This is part of zandtao PhD 
Muttley smiling about the PhD thing. Zandtao hasn’t experienced anxiety and depression, so no basis for advice there. Nor has he any experience of anxiety and depression of others, and the jokiness is that as a meditation adviser (next-time-round ) he should be working in a clinic as a PhD.
But anxiety and depression just scream out at zandtao - dukkha.
At this point if zandtao were Teal he would have to put out the medical disclaimer - zandtao is not trained, was a maths teacher, and as a meditation adviser his experience is just so limited - only a few seekers.
Dukkha
During a car service zandtao started watching this doco “Just like you: anxiety and depression” (imdb). At [18.14] a sufferer and the doctor just said they don’t know how to treat it. Having recently watched Age of Anxiety (imdb), he knew mainstream treatment revolves around throwing pills at the problem - part of BigPharma and patriarchy’s profit-making.
When zandtao watched “Just like you: anxiety and depression” (imdb), he just screamed internally with frustration - how can you treat mental problems by looking at the physical brain?
Dukkha is one of the 3 characteristics in Buddhism - anatta, dukkha and anicca; what he now calls the 3 characteristics of consciousness LINK. Zandtao has come to understand this as meaning that whenever consciousness (vinnana) is used with the khandhas it leaves an attachment. This attachment can be as little as a “residue” but it can accumulate - it is this accumulation zandtao is suggesting can become anxiety and depression.
When zandtao watched “Just like you: anxiety and depression” (imdb), he took from it this sense of accumulation when the young people spoke of anxiety - black clouds building up - building attachment. When these dukkha attachments and residues build and build, where do they go? How does the dukkha come out? For zandtao he releases dukkha through meditation, this is not easy but it is part of a daily habit. When he is meditating he looks inside for any dukkha residue, he collects it and pushes it out through the top of his head. In fact today because of his recent back pain, treatment and daily yoga leaving him without meditation he felt a big build-up in dukkha, and it felt good to release it; in fact he only released some of it - releasing dukkha is difficult.
Buddhist Understanding - Dysfunctional Mess
Let’s look a bit more at the relevant Buddhist understanding - consciousness, khandhas leading to 4 Noble Truths. Zandtao calls this understanding because he has understood these through experience - but that is not saying he has experienced anxiety and depression - no first-hand experience of them. Through upbringing we build up a self/ego/personality by attaching to khandhas - kaya, vedana, sanna, sankhara; this building of self can create self-esteem that can then enable such people to survive in society.
For zandtao his upbringing never built self-esteem, he just grew up numb. At 23 this led to a breakdown and his starting on the path. This worked for zandtao!! To zandtao the kids in the movie experienced their upbringing as building up to anxiety and depression - not the numbness zandtao got. There is not one series of factors that can lead to anxiety and depression but let’s be clear - growing up into this world is not a bed of roses. Just look around. Wars everywhere. Relationships screwed up. People seeking all kinds of escapism. What kind of world is this to grow up in?
In many ways upbringing in the family home and schooling is a microcosm of this hell-world these kids are growing up into. Parents want to protect kids from this shit yet their kids go to school every day and meet all kinds of shit. Maybe they want to be loved and think home doesn’t provide it. Parents won’t want to admit that is true, but then are the kids always right that parents don’t do enough? Do kids blame parents for the shit they are growing up into? Do kids blame parents for the world?
Bill grew up into the time of hippies who were all about change to love - OK drug-enhanced love. Yet Greta blamed my generation for this shit. Greta, I’m not to blame so don’t blame me. But then parents will say to the kids - I’m not to blame so don’t blame me.
When kids see the shit that’s ahead for them, who do they blame? If they can’t blame parents and no-one can see what is causing their fear, kids will become anxious and depressed - perhaps blaming themselves. It is not them, the world is a mess.
Delusion - Sugar-coating
Sugar-coating the world doesn’t help. Yes there is some great stuff in the world - travel and find out, but your mind has to be right to get into this great stuff. But if you stand back and look at the world it is awful, kids’ growing awareness has to see it is awful. But no-one validates this, adults sugar-coat and present the kilesa of delusion; where do kids turn? An accumulation that leads to anxiety and depression?
At the same time as all this shit is happening, many adults turn a blind eye because they feel they can’t do anything. We live in a patriarchy that causes all this shit. Patriarchy starts wars for oil. Patriarchy is inimical to love. And yet some kids grow up to love their country. So if you tell them it’s patriarchy and they love their country, how do they deal with anxiety and depression? And if they accept it’s patriarchy, how are they going to grow up and get a job in the very patriarchy that causes the problems?
It’s all shit so it’s no wonder things build up and take them over.
And most adults can’t help because they don’t confront all this shit that kids are growing up into - they accept delusion, they see the world through their own particular safe filter. Adults find a niche where they can survive the shit and pretend that the shit they are living in is fine - delusion. They don’t have a solution for kids growing up with anxiety and depression because they have never faced the world for what it is to find that solution. They have managed to survive their way through without the accumulation that can take the kids over as anxiety and depression.
