Depression as a wake-up call

As of late, the theme of depression has come up often: in speaking with people who were interested in the Healing and Awakening online group, in working with people in spiritual mentoring and counseling, as well as in questions people ask during non-dual spiritual events and satsangs. The more 'inner' and spiritually aware and sensitive people are, the more, it seems, they are also likely to be dealing with depression. This includes myself, as there has been depression in my life's unfolding. The depression lifted increasingly as I was willing to inquire into it, instead of being afraid of it when I felt well or suffering through bouts of it when it showed up again. One of my break-through moments of inquiry is captured in the poem below.

As I see it now, from both a psychological and spiritual perspective, the emptiness and lifelessness of depression call us to discover true emptiness, which is also what is truly alive in all of us. Most psychological and therapeutic perspectives will look at ways of filling the emptiness and finding aliveness at the level of the personality, or suggest anti-depressants. For spiritual people, this will invariably not feel quite right, not quite to the point. And you are right! Depression ultimately calls you to find your own light, the truth of yourSelf: that which animates even the depression. It is a wake-up call in the truest sense of the word.

Read More