ACCORDING to some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures the Buddha once said to his followers: “There are two kinds of illnesses; physical illness and mental illness. There are people who enjoy freedom from physical illness all their lives. But it is rare in this world to find people who enjoy freedom from mental illness even for one moment.”

The Buddha wasn’t talking about what we now consider mental illness. We think of schizophrenia and other forms of psychotic behaviour, possibly clinical depression or severe anxiety. But the Buddha was talking about what we consider supposedly normal people in their everyday situations.

He was talking about something far deeper and to my mind, more important. Imagine you were really free from the habitual, instinctive, automatic, genetic and cultural negative or harmful programming and conditioning in your mind. You could potentially always be happy, full of love of life, considerate and understanding, kind and compassionate, fully engaged but not fanatical, gentle but strong, at peace but active in your life, grateful moment by moment just for the very fact of your existence – and still be a fully productive person in the community.

That’s what the Buddha meant when he said we’re all mentally ill. He was telling his followers that a completely mentally well person is one who has so worked on nurturing their mind that they have systematically flushed out and eradicated every destructive and unhealthy thought, mood, emotion and feeling that automatically exists in them. Or at least they are so in control of their mind that they let such thoughts and feelings die away every time they arise. He was teaching that virtually no-one has that degree of mental wellbeing; most people are contaminated by unhelpful states of mind almost every moment of every day.

What an astonishing way of looking at mankind. Not just accepting the unpleasant and harmful thoughts that permeate our being. Rather that we could actually be completely liberated from all that junk and poison. Freed from all the pettiness that pops up in our mind, all the self-centred, prejudiced, judgemental views, and all the anger, bitterness, resentment, guilt and regrets about the past.

Even thinking about the possibility lightens the mind.

I believe this is possible, though I certainly don’t pretend to be anywhere near it, as my wife and children will testify. However, an increasing amount of research by neuroscientists and doctors confirms that we can definitely travel along that spectrum from a dysfunctional, often unhealthy automatic mind to one that is increasingly clear, calm, contented and kind-hearted. In my own work teaching mindfulness to all kinds of people here in Scotland and beyond people have told me they have ended years of insomnia, live much more purposefully even with severe depression, find beauty in mundane things when previously their mind only saw a jaded greyness in everything. One person said they stopped themselves right in the act of committing suicide, purely because of the qualities of mind that mindfulness nurtures.

It is only a matter of extrapolating this direction that people have been travelling on in terms of their mental wellbeing to see that if there was sufficient time, sufficient speed of improvement, and if the momentum of mental development can be sustained; that if those things were in place eventually a person might truly eliminate every last vestige of junk and harmful mental conditioning. Even if something in our genes means we can’t get fully there, if you are moving to a progressively happier and clearer mind then the end point doesn’t matter as you’re just feeling better and better anyway.

What of death and divorce and suicides and crimes? What of Trump and Brexit and Indyref2 and petulant people on all sides pumping triumphalism or bile onto social media across the world? What of war in Syria and the plight of people in the four East African countries currently facing starvation? The Buddha considered that too in a famous phrase: “How can there be joy or laughter when the world is ablaze?”

Then he answered it: “Shrouded in darkness should you not seek light?”

He was referring to the world being ablaze as a result of human greed, anger and ignorance. Indeed he often referred to these destructive aspects of mind as fire because they burn everything around them, leaving devastation both inside the mind that hosts them, and in the outside world that is affected by them.

But let’s seek the light. When we feel inwardly strong, clear-headed, calm and happy despite the problems around us we are in a much better position to do something practical about things. Consider Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as examples of forgiveness, contentment, and laughter even in the midst of turbulence.

So how can we got about nurturing our mental health using mindfulness?

Firstly always just stop. Pause. You are now mentally well, in that moment, just for that moment.

Now gently notice your breath as it flows in and out of your nostrils. You are mentally well as you do this.

Moreover you are, albeit in a tiny way, shifting the longer-term wellbeing of your mind in the direction of greater clarity, contentment, calmness and compassion.

Continue to do this regularly throughout your days and evenings and you will find yourself in much stronger mental shape in the long run. The Buddha said: “With our thoughts we create the world”, anticipating by 2,500 years the findings of neuroscience researchers, so if you want to be mentally fulfilled you have to start managing those thoughts.