Sometimes when I get concentrated, there is fear of becoming crazy because in the past I experienced some clinical depression, it almost made me crazy, how to overcome that?

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

17 September 2024

Question (F):  Sometimes when I get concentrated, there is fear of becoming crazy because in the past I experienced some clinical depression, it almost made me crazy, how to overcome that?

Than Ajahn:  Well, you can be confident that practicing meditation will cure your craziness. It will not make you crazy. The only thing that makes you crazy is because you don’t follow the instructions. So long as you follow the instructions, it’s going to be okay, and if you have any problems you should check with your teacher. Then, you will not go crazy.

If you practice on your own and you start to think on your own, then you can go crazy that way. But as long as you can keep calm and can stop your thoughts, you will never go crazy. You only go crazy when you think too much. So, when you’re afraid, it means you are already thinking, then you should stop that thoughts.

You should use a mantra. Remind yourself, ‘These are thoughts that I should not be thinking about. I should be emptying my mind from those thoughts.’ Then, nothing can make you crazy. The thing that makes you crazy is your own thoughts. You think, and think and think, and then you go crazy with what you think. But if you use a mantra, then you can stop your thinking and you will not go crazy.

Question (F):  I’m diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), so my mind easily gets stress and panic compared to normal people. In the medical world, it’s due to lack of some certain chemicals in the brain and I have to take some medication, like anti-depressant. After I started meditation, I felt that as long as I can hold the mind and keep being mindful, it works better than the medicine itself.

Than Ajahn:  Yes, you don’t need any medicine to cure your mind. The medicine only cures the body but it doesn’t cure the mind. The cause of your mental problem is in your mind - your lack of mindfulness and lack of right understanding of sensibility.

So, you should try to develop mindfulness and after that, try to learn to think in the way of wisdom or insight. Then, you’ll be able to get rid of your mental problem. You don’t need any medicines. The real medicine is the Dhamma medicine - mindfulness and wisdom (paññā). These are the two Dhamma that can cure your mental illness.

Question (F):  Can it be said that most of mental problems can be cured with meditation?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, because all mental problems arise from the lack of mindfulness. When you have no mindfulness, your mind generates all sorts of emotions and sufferings which you don’t know how to stop - that’s the problem. But you can stop these things by using mindfulness. Just keep using a mantra. 

Eventually, all these things generated by the mind will stop and disappear because the mind stops generating it. As soon as the mind stops thinking, everything will be calm and peaceful. And you will be happy. So, this is the thing you need to do: to stop your mind from thinking. And the only thing that can stop it is mindfulness.

(F):  Okay, thank you.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 7, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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