How Eastern Religions Can Benefit Your Mental Health

I have always found deep peace and resonance in nature. To be still yet active, flexible yet strong, silent but eloquent… these are all traits that if a human were to possess would be most admirable. Indeed, we can all learn to live better, more fulfilling lives by observing, studying, and appreciating nature. However, many Western traditions, whether religious, cultural, or otherwise, often stray far from the most basic elements that form the foundation for life.

The key to personal growth, self-awareness, and overall continued development stems from questioning one’s life circumstances. Oftentimes, it is the commonality of the human struggle that makes us begin to question who we really are and futilely ask “why me?” when we encounter challenging, if not devastating, times. However, Western thought has a strange fascination with the dualistic view of good and evil that tends to stand in the way of objectively investigating oneself, for most of life is categorized as either “good” or “bad.” Pick up a copy of the Daoist text Tao Te Ching, however, and read such words as “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

The Fluidity of Life, the Present Moment and Compassion

Most Eastern religions and philosophies focus not on polarities but rather on the condition that polar opposites share. In essence, it is not black-and-white thinking, but rather simply gray, which helps alleviate rumination and what is known as psychological “splitting.” This fluidity of life is not so much about what will be rather than what simply is, leading to an awareness that life is nothing more than a game we are all forced to play (Hindus call this “Lila”), with the true winners being those cognizant of this.

Additionally, Eastern religions focus on some type of meditation or mindfulness. To live in the present moment is the greatest asset to one who struggles with their mental health, for when we are present we are simply experiencing rather than thinking. They say the mind is a wonderful slave, but a horrible master. When our thoughts dictate our actions and affect how we view the world, the consequences can be dire, especially for intricately wired minds such as those with mental health diagnoses. Being mindful, we realize everything is okay right at this moment, and as the present is all we will ever have, everything will always be okay.

Personally, the pain caused by my personal struggles is quite unpleasant, however, the hurt caused by the lack of compassion from the outside world can be devastating. Focusing on the benevolence underscored in Eastern religions provides me with the hope that deep down people want to be kind, yet oftentimes they simply forget that compassion is a verb and needs to be practiced and harnessed. For an extreme example, devout adherents to the ancient Indian religion of Jainism cherish all life on earth to such an extent that they wear masks in order to avoid inhaling any small bugs and carry a small broom to dust the ground before each one of their steps, for to ignorantly step on small insects leads to an unawareness of the beauty of all life in the present moment.

The Western Sense of Urgency

Lastly, Western ideologies along with Christianity often seem to have a goal in mind (which may be the main impetus for the aforementioned lack of compassion in society). Whether it’s the capitalist nature of always striving for more, or the theological paradox of cleansing our sins during this life to achieve a better life after we die (for which Nietzsche argued that “God is dead”), very rarely is the present moment emphasized in practices throughout the West. To counter this sense of urgency to keep moving through life as if there is some ultimate destination we are all attempting to arrive at first, I personally find the Hindu philosophy of Maya, in which all worldly phenomenon is nothing more than an illusion crafted by a cosmic source that dwells within all of us, to be peaceful and soothing. Along similar lines is the Islamic concept of Dunya, the fleeting physical world we briefly experience which we often mistake for the transcendent world.

While Christianity tends to be a foundational concept on which Western societies have been built and is thus prone to fissures when our social structures rely too heavily upon it, the mythology behind the religion yields everlasting fruits that provide continual juices of insight into the human condition. Yet, it is when we stray from these scared myths and begin to take scriptures literally, from any religion, that these existential crops run dry. As Joseph Campbell bluntly reminds us: “The reference of the metaphor in religious traditions is to something transcendent that is not literally any thing. If you think that the metaphor is itself the reference, it would be like going to a restaurant, asking for the menu, seeing beefsteak written there, and starting to eat the menu.”

When it comes to mental health and struggles of the mind, what we do not see is oftentimes more important than what we do see, and so it is with religions. Sacrosanct words are often signposts that subtly point us in the direction of the transcendent, yet far too often our interpretations end at the signpost itself, and we lose sight of the path they guide us down. All religions are the correct religion, just as all people are the correct people. It is only when we fail to question what we do not see, be it a religious metaphor or the humanity of an individual, that we not only cut ourselves off from our fellow participants in this life but from the divine itself.

When we realize that we are all characters learning how to play our role in this cosmic dance, peace and harmony become the music, no matter what struggles of the mind afflict us.