The Law of Least Effort

“Nature’s intelligence functions with effortless ease…with carefreeness, harmony, and love. And when we harness the forces of harmony, joy, and love, we create success and good fortune with effortless ease.”

Deepak says that “the law is based on the fact that nature’s intellegence functions with effortless ease”. For example, “grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows” and “fish don’t try to swim, they just swim”. It is their nature to do what they do and it is “human nature to make our dreams manifest into physical form, easily and effortlessly.”

I am having a bit of trouble with the last part there. Is that why I am here, to make manifest my dreams easily? If this is true, it seems kind of selfish to me. I am sure there is more, at least I hope so.

Let’s move on.

Dr. Chopra also equates this law with “miracles”. We should get to the point when we are in complete harmony with the universe, we will only need to think and things will come to be. Not sure that is possible even if I knew what he was talking about.

To be fair, here is the prescibed action to take to achieve the law of least effort.

One, Acceptance. Accept things as they are. “This means I will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be.” It is easier for me to accept the big picture here. The WHOLE universe is as it should be. OK. But when I think that I am a part of the universe, this is a lot harder to swallow. I don’t believe I am as I should be.

Two, Responsibility. This means that you are “not blaming anyone or anything for your situation, including yourself.” Doing this allows you to have a “creative response to the situation as it is now”.

And three, defenselessness, “which means that your awareness is established in defenselessness, and you have relinquished the need to convince or persuade others of your point of view.” By doing this, you “gain access to enormous amounts of energy that have been previously wasted.”

Towards the end of the chapter, Dr. Deepak encourages us to “make a commitment to follow the path of no resistance. This is the path through which nature’s intelligence unfolds spontaneously, without friction or effort.”

How, if at all, does this law correlate to Christian doctrine?

The Law of Karma

Third on the list of spiritual laws as ascribed by Deepak Chopra is The Law of Karma.

“Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind…what we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.”

Karma is defined here as “both action and the consequences of that action”. Dr. Chopra mentions the ancient wisdom saying, “what you sow is what you reap” so the question of correlation between this “new” teaching and that of Christian teaching is a moot point. So instead of leaving this chapter untapped, I will bring out some of what Dr. Chopra tells us about choice-making.

Deepak says that we are ”essentially infinite choice makers”. Obviously, some of those choices are conscious and some are not. Some are good choices and some are not. Some of the reasons for your current ”condition” is due to past choices, whether you have consciously made them or not, they are still choices that effect where you are in your life.

We are not only infinite choice-makers but have become “bundles of conditioned reflexes that are constantly being triggered by people and circumstances into predictable outcomes of behavior”, ie Pavlov and his dogs. Even though we have conditioned reflexes, we are, at the core, still making choices.

Deepak tells us that built into our Selves is a way to physically and/or mentally know what the right choices are every time and we can condition ourselves to these right choices. How do we know? He recommends asking yourself two questions, “What are the consequences of this choice that I’m making?” and “Will this choice that I’m making now bring happiness to me and to those around me?” This seems to go against my upbringing in which I was told, “If you have to ask if it is right or wrong, it’s probably wrong.” So what is the right thing to do? Go with my gut feelings? Maybe it is that simple.

One final note. He wraps up this chapter with thoughts on past karma. What if I did a whole lot of stupid crap? What are my options? One option is “pay your karma debts”. How that is done specifically is not answered here. Another option is “to transmute or transform your karma to a more desireable experience.” Ask yourself, “What can I learn from this experience? Why is this happening and what is the message that the universe is giving to me? How can I make this experience useful to fellow human beings?” The third option when dealing with past karma is “to transcend it”. Deepak says that to transcend karma you must “keep experiencing the gap, the Self, the Spirit”. This is done, he says, through meditation.  In a broad sense, I guess I can understand what he is saying, but in the specifics, there seems to be too many generalities being made.

If you have thoughts about how to overcome past karma, please share them with me.

The Law of Giving

The second, of seven, law of spiritual success as described by Dr. Chopra is The Law of Giving.

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange…giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe.  And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.”

Dr. Chopra begins by reminding us that giving is not only about money but about all aspects of our lives. We operate through what he calls “dynamic exchange” between ourselves and the universe. There is, in other words, give and take. There will be stagnation without this constant circulation between our Self and the universe.

