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:

That's great but what do we do down here in Australia? :)

From the Chopra Center:

Hi Everyone - here's an Official Notice of some great news!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Dr. Deepak Chopra will appear on The Larry King Show Monday, June 26th CNN. Check your local listings for time! Set your VCR's to record! Have fun!

I just realized I made an error in my previous commemt. I meant it becomes easy to detach from your spiritual side and to focus on your ego. I have a problem with being easily influenced with objects outside of the Self.

I enjoy Deepak Chopra's books and his idea of being in touch with your true self, but it becomes so easy at times to detach from you ego and focus on your spirituality. I am trying to find my center. Any suggestions?

More of Buddhist quote of the moment -

"Shantideva...mentions specific instances when it is advisable to remain like a mindless piece of wood. We can do this when our mind is very distracted or when the thought arises to belittle, slander, or abuse others. If pride, haughtiness or the intention to find fault with others arises, we can also remain impassive until our deluded motivation fades. Feeling pretentious, thinking to deceive others and wishing to praise our own qualities, wealth, or possessions are all occasions when it is wise to pretend that we are made out of wood. Whenever we have the desire to blame others, speak harshly or cause disruption we should practice this technique of non-reaction. "

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Meaningful to Behold

I've always liked the Ashley Brilliant posts -- "colorful, to say the least"!

Has anyone read "The way of the wizard" It is probably true that "I am that I am" But how do you do your daily work. The stuff about detachment and indifference is confusing. If you have no attachment with your ego, how can you possibly START doing your work. I am sure when you do it, there is no problem. Bu there must be some sort of ego working in order to START any work. I guess this is absent with me. Have you people any comments about this? I would really appreciate this if you could help me with my thinking.

Ze shab bedaariye mun taa seher chashmash kujaa daanad?
Ki O shab taa seher kaaray bajuz khuftan nami daanad.

Hadi, I liked those colorful posts...they made me laugh! It is easy to identify the people around me who think like that, you know, geez, how to deal with success if I'm already having such a tough time with failure.

Yesterday, my youngest son started talking about dealing with power, what he would do if he were president. I was surprised that he would even voice such an ambition, it's not what he's into. Still, we got into a discussion about what his priorities would be and after a while he said, "I wouldn't know what to do with power...better not to have any."

Of course, he's 16 and has a whole lot of time to decide what he wants to do. However, I wondered how many people are reluctant to have "power," even when they could do so much good with it, because they fear what others would do to them. *just a thought*

Cathy, I'd like to hear what Hadi has to say about your comment...I think I've more or less gotten to the point where I go where life takes me, trusting (more or less) that there's a strong and right reason for going wherever it takes me.

The Bride of Christ

This latest thread about hermits and seclusion made me think about what I see as the big paradox of Life...it matters what we do and choose...and it doesn't! There are so many ways to go---withdrawing from the world, being involved; having intimate relationships, being celibate; the list goes on forever....I get confused quite often about what part I want to play in "creating" the world, how best to participate :-) Anyway, I think that probably the world needs all kinds...just as some people retreat for the "wrong" reasons, so too some people don't retreat for the "wrong" reasons that maybe should have....I like to think that it is all going as planned by us at our deeper levels, though not necessarily as we might think we wish ;-) Someone also posted about attraction and how if we loved people unconditionally, we would not really choose one "special" person...I have thought this myself, and figured it was why none of the big names--Jesus, Buddha etc..--are ever connected with a lover/a special someone. I have thought that our attractions are often a tangible replacement for the oneness with God that most of us don't recognize truly....but, I am also at a loss for how things would work if we didn't have these attractions--they add such spice to life! Enjoying the ideas...back to lurking! Cathy

I have many unrecognised talents,
But my faults have somehow succeeded in securing wide recognition.

Try if you can to believe that,
even when you’re not thinking about me,
I’m still here.

It’s well known that men and women are different,
But it keeps being rediscovered with great excitement.

I want to be closer to God
but I want him to make the first move.

One of my greatest talents is the ability to be misunderstood by large numbers of people.

After I’ve made myself perfect,
I’m going to work on you.

It’s hard enough for me to cope with failure ~
How could I ever handle success?

Courtesy of ASHLEY BRILLIANT.

Slow day.

The curvature of space-time is called gravity.
It is part of the dance, the process of creation.

The friction within space-time is electromagnetism,
which is heat, light, electricity, and energy.
It is also part of the dance ~~~
the process of creation.

Deepak Chopra
Everyday Imortality
www.chopra.com

~Friday, June 9, 2000 ~

Q: I have been told that this year would be a year of stagnation for me. Is it possible that even though I meditate and follow spiritual teachings it may be in life's plan to delay my growth for a year?

A: Always look for the opportunity in any situation no matter what. Sometimes, if there is a large blockage in our path, it is necessary to go sideways before we can go forward again. It's never that nothing is happening, things may just be happening in ways we didn't expect. Sometimes things seem to be going slow and at other times fast. Have patience, stay regular with your spiritual path and the growth will be there.

www.chopra.com

Scorpion When one identifies oneself with the scorpion, one is essentially saying "It is my nature to sting. This is how I am. I can qualify and often excuse my stinging because I was born this way." Those who come across the scorpion must always be "aware" and handle her with "kid gloves", lest she might harm them. They must approach with fear and caution. A human "being" will always forgive a scorpion her nature, and will take precautions not to disturb or threaten her. For this reason he cannot make his bed beside the scorpion’s nest, lest he should fall asleep and in his sleep, forget, and roll with unconscious familiarity into the nest. The stung is not unaccountable for the sting received.

