the mind, hidden inside that brain, is his that much more further from our reach.
2: Here is an article on how mental health is affecting an increasingly large number of Americans. And this article talks about how this is a global problem. This article that mentions how widespread the use of anti-depressants is in the western world.
3: Refer this article that reports that anti-depressants fail to improve quality of life.
4: For example, meditation appears to help with a lot of medical conditions and so does yoga. But the studies like the one in the preceding meditation link do not rigorously follow a single meditation technique – and for this reason miss out on significant benefits that can be delivered and detected. Here is another article that concludes that meditation brings benefits but misses out on anchoring its technique to ancient texts (which are more rigorous about it). In my experience, this rigorous brings significant benefits compared to the other approaches out there.
5: This is partly due to our ignorance. And that is why the first recommendation is to understand what happens inside the opaque blackbox of the mind.
6: Depression can be caused by many factors. Some, like genetic predisposition, are out of control of most people. Others like chronic illness may be as well. See article.
7: For example, Duryodhan’s younger brother (Dushasan) represents anger. Anger springs up when a person does not get what he is wishing for. And just as Duryodhan’s wants can appear and vanish quickly, so can anger. Another example of Duryodhan’s accomplice is his close friend Karna, personifying motivated reasoning and frequently advising Duryodhan that he deserves what he wants. In his interpretation of Mahabharat, here are some characters that Yogananda identifies as personifying Duryodhan’s brothers: worry, pessimism, bitterness, dissatisfaction, immoderation, and revengefulness. The entire cast makes for an impressive list of human frailties – all serving at Duryodhan’s pleasure.
8: The technique is also described in epitome of ancient Indian texts, The Bhagwad Gita from Verse 6.11, though not in a lot of detail. In my article, I have tried to elaborate on how this meditation may be done. In a subsequent article, I have described how this meditation can be used to neutralise bad actors such as Duryodhan when they try and disturb the mind. This second article also shows how this technique may be used in a variety of ways to keep the mind peaceful.
9: Good quality meditation is difficult in a sleep-deprived condition. And it is not a substitute for regular exercise.
Special Mention
Yogananda’s book, God Talks with Arjuna, is perhaps the best source out there for studying the interpretation of Mahabharat and Bhagwad Gita. My interpretation of Mahabharat characters is, in part, informed by this book and is also based on my personal experience. For this reason, my interpretation is at times different from Yogananda’s.
