Dysthymia has plagued me since I was a teen. It is a chronic low level depression. I would have maybe 3 good days followed by 7 or 8 days of doom and gloom. It got to the point where I was suicidal in my late twenties, and early thirties. Wellbutrin has helped alot. I would also recommend the books The Power of Now, and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.
He did recieve the Nations highest civilian award from President Bush recently, The Medal of Freedom.
He's a world hero.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard that a study was done to see what the most recognizable faces are around the globe. It was 1) Muhammad Ali 2) Mickey Mouse 3) Jesus....in that order.
Maybe he's just not in any big hurry. There's plenty one can find out simply by reading between the lines. What are you expecting him to ask about anyway? Are you still a virgin, and stuff like that?
Apparently you can only show me your perception of a mechanic.
God is being remark, comes really close to the way I percieve him.
Incidentally, the Hebrew/Chaldee nephesh which is often translated to English as "breathed" doesn't really have an English equivalent...it's more like God spired life out of himself into Adam.
If you have examined the Universe, then you have seen God. Perhaps you perceived it as something else. That's the "I" you mentioned that does that. That is what I perceive as "sin" rather than a list of things we shouldn't do. It is anything that causes us to look at the "I" instead of the "I Am".
Even many of our best good deeds, listen up Church people, are sinful. That's right, sinful! Because, as hard as it is to admit, most of the time we really do that stuff for ourselves, because it gives "me" a greater sense, holier than thou if you will, of who "I" am. Deny Thyself doesn't mean trimming your budget, so that you can give to other's. Or fasting from chocolates during lent, or any of that stuff. It mean's deny thyself. I can't tell you how to do that. No one can. It's one of those things you have to figure out on your own.
I can stretch out my finger, and point. I would tell you to start by simply breathing. Focus on your breath alone. Forget about if God, or physics causes you to breathe. Say the word breathe to yourself in your mind, with every breath to help distract your "I" from clouding the exercise. Gradually dissolve even the word breathe from your mind if you can. The goal is to stifle the voice in your head, and simply exist deliberately focused on your breath, to be able to think without words. Ever realize that you think in words? Try to not do that, focus on your breath. If you are expecting some sort of experience, that will make you a better you, then you are sinning. You are focused on "I" and not "I Am". Focus on breathing, dissolve all words, and mental pictures from your mind. If you can do that, you are getting closer, practice it daily.
When Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, for example, and Iran was holding several Americans hostage.....few know this, but it was Muhammad Ali who persuaded the captors to release the hostages.
If ya like YouTube, you can find a clip about 30 minutes long or so of a Narrator reading some thoughts on life by Muhammad Ali. Of course, Parkinson's prevents Ali from speaking, but his mind is still as sharp as it ever was. Look it up, seriously, it's inspiring.
One of the things I love most about life is this circular, paradoxal nature. Is God all powerful, or do we have freewill? It's both! How can it be both? I don't know! Is freedom important, or are rules and order? Both! How can you have both? Apparently we haven't figured that out yet either. What do people need, religion or science? We need both! An atheist may disagree, but she or he is just as religious as anyone else. Whether they realize or admit it, they have created an elaborate religious system of self-worship.
I don't believe in atheists!
I say that tongue in cheek, but seriously. What "proof" can you actually offer me that You exist? Your body? I would say take a closer look. That is nothing but a conglomeration of cells, is that actually You. Well yeah, the cells all hang out and work together, and here I am. Really? So is our body, or our cells who we are?
C'mon science, take a closer look! Who are you? What proof is their that you exist? Oh really science? That's pretty smart of you! If you look a little closer, all of those cells are made up of something? Hmmm, you don't say. Molecules, and the molecules have atoms, and the atoms have these proton, neutron, and electron thingys, and even those teensy weensy thingys have smaller parts not unlike infinitesimally small specks of dust with absolutely nothing in between? So everything we call matter is at it's smallest measure mostly nothing? Isn't that like saying you don't exist?
Or, is it more like saying that at the smallest measurable level we are teensy specks of space dust with a tiny energy charge? Sort of like from the dust God formed a man, and breathed life into him? Don't you think that the descriptions of God and Energy are essentially the same? Cannot be created or destroyed, always is, always was, always will be, and all that jazz.
Still, in spite of all the disecting of parts we cannot find anywhere in the physical world the part of you that You experience as being You. You cannot prove to me that you exist, and yet you do. Weird huh?
diogenes Forum Posts (4,761)
RE: Help! I'm severely depressed
I can't say what will work for someone else, but I really do feel like a different person now. I have that invincible feeling that I had as a boy.