Are depression, spirit attachment, inner demons, inner distress, and the wish for liberation the same?

They are not the same, although Master’s experience is that they often overlap. He said depression and spirit attachment can look very similar, but explicitly stated that not every person with depression necessarily has an attachment. Conversely, he found people with attachments generally prone to depression because unfavorable energy brings negative thoughts. He also said inner distress and spirit attachment or possession sound different and actually are different, though in his experience they can be connected or even bound together.

How does he understand the relationship? Master said spirit attachment or possession does not occur without cause. Deteriorating energy has reasons, principally negative thoughts and emotions such as always expecting the worst. Prolonged unhappiness, pressure, and suppression can make the heart ill and weaken the soul’s energy, making unseen energies more likely to approach: “inner demons attract external demons.” Their work therefore begins with understanding the person inwardly. He said dealing with a wandering spirit was comparatively easy for them; the real issue was why the person had become negative and where the inner difficulty lay.

Outward appearance may therefore not distinguish them. Master said inner difficulties can resemble mental disturbance. People commonly label such situations either mental illness or spirit attachment and often approach them first. He recalled an early case understood religiously as multiple attachments and in terms of mental disturbance as seven personalities. A student considered it mental illness, while his Chinese chess divination indicated attachment. After a period of their work, the person returned to normal. Among people with depressive tendencies whom he encountered and considered genuinely attached, childhood lack of warmth or bullying was common. He wanted to teach discernment: is attachment truly present, or is it a consequence while the main problem is inner unhappiness?

He also clearly identified situations religion could not resolve. Parents brought a child who had spent ten years in a care institution. Master replied that attachment might genuinely have occurred ten years earlier, but the ghost was now gone and the child was genuinely ill. Removing a ghost religiously would not cure the condition, so he declined. He also said that when physically unwell, one must distinguish attachment from actual illness. Illness requires a doctor; attachment is where they provide assistance.

“Inner distress is not a wandering spirit” was another episode’s theme, prompted by an online article by a woman who woke one day feeling unwell throughout her body, crying and suffering. Temples, psychiatric consultations, and counseling had not helped her. Master understood such cases as prolonged unhappiness or pressure erupting after suppression. His phrase “the soul’s capillaries rupturing” was a metaphor for being unable to bear more. In cases he had seen, childhood backgrounds often involved insufficient love, single-parent or grandparent care, bullying, or exclusion, with initial inner weakness and a triggering event. Such episodes often occurred just after waking. His explanation was that reason relaxes during sleep and suppression fails. A sensation of qi moving through the body, he said, is understood in spiritual cultivation as one’s own qi, not a wandering spirit.

For clients who felt something moving inside their bodies, Master explained that qi was moving. Without practice, they did not know that name and only felt something moving; some even described a heartbeat. He told these clients that increased qi sensitivity meant the heartbeat was their own, since wandering spirits have no heartbeat. This addressed those sensations, not every kind of discomfort.

He also said attributing things to ghosts can be the easiest explanation: if attachment is responsible, it is not my problem and I need not blame myself. He did not reject that framing outright, feeling it sometimes provides a direction for releasing pressure. He believed clients’ descriptions were genuine while still seeking the problem. But when divination showed no ghost, he asked them to look inward. Another route he suggested was acknowledging difficult experiences, believing that as adults they now had strength or faith, and allowing themselves to improve.

Explaining why he did not perform rituals for such cases, Master said the fundamental problem seemed inward. Charging to address a different issue might leave the person feeling no difference or improvement, troubling his conscience. Wandering spirits were easier to address, while inner distress took time. He also said that when a ritual appeared effective for a few days before symptoms returned, he was almost certain psychological effects were involved.

His explanation of temporary benefit was that religious rituals sometimes strengthen confidence. Extensive ceremonies, considerable expense, an impressive-looking teacher, and assurances of recovery may reinforce the person inwardly and improve their state. He also said higher personal cost sometimes increases perceived effectiveness. This explained that temporary improvement and recurrence, not a claim that all rituals are ineffective.

That particular client did not receive a ritual. Master instead asked the client to recite scriptures and do arm-swinging exercises. Knowing the difficulty was inward, they found it theoretically difficult to charge first for work directed elsewhere. This was their response to that client, not a prescription for everyone.

A fellow practitioner also shared her own experience on the program. Previously unhappy and unable to sleep well, she saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed depression, which she described as severe, with irritability and anxiety. Questions at appointments made her cry; panic, anxiety, and poor sleep repeatedly disrupted life for many years. When very unwell, she sought medical care and medication, but said medication left her unable to work and without motivation. She repeatedly took and stopped medication, with symptoms returning after months off and driving her back because of the suffering. Later, she gradually gained understanding and found emotional support, feeling the Bodhisattva was a dependable presence. She became less afraid and kept strengthening herself. Someone then interpreted her crying as the spirit pressing the body to cultivate. Hearing her story, Master said the process was not superstition or simply reciting a sacred name until recovery. It required sound concepts, adjusted thinking, and understanding and balancing body, mind, and spirit. He said many people they encountered early on had been medically considered severely depressed and regained health after their help. Another friend, whose childhood family circumstances contributed to negative thinking and difficulty letting things go, took about a year and a half to become very well again after their assistance. They also said each situation differs according to the degree of influence. These were their experiences; the program did not say everyone would have the same outcome.

The wish for liberation is different again. Master said some people have good work and family lives but suddenly feel troubled and question their meaning, something spiritually sensitive people often encounter. It does not mean leaving life or hiding in religion. Its premise is having seen and understood life, becoming tired of repeating the same things, and wanting genuinely to live one’s own path. He called this a spiritual awakening. Asked how it differed from depression, he said they were very different. In his rough understanding, depression means being trapped in emotions without finding a way out, despite wanting release. The wish for liberation follows understanding and involves having found a method or resolved to emerge, without abandoning life. He added that it often arises more easily after substantial suffering, as in his own experience, but hoped people would adjust before problems occur.