This too shall pass

I was very much inspired by a story told by Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth, Chapter 8, "The Discovery of Inner Space"). This story is based on a Hebrew folktale. The version in the Israel Folklore Archive at the University of Haifa (see Wikipedia) is as follows:

King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words "This too shall pass". The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.

Depression is a difficult thing to live with. I'm not sure I understand it. A psychologists could probably give you a good analytical description. I tend to think of it as "Bleakness of the Soul". It happens when you lose hope, when so many bad things have happened to you in the past, that you have nothing to look forward to in the future.

Past ...... future. This is linear time, where the moment is conditioned by past and future events. We keep travelling back and forth along this path. Because we can't change the past, it's the future events that do us in. They exist only in our imagination. When we dread a repeat of the past, we call on our reserves of hope to get control of the future in order to chase away our anxiety. Depression is what happens when we run out of hope. Fending off depression is based on how much hope we have in reserve. Some have more than others. However, the reserve is finite, and depression can happen to anyone.

Why invest in the future, hoping that it will someday pay off? What if we can step out of linear time and stop living with the painful past and the frightening uncertain future? Why not just BE in the moment?

Today I am feeling a little blue. Things happen. Life happens. I have been doing what everyone does when they feel this way, look for what I can change in my life so that this suffering will go away. I've analyzed past events, I tried to figure it all out, I started wishing I hadn't done this or that, on and on it went. All in an attempt to desperately try to drive away these blues.

Then I thought of the words, "This too shall pass." The wonderful thing about this is that no matter what I do right now, what I am feeling will pass. All that mental energy that I am using up trying to sort it all out won't change things one iota. In fact, these mental exercises could actually make things worse.

So, instead, I will just live with the blues today. It won't kill me. I will just BE in the moment.

Linda