Today is World Mental Health Day, the annual global celebration of mental health education, awareness and advocacy. Every year the focus is on a particular aspect of mental illness and for 2014 the theme is "Living with Schizophrenia".
Now if there is one area where Buddhism really connects in a relevant, dynamic and contemporarily meaningful way with the modern world it is in the field of mental health.
The Buddha’s teaching is all about the mind and how it leads us to suffering and the Buddhist practise of meditation allows us to focus on the workings of our mind and to peer beneath our conditioned behaviours and to see clearly what is actually going on. By settling our “monkey” mind our constant verbalisation and running self commentary are stilled and all of our “selves” can drop away. Put simply, Buddhist practice, drop by drop, changes the way our brains and thus our minds work – for the better.
“What Buddhists contribute is a richness of direct observation of mental process and an ethical underpinning which concurs in most ways with the broader ethical views of society. Beyond its obvious contribution of methodologies for calming and focusing the mind, it offers an understanding that whilst critiquing some Western attitudes to the self, increasingly aligns with practical approaches being offered by secular agencies in the treatment of ill health. Most importantly, though, it is grounded in a view of compassion and wisdom as the cornerstones of human improvement. Such basic commodities as must indeed underpin whatever attempt we make to be of service to others.”
Caroline Brazier - READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
I profoundly appreciate the clarity and thoughtfulness of this article.I believe that Buddhism does not by any stretch of the imagination help us with mental illnesses,yet rather it helps us settle on better choices.Through there,we will have the capacity to have self transformation that at last take not be dismal.This is essentially on the grounds that that we will have the capacity to pick our own particular feelings.Thus,I believe it is a direct result of the showing that we get that helps our psyche to change,then eventually help ourselves.
ReplyDeleteSo in life, it is a consistent decision.We will be doing choices each and every snippet of our lives.So why not decide to be more happier?
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SANT AJAIB SINGH JI False successors