BOOK by Deepak Chopra: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
"We are spiritual beings having a human experience" -Chopra builds on this powerful thought in this book that expands his life's work in spiritual approaches to daily living. He explains the laws of pure potentiality, giving, karma, least effort, intention and desire, detachment, and dharma and includes useful suggestions on how to apply these fundamental, natural principles taken from ancient Vedic concepts.
Dr. Chopra brings to light many of the ideas and principles (that we all learn sooner or later as we journey through life) in an easy-to-read spiritual guidance on how to live life in harmony with nature. He unveils each in such a way that you begin to see these as laws that we each must live by but often do not. Although this is a spiritual book, it is written objectively (the author used to practice medicine) for the spiritually curious western mind that tends to view the world as a materialistic, solid world. He lists the seven spiritual guides to attain happiness and success which is derived from the laws of nature. By acknowledging each of these laws and living our life with them as a basis, we can unburden our modern life style and become more functional. We are born from nature so it would only make sense to go back to its principle. All creation, Chopra says, is based on natural laws that are too often thwarted by Western preferences for effort, control, and relentless ambition. This is a book that brings us back to the wisdom of the body-the inner intelligence of all living things that propels them toward fulfillment without struggle or compulsiveness. Controlling everything and pumping up our importance may be attractive to the American mind, but Chopra's genius makes giving them up sound like a relief.
Chopra's teachings are distilled into seven simple principles which can be applied to all elements of personal life to evoke success. The basic idea is that personal understanding and harmony promote fulfilling relationships and material abundance without extra effort. Based on seven natural laws that govern all creation, this book shatters the myth that success results only from hard work, exacting plans, and driving ambition. Author offers a life-altering perspective on attaining success: Once we understand our true nature and learn to live in harmony with these natural laws, well-being, good health, fulfilling relationships, energy and enthusiasm for life, and material abundance can be achieved. Simple yet profound, the book’s timeless wisdom and practical steps can be applied easily with minimal efforts.
It is absolutely amazing that a book can so simply and succinctly lay out all the profound truths one needs to know in order to lead a truly fulfilling life. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success could easily be called The Seven Laws of Life. This is because they are the same principles that nature uses to create everything in material existence, everything we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. These Laws Are:
1. THE LAW OF PURE POTENTIALITY: The source of all creation is pure consciousness. Deepak emphasizes the need of regular silent mediation everyday in order to be aware of the significance of the "here and now". Chopra puts it this way “The source of all creation is pure consciousness and when we realize that our true self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe “.
2. THE LAW OF GIVING: universe operates through dynamic exchange, we must give in order to get. Give compliments, prayers, whatever is in your hand, if we want love then we must give love.
3. THE LAW OF KARMA OR CAUSE & EFFECT: every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. Bring your choices into conscious awareness.
4. THE LAW OF LEAST EFFORT: nature's intelligence functions with effortless ease... Accept things as they are.
5. THE LAW OF INTENTION & DESIRE: inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment. List and be aware of your goals… we must make known our intention but we should not be attached to it. Your attention to something energizes it, your intention transforms it. Therein lies the key, intent is desire without attachment to a particular outcome. "The past is history, the future is a mystery, and this moment is a gift... that is why this moment is called the 'present'." So we must learn to accept the present and intend the future, for the future is created now in the present. You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
6. THE LAW OF DETACHMENT: in detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty. Do not impose ideas of how things should be on others; let go of need to defend anything you do.
7. THE LAW OF DHARMA OR PURPOSE IN LIFE: everyone has a purpose in life. Use your unique talents to service humanity; ask "How can I help, How can I serve" instead of "What's in it for me".
Chopra does an excellent job relaying the message that every person is a part of the greater universe and does a great job at convincing the reader of his point. Throughout the book he has to slow sown and explain how he is using many of the words as we usually give them different meaning. Then there are a few times that he has to turn to Indian words instead of making up new ones. But again the principles are not new, just nicely packaged. Christians would do well to supplement this work with Biblical, insightful and Spiritually-centered principles for success. The book quickly cuts to the core of the topic of spirituality. As an introductory course, the author packs the basic principles of spirituality in a short set of essays. Each principle is clearly described in terms of how it operates and its significance to living successfully. The teaching is void of spiritual and philosophical dogma and more centered on practical spirituality. Each chapter ends with advice on how to integrate the spiritual laws into our daily lives. Although it is a quick read the book demands from the reader to be read more than once. Each essay needs to be pondered and practiced to get real value from the book but it has enough to trigger some new spiritual insights.
This book contains all of life's answers. It tells you how to be happy, how to never argue, how to never get stressed out, how to make money, how to live a meaningful life; it's all here. It is based on a very simple idea; the Universe is intelligent enough to keep a billion trillion stars or more spinning in heavens and a billion trillion cells in every organism on this planet in working harmony. Therefore, it is probably intelligent enough to solve your problems. Chopra explains the process of becoming sensitive to this greater intelligence, and allowing it to work through you. Deepak generously leads us to a beautiful place where all we have to do is "be." Spirit is what we are... and love is who we are... and where we come from and then return to. What more can we desire? The important point is that it DOES NOT MATTER if what Mr. Chopra says is true or not. What is important is that it inspires real, positive change in people’s lives. The inspiration and the change are what are real. The details are irrelevant.
This book shows you how to discover and unleash your 'true' self by breaking away from fear based thinking (seeking approval of our actions/ needing to control /and a need for power are all fear based methods of thinking). In fact, readers are urged to break away from the 'Pavlov effect' by resisting conditional reflexive responses triggered by circumstances out of one's control. Chopra goes on to explain that most people spend the majority of their energy convincing or persuading others of their point of view. He asks the reader to understand that what they are feeling is not someone else's fault; instead one should take responsibility for one's own thoughts and actions. One of the simplest insights to apply in everyday life is to remember that the easiest way to achieve a goal or get what you want out of life (whether it is personal or business oriented) is to help others get what they want. Success is much easier to accomplish when there are myriads of people who want you to succeed, as opposed to when it's just you.
This book's focus is more a philosophical guide on how to accept fate and let go of events in our lives that we don't necessarily have control over. For example, Chopra suggests that after we've done our best to prepare for success, let go of the final outcome. If our plans don't work the way we anticipated, so be it. He teaches the reader how to accept fate and let fate serve as a guide to us as far as the direction we need to be taking in our lives. Chopra is not saying good things in life will come to you if you only sit on the couch, but provides readers with new ways of thinking about disappointments, successes, achievements, and failures. He suggests that by trying to force too much of our will on the events or people in our lives, we can actually push out of our reach the very things we desire.
True success is being able to be thankful for what you have. When you live without attachment, you know from a higher perspective that the final outcome will be to your benefit, even if the immediate outcome isn't what you want. These laws can be used in one's personal life or can be used in business or organizations to create a framework for success. As we go through life and the many changes brought by experience and age, the ideas in this book will be guiding lights with new focus for each life hurdle we encounter. This is a book to read and re-read, book to share and to give.