Are enlightened/ actualised people free from depression?

[clouffy]

Are they free from depression/ suicidal thoughts/ mental illnesses/ unhappiness?

If so it would worthwhile to seek it because I want to be free from these once and for all.

Though it seems paradoxical when enlightenment cannot be "achieved" through an "agenda"?

 

[Aakash]

YES enlightenment does solve all your problems just not the level of enlightenment that is easy to obtain 

you can start working on yourself now and make things better; but looking to solve your problems using enlightenment is not a practical solution to say the least. 

you'll be fishing in the ocean for a single fish. 

so i would just take the odds to use personal development work to solve your issue. 

but nonetheless it can help with understanding the problem of why you are suffering in more clear detail. 

overall the answer is both yes and no. 

[purerogue]

It can be achieved trough allot of things, simply all your "agenda"  will slowly dissolve , you have to start somewhere, there is to much information that makes you think stupid ideas, like you can't look for Enlightenment, as soon as you look for it you already went wrong way, although it kinda true, it happens gradually so to say, you not looking for it will be no different from anyone who is not looking for it, or tons of other information that is causing more harm and confusing people , then helping. 

[Jkris]

@clouffy Take treatment. Pursuing enlightenment requires a healthy body and mind. 

And enlightenment takes time. 

[Gabriel Antonio]

5 minutes ago, Jkris said:

Pursuing enlightenment requires a healthy body and mind. 

?

[Enlightenment]

1 hour ago, clouffy said:

Are they free from depression/ suicidal thoughts/ mental illnesses/ unhappiness?

Not free from mental illnesses

Free from mental depression, but not from very low energy states/no motivation to do anything etc.

[Jkris]

@Enlightenment so whats the solution for mental illness lack of motivation low energy? 

[Knock]

Enlightenment is not a cure all pill. 

Self transcendence is at the top of Maslow Heirachy of needs for a reason.

I recommend surpassing the lower foundational levels first.

[Anton Rogachevski]

@clouffy

I too come from a very problematic place of depression, anxiety, codependency and a messy life. The first thing I did when I'd watched Leo's videos for the first time was to take Meditation very seriously, and in addition to that, I worked on many other methods and principles that ensured my recovery.

First of all, you can't have the focus or energy needed to do enlightenment work if you have these, so solving them first would be wiser. Secondly, enlightenment work as Leo talks about it, is a very specific and narrow domain. There are many more tools and methods that will help you with depression and anxiety.

For example:

Sedona method, self acceptance, affirmations, gratitude, improving your material life, self reliance, 100% responsibility, authenticity.

-----------

The desire for happiness is indeed the desire for god. Nothing will ever fill that emptiness, other than god. For me, the best method to heal emptiness, and loneliness is 12 steps. Please check out my post about 12 steps.

Edited February 9, 2019 by Anton Rogachevski

[Nahm]

Yes.

The happiness you seek is what you are, the resistance (depression) is habitual thinking, and the believing of thoughts.

Happiness can not be “achieved”; when you let go of perspectives & patterns which aren’t serving you, you discover you are happiness. 

Stop repeating what does not feel good. That “feel good guidance” within you, start listening. 

[Aquarius]

Depends what you mean by depression. But either way, even if you get enlightened you need time to actualize your knowledge in daily, "real" life. 

Enlightenment can make you.. or break you. 

[Enlightenment]

@Jkris

9 hours ago, Jkris said:

so whats the solution for mental illness lack of motivation low energy? 

for mental illness, I don't know

for lack of motivation and low energy: coffee, Bupropion, low/moderate doses of Adderall, and from Leo recommendation - Modafinil

but be careful with using drugs, make regular tolerance breaks and don't use too high doses

[Aaron p]

@clouffy the way I see it...you can go to school, work your ass off and even get a good job to sit for 20-40 years at the end of your life enjoying ice cream and grandchildren and then die and cease to exist for all of eternity and NEVER...........E.V.E.R come back. Ever. And that's it.

 

Or you can spend this ONE, SINGLE chance to pursue transcension of all of these things. Becoming the knower of all truth, becoming one with the universe, becoming COMPLETELY aware of life's purpose and experiencing a life, fully enlightened...literally, as God himself. People throw their life away...the very fact we are even aware of this stuff is INCREDIBLY lucky. Definitely suffer from what you would call mental illness. I think it is what drives is partly...or what drives me at least. But I like it, I'd rather have it if it means becoming enlightened. I know I more than likely wouldn't be as devoted if it wernt for it. 