And you are not a scorpion…

Hi there, Frank! Did you make it to the Far East?

Kereyra Enjoyed your thoughtful post. It sounds like the experience of someone who shrinks their "personal world". Feeling lonely in a crowd is, I think, a sign that one is standing amongst the wrong crowd. It can also be that one's consciousness is displaced, focused as it were on events and people who are far from the present moment or experience.

Dear Dr. Chopra, I have in my hands the translantion into portuguese of yr How To Know God, for publishing in Portugal. Please be kind enough and let me know in case I need some help in order to clarify something if I can contact yourgoodself thru this address or I sshould use another one. Kind regards Antonio Belo

Hi all! I have very sporadic web access now. I have moved and didn't rehook my cable modem as my new digs cost me more since I am without a room mate. I decided to go completely wireless so I currently have no means to modem from home. I will have to figure out a better arrangement in the next couple of months. Just wanted to say hello to the good people of the forum!

NAMASTE

Hey, kitty .. sorry it took a while to get back. Yes, I'm making Hawaii an annual trek. There is a jazz festival there every May and I do think it will become an annual trip for me. ;-) Let your dreams take flight for life is meant to be an adventure .. ;-) Big hug, Namaste. debi

Have been thinking about solitude, about those who go through devastating experiences and are unable to run off, or "unqualified" to be whisked away to a place of silence. I've known people, and on occasion been one, who go on living in the crowd by building a protective bubble...words come in like Jodie Foster's hand did in Contact, through thick liquid; words go out the same way, in slow motion. I think they sometimes lack life, that everything the person does lacks something in this mode. Even though he speaks and walks and hears, there's no connection with these things. It is a period of internal silence, of weird communion with one's self, a period of learning or of letting go of whatever it is that got him there in the first place. I think it is the most profound kind of solitude, or is it just overwhelming loneliness.

"Re-membering".

"Us" "ordinary" folk are just reading along, ..................learning.

You cannot be patronized by something so removed from the truth. "Ordinary" is probably an old would-be nemesis of no consequence.

Richard & Hadi, thanks for your points-of-view. Much to think about. I may write more when I next log on. Interesting that this discussion should turn to solitude-hermits-recluses as I have just been listening to an interview with a Tibetan nun who spent 12 years in a cave and there is a book about her experiences called Cave in the Snow.

You can read some excerpts of this book here

I agree, we don't all need to go off and become hermits to awaken. Some of us have awoken in the most unusual of settings. Like a psychiatric ward for example. :)

Will write more on this next time.

Namaste all. And no sleeping on the job.

...a simple question,was Deepak in Stevens Point, Wisconsin on Saturday June 10th?

i HAVE READ SOME OF YOUR QOUTES I HAVE READ SOME OF THE BOOK I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED AND REALIZED A FEW THINGS IN MY LIFE THAT I COULD UNDERSTAND BEFORE BUT DO IT THE RIGHT WAY AND IF YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN MAKE IT THANKS A GIRLFRIEND OF MINE HAD SENT A HOME PAGE OF YOUR BOOK AND I DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY KNOW . PEACE

Richard: Isolation. Hmmm. I don't know. Spending time alone and being isolated are probably distinctions in my mind. I do agree that there is value to it, but the Spiritual Motive would help a great deal. As you have witnessed, it is often lacking.
I think that the Mystics in a sense did us a disservice, because their language caused not only paradoxical problems for the listener or reader, but also slighted Ego as if to tell it that The Mystic knows something Ego cannot know. You tell someone face to face that their problem is that they are "asleep", they will probably tell you that you are a "crap spewing turd". Their own experience of reality will tell them that such a statement is crap. It is in fact "patronising". So, perhaps we should look at a new defenition for the state of consciousness that humanity experiences at present on the wider scale which has previously been referred to as "sleep", and create also its counterpart which has been known as "wakefullness", "Christ consciousness", "The Fourth Way" "Self Actualised" and so on. For me, I like to think that it's not so much that humanity is "ordinary", more that humanity has not realised its grander potential yet. That a greater Kingdom awaits it. Thank you "masked one", I needed that pointed out to me.

Let him who would lash the offender look onto the spirit of the offended. Kahlil Gibran.

Ordinary, sorry you have such low self-esteem that you consider yourself a "crap spewing turd." Just remember, as one of God's children, we are all special.

Peace, love, and fuzzy bunnies to you.

©

where's the forum for us ordinary folk?

crap spewing turd

Crown/Harmony Books

Comments by users are not endorsed by Random House. The Deepak Chopra Forum is intended to provide a place for the exchange of information, opinions, and comments. Random House does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify, or agree with the comments, opinions, or statements posted in the Forum. Any information or material placed online, including advice and opinions, are the views of those who post the statements, and does not necessarily represent the views of Random House. Privacy Policy