Isms
What about girls? They are growing up into a sexist world. What about black and brown kids? They are growing up into a racist world. And what about white boys? They are growing up into a world where a significant section of people are blaming them for their privilege when they were just born white boys - no choice and not their fault. And what can you say to red/indigenous kids?
Kids are growing up into a dysfunctional mess, it is a wonder there is not far more anxiety and depression.
In the “Just like you:")movie there were two adults who functioned as adults with anxiety and depression. The gorgeous Alex Scott grew up with functional depression ie it’s all there possibly waiting to happen, luckily she started to deal with it. And Ruby Wax has had all this chase her all her life. It’s a huge problem because the world is a dysfunctional mess. And people talk of increasing mental illness because the 1% continue to function in a way that causes this dysfunctional mess.
Which aspect of all this shit is the individual kid concerned about? What pain is building for this kid? Zandtao’s answer is tathata. The kid has to see where they are in this dysfunctional world - no sugar-coating - no delusion. Don’t squeeze the kid into some delusional model that has allowed the adult not to face the dysfunctional mess we live in. Let the kid see their truth.
But that is not enough. One response to this dysfunctional mess could be to look at it all, give up and not want to try. But we can try to deal with it.
4 Noble Truths
Here’s the rub. This dysfunctional mess has come from humanity - the 1%-satrapy - but it is part of nature. And nature has given us tools to survive the mess and even be happy.
One of nature’s advocates, the Buddha, stood up and gave us a plan - the 4 Noble Truths:-
1) Thus is the Noble Truth of Suffering
2) Thus is the Noble Truth of the Accumulation of Suffering
3) Thus is the Noble Truth of the Elimination of Suffering
4) Thus is the Noble Truth of the Path that Leads Away from Suffering
But let’s be honest - what kid wants some evangelical approach? Be Buddhist - thanks a lot.
But here’s the rub, kids. Your anxiety and depression is not some freaky unusual stuff, it is the way these things are - there’s all kinds of suffering in the world - it is a dysfunctional mess. OK, patriarchy seems to be making it far worse but it’s always been that way - Buddha 2667 years ago.
So kids - dysfunctional mess. All you want is a way through. No delusional BS. Just a way through.
Tathata - see the mess or at least that bit of the mess that is causing you problems. See it. Don’t walk away from it. Don’t create a delusion like adults have. See it. Journal maybe. Talk with people who see the mess like you do. Is it sensible to talk with people who pretend not to see it as a mess when you know it is a mess? Learn about the mess, learn about that bit of the mess that gets to you.
But tathata is not a solution, it is just the first step. When you see it come up with a viable plan. And this plan is connected with the first two of the 3-memes:-
[Aside - Do you want to follow the path? Probably not, it doesn’t mean anything to you as a kid - nor does it mean anything for most adults - see "What's the point?" below].
“Do the best you can to be the best you can be.” Why when the world is such a mess? Because you will feel good. The world will still be a mess but you will feel OK. No delusion. Still see the tathata. But by working on yourself you will feel better.
“Prepare the best vihara” This is Buddhist again but what does it mean for you? It’s much connected with “doing the best you can”. The vihara is your body, your emotions and your mind; make them the best you can. Just work on yourself. Don’t worry about all the goals they tell you to set for yourself - they are delusions. You can see that, can’t you? That’s why you have anxiety and depression. So work on yourself - not because it will necessarily make you successful in the dysfunctional mess but because you will feel so much better.
Body - body likes healthy food, it likes healthy exercise such as yoga or tai chi/chi gung. If you have a sport you like, play it.But none of the macho team stuff, leave those delusions for the kids who buy into them. Do and healthy eat what you like, not what everyone says you should like.
Emotions and mind - you have to feel your emotions and know your mind. Ever since you were born you have been told what to do - parents and school. Know and feel what you want to do. You have to play the game a bit here - you live with your parents so do a bit of fitting in; know and feel what you want to do but fit in a bit. Know and feel what you want to do but still fit in with school a bit. Try to find stuff in school you like - not what they tell you to do but don’t go against them - just causes stress.
The emotions and mind bit sounds so hard so we have a tool that helps bring all this together - meditation. And meditation can also help see anxiety growing.
Meditation and tathata
How can you see stuff the way it is? In your mind all kinds of emotions and thoughts are spinning around and you don’t know what to do with them. You have to slow all those emotions and thoughts down, and see what matters. Just sit still with your thoughts and see what matters. But you need to be calm so you start with deep breathing - you will start to feel calmer. Breathe deeply. Try to follow your breath with your attention. In through the nose down into your body, pause, and out through the nose then pause again. Keep doing this breathing. You will find your attention wandering. You are not being weak, that happens for everyone - even those who tell you it doesn’t. GENTLY bring your attention back to the breath. Do this breathing every day. Increase the time you do it, try to build up the length of time. Good time to aim for in the long run - 30 minutes, start with just a few minutes.
