Offering False Hope

On Sunday I put up a Note called "Enlightenment and Depression." It was about those who suffer with clinical/chemical depression, and how by seeing through the body/mind, it is still possible to live as Love. It was well received, and many resonated with it's message.

The following day, another Facebook friend, put up a Note saying that "enlightenment " or "awakening " could turn that around, and even suggested that the DNA could be changed. I must admit that this Note made me rather angry. Regardless of the language, which basically called those with depression, people with a "victim mentality ", it was the offering of false hope that upset me.

It was my intention to let people with depression (myself included) know that "awakening " is happening "right now " in the present moment, even in the face of apparent depression. I wanted to say that Love is what you are, even if sadness, even despair, is present in your mind. In my Note of response, I questioned why someone who claims "awakening " could make such a hollow promise of hope.

The first response I received from the writer, was "An ugly distortion by a depressed mind ". Not a very kind remark, but it made me laugh, coming from one who makes a point of touting his "love and compassion ". The personal remarks aside, he later wrote that "my writing is meant to offer hope." And therein lie the rub! Hope is holding out a carrot of some future event that will make "everything blissful and pristine ". Not going to happen!

There is only the present; the past and future being only in the mind. To offer hope is to make a false promise of "change", even a change in DNA, in some imaginary future. Hope lives only in the future! Even the Christ had his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and turned it into acceptance. He asked the Father to remove it from him, but he knew it must be endured and accepted. His suffering in the face of being an actual victim, did not give him a "victim mentality", it gave him the opportunity to accept and surrender. Depression gives us such an opportunity.

To offer false hope, when acceptance of what is, is the only answer, is cruel. and misguided. Like hope, Depression lives only in the mind. Living in the heart accepts the "externals ", pleasant, or not. Pleasant or unpleasant are only judgments of the mind, and have no power over the understanding that Love is what you are.

Peace