To encourage the exchange of thoughts about Deepak Chopra and his work, we will post your comments, inquiries, and opinions. Please feel free to respond to someone else's comments or questions, or simply post your own. Post a Message | Read the Forum | Sign the Guestbook Please Post Your Comments Name: Email Address: Comments:

Bob F., using that same line of thinking, everything that we do can interfere with someone's dharma. Why feed your children? Or, for that matter, why feed yourself? Why post at the forum? Why write a book? Maybe the dharma of the starving person who is fed is to learn interdependence or gratitude.

Human nature is part of Mother Nature too. Don't fuck with Mother Nature by ignoring or failing to act upon feelings of compassion. Become the instrument through which food (or gratitude) is manifest.

You're correct, it must be the individual who learns and accepts and believes (whatever it may be), it can't come from someone else. That's why the dogmatic approach is of so little value.

it's easy for me, tho, because we all know, and have just forgotten. that is why so many are afraid to claim enlightenment, imo, because of the sceptics amongst us. and while i feel i can recognize it in others, it really must be the individual that accepts it. it cannot come from anyone else.

in my opinion, there are many that know. i have witnessed it here, at the Forum. Hadi, Geoff, Chris, Bob F, and many, many more, too numerous to mention. i can contest them at every turn, or i can accept that there may be things i don't remember and possibly, may remember, by witnessing those that do know.

ok, Dick, when comes that moment that one knows and does not need belief? does it ever, in your opinion? was it possible that Jesus and others have just been spouting their beliefs? or is it possible that one can know, without logical explanation, just know?

When an intelligent person believes something for which there is little more than faith to support the belief, what else can you say except that the person believes simply because he or she wants to?

universal truth or personal opinion? Deepak makes it so easy to believe doesn't he Bob?

http://www.virtual-markets.net/go/btcarrol/skeptic/refuge/weird.html

http://www.virtual-markets.net/go/btcarrol/skeptic/ayurvedic.html

I couldn't tell
if the bells were getting louder
The songs they ring I finally recognize
I only know
Hell is getting hotter
the Devil's getting smarter all the time

And it would be nice
to walk upon the water
to talk again to angels on my side

Time is getting closer
I read it on a poster
fanatical exposers on corners prophesy

It would be nice
to walk upon the water
to talk again to angels at my side

I just come back to show you
all my words are golden
so have no gods before me
I'm the light

Dictionary def.: A principle, belief, or statement of idea or opinion, especially one formally or authoritatively considered to be absolute truth. I don't see you practicing what you preach, Bob: accept, do not judge, do not force your beliefs (or charity or whatever) on others. Won't this screw up their karma?

The truth about reincarnation is here.

Karen - You may feel that the beliefs expressed here are just each individual's views but many are expressing universal truths that are constant and are not dogma. Most of Deepak's teachings fall into this category.

Also, you are right in that Deepak is not really a practicing Hindu at this time but more of an East-West mix. He wears necklace medals of Christ and Buddah along with several others but emphasizes they are more symbolic than anything else.

Namaste'

It might be well to keep in mind that not all who come to the forum share the same beliefs. Thus, when we expound our own, that's all it is--one person's personal dogma, not universal truth. D.C., who is a "medical doctor" (endocrinologist, I believe) may or may not still practice the religion in which he was raised as a child. His writing has always seemed to me to be an attempt at East-West synthesis and that is probably why it has been appealing to many, especially those who can no longer relate to traditional Western religions and seek answers elsewhere.

People get caught up in the process of "past life regressions" (which I have) but as was pointed out to me, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference-----------this (life) is the one I chose and I need to pay attention to what I'm learning NOW.

The variables of what is coming are far beyond this little finite mind to comprehend, and the scenarios I've seen wouldn't begin to give me a clue to what the future holds.

To the question of reincarnation.

It is reported that Buddha saw his last 99,000 incarnations at the time of his Enlightenment.

The "Tibetan Book of the Dead" expounds on the process as well.

I understand that at the time of Jesus, reincarnation was a belief by many, but that info ("books") was surpressed when the decisions were made as to what writings ("books") to include in the Bible.

A very key fact to remember is, as "God" in form, whatever you believe is true-----------for you!

Namaste'

I was thinking of a couple of quotes that seem to be truism's, and are related. (L)

"The more things change, the more they remain the same"

and

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"

Peggy - Everything is as it should be because it is and because it is as we have manifested it!

It is great to have compassion - in fact it is necessary in order to move toward full Enlightenment. However, we are messing with other people's karma (and we shouldn't) when we force them away from doing what they need to do to burn that karma off. If we force a homeless person to come home with us, get a shower and we feed him/her, we are potentially stalling the person's karmic need to hit bottom so they then can evolve.

As the saying goes, don't f--k with Mother Nature.

Curious - To answer your very well worded and thought out questions would take several days. However, our Spirits do reincarnate, there is a transition time in between death and rebirth, we can eventually "see" what we have been and done in past lives, there is no regression in that we constantly evolve to higher levels of Enlightenment and we do not move backward.

Namaste'

Everywhere you go lately you hear this Senator or that Congressman accused of padding expense accounts...milking campaign funds...or engaging in some form of financial hanky panky. We deplore this loose, unpatriotic talk. It can only lead to investigations...and convictions...and before long, no one would be left to run our government....of course there are abuses...but usually there are reasons.

These lawmakers don't like to take graft and big bribes...but how else can they get the money to buy votes...They can't all make great records like Everett Dirksen...And, all the fuss about that Senator who rented a yacht at government expense and threw a series of wild orgies...Picky...picky...picky...What do they expect him to do, spend six years staring at those crummy cherry trees?...

