Getting Rid of Your Ego, and Other Bad Ideas

I sat crying on my living room floor. I’d spent the past four hours deep in meditation, doing a Tibetan practice called Tonglen, which focuses on processing and healing the world’s pain.

At the end, I felt deep compassion for all the people suffering around the world, and this felt virtuous. But I also felt depressed. Like tears-streaming-down-my-face, still-sitting-in-my-pajamas-in-the-late-afternoon depressed.