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By and large, meditation is a preventive measure. The time to guard yourself against depression is before you get depressed, and nothing provides a better shield than training the mind. I want to make it very clear, however, that in extreme cases, meditation should not be initiated as treatment. For those who suffer from life-threatening depression, or who are taking anti-depressive drugs under a doctor’s supervision, it may even be dangerous. If you are in this category, please do not jump into meditation without the close guidance of an experienced teacher. But there is a powerful spiritual tool which offers safe, fast help for anyone in times of crisis: repetition of the mantram. In times of distress, when you try to call up the Holy Name, you may have difficulty even remembering how it goes. Your attention will be caught in your own turmoil, and every time you try to draw it back, it will rebel and slip away again. Here is where toughness comes in. No matter how many times you have to try, just keep bringing your attention back to the Holy Name again and again until your mind is calm. – Eknath Easwaran, from “Original Goodness: A Commentary on the Beatitudes” (fb)