A lot of these criticisms don't even make sense. I read one article that spent two pages proving how corrupt our Congressmen are...and another two pages complaining that they never show up for roll calls. If they're so crooked who wants 'em around? This is not to say that we condone loose conduct. We feel that when a man is elected, he immediately forecloses regress advocating all rights and moral dissections...without fear or favor taking upon himself dreps, chrone, maze, and obligations beyond gluts...or in the immortal words of Adam Clayton Powell... "A public office is a public trust."

Some of us forget that these are human beings trying to do a job. Take my own Congressman...please... After twenty years in office, he was accused of chiseling millions on various contracts. Everyone turned against him. Imagine a decent man like that suddenly ostracised after twenty years... I felt so sorry for him that I looked him up...and it wasn't easy because he is now living in Argentina...under an assumed name...

In conclusion, let's all remember that we have a government "of the people...for the people...and by the people..." and there are very few people in our government that you can't buy...

Thank you,

Patrick L. Paulsen, V.P.

eternal perfect beloved

one longs to die to all the controversy and conflict
of the world's petty personalities,
all the little hitlers and stalins with their tiresome programs
full of deaf ears and blind eyes.

one grows weary of the spectacle.

junior moses spars with little pharaoh in the red sea shallows
attempting to part the waters
with promises of good times in the offing.

an army of alexanders harry the land,
ghengis khan dominates the street corner.

oh lord, no wonder you dressed in flesh
and blew us a new wind
to trim our sails upon and exercise our wings.

I am sorry I do not yet fully understand the terminology used in the forum. Peggy, would you please explain the meaning of "salam alekum" and what am I suppose to do with it?. Thanks

Curious,

salam alekum...

Hi, Kathy! As usual, you are a voice of reason. There is no way that we can know what Deepak's motives are. We can't know that he is doing it for everyone else's benefit and we can't know that he just being greedy. And to me there is nothing shameful about being wealthy.

Ageless Body, Timeless Mind was a real eye-opener for me. And The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is worth several readings, despite my dislike of the title. While those two books are quite powerful to me, maybe others relate better to some of his other works. (It took someone here to point that out to me.)

Ian, Trancenet was the reason that Deepak once posted here. The articles are interesting but, in my own opinion, they have about as much merit as The National Enquirer (which they refer to at their site). My understanding is that Trancenet admits that some former accusations against Deepak have been dropped. But they continue to discuss the rumors -- now more than four years old. That has all of the earmarks of being mean-spirited. Further, it seems a little silly to discuss his readers as if they are a cult. He hasn't done many of the usual things that cult leaders do -- break up families, keep people incommunicado, found a permanent settlement, etc.

With that said, I do wonder why Deepak doesn't do something really different. For example, what would happen if Deepak said, "I have all of the money that I will ever need in this life. I will take no more profits"? What would happen if he sold products on his website at cost? What would happen if he just this once instructed those who have signed up for the seminar in India to cancel their plans and to take the five or ten thousand dollars and do something that would demonstrate that we truly are all One? As much as I would like to see India, my conscience would bother me if had to walk past street children and beggers to get to a meeting.

This isn't to say that good doesn't come from the meetings. And maybe things really are as they should be concerning the use of money for the trip. But if Deepak decided to do something different this time, that would be as it should be too.

Everyone. Please read these articles on Dr. Chopra at www.trancenet.org. Some very surprising info the the (DR.)? I've been a fan for some time now and I hate to here this kind of thing. Read the articles and E-mail me.

Thanks for responses. Now that I have had a little insight into this forum, could I ask to be enlightened on the theory of re-incarnation. Pardon me if it may sound silly. How do I convince myself that I will have several lifetimes? How this theory could be relevant or useful to me in this lifetime when I don't even have a clue as to 'what I was in the previous lifetime' and 'what would I be in the next lifetime'? How many lifetimes can a person have? Does it mean same people keep re-incarnating? If so, how is the world's population growing so fast when it should have remained stagnant? Do you re-incarnate immediately at your death or is there a transition period? If the re-incarnation is instant, why can't a re-incarnated person get in touch with the sorrowing relatives to provide comfort in their grief? Is is true that if I have been an evil person in this lifetime, I would be turned into an animal in my next lifetime? If so, how do I come back into a human shape in my 'next' lifetime? Thanks for bearing with me and sorry for my stupid curiosity.

Anne

Yes, we indeed are all kin, as you so gently pointed out...still, certainly there are similarities in our personalities or differences that have all kinds of interesting results! And your humor has a similar flavor to Geoff's...interesting to wonder about differences in a similar "trait"--there are various flavors of humor...the wherefores and the whys...

Regarding being a "victim" of violence...I had a string of weird events transpire in my life when I was younger...and each had potential for bad things to happen...yet each one I emerged from unscathed...I did not bless my "almost" offenders ;-) but I was always calm (actually the events seemed almost surreal), and just unbelieving that anything was really going to happen...in retrospect, I felt as if I had been learning to "trust" that I was "safe" or to put my trust more fully in God...who knows? But nothing similar has occurred in many a year :-) Hmmm...

Enjoying Ken Wilbur's "A Brief History of Everything"--good stuff...nothing new.

I also think that Deepak is doing what he does out of an interest in helping humanity...of course, how can I know, but the fact that he has so much going on when he could be less involved and happily enjoying his wealth, makes me think that sincere interest motivates him...seems pretty wise to me too...from my perspective :-)

Peace all!

Cathy

Of course, full enlightenment is reached only after a billion points. This provision is made to handicap those of the British persuasion where a billion is considerably larger than in the U.S.

Lennie, that was really sweet of you to say those things but are you sure you don't have me confused with someone else? ;-)

Anne, you are a riot! So dry! So caustic! So...well..._________!!! :-D