Mediation techniques can greatly help to cure depression, & other unwanted mental/emotional states, and generates within a person a very positive optimistic viewpoint of oneself, and of life. Buddhist Philosophy and Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation, mindfulness and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. To most people Buddhism is an ancient Asian religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness. But to the 14th Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the 14th Dalai Lama recently told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state. Yes, the 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of over 580 million buddhists worldwide. Yes, he is also the head of the Tibetan government in exile. But in the spirit of Buddhism the Dalai Lama has an inquiring mind and wishes to expand human knowledge to improve lives. At its core, Buddhism is a system of inquiry into the nature of what is. He believes that psychology and neuroscience have gone as far as they can go in understanding the mind and brain by measuring external reality. Now that inner reality--the nature of consciousness--is the pressing subject du jour, the sciences need to borrow from the knowledge base that Buddhism has long cultivated. A comprehensive science of the mind requires a science of consciousness. Buddhism offers what MIT geneticist Eric Lander, Ph.D., called a "highly refined technology" of introspective practices that provide systematic access to subjective experience. Yet Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. Over the past 25 years, starting with his own personal interest, the 14th Dalai Lama has set up discussions with Western scientists in an effort to further knowledge about the emotions. The recent meeting, held at MIT, was actually the eleventh in a series of annual conversations sponsored by the Colorado-based Mind & Life Institute. But it was the first one that was open to other participants. The Buddhist view of how the mind works is somewhat different from the traditional Western view. Western psychology holds to the belief that things like attention and emotion are fixed and immutable. Buddhism sees the components of the mind more as skills that can be trained. This view has increasing support from modern neuroscience, which is daily providing new evidence of the brain's capacity for change and growth! “Buddhism uses intelligence to control the emotions. Through meditative practices, such as mindfulness of breathing, loving-kindness meditation, and insight meditation, awareness can be trained and focused on the contents of the mind to observe ongoing experience. Such techniques are of a fast growing interest to Western psychiatrists, psychologists, and cognitive behavioral therapists, who increasingly see depression as a disorder of emotional mismanagement. In this view, attention is hijacked by negative events and then sets off a kind of chain reaction of negative feeling, thinking and behavior that has its own rapidity and inevitability. Techniques of awareness permit the cultivation of self-control. They allow people to break the negative emotional chain reaction and head off the hopelessness and despair it leads to. By focusing attention, it is possible to monitor your environment, recognize a negative stimulus and act on it the instant it registers on awareness. While attention as traditional psychologists know it can be an exhausting mental activity, as Buddhists practice it it actually becomes a relaxing and effortless enterprise. One way of meditation is to use breathing techniques in which you focus on the breathing and let any negative stimulus just go by--instead of bringing it into your working memory, where you are likely to sit and ruminate about it and thus amplify its negativity. It's a way of unlearning the self-defeating ways you somehow acquired of responding catastrophically to negative experiences. Evidence increasingly suggests that meditation techniques are highly effective at helping people recover from of depression and especially very useful in preventing recurrences. Medication may be needed during the depths of an acute episode to jump-start brain systems, but at best "antidepressants are a halfway house," says Dr. Alan Wallace PhD. When you have identified your major problem through meditation, whatever the problem is that is bothering you terribly, you should then sit there, relax, and call up this emotion in your meditation. Whether it is anger, jealousy, pride, envy, greed, loneliness, depression, anxiety, summon it here. Look at the essence of this emotion that makes you suffer so much. The mind is the root of all our experiences, for others and for us. If we perceive the world in an unclear way, confusion and suffering will surely arise! It is like someone with defective vision seeing the world as being upside down, or a fearful person finding everything frightening. We may be largely unaware of our ignorance and wrong views, yet present the mind it can be compared to a wild tiger, rampaging through our daily lives. Motivated by desire, hatred and bewilderment this untamed mind blindly pursues what it wants and lashes out at all that stands in its way, with little or no understanding of the way things really are. Mindfulness meditation helps us see things, people, situations, clearly – as they really are. The wildness we have to deal with is not simply that of anger and rage; it is much more fundamental than that. The tendency to be driven by ignorance, anger, hatred, and greed enslaves us, allowing confusion and negative emotions to predominate. Thus the mind becomes wild and uncontrollable and our freedom is effectively destroyed. Normally we are so blind that we are unaware of how wild our minds really are. When things go wrong we tend to blame other people and circumstances, rather than look inside ourselves for the causes of the suffering. But if we are ever to find true peace or happiness it is that wildness within which must be faced and dealt with. Only then can we learn to use our energy in a more positive and balanced way, so that we stop causing harm to ourselves and to others. The meditative techniques of Mindfulness of Breathing, Insight Meditation and Loving-kindness Meditation greatly aids us in curing depression, anxieties, anger, rage, hatred, greed, and creates Optimism within.
