A Recovering Alcoholic Relates How He Overcame Depression and Paralysis of the Mind with Meditation and Spirituality
Not so long ago I came to one of those bleak periods that most of us encounter from time to time, when everything goes stale and flat, and enthusiasm dies – each day I said ‘today life will take on some of its old meaning but the barren days went by, and the paralysis of the mind grew worse and I knew that I had to have help.
So I turned to a doctor and under his craggy old skin lay bags of wisdom and compassion. I said I don’t know what is wrong but I have come to a dead end – can you help me?
He said I will give you four prescriptions to be taken at 9 am, I2 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm.
So I went next day to the beach and opened my first script. It said “LISTEN CAREFULLY”. So I thought I will, and I did listen, and the sea with all its ferocity was like white fanged fury. So I sat and I listened to a force much greater than I, and I found a kind of relief in that alone, yet I knew that silence is the element on which great things fashion themselves. Shortly after the sea quietened and it was like a Merry Christmas – that kind of feeling that spells out Peace on Earth.
The next script said “TRY REACHING BACK – back to what – all of my worries are now, not past. The tide was going out, but still a little thunder in the surf. So I sat listening carefully and I thought to myself – happy people are usually assured confident people, and this I wanted.
Hours passed and I opened up script 3 and this time it was not a gentle suggestion – it was more like a command ‘RE-EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES” – my first reaction was defensive. I thought, there is nothing wrong with me – I want to be successful – who doesn’t. I want more security than I have, but a small voice inside kept saying – those motives are not good enough. Maybe that is the reason the wheels had stopped going round. My sense of giving had been lost in a frantic clutch at security. So I re-examined my motives and found that if they are not right, well then they are wrong, and it makes no difference if you are a truck driver, doctor, barber, clerk, it matters not, but as long as you are serving others, you can do the job well.
The day was over – my time at the beach had just about run out, so I thought ‘LISTEN CAREFULLY” – slow the mind down, shift the thinking from inner problems to outer things. “REACHING BACK you blot out present worry when you touch the happiness of the past. “RE-EXAMINE MY MOTIVES” – this was treatment I didn’t like – to bring my motives into alignment with my capabilities and conscience, but my mind wasn’t clean and I thought hard and deep about this.
As I took out the last script it was six words WRITE YOUR WORRIES ON THE SAND’ – I let the papers blow away, and picking up a stick, I wrote several words in the sand, one above the other. Then I walked away and did not look back. I had written my thoughts in the sand and the tide was coming in to wash my troubles away.
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