--- In [email protected], Rodney Yasushi Horikawa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Susan, thanks for a great thought provoking post... > > You know, I get that in modern Western psychology depression is viewed as a > dysfunctional mental state... And I get that the state of ³depression² > exists along a continuum and that in certain cases there is very much > chemical balances that may require pharmacological interventions.. > > That said, in the ³psychology² of spirituality doesn¹t depression have a > more ³functional² role on the landscape of praxis? For example, doesn¹t both > Christian and Buddhist practitioners of meditation recognize the ³dark night > of the soul² as a critical ³stage² of the path? Isn¹t (spiritual) depression > a state to be embraced? > > I¹m currently reading a wonderful book entitled ³Japanese Death Poems > Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death². Like > practitioners of tea ceremony and calligraphy, Zen haiku poets aspire to > evoke/attain a ³state of consciousness² called ³mono no aware². Edward > Seidensticker, the brilliant translator of the ³Tale of the Genji² defined > ³mono no aware² as the deep spiritual sadness that occurs during the > simultaneous perception of beauty and the transitory nature of all things. > Ivan Morris, the late great scholar of Japanese literature, defined ³mono no > aware² as spiritual pathos/depression. In any event, it can be argued that > if spiritual depression was not embraced in certain circles of Zen, much of > haiku, tea ceremony, calligraphy, etc would simply not have existed... > > So my question is what exactly is the role of depression if any in our > Zen Buddhist practices? > > Gassho, > Rodney
If anybody ever cares what I write, I will someday be credited with coming up with the term "emotional metabolism." :) I believe that emotions are essential and natural. They are part of human functioning and are not to be denied. One book I read called emotions "emotional signals" that are intended to convey to us some sort of message. We need to find out what they mean to us. But the dysfunction arrives with attachment to emotions, positive or negative. And this is where Buddhism comes in. Our meditation practice, IMO, speeds up the process of "metabolizing" our emotions in the same way that physical exercise incrases our ability to healthily digest food. So I view depression as a prolonged attachment to one of these emotions, thus an anomaly that needs to be worked on by whatever means are available. This may include some type of therapy with some kind of professional, but meditation, IMO is the healthiest therapy there is. It is the practice of simply dealing with your emotions directly, and confronting them in a relaxed and concentrated state of mind. It's natural and it's human. Not only meditation, but the rest of the eightfold path as well. When one is living one's life in accordance with sila then the meditation becomes easier, the process of mental metabolism is helped because there is less to "digest." -DaveK ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