Excellent Beginner’s Books to read and practice are: (1) “The Beginner’s Guide To Insight Meditation” {This is a most Excellent book to get started with, providing a very Positive, Optimistic View) By: Arinna Weisman & Jean Smith. (2) “Open Heart, Clear Mind” By: Thubten Chodron (Her teacher was the 14th Dalai Lama). (3) “Working With Anger” {& other difficult emotions). By: Thubten Chodron. (4) “The Heart of Forgiveness” {A practical path to healing ourselves) By: Madeline Ko-I Bastis. And also (5) “Transforming The Mind” By: The 14th Dalai Lama.
Source: Psychologist with a Master's Degree.
2007-02-05 07:10:12
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answer #1
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answered by Thomas 6
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You sound like me when I was a teen. I felt so lost often time and wished that I was dead. But, let me clarify what I think you really mean, you don't wish you were physically dead, you wish that your every day situation was dead. You can change your life you know. Start by volunteering for a charity or organization that helps people who may be less fortunate than you. Try to finds out what your strengths and talents are and focus on that. Finally remember this, no problem or situation will last forever. Before you know it high school will be over and a new challenges (exciting ones) will begin in your life afterward. Good luck.
2007-02-05 03:32:26
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answer #2
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answered by Sharisse F 4
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I'm really sorry that you feel so bad. I myself went through what you are going through. I had 2 prior suicide attempts with a loaded gun that only by God's intervention got jammed both times. Once a fluke, twice a miracle. Then I went to see a psychaitrist because I was so low and felt I had nothing to live for. I was diagnosed Bi-Polar and was to find out that due to a chemical imbalance in my brain, it tricked me into thinking all the depressing, suicidal thoughts. It was not my fault. I have been on medication now for 3 years, I love my life, my medication does not make me drowsy or out of it. I have my life back now. Please see a professional about this, it is not scarry. Psychaitrists listen to your symptoms and prescribe medication. therepists are the ones that talk and talk to you. You can also start with your physician. Please don't let your chemicals in your brain trick you into taking your own life. Trust me, you can have a full life again with proper medication and be happy.
2007-02-05 03:52:04
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answer #3
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answered by LuckyMo! 2
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See your counselor at school and ask about tutors. I'm sure they have a tutoring program at the school that can help you out.
Your guidance counselor can probably give you some advice in this arena and you should take advantage of it.
Your larger problem is of course that you are suicidal. You need to see a doctor immediately. There are medications that can help, and you really need to talk to a professional psychiatrist or psychologist. Please don't hurt yourself. You will devastate the people who love you, and trust me, there are people who love you.
Make that appointment dear, get some help, feel better.
2007-02-05 03:51:55
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answer #4
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answered by Firespider 7
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Ypu are Wrong if you think no one would miss you. You need to reach out to someone. School doesnt last forever and dropping out shoulnt be an option. Cause if you drop school you have to work and believe me school is Alot better. Do you belong to a church? Have a school counsler? Both are good place to TELL someone how you feel. I would miss you--please don't do something that cannot be taken back.
2007-02-05 03:39:02
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answer #5
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answered by Extra Blue Note 5
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Your day will come;you'll find your place in this world. No-one should die without fully realizing their potential as a human being; without experiencing all the joys and wonders and blessings of this world --- why should you miss out, and others not ? It is your right by just being born.
2007-02-05 03:48:44
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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wow are you emo or something wot could be so wrong in your life that would make you want to die? theres nothing.... but maybe there is for you thats not the right thing to do even if you feel it is and you never know that someone wont miss you because you wouldn't be here to see it if it did happen. try doing something that you like and get a hobby maybe life wouldn't be so hard.... :P
2007-02-05 03:35:45
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answer #7
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answered by marie 2
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Please read about depression and how it can affect you. If you think you might be depressed then please go to a doctor as soon as possible and tell him/her how you feel. It is very important to find somebody to talk to about how you feel. Look up 'emotional support' on the internet and see if there are any support groups or any help lines that you could phone.
Have a look at
www.samaritans.org
they are very kind people
Please take care of yourself, life seems really bad for you now, but i promise it wont always be bad... things can only get better for you. And please seek support for your emotions
2007-02-05 04:33:55
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answer #8
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answered by Zag 4
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Please. PlEASE find someone outside of school or home that you can talk to. Find someone, like a priest, a minister or just a good Honest friend who will listen and help you thrugh this difficult time.
It's not all bad. The best is yet to come. At times I think school is hard just to make us all enjoy the rest of our lives.
Please. Before you go that route, find someone you can talk to and talk a lot. Not about killing yourself, talk about the problems, how to get over them or how you can get around them.
2007-02-05 03:33:57
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answer #9
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answered by Marvinator 7
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i was in your position a few years back. Just hold on for a little longer and you'll find your purpose. That's what ahppened to me.
2007-02-05 03:29:33
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answer #10
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answered by christigmc 5
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you need to see your counselor and get help for depression,tell your family how you feel,no one should feel this way,there is a better life for you you just need medication
2007-02-05 03:32:09
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answer #11
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answered by kat_luvr2003 6
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