Anyone familiar with New Age spiritualism has read, or at least knows of, Deepak Chopra. An Indian- born physician now living in - of course - California, he has written scores of books and given hundreds of lectures over the past 25 or so years. His stuff is primarily Eastern philosophy/religion repackaged for the West, with a healthy dose of science thrown in. Many mock him because he is too simplistic, but I think the animosity has more to do with his success. Successful people are always brought down to size. I am sure there is gossip out there connecting him to affairs and greed, which is supposed to render his ideas mute. They have not, and that is fortunate.
A few weeks ago I went off the satellite onto antenna TV and surfed what is now an expanded menu. Public Broadcasting now has three, and as I tripped through them, I came upon Fundraising Night with a video of Deepak giving a recent lecture on his new book, The Future of God. A few days later, I was browsing for interesting titles at the library, and there was Deepak's new book, offered right there for free. I admit I hesitated. The first time I came across Deepak in the early 90's, I was thrilled at his accessible and ecumenical spiritualism. In time, I began to succumb to the snobby idea that he is not deep enough. And it is true - he keeps at the mid-level and offers apparently too-easy-to-believe tips for expanding your awareness. That remains true in this book, but after all these years, I have rediscovered his value. Connecting with real-life people rather than with grand abstractions alone is a valuable and necessary effort. His style is what it is, and although it doesn't delve into everything with the depth we might want, it delves into almost everything with a depth that we can use.
At first, The Future is a bit disconcerting. He tells us that our old religious models are not only inadequate (for most) for finding God, but that they define God in terms that cause distress in modern people. In the Middle East traditions, including Christianity, God comes off not only as petulant and petty, but as completely unreliable. We pray for help and more often than not, it does not come. We have rationalized this by saying that, in the greater context, such things were not meant to be, but Chopra differs. Test God, he says. If he is not what it is claimed - all powerful and loving - he is not the God of your higher aspirations. Ditch the old one, he says, and find something that works!
I admit that I found this distasteful, as if Chopra is siding with the barefoot materialists, but that is far from the case. It is really his presentation that shocks, not his conclusions. When everything begins to gel, we of the New Age start to nod our heads again, as might some of the Old Age. The reason that God does not work, says Chopra, is because we live in a partial universe where ignorance has created a world of neurotics and psychopaths. It is a superficial gauze that, however powerful and convincing it seems (and anyone with a bad toothache is very, very convinced), is only a shell akin to a dream. This is very Hindu and Buddhist, but also very Christian. Chopra reminds us that Jesus speaks again and again of the malleability of the material world (to paraphrase: 'if one has as little faith as a grain of mustard seed, one could still move mountains'). Chopra then separates reality into three major categories: the materialistic, the subtle, and the transcendent. The materialistic dances to its own rules, born from limitation and incompleteness, including sickness and death and evil, all those things that make us doubt the existence of God. We are then shown how these limitations, and the attendant evils, disappear as we approach the Whole. I have just completed the chapters on the subtle, and I cannot help but agree with Chopra. In fact, he made a list to show us that the subtle is not only real, but that we all experience it from time to time. His list sounds like the themes for this website, with the reason behind it. Here are some of them:
Your have experienced the subtle world if:
You have an "aha" or "eureka" moment.
You feel a burst of heightened reality, as if things suddenly became clear to you.
You are struck by awe and wonder.
Inspiration comes to you. You have a leap of creativity.
Events seem to form a pattern, and suddenly you see what the pattern is.
You think of a person's name, and the next minute that person telephones you.
You run into meaningful coincidences, when two events coincide and mesh.
You feel the presence of someone who has passed away.
You are certain that your life has a purpose, which may feel predestined or beyond what your ego wants.
Certainly all of us have had some of these "hints" of the subtle, but we forget them and let them go. We fall back into the gravity of the material world. But Chopra encourages us to encourage the subtle. Here are some of his helpful hints -
'you are encouraging the subtle' if:
You don't listen to the voice of fear.
You question the narrow boundaries of ego.
You are optimistic about the future.
You search for the hidden meaning in everyday events.
The last are my italics because I feel this is the most important - although keeping optimistic, as well as some others not mentioned here, might be just as essential. Yes, we must keep on our toes - this everyday world of ours, no matter the words we set to express it, is a thin veil, a magical trick of illusion, not because it is not real, but because it is only a minute element of reality. As Chopra tells us, only 4 percent of the universe is accounted for by science, including all the space that appears to be empty. We understand only a tiny fraction of that 4 percent. Essentially, even from the scientific viewpoint, we are as ignorant of life as a mosquito is of human consciousness. The mosquito is of this world and operates effectively in it, but it knows nothing beyond the mind-set of the mosquito.
But humans are made to operate at much more complete levels, as Chopra tells us again and again. It is repetitious, but such repetition is more than OK - it is essential to help break free from the net of materialism. It is at these other levels of awareness where we can begin to know God, and where doubt dissipates and true faith appears - which then turns us towards a vastly greater, and more satisfying, reality.
