Taoism was founded by
Lao Tzu. He created this philosophy so that people can be deeply related to the
nature or his surroundings. It refers to the power which envelopes
surroundings; all things living and non-living. Some of his teachings and
quotations are:
- " Be still like a mountain and flow like a river" = means that we, people, should go with the flow. And that is also one of the main teachings of Taoism.
- " Be still like a mountain and flow like a river" = means that we, people, should go with the flow. And that is also one of the main teachings of Taoism.
- " There would be no love without hate, no light without dark and no male without female." = means that for every thing (whether living or non-living), there is always an opposite side or part of it. That belief is also called the Yin-Yang.
Depression, in the Taoist view, can be looked at in 4 levels
of depth:
- Spiritual,
- Mental,
- Emotional and
- Physical.
At any level, depression is an inner conflict of an
individual. Spiritual depression is not a health problem and medical science cannot
deal with it. The other three types can be helped by various healing arts,
because they are all connected to chemical and body energy imbalances.
In the simplest way of understanding, depression is an
emotional conflict with the logical mind and physical/chemical hormonal balances
of the body. There is a good chance that if you can logically and completely
solve your own inner conflicts emotional and/or chemical imbalance can be significantly
improved or even normalized.
In the most cases, depression is involved with hormonal
imbalance, usually between the pancreas and adrenal glands. These glands can
simulate emotions as physical and behavioral patterns. The brain can also
secrete hormones to govern the emotions.
Note that in some cases, if you know why you are feeling
depressed, it is harder for you on to work on your hormonal chemical balances. If
you do not know why you are depressed, it may be easier to alter your condition
with antidepressants, at least on the behavioral level. That may be related to unsteady
blood glucose level, causing frequent anxiety. The former case is an energy condition
of so called ‘broken heart’, or ‘Closed Heart Chakra’. The Heart Chakra is the
bridge between the upper and middle Tan Tien.
Among the seven Chakras, the fourth Heart Chakra is the
center that has the role of connecting mind and physical body. The Heart Chakra
works like the fourth dimension (Time dimension). It allows the Mind (5-th
dimension), the Spirit (6-th dimension) and the God (7-th dimension) to connect
with the physical body.
Having a broken heart means, that the person is having
difficulty harmonizing two existence’s of self, the mind (spiritual existence)
and body (physical existence, the reality). The body will only manifest what
goes on in the mind. As your mind is moved, according to the brain, hormones
are released to physically express the feeling, in other words, emotion. Even
if we assume that hormones alter your mood, the natural order of feeling is led
by brain’s logical process, and only then hormones are released from the brain
itself and other glands.
In order to deliver the logical (mental) stimulation to the
endocrine system, the Heart Chakra has to evoke and distribute the energy stimulation
by resonating. For example, a physically perfect person can logically determine
that he/she is happy, but he/she might not feel that way and no
glandular/hormone response is achieved. Another common example is in the
statement saying that the brain is the most important sexual organ. Here, the
brain includes both the feeling mind and logical decision making mind. The
feeling mind does not come from hormonal emotion. It is the feeling before the
emotion triggered/reinforced by hormones. It is the same energy the Heart
Chakra resonates. In the Taoist spiritual teaching, the Heart Chakra is the
center of feeling, love; not the Eros, but the logos.
Having the Heart Chakra functional means no conflict of mind
or no miscommunication between mind and body. The body cannot fool the mind, or
the mind cannot fool the body. When the mind is in harmony and when body and
mind is in harmony, there can be no emotional conflict caused by hormone
imbalance. The precise emotional manifestation supported by the glandular
system is always voluntary and conscious, and they are the home work for us to
get spiritual; they are not the conflicting or blinding factor with unknown
cause.
The Heart Chakra can evoke proper hormone balance at once.
In short, an individual with full functional Heart (Chakra) cannot be depressed
in the true sense.
Historically, the effort of helping depression has always
been either by psychological or chemical treatment. Often, one finds self in a
deep spiritual escape route that eventually crashes for lack of a foundation,
(accepting or understanding of the multi-dimensional existence of self).
By organizing the Eight Psychic Channels, especially the
Chong Mai, the segments of energy sources that were in one unit, in one
location, the Heart Chakra, can be restructured. When the Heart Chakra is
mended, one gets another chance to attain harmony within one’s own mind and
between the mind and body. And, it can be achieved with his/her clear wisdom,
through all difficult experiences, and without losing one’s own mental activity
or chemical influence. The Heart Chakra becomes like a time machine that puts
all past (memory), present (reality) and future (spiritual destiny) in one
place, and allows one to put them in perspectives. That is how depression is
neutralized; through the perspectives.
Even if there is no way to mend a fragile Heart (Chakra)
permanently, being able to see the truth of multi-dimensional reality, in a
bird’s eye view, can aid one’s attainment of understanding, which in turn,
helps to eliminate depression, which is mere a conflict within.
An interesting observation of metastatic breast cancer is
that depression starts out from the Heart Chakra and affects the balance of the
two glands - pancreas and adrenal gland. The pancreas is a part of the
nourishing system of body. The adrenal gland is a part of the
urogenital/reproductive system. After prolonged and strong mood swings, the
stress of the glands affect the reproductive organs (uterus, ovary, etc.) and
the immune system (a self defining system) and the absorption of self
nourishing factors, both in the physical and mental level. Mental suffocation
from fear, anger, sadness and insecurity manifests in the diaphragm which is at
the same area as the Heart Chakra. Stress accumulating in the uterus and
ovaries form some type of abnormal masses. When such abnormal activity
persists, the lung takes the impact, but it can conveniently relocate the
impact on the breasts with the help of a tense diaphragm. Because, the breasts
are the nourishing organ by the mother for us in the past, and for others
(children) in the future, and the lungs are sensing outer atmosphere and
defending the frontier of self, the lungs can resist longer than the breast. If
both organs are ready for cancer, the breast takes the impact first to retain
life longer. When the nourishing fails, the defense fails next. When the self
existence concept is not clear, the immune system is not clear about making
boundaries between self and others (pathogen).
As a result, the stress originating from the Heart Chakra
(awareness of self), depression, can eventually affect the function of
self-forming/nourishing (digestive system, pancreas,) and
self-maintaining/defending (immune, lymphatic and respiratory system, adrenal
gland). The self that cannot exist strongly or breathe with (communicate or
express) the outside anymore becomes a small existence going into a
non-existence. And, the defense force gives in to the outer force or the
existence of others. Such abnormal stress eventually moves to the marrow and
brain which is the deepest physical and mental manifestation of self in the
physical dimension.
So, in simple words, when you feel that you are suffering
from depression, Taoism teaches on how to flip everything around. So you should
get to understanding and acceptance of the fact that you should not suffer from
depression. Instead you should learn to embrace it, understand it, accept it,
work with it and modify your life accordingly, in potential to shift your life
in a positive manner.
It is not easy to resolve depression in this manner, since it’s
a dynamic process: full of practice, exercises, actions, philosophy, and life
style modifications to balance out your nature in a full manner. But, at least
Taoism gives you direction and means on how to move on this way.
Sources and Additional
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