Deepak gives examples using money and seeds. Hoarding up money and not putting it back into circulation through giving leads to stagnation in your own money flow. I don’t believe Deepak is talking about a prosperity gospel here. I think that as long as you are willing to let go of what you want, you will get what you want. Of course, one’s attitude is very important to this equation. If I give half-heartedly, I will miss out on the law working.

“If you want joy, give joy. If you want love, give love. If you want peace, give peace” etc. etc.

“When you learn to give that which you seek. you activate and choreograph the dance with an exquiste, energetic, and vital movement that constitutes and eternal throb of life.”

Chopra says the best way to learn this law (and anything in life really) is to practice. Whenever you come into contact with someone, give them something. Not necessarily material things. A prayer, a smile, a compliment.

In the sense of true Christian philosophy, give unto others and other teachings along those lines, isn’t this the same thing?

Jena 6 at BET Awards

Two of the Jena 6 fiasco were wisked in on the red carpet and treated like celebrities at BET’s 2nd Annual Hip Hop Awards.

I have a BIG problem with this.

It has gotten way out of hand and reeks of continued race tensions. Where will it stop? And maybe more importantly, Will it stop?

The Law of Pure Potentiality

The first law of Deepak Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” is the law of pure potentiality. He starts with this statement, “The source of all creation is pure consciousness…pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanifest to the manifest. And when we realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe.”

Where to begin? Well, pure consciousness, if I understand the author correctly, is defined as the very essential part of what makes me, me and you, you. Our true Self at the very core. This is what makes us all unique (which reminds me of a funny saying, You are unique like everybody else. Funny, no?). The very core of who we are, according to Dr. Chopra, is “infinite and unbounded”. Also included in this list is “pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, invicibility, simplicity, and bliss”. Through my lens of understanding, this sounds very much like what I would call my spirit, or the part of me that lives on past the body. Growing up, I understood that this part of me would be what goes to heaven when the body dies.

Let me stop here and ask, isn’t this just a different name for the same thing, pure consciousness and spirit? I don’t mean this sacastically. When I went to college for a brief time after being out of school for almost a decade, one of my teachers told me something that for some reason I haven’t forgotten. He said that everything is pretty much the same only the terms/names of changed, meaning, don’t worry about the words/terms, what is being taught is the same. Ok. Is this the same thing? A new label on an old bottle. (Not that that is bad, just wondering)

On with the post.

Deepak says that if we can find our “pure consciouness” and connect to it, we have unlimited potential, hence the name of the law. When we are connected to our pure consciouness, we are connected to the universe. When we are connected to the universe, we have access to unlimited power to be a ”success” at being your true self. He states that our true natures are “immune to critisism, unfearful of any challegne, and it feels beneath no one. And yet, it is also humble and feels superior to no one, because it recognizes that everyone else is the same.”

Again, to me, this sounds very much like what I grew knowing as my eternal spirit. Chopra definitly defines a whole lot better than the Sunday School answer, ”Oh, your spirit is you, only fuzzier”. Fuzzier? What does that mean? I can understand a little better about what I was learning as I was growing and maturing about my spirit. It isn’t just “fuzzy”, its the essence of who I am and that makes sense to me.

Now the obvious question, how does one get in touch with our pure consciouness/spirit? One of the good things about this book is it doesn’t leave you hanging when it comes to application. Dr. Chopra says, “One way…is through daily practice of silence, meditation, and non-judgement” also, “spending time in nature” is suggested. This sounds alot like daily quiet time as I once practiced. The difference here is what I do in my quiet time. Before, I would read the bible, listen for God, and talk to God/pray. I don’t think Deepak would say that this is not a good thing, but he suggests more silence. Have you ever tried to sit still and quiet for more than five minutes without falling asleep? Or if not falling asleep, never really attaining absolute silence. Dr. Chopra says this is to be expected. When you first start trying to experience silence, your “internal dialouge becomes even more turbulent”. He says stick with it, eventually you will be able get to the point were you experience silence.  

Meditation, as I understand Deepak, is once you have spent time in silence (he suggests an hour or two and also whole days as you can), you should also incorporate focusing on the consciousness or field of energy. Meditation is suggested for both morning and evening.