Chopra tells us we are not condemned to a life of suffering and frustration. Even though most of us probably are, it is good to hear that suffering is not the basis for God's universe, and that it is possible for a few of our spiritual athletes to escape gravity. If we at least listen to them, we can begin to understand - and evolve in the most meaningful of ways. FK
A few weeks ago I went off the satellite onto antenna TV and surfed what is now an expanded menu. Public Broadcasting now has three, and as I tripped through them, I came upon Fundraising Night with a video of Deepak giving a recent lecture on his new book, The Future of God. A few days later, I was browsing for interesting titles at the library, and there was Deepak's new book, offered right there for free. I admit I hesitated. The first time I came across Deepak in the early 90's, I was thrilled at his accessible and ecumenical spiritualism. In time, I began to succumb to the snobby idea that he is not deep enough. And it is true - he keeps at the mid-level and offers apparently too-easy-to-believe tips for expanding your awareness. That remains true in this book, but after all these years, I have rediscovered his value. Connecting with real-life people rather than with grand abstractions alone is a valuable and necessary effort. His style is what it is, and although it doesn't delve into everything with the depth we might want, it delves into almost everything with a depth that we can use.
At first, The Future is a bit disconcerting. He tells us that our old religious models are not only inadequate (for most) for finding God, but that they define God in terms that cause distress in modern people. In the Middle East traditions, including Christianity, God comes off not only as petulant and petty, but as completely unreliable. We pray for help and more often than not, it does not come. We have rationalized this by saying that, in the greater context, such things were not meant to be, but Chopra differs. Test God, he says. If he is not what it is claimed - all powerful and loving - he is not the God of your higher aspirations. Ditch the old one, he says, and find something that works!
I admit that I found this distasteful, as if Chopra is siding with the barefoot materialists, but that is far from the case. It is really his presentation that shocks, not his conclusions. When everything begins to gel, we of the New Age start to nod our heads again, as might some of the Old Age. The reason that God does not work, says Chopra, is because we live in a partial universe where ignorance has created a world of neurotics and psychopaths. It is a superficial gauze that, however powerful and convincing it seems (and anyone with a bad toothache is very, very convinced), is only a shell akin to a dream. This is very Hindu and Buddhist, but also very Christian. Chopra reminds us that Jesus speaks again and again of the malleability of the material world (to paraphrase: 'if one has as little faith as a grain of mustard seed, one could still move mountains'). Chopra then separates reality into three major categories: the materialistic, the subtle, and the transcendent. The materialistic dances to its own rules, born from limitation and incompleteness, including sickness and death and evil, all those things that make us doubt the existence of God. We are then shown how these limitations, and the attendant evils, disappear as we approach the Whole. I have just completed the chapters on the subtle, and I cannot help but agree with Chopra. In fact, he made a list to show us that the subtle is not only real, but that we all experience it from time to time. His list sounds like the themes for this website, with the reason behind it. Here are some of them:
Your have experienced the subtle world if:
You have an "aha" or "eureka" moment.
You feel a burst of heightened reality, as if things suddenly became clear to you.
You are struck by awe and wonder.
Inspiration comes to you. You have a leap of creativity.
Events seem to form a pattern, and suddenly you see what the pattern is.
You think of a person's name, and the next minute that person telephones you.
You run into meaningful coincidences, when two events coincide and mesh.
You feel the presence of someone who has passed away.
You are certain that your life has a purpose, which may feel predestined or beyond what your ego wants.
Certainly all of us have had some of these "hints" of the subtle, but we forget them and let them go. We fall back into the gravity of the material world. But Chopra encourages us to encourage the subtle. Here are some of his helpful hints -
'you are encouraging the subtle' if:
You don't listen to the voice of fear.
You question the narrow boundaries of ego.
You are optimistic about the future.
You search for the hidden meaning in everyday events.
The last are my italics because I feel this is the most important - although keeping optimistic, as well as some others not mentioned here, might be just as essential. Yes, we must keep on our toes - this everyday world of ours, no matter the words we set to express it, is a thin veil, a magical trick of illusion, not because it is not real, but because it is only a minute element of reality. As Chopra tells us, only 4 percent of the universe is accounted for by science, including all the space that appears to be empty. We understand only a tiny fraction of that 4 percent. Essentially, even from the scientific viewpoint, we are as ignorant of life as a mosquito is of human consciousness. The mosquito is of this world and operates effectively in it, but it knows nothing beyond the mind-set of the mosquito.
But humans are made to operate at much more complete levels, as Chopra tells us again and again. It is repetitious, but such repetition is more than OK - it is essential to help break free from the net of materialism. It is at these other levels of awareness where we can begin to know God, and where doubt dissipates and true faith appears - which then turns us towards a vastly greater, and more satisfying, reality.
Chopra tells us we are not condemned to a life of suffering and frustration. Even though most of us probably are, it is good to hear that suffering is not the basis for God's universe, and that it is possible for a few of our spiritual athletes to escape gravity. If we at least listen to them, we can begin to understand - and evolve in the most meaningful of ways. FK
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