Once you do this breathing on a regular basis (every morning), you will find you can see your emotions and mind more clearly. You will begin to feel your emotions and know your mind. Over time it will become clearer what matters - you will begin to see what matters. Once you see what matters - tathata - you can use your meditation to help it.
You can begin to use meditation to help with your anxiety and depression, note I use the word help and not cure. What meditation can help with is the accumulation. Once you are comfortable with the breathing you can begin to look inside yourself for all the “dukkha accumulation”. As the Buddha said with the 4 Noble Truths, this dukkha accumulation happens naturally but people find ways of avoiding it with delusion. We don’t do that. We are going to know and feel who we are. When this dukkha accumulation comes in, we are going to look for it and just let it go. When dukkha accumulation becomes anxiety it is way too big, but it has built up with little bits of dukkha that happen every day - little bits that accumulate. We can let those little bits go.
Suppose the planet is what gets you. How can people let this happen to the planet? A totally sensible question, it really makes no sense. What do we do? We have our two things - doing the best we can, and the vihara. So we look at what little we can do, and feel good about that. Our minds will want to be big - everyone must change. But people won’t because they are stuck in their delusion. We just do our best - for ourselves. And when our mind starts spinning blaming everyone else, we tell it we are doing our best and tell our minds not to go spinning out of control. We do our breathing, calm down and feel better.
Look inside ourselves for this dukkha - any darkness. So we get ourselves calm through our breathing, and just look for dukkha. If our bag is the planet, then we look inside ourselves for any pain and suffering we feel about the planet. There will be stuff because any good person has to feel dark about our home, our nature, our planet. If we find the pain, feel it - don’t repress it. Feel it, how can humanity do that? Maybe even cry. Then think about your doing the best you can, and let it go. Join a group as part of doing what you can. Make sure it is genuine - not some fashion that people follow. Try to be as genuine as possible. So when next time you feel the pain inside you can let it go - but you have to be genuine or it won’t work. Some adults may mock you because they are living in delusion. Don’t bother with them, what you are doing is being the best you can, and that’s fine.
Warning:- if you have had trauma in your life and you do meditation, make sure you have someone you can speak to or phone if problems arise in meditation.
What’s the point?
This one is a bit risky - the risk of zandtao proselytising.
First of all if the anxiety and depression has arisen in a religious family, then be very careful with this one. How much is the imposition of a religious upbringing contributing to the dukkha?
Zandtao had all of this understanding thrust on him by experience - not by upbringing, family or education. For many reasons (Sacred Wound or holy khandha) bill grew up with a deep numbness that led to his breakdown and upheaval at 23; at that point he was following his path to a greater or lesser extent. This is the path he talks of in the 3-memes:-
If the person with anxiety and depression doesn’t see the point, maybe the point is the path; it certainly was for zandtao. Maybe when we try to see what is, what part of the dysfunctional mess is bringing anxiety and depression, we also see the question “what’s the point?” By doing the best we can and by making the best vihara with meditation, we are already in the ballpark; it would not be a big jump to consider the path. But the path is not a requirement for dealing with anxiety and depression, it is a possibility. But the individual needs to be ready, and readiness should not be forced - especially for a religious household. At this young age such readiness would be indicated by questions like “what’s the point?”, but the individual has to be ready - it has to come from them.
Summary Approach
So here’s what it is:-
 We live in a dysfunctional mess.
Tathata - we try to see what part of that dysfunctional mess is giving us problems.
Focus on ourselves by doing the best we can to be the best we can be, enjoy doing that, and building our best vihara of body, emotions and mind by treating the body with respect and meditating to be clear about our feelings and thoughts.
Meditate daily, and meditate to release any dukkha that builds up in us as part of our daily lives in this dysfunctional mess of a world.
Maybe consideration of the path if ready?
Hope this is useful for you.
The writing of this zeersight is stylised. In this situation the adviser is going out to the dukkha-sufferer because of their anxiety and depression; the adviser goes to meet them - maybe the adviser is a clinical professional and the young person has been referred because he is an adviser on healing. This is not the same as the seeker - a person seeking the spiritual path. The adviser goes out with a focus on healing as opposed to meeting the active search of the seeker. With the emphasis on well-being the adviser is not looking at complete integration, so limits development in certain areas (such as path) as the individual has not expressed readiness. So the approach is stylised and is very much individually-oriented as opposed to path-oriented. Hopefully integration would follow.
Of possible interest:- Following this discussion of the 5 Dukkha steps zandtao came across Nadiya Hussain's doco on her own anxiety and depression. Zandtao looked at this as a case study, felt that what Nadiya described fitted into the 5 Dukkha steps but felt very clearly that he needd to have had professional experience to advise on this. Please do NOT embark on the 5 dukkha steps without professional support - not zandtao. Case Study - Nadiya Hussain.
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