Is Emptiness Actually Depression?

[Bill Wiltrack]

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This is what you are looking for.


You're welcome.



...now, I will resume accepting any serious responses to this thread.



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[attofishpi]

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This is what you are looking for.
You're welcome.
...now, I will resume accepting any serious responses to this thread.
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I'm going to stick with my reasoning...for two...as all sentient beings are.... (we are for two parents)

Oh shit Bill, guess that means i dont owe you one.

Ah heck

Is emptiness actually depression?

Most buttons, even the keys on that keyboard of yours require some sort of spring to return the key to its prior position. If that spring fails then the key is going to remain depressed.

Hope that helps.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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We have two parents is what you are looking for.


...think you were reaching 4 U 2 have used that example.


...again, serious responses are welcomed now.





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[attofishpi]

We have two parents is what you are looking for.
...think you were reaching 4 U 2 have used that example.
...again, serious responses are welcomed now..

Bill with all due respect you didn't quite grasp my point...the u aint required.

In relation to your 'admirable' quest is emptiness actually depression.

Well if something is empty, then it has no potential energy. Hence with my example of a key with no spring remains depressed, the spring was the potential energy to return the button to its original state.
If something is empty...ie you...then no matter how much a middle aged dog like me pokes you (hoping you will return to your former undepressed state) it aint gonna happen.
CAUSE YOU IS EMPTY

so to answer your question YES emptiness is depression.

[Arising_uk]

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This is what you are looking for.


You're welcome.

Nah! I'm looking at a bit of fun extending the Adams 42 meme and think I've found an essay that adds to it. Although Adams himself said that he was just looking for an ordinary number and made it up.

...now, I will resume accepting any serious responses to this thread..

It's clear that this is not a serious thread but just another of your temporary emotes and fairly insulting to those with depression to boot. As you say that you find no interest in the little media things but apparently spend all your time upon the weeb.

[sjeff70]

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I like your post and I appreciate you taking this thread seriously.


I'm not sure I understand completely what you meant.

Are you are saying I need to do more? Meditate more completely? Be more compassionate?


...or are you saying that what I am experiencing is part of the path or a path?





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The song indicates being present. We often live in the past and/or future.

Meditation has two components: 50% wisdom and 50% merit. The merit aspect is rarely mentioned. For example we can't expect to do whatever we want and expect a good result (karma). Doing good deeds for other's sake is often difficult because we are wrapped up in ourselves.

Goods deeds are difficult because the ego is very fragile. It seeks revenge, however small. People are often misunderstood because we judge them by our own standard.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Doing good deeds...the way you explain it...I'm, not, understanding...If you are doing good deeds for someone else to get good karma, aren't you really doing that for yourself? which is self-centered.


I think we are trapped. Trapped at this doorway to hell...


We can cover this doorway with rainbows & kittens for a while...but in the end...ALL OF US are the same; frightened, self-centered, & stupid. Words, no matter how filled with kittens, don't matter. Don't matter at all.


Fear and emptiness are what are left when the kittens and rainbows fall away.


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[Blaggard]

Speaking as the worlds biggest "expert" on depression, being as I have suffered it every year since 14 and will do till I die - regardless of what happens to medical science - I can move to the equator, but the fortress wont let me.

It's shit, it's horrible and that's not ennui, or nothing. Nothing is good; depression makes you anxious, even paranoid, makes you think like a mad person, question values you never held for reasons you never knew; it's a shitter but... it's hardly nothing.

My advice you should probably turn off the TV and do something less boring instead outside of your house. But then what do I know I am hibernating in a straw box atm, or more aptly a pillow fort and if you touch my stuff I will cut you, yeah move on chump, this is my pillow temple, in my pillow castle: besiege it all you will but I am asleep... I ventured out last week, it was warmer I was hungry, thought winter was over- never again, place is full of zombies... :[

[attofishpi]

Speaking as the worlds biggest "expert" on depression, being as I have suffered it every year since 14 and will do till I die - regardless of what happens to medical science - I can move to the equator, but the fortress wont let me.

It's shit, it's horrible and that's not ennui, or nothing. Nothing is good; depression makes you anxious, even paranoid, makes you think like a mad person, question values you never held for reasons you never knew; it's a shitter but... it's hardly nothing.