I like this last one the best, practicing non-judgement. “Judgement is the constant evaluation of things as right and wrong, good and bad. When you constantly evaluating, classifying, labeling, analyzing, you create a lot of turbulence in your internal dialouge.” This put a new twist on it for me. Not only am I to eliminate thinking this or that is bad or wrong but also this or that is good or right. When I focus on saying things are right and good, their polar opposites are also in my thoughts, wrong and bad. Makes sense to me, but this will be much more difficult than silence and meditation for me.

Now to complete this section, Deepak says that once we are able to attain access to our true self through silence, meditation, and non-judgement, we have to now learn to take the silence with us where ever we go. No matter how turbulent the outside world is, we have to learn to maintain peace and tranquility within our spirit. Again, easier said than done.

Yon prophet Yoda of Dagobah once said, “Do or do not. There is no try” and I guess that is the attitude to have here.  Also, as stated in the first post on this subject, how is teaching the same/different from traditional Christian teachings? Before I share what I think, what do you think?

Living in a Dream World

I am reading another of Deepak Chopra’s books, “The Book of Secrets”. So far, a very interesting read. I have read about a quarter of the book, and wanted to touch on one thing that he states in Chapter 2 “The World is in You”.

He states, “For all we know, the entire outside world could be a dream. When I’m in bed having a dream, I see a world of events just as vivid as the waking world. But when I open my eyes in the morning, I know that these vivid events were all produced inside my head. I’d never make the mistake of falling for this trick because I already assume that dreams aren’t real.

“So does my brain dedicate one apparatus to making the dream world and another to the waking world? No, it doesn’t. In terms of cerebral function, the dream mechanism doesn’t flick off when I wake up. The same visual cortex in the rear of my skull allows me to see an object–a tree, a face, the sky–whether I am seeing it in memory, in a dream, in a photo, or standing before me. The location of brain cells activity shift slightly from one to the other, which is why I can distingish among a dream, a photo, and the real thing, yet the same fundamental process is constantly taking place. I am manufacturing a tree, a face, or the sky from what is actually a random tangle of spidery nerves shooting bursts of chemicals and electrical charges in my brain and all around my body….This embarrassing problem–that there is no way to prove the existence of an outside world–undermines the entire basis of materialism.” (I define materialism here as what is “real)

Doesn’t this sound closer to the plot line of the Matrix than an exerpt from a book on spirituality?

All joking aside, I understand where Dr. Chopra is coming from. What is “real”?, to borrow a line from the before mentioned movie. What makes something real to me is what I can process through my five senses. What makes steel hard and feathers soft? My senses. What makes one day miserably hot and another pleasently cool? My senses. So with that being said, what is “real”? What is “dream”? And if this is a “dream”, what is it called when we “wake up”, or the day the “light” comes on? Could it be en-light-enment? Just wondering…

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

 

I recently read the titled book and wanted to get down some first impressions. First and foremost because of my religious/spiritual background I have to be honest and say this all sounded like a bunch of nonsense. But after thinking about what Dr. Chopra is saying isn’t that far off of what I grew up knowing. The line is forked between traditional Christian and what I think of as New Age “religions” at the point of where the “power” comes from. For the traditional religions that power is God, defined as some “one” other than our selves that we have access to via his son, Jesus. In the New Age model the power comes from God also but is not seperate from our selves, or our conscienceness as Deepak states. We are in fact connected to the divine when we realize who we are, which according to Deepak, is coming from God. Actually cut from the same cloth so to speak. I am not sure if Dr. Chopra really means that we are divinity ourselves or can connect to the divine in such a way that there really isn’t a distinction. If in fact this later definition is what he is getting at, isn’t it the same thing as the traditional Christian religion other than what is done with Jesus. The traditionals have deified him and New Agers have made him into a model of what a “connected” life looks like, amoungst others, ie Buddah, Krishna, etc. But I guess, by definition, that is the difference between the two.

I will list the seven laws for you so that you can understand better what I am talking about:

1.The Law of Pure Potentiality

2.The Law of Giving

3.The Law of “Karma” or Cause and Effect

4.The Law of Least Effort

5.The Law of Intention and Desire

6.The Law of Detachment

7.The Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life

Now that you know what the seven laws are, but not necessarily what they mean, I will take them one at a time and define them for you over the next seven posts based on the books descriptions of each. What I would really like is if you could help me by telling me what you see as the major differences and similarities between the viewpoints of traditional Christian religions and this “New Age” religion when it comes to “success”.