I Introduction

I.1       Purpose of Self-Help Booklet for Fellow Sufferers:

To tell a recognizable supportive compassionate story, based on the life of myself (Schizophrenic). With a clear balancing plan to get a grip on what sometimes feels as an unjust life.

So that weed seeds (negative assumptions and thoughts) do not bloom as psychosis. But that can be learned to water the good positive seeds, with training.

I.2      Licking wounds with Mental Health Care and Psychiatrists.

• Stone 1:           Pray.
• Stone 2:           Fasting.
• Stone 3:           Monthly confession.
• Stone 4:           The Holy Mass.
• Stone 5:           The Holy Bible.

The Gate to Truthful Life is thus best entered in conjunction with a Christian Parish, a Buddhist Shanga or a Mental Health Team.

I.3       Necessary Theory for Happiness:

In order to stimulate a truthful life together with Society and the GGZ for really every person in this world who wants to diligently practice the good and convert to a truthful life, I start with a short explanation of the already mentioned 4 essential points about which understanding is necessary to obtain a happy life. Karma, The Noble Eightfold Path, Psalm 1 and the 10 commandments. The explanation is short, the necessary training and perhaps changing Life-Style to attain a state of enlightenment is a longer way.

I.3.1     Karma:

Karma is actually a kind of bank account on which good services and bad actions are recorded. And that every man gets that which he has worked well for in previous time or has to pay for because of bad actions. Some things are settled quickly, but payments can also go over a very long period by good or bad reincarnations.

I.3.2 The Noble 8 Fold Path:

1 Right View:

Correct insight is very important for people with Dysfunctional Perceptions Syndrome (Schizophrenia). Old literature that is difficult to understand in itself, such as the Diamond Sutra “The Diamond That Cuts through Illusions” provides very useful knowledge and insights.

Correct insight can be obtained by regularly studying a very wide range of Dharma (Buddhist wisdoms). There are appealing contemporary Buddhist book titles on the internet for every type of human suffering, partly caused by ignorance.

2 Right Speech:

Correct speech is very important for psychiatric patients. Words are considered as a rudder for life. An old Chinese saying is “A bad word can make it frost in July”. Words can even lead to war.

After the right insight you know what is important. In general for speaking: kindly and substantively speaking the truth at the right moments sets the course for a happy life.

3 Right Intention:

Doing things with good intentions produces good Karma for every person. Even though some things go wrong, good intentions will not give you negative karma.

A single confused psychiatric patient is sometimes suspected by society of bad intentions, but that is often due to powerlessness of the will caused by overwhelming negative emotions.

An intentions is good if it complies with the laws and regulations in the universe in which we live. Locally, local customs are also appreciated.

4 Right Effort:

With the right effort, things can be put right. Psychiatric patients, including myself, are often more or less discouraged by a setback. A temporary period of licking wounds is certainly not wrong. But at the end of that period, it’s about moving on to living a good life after a fall. A fairly constant, life-long effort leads to a successful, fulfilling life.

5 Right Concentration:

Good concentration is real Power. Psychiatric patients including myself are at times, distracted and disturbed by past regrets or worrying about the future, sometimes even with voices in their head. Dwelling on these thoughts for a short time or temporarily analyzing these thoughts is not wrong in itself. As long as it can be alternated with the concentration on beneficial thoughts. Or focus on the here and now.

Meditating on the breath can increase concentration during turbulent periods.

Daily meditation, in which meditation on breathing and inquiring meditation is alternated in the same session, has the same cleansing power for the mind as showering for the body. After regaining a feeling of freshness and ability to focus on the present, concentration can be further increased by studying and memorizing positive verses, poems, mantras and psalms, as that really gives strength and security to a happy life.

6 Right Mindfulness:

Correct attention to and awareness of one’s own feelings and emotions is very important. Psychiatric patients are sometimes dulled of their own feelings and thoughts because they repress them because of the pain and/or because they are sedated by an excess of psychotropic drugs or a form of self-medication such as coffee, alcohol or narcotic drugs. However, very regular attention and awareness for your feelings and emotions is worth much more than an expensive scan / measurement / observation in the hospital.

My experience is that meditation can develop mindfulness. Start training your attention to your breath. With meditation on the breath, the connection between body and mind can be restored. During such meditations, sitting in silence, one also becomes aware of thoughts. Thoughts, feelings and behavior are intertwined and remain in focus with Mindfulness.

Mindfully performing small simple tasks also increases happiness.

7 Right Action:

Right deeds bring good earnings. Bad deeds are settled according to Karma. Some psychiatric patients have become so bogged down in life that they feel like walking dead and unable to perform good deeds in trapped position.

Yet you can make the best of every situation, no matter how distressing it is. Doing the right things to stay happy and balanced as a psychiatric patient is the most important. Then maybe start by trying to do 1 good deed every day, just like Kwik, Kwek and Kwak learned in scouting. When that becomes a habit, this goodness, the people around you will start to notice.

Ultimately, the best thing is to do good things unsaid out of your own willingness to take action.

Helping sick people and animals and doing good deeds for needy people and animals in close prosximity is perhaps the greatest reward with satisfaction.

8 Right Livelihood:

Proper livelihood in the form of work, which one sees as a calling, increases enormous happiness.

As a schizophrenic, I myself was rejected for regular paid work. Jobs as a slaughterhouse worker, casino worker and bar worker are at the interface of proper livelihood and require a good balance of action/intention and mindfulness both from the individual and from society.

Sometimes it seems impossible to unwrestle from a unjust paid job or to escape from an unemployed situation. But in free time, or with voluntary work, one can also do and initiate good things.

A practical implementation with the right action / intention and mindfulness is a source of happiness, and gives opportunities for improving right livelihood, in the future.

I.3.3     Psalm 1 (The two ways):

1. Blessed is the man that walked not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stranded in the way of sinners, nor sited in the seat of the scornful.
2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brought forth his fruit in his season; his leaf as shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

My best time is yet to come, and your best time is yet to come. You may be a beautiful mess, God has a scary plan for you, trust in God and nothing can stop you.

I.3.4     The 10 Commandments:

1. Do not worship other gods besides the Lord.
2. Do not make idols and do not kneel before idols.
3. Do not abuse the name the Lord.
4. Keep the Sabbath.
5. Show respect for your father and mother.
6. Do not commit murder
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Don’t steal.
9. Do not bear false witness about another.
10. Do not set your sights on another’s house, nor on his wife, slave, slave girl, his ox, or whatever belongs to him.

Even if you have made a mistake, you are not what you do, you are not what you have, you are not what people say you are, you are God’s beloved child and no one can take that away from you.

II Honest suggestion for way of life to stabilize and compensate Schizophrenia

Please click on the link listed below, to download the Self Help Booklet of 64 pages full of inspiring verses, story of my life and helpful balancing instructions for compensating the most common negative emotions from which a Schizo suffers. Downloads are made possible by DLM.

E-BOOK – Happy and Balanced, Being a Psychiatric Patient – GATE TO TRUTHFUL LIFE – Web Version – With 4 Metta Letters – V2 – 2023-04-30 (221 downloads )