The reflection on how fortunate you are is important, it can greatly help in this situation. It may seem pretty obvious. You can write it all down. You have relatives, money, health, etc. You can write it down, you can recite it, you can say it. It makes sense. But when a person is having a depressed period in their life, they don't believe they're fortunate. When you believe that you're fortunate, when you actually understand how fortunate you really are, depression doesn't come because you're content. To be content is the opposite of being depressed. They can't go together. It's impossible for them to go together. So to be content depends a lot on how you feel about your situation in life. Do you feel fortunate?
You can always think of your money; every one of you has more money then basically over 50% of the world to begin with. 50% of the world lives below the poverty line or what Westerner's call the poverty line. Maybe it's more than that; maybe it's 70%, 80%. I don't know, but it's a huge amount of people. A billion, two billion people, live on about 2 or 3 dollars, 2 or 3 Euros a day. That's all they have. So you can actually understand money, yes, but how many of you actually feel content with your money when you're desiring something you don't have enough money for? How many of you feel content at that moment with your clothing, your health, your food, your friendships, whatever and everything else you have in your life?
When you reflect on what you have, you can't be depressed. If you reflect on what you don't have, it's easy to be depressed. It will lead you into depression if you reflect on what you don't have. So the reflection on how fortunate you are is extremely important, but you have to believe it, you have to actually get it in there so deep that, yes, it's regular throughout your day, it's regular throughout your life. We teach you to do it when you wake up in the morning. How many of you do it when you wake up in the morning? I'm not asking to raise hands here because you know for yourself. Do you actually do it when you wake up in the morning? Do you do it any other time during the day? Do you actually remind yourself how fortunate you are? When you see the news around the world - you read about Iraq, you read about Kenya, you read about Sri Lanka, Burma, etc. - do you actually take in how fortunate you are? Or do you just read the news to put more news into your head? Getting depressed is the opposite of having contentment. If you want more contentment, reflect on how fortunate you are.