Plus I'm finding that the mechanics of how my mental illness functions are starting to decrease in strength. Great strength usually births from great pain. 

But yo mate...you really have to say fuck you to all the rules and be super creative with your practises and stuff. In my opinion, anyone who doesn't say "fuck the world and all of its rules" at some point in their life...isint the smartest. I feel like the one and only way to truly enjoy life to the fullest, is to FULLY accept Jesus and realise that EVEN IF YOU DONT GET ENLIGHTENED, doing the spiritual practises will have a profoundly positive impact on your human life. In my opinion, this is the only logical path. Infact, I think it's the only path...death comes to us all. That is what this is, the path of death. 

 

Rember! You need to say "fuck everything" including all the advice you get from this community of seekers. To experience fast and authentic growth you need to become independent, don't believe me or anyone else. For God's sake, take life by the balls...mental illness and all and don't stop squeezing until your sorted out. 

[Leo Gura]

@clouffy Many people end up doing spiritual practice precisely because they are fed up with depression and suffering.

Through spiritual practice, through consciousness work, you can learn how depression is caused by the meanings your mind creates, and you can train yourself to stop having those negative thoughts.

It is not possible to be depressed if you fully in the present moment, not lost in the conceptual past or future. But this will takes lots of mindfulness training to actualize. It's not enough to merely know it intellectually.

This issue is not just about enlightenment. It's about emotional mastery. You must become more conscious of how your mind creates emotional states and how it assigns meaning to an otherwise meaningless world. You don't need to be enlightened to start developing mindfulness over your emotions. Nor will enlightenment automatically give you mastery of your emotions.

I recommend to burn this candle from both ends.

In practice, you need some "agenda" to bootstrap your spiritual journey. You can shed the agenda later, once you're towards the end. Careful not to burn the bridge before you've crossed.

[Truth Addict]

@clouffy I don't know about other people, but I was super depressed and unhappy, and now I am the happiest person on earth.

I'm not enlightened yet, but I'd say that understanding yourself, mind and emotions, is very rewarding.

[clouffy]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

In practice, you need some "agenda" to bootstrap your spiritual journey. You can shed the agenda later, once you're towards the end. Careful not to burn the bridge before you've crossed.

 

@Leo Gura thanks! I used to "resist" agenda for achieving a goal and end up nowhere because i failed to realize that "you need to start from lower level/ perhaps extrinsic motivation" first before you can ultimately transcend the agenda...and sometimes the "agenda" hinders your development because you are too attached to the goal...and hence the ego backlash and all other things that hinder progress. maybe the answer is to be mindful of the agenda, and slowly moving towards that goal, and not let the weight of the goal consume you...

[Shadowraix]

I can't speak for enlightenment but I can say my journey has allowed me to be content and happy way more. To the point where it takes some major event to bring my emotional state down and even then I handle it incredibly well compared to how I used to. And I know it only gets better from here

[Joseph Maynor]

I think in general yes.  The whole point of Enlightenment Work is to take pressure off your Ego.

Edited February 10, 2019 by Joseph Maynor

[axiom]

On 09/02/2019 at 5:42 AM, clouffy said:

Are they free from depression/ suicidal thoughts/ mental illnesses/ unhappiness?

If so it would worthwhile to seek it because I want to be free from these once and for all.

Though it seems paradoxical when enlightenment cannot be "achieved" through an "agenda"?

 

No.

Enlightenment is nothing but the revelation that the body and anything it appears to do is not you. You don't have any control over the body nor its thoughts, and you never did. Depression can still happen, and suicidal thoughts can still happen. But you - not the person you think you are - are no longer attached to these things.

Edited July 17, 2022 by axiom

[puporing]

Challenges can still very much happen. Different kinds of them perhaps. How to adapt to a world that has almost no understanding of your view of reality, not even the "spiritual/eccentric ones", and how everything is constructed around that. Being torn between letting that go/getting drowned by noise if you have to be around egos and the atheistic paradigm. This is one of the main reasons I think getting survival handled is so important. Because once you get a taste of truth it's hard to be around untruth for long.. not necessarily depression just, can be very challenging and create almost a splitted self.

Edited July 18, 2022 by puporing