My advice you should probably turn off the TV and do something less boring instead outside of your house. But then what do I know I am hibernating in a straw box atm, or more aptly a pillow fort and if you touch my stuff I will cut you, yeah move on chump, this is my pillow temple, in my pillow castle: besiege it all you will but I am asleep... I ventured out last week, it was warmer I was hungry, thought winter was over- never again, place is full of zombies... :[

Blaggy me old mate. Sorry to hear that...hey what doesn't defeat us makes us stronger..no? Its the sonething i have little experience of thankfully.

Hey at least its your philosophy now forum birthday eve...and someone gives a fuck...i know this is gonna go stale by the time its your birthday.

[sjeff70]

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Doing good deeds...the way you explain it...I'm, not, understanding...If you are doing good deeds for someone else to get good karma, aren't you really doing that for yourself? which is self-centered.


I think we are trapped. Trapped at this doorway to hell...


We can cover this doorway with rainbows & kittens for a while...but in the end...ALL OF US are the same; frightened, self-centered, & stupid. Words, no matter how filled with kittens, don't matter. Don't matter at all.


Fear and emptiness are what are left when the kittens and rainbows fall away.


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Of course. The challenge is doing without getting your ego involved. You offer the merit outward and away from your ego.
It's what they call an offering in Mayahana. I thought you were a little buddha, Bill???

[Gee]

Bill;

I agree with Blaggard. Emptiness is not depression. Emptiness is empty, but depression is full -- it is full of sadness.

Clinical depression is assumed to be related to our chemistry, as chemistry affects emotion. People suffering from this type of depression often battle it their entire lives.

There is also depression that is caused by circumstance, and this depression often leaves us when the source of depression is removed or passed, such as grief when someone you love dies. Or a new job if you are having financial problems. Or a cure if you are having health problems.

All of the above relate to negative emotions. Emptiness implies NO emotions.

I am not even sure that it is possible to be alive and to have no emotions. So I suspect that the emotions are there, they are just hidden or denied. We might hide or deny emotions because we don't like or want them, in which case a visit to a psychologist may be in order. We also might hide or deny our emotions because we are too sophisticated to accept them, in which case we think too much. A surprising number of people do this.

I was listening to a CD in which Nickelback was doing a song entitled, "Good Times Gone". The singer kept repeating the chorus of "Where'd the good times go?", and I thought to myself, the good times didn't go anywhere, you just changed your expectations. The hill that you used to climb up and roll down still exists; the trees that you climbed still exist; the bird nest in that tree with little beaks peeking out still exists. When we grow and our expectations change, we become too sophisticated to enjoy innocence and simple wonder. I suspect that this is where the emptiness comes from.

How does one recapture innocence and wonder?

Gee

[uwot]

How does one recapture innocence and wonder?

The moment you realise that grown ups don't know what they are talking about, it'll come flooding back. (Unfortunately, it is unlikely to cure depression.)

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Although I don't follow any type of Buddhism, including Mahayana Buddhism, I have tremendous respect for those who do and I think the discipline is quite fruitful.

I do think I experienced some sort of enlightenment. However, strange as it sounds, enlightenment, the way I experienced it, has almost nothing to do with the reality that we or I experience.

I know that doesn't make any sense.

If I could say something that actually has some possible benefit for the PhilosophyNow members & distinguished guests, I have always found that any type of philosophical breakthrough has always been preceded by TREMENDOUS depression or unforgiving hopelessness.

I don't know if this pattern will effect me now but I seem to be emerging from an inescapable 2 month blanket of complete depression. I cannot see a connection but our overall psych is invisible to us.

This time there seemed to be an emptiness. Beyond a description.





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[Blaggard]

I don't know, I am philosophical even about philosophy atm. I suggest using a magic 8 ball.

[Buddhist guy]

Hang in there Bill. Some years ago, I went through a crisis of "meaning". I felt colossally depressed and nihilistic for about a year because I felt that the meaning of my life was contingent upon there being a "thing" called meaning out there that was either there of not there. Until it dawned on me after a lot of therapy that "meaning" is an abstract concept and purely contextual(The meaning of making a cup of tea is that I am thirsty and enjoy tea). There is no meaning of life, but myriad "meanings" of life. Your opening post reminds me of this time in my life, so i'm hoping this is somehow relevant.