Buddhism and How It Relieves Stress

A frown to a smile. Lethargic to happy.

This is hard. Coming from a fifteen-year-old teenager whose high school experiences have smelled both like rotten onions with white mold and jasmine tea, I know my fair share of emotional struggles. While it is regrettable that I cannot confidently say I’ve eradicated all my emotional struggles and weaknesses, each day has been a linear growth towards harmony. And I don’t subscribe to the mantra of positive quotes or guidance counselor visits, personally. I subscribe to Buddhism.

Buddhism, in my opinion, has changed and cleansed my mind of turbulent thoughts. To answer the question of how Buddhism has transpired such changes, it is important to identify the causes of these thoughts; Buddhism is a medicine for me. Personally, turbulence has been strongest when I constantly feared what other people were saying about me. Digging deeper, a lot of people in my high school have labeled me “gay,” which, while I knew it was an erroneous depiction of me, my mind kidnapped me into thinking they, the labelers, were right. With this abduction of my own psyche and conscience, I started scrolling through Reddit, reading posts of how to look less gay like the Bible. This was my job, a self-deprecating one, after I returned from school.

One comment behind or in front of my face made my smile disintegrate to a frown; my dictionary only consisted of weakness and bitterness: I wanted to find how to discard my supposedly “gay” features all these 15-year-olds in my high school were whispering about — I wanted to look normal. And this is where Buddhism plays in.

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Buddhism's Power

Meditating and reciting verses of religious texts have made me connect myself to my inner Buddha — in Buddhism, there is no worship of gods; it values inner reflection and meditation — and that has made me realize that in my DNA, I get to control my emotions. Meditating requires the brain to dispose of all emotions — it really relaxes the brain, making our prime emotion factory take a break. When I did this continuously for days, my mood changed: I couldn’t care less what people say about me — Bodhisattvas exempt; I still care highly about them.

Religious texts such as the Great Compassion Mantra （大悲咒） made that prior sentence possible. The verses in the mantra assert that there are Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, who sit in nirvana after they have completed the Eightfold Path, who want to help humans achieve nirvana. When there’s a person in heaven who is literally trying to help you, which has been drilled in my memory after incalculable recitations, I feel dumb and sheepish. If I am not gay, then I am not. I am here in this world — of suffering and potential reincarnation — to fulfill nirvana. And if Buddhism has taught me anything, it’s that no one can take away the smiles I had at 5:00 in the morning only to be frowns at 1:30 in the afternoon; the excitement I get from writing in cursive, which other people ridicule as gay; and my knack for cleaning and refurbishing my room, making it a Buddhist monastery — in my eyes — and a “feminine” room in my classmates’ eyes.

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A Brief History Lesson

I personally feel it is the roots of Buddhism that allow me to achieve such great results; granted, while meditation and reciting verses of Buddhist texts are beneficial to a stable mental health, I view the fiery impetus that drives me to continue meditating is the more gruesome and ascetic history of Buddhism. I’m constantly aware that in China nowadays, Buddhist statues and temples have been removed because citizens there are supposed to value communism above all else. Seeing a religion, whose value is in self-reflection; following the eightfold path, which uses right speech, right thought, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration to end the continual cycle of reincarnation and achieve dharma; and intermittent fasting, which is commonly practiced in the Mahayana tradition as means for purification, being dismantled — the Padmasambhava, a statue that is near and dear to Tibetan Buddhists, was removed by Chinese official in Chanang Monastery in Tibet — makes me feel despondent. Knowing that people in Tibet are now restricted in practicing Buddhism makes me value my daily meditation and mantra recitations only more; it gives me a rare luxury — one that money can’t buy — knowing that I should be thankful to be able to freely practice my religion.

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Although I must admit that...

I am cognizant of the fact that different religions have different viewpoints, and while meditation might work for me, others might equate it with boredom, starting to stare at plants and dust because the brain just can’t be dimmed into a state of homeostasis, both physically and mentally. At first, I also had the same problems, with my attention skipping like stones darting in a river: one moment I would be concentrating on meditation, and two seconds later, I would think about what I was having for dinner. While my dinner plans were now laid out perfectly, I wasted time. Bottom line is this: If you want to commit to planning for dinner, then go get a notebook and start jotting down; if you want to meditate and erase and cleanse negative feelings away, then just meditate. You can’t have cake and eat it at the same time. Even if you feel locked up in a state of absolute boredom, think about how quiet and tranquil your mind will be. I know: I sound like those teachers who always tell you an inspirational point, to the point where it becomes a well-known platitude, such as “Don’t give up.” But honestly, based on personal experience, this — the don’t give up mindset —is the only mindset that will make your meditation be…well…mellow.

I’m curious as to how other religions try to calm the mind and its emotions. Write it in the comments below — I hate to admit it, but sometimes I fall into my own trap and want a new type of mindfulness exercise, as long as it’s not yoga or tea leaves.

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Substack Newsletter: How It Helps with Great Compassion Mantra

I sincerely hope my comments have been useful. While I doubt a psychiatrist would agree with my findings, I still think that meditation is so underrated. If you want to learn more about Chinese, which is the language of the Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒), check out my own Substack daily newsletter, where you learn a new Chinese character every single day, with example sentences, vocab, pronunciation, etc. It’s over here: https://highschooleyes.substack.com/