Dear Monk: Depressed and Peaceful?
Col wrote: Dear Monk, I’m unsure of the truth of your claim that someone can be peaceful and depressed at the same time.
But, but Col! I just called you adorable! :)
Here is the thrust behind the idea:
“A guiltless mind cannot suffer.” This is the same as saying, “The forgiven mind cannot suffer.” Since all pain is only in the mind and all pain comes from guilt, a forgiven (guiltless) mind will not feel pain.
So a mind could see the ravages of war and be at peace. It could see the ravages of its own diseased body and be at peace. And this would be so whether the ravages were in the physical or psychological body. A forgiven mind would see and experience the unreality of the body — namely, its unreality to affect the mind.
As we forgive ourselves the external world will still have lots of problems in form, they just won’t affect our peace.
Wars and murders will continue, selfishness will continue, and so might a disease in our aged body continue or suddenly appear.
Furthermore, “someone” in the Real World could choose a particular disease as a classroom for those around them, and yet not suffer at all, though their body might appear to be ravaged. One of those diseases could even be depression.
Col writes: Ok.. I’ve changed my mind again.. lol. You’re absolutely right. You *can* be peaceful and happy about feeling depressed.
I knew it! You ARE adorable!
Col writes: It’s just that when you get peaceful and happy about feeling depressed than I don’t think you’re depressed any more. =)
Yeah, that’s exactly the point. YOU aren’t depressed, but who knows what your physical or psychological body might be doing. Your leg might fall off, your adorable-ness might vanish, and you wouldn’t care. You might be getting strung up on a cross, big honkin’ nails driven through your palms, and you wouldn’t feel any pain. You might be sitting on the edge of your bed staring at the chicken of depression in tears… of laughter.
When we choose the ego it shows up in all sorts of ways, depression being one. But our body is just as much outside of us as another’s body. If we can look at someone else and their depression, and observe it with Jesus, we will be peaceful. The same goes for watching our body.
The reason you wouldn’t feel pain is because you wouldn’t be identified with the body, and that’s because you wouldn’t be identified with the ego, and that’s the cause of pain… and it’s now causeless.
