Alright. So so we have a cheerful topic tonight, depression. Is the Buddhist view in the sense that it could help. Maybe the Buddhist view it could help. So there’s no guarantee.
Actually, it’s very simple, quite simple. Buddhist point of view, the contentment, you know, contentment. If we want to make it really short, but I’m afraid it’s, know, you just came for, you know, maybe you came here from far away. I’m afraid it’s too short, so I have to say more. But actually, it’s really simple.
Buddhist point of view is contentment. Contentment is the antidote to depression. So contentment, content life, in a contented life, in the sense of simplifying one’s life. By simplifying one’s life, one becomes content. And if one is content, there is one hundred percent guarantee, one hundred and one percent guarantee, you know, one can’t experience depression because they’re totally the opposite.
So the content person can’t be depressed. You can’t be content but, you know, of course, the point is, well, how to be content? Yes, you know, how to be content? That’s the question. But if one is content, simple life, simplicity, simple life, that is the answer.
Buddhist point of view, that is the answer to depression. Prevent, you know, prevent. But of course, one can make it more complicated, it may appear too simple. Buddhism, in accordance to Buddhism, we don’t have just one problem, you know, like, for example, like depression. We have one million problems.
Even if we solve the problem with depression, then we have another one. So then we have anger, then we have jealousy, then we have envy, we have fear, we have So Buddhist point of view, we have infinite problems and none at the same time. So we have infinite, there’s no number to our problems. So that’s why Buddhism doesn’t really look at depression as such, as an issue, as a problem. Buddhist point of view is just a characteristic of life.
Buddhist point of view, it can be even more depressing. Life is, you know, very unsatisfactory. Buddhist point of view, life is dukkha, you know, very unsatisfactory, suffering. Life is suffering. They’re much worse than depression.
So there is no, we are one hundred percent. With depression, one can come in and out, goes in and out of depression. So one can have maybe one day, a couple of days a week, you know, it’s fine and relaxed, then maybe a month of depression. But Buddhist point of view, life is totally, it’s much worse than depression. Dukkha, you know, and that’s the very first thing that Buddha taught, dukkha, to realize the unsatisfactory nature of life, which for the, as Buddha put it, for the childish like person is very depressing, yes.
When one hears that life is unsatisfactory, become very depressed, even more depressed. But the intelligent person, when he hears that life is unsatisfactory, he stops the very thing, the very thing that makes us depressed and angry and sad and everything, which is craving, you know, craving, craving desire, craving desire. So the intelligent person, when he hears that life is unsatisfactory, worthless, in the sense, nothing really to be attached to. Therefore, stop attachment. When we stop, it is when we stop attachment craving desire attachment that then we begin, then begins to live.
One begins to live, to relax. That’s where peace begins. That’s why Buddha emphasized a lot suffering, but not in terms of pain, but we will see later in what sense. Depression is not is a mental experience, it’s an experience. An experience like visual perception, sound perception, perception, a tactile sensation, taste, concept, mental state and so forth.
They are all experiences that arise dependent upon many things, upon the brain, yes, upon the body, upon external phenomena. But what Buddhism calls the mind is the experience. The mere experience is the mind. Depression is an experience, it’s a mental experience which arises from many things. Therefore, we can talk of many, many, many causes of depression.
There are many causes. So there are causes and conditions. So, many causes and conditions. Some nowadays they even talk about food, you know. Some people say even food, some type of food make them depressed.
But depression is not like cancer or AIDS, a disease that even if you are careful you get it. Even if you are careful with what you eat. Even if you are careful at the place where you live, one can still, you know, one can still get a tumor, cancer. And also if one is, you know, even if one is careful about relationship and so forth, still can get AIDS. So, even if we are very careful, we can still get it.
See, but that is not the case with depression. Depression is a mental thing, a mental experience, purely mental experience, which arises and depends upon, as I say, many things. But it can be prevented, you know, it can be prevented. Of course, here, now we are talking about very mild depression, yeah? We are not talking about, here, I’m not talking about like chronic, severe, just the one that you and I experience from time to time.
Ups, down. Unhappiness. Maybe if we call it unhappiness instead of depression, it feels better. Know? Instead of calling it depression, we call it unhappiness, it feels good.
Already that’s what it is. You know, it’s unhappiness. It’s an experience of unhappiness, that’s what it is. And it is a mental experience. So the mind, unlike the body — the body needs the disease in order for it to be removed.
So we can talk both of we can talk of antidotes in relation to the mind as well. Antidote. So antidote to anger like patience, the antidote to dissatisfaction, contentment and so forth. But the antidote in relation to the mind is very different, you know, the antidote that we apply with regard to the body. So with the body, for the antidote to work, need a disease.
If there is no headache, you know, if there is no headache, it doesn’t make any sense to take a pain killer. So if there is no fever, then it doesn’t make any sense to take an aspirin. So we need the disease and therefore it removes. So with regard to the body, therefore the disease, we can talk of removing, removing the pain. But with regard to the mind, we cannot talk of removing.
So with regard to the mind, as the mind is made of moment, moment, mind, moment. When we talk about the mind, we’re talking about the experience, as I say. So therefore, these experiences are moments, a moment of a perception of sight, a moment of concept, a moment of sensation. So these are all minds. These are mind.
There is no mind somewhere, no, there is no such a thing as mind, and then perception, concept, emotion. That very thing is the mind. This very thing is what we call mind. So that’s why, you know, in some scripture we find this statement, you know, the mind, the mind is no mind.