10 WAYS TO REVERSE THE AGEING PROCESS

After his Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, people expect Deepak Chopra to dole out lists and ways and tips. He had one ready at the Delhi talk.

1. Change your perception of your physical body. Your body is a field of information and energy. This field is constantly influenced by breathing, eating, digestion, metabolism, elimination, and how we experience the world through our five senses. Also, how we metabolise that through our inner world of thought, feeling, emotion and desire.

2. Change your perception of time. If you can do that, you can accomplish much more—because you are creative, not stressed. You can do a lot more if you can sit back, become non-reactive, and see the world as if for the first time. Lord Shiva, the first yogi, said: "If you want to create a new body, step out of the river of memory and conditioning, and see the world as if for the first time." He said: "I use memory, but I do not allow memory to use me." Now change your perception of time, you have all the time in the world. Time is the movement of consciousness—put your attention on that, it's timeless. And what is timeless? Not the human body, not the human mind, but the soul.

3. Change your perception of ageing itself. To grow old is to be wiser. To grow old is to have more responsibility. To grow old is to change your inner dialogue from 'me, mine' to 'What can I do? How can I help?' And as you change your perception of ageing, your biology will change. Those are the three most important things.

4. Keep active, exercise.

5. Improve mind-body coordination through yoga, breathing techniques, martial arts.

6. Get rid of the toxicity in your life—toxic emotions, relationships, habits.

7. Pay attention to literature—on nutritional supplements, ayurveda and all these great rasayanas, which are some of the great anti-oxidants known that directly affect the ageing process.

8. Learn to be flexible. Vedanta says: "Infinite flexibility is the secret of immortality." Studies show that the primary thing that distinguishes healthy older people from those less healthy, is the ability to be flexible.

9. Make love the most important thing in life. To understand our 'inter-beingness in the inter-isness', to understand love not as a mere emotion or sentiment, but as the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.

10. Be aware of your mortality, because in the awareness of mortality is the glimpse of immortality. Be aware that death is stalking you in every moment of your existence. And once one becomes aware of that, one's life becomes magical. Because now one's priorities are not the same.

The God Delusion?

DEEPAK CHOPRA

Ultimately, Richard Dawkins can fight with religion all he wants and it will be only a sideshow. He is a color commentator sitting in the bleachers, not a player in the game. Skepticism offers critiques, not discoveries. Ironically, this is a shared fate with religion, which has ceased to play a progressive and vital role in modern society. The two are locked in a sterile embrace. So how can a new conception of God change this situation? The answer centers on the last point from Dawkins in our discussion.7. The universe is full of wonder and mystery, but these will be solved, one at a time, until science has a complete understanding. In this way the entire supernatural tradition--and God himself--will be erased.This is a powerful and optimistic claim that seems plausible in an age of heady discoveries in physics and biology. The famous Theory of Everything draws closer to fulfillment than ever. In fact, science has become even more ambitious. The original Theory of Everything belonged solely to physics. It had no intention of explaining the evolution of life. But with the completion of the human genome project, life will also cease to be a mystery, so Dawkins assures us. Every mechanism hidden inside DNA will be mastered and used for human good.It's hard for materialists not to thump their chests, as Dawkins so brazenly does. Unfortunately, the Theory of Everything has hit a brick wall. Quantum physics lacks the power to cross the border into the invisible world that lies beyond subatomic particles, the so-called virtual domain. Not only is this the realm of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'--mysterious shadows of the matter and energy we see around us--but all possible universes also lie across the same boundary, as well as the "zero point" where space and time are born.Genetics seems to be riding higher, but behind the display of public triumph, biology has not solved the existence of mind, and therefore the same obstacle faces both fields. An invisible world lies sealed off from investigation, leaving us to trace its footprints and echoes. MRIs and CAT scans are impressive but limited. As someone once commented, brain research is like putting a stethoscope to the outside of the Astrodome and trying to figure out the rules of football. Dawkins finds consciousness (as well as quantum physics) totally irrelevant, a comment on his own intellectual limitations rather than reality. If God is going to become viable again, he will have to be a God who solves some key mysteries in the virtual domain:--What separates life from inert matter?--What part does the observer play in creating reality?--How does the infinite quantum field organize and govern every event in the universe?--How does chaos relate to order? Are they enemies or secret allies?--How did evolution overcome entropy, the ceaseless march of the physical universe toward chaos and the deep freezer of "heat death"?--Why is the universe so amazingly hospitable to human life?This last question is the most pressing one, for both believers and non-believers. To claim that the swirling, chaotic quantum soup that erupted from the Big Bang evolved into human life by random chance is only believable because science has no urgent need to find a credible alternative. As long as a scientist stands outside nature with his nose pressed against the glass like a child peering through a bakery shop window (to borrow an image from the noted physicist John Wheeler) we get a false picture of the cosmos. The only advantage of isolating yourself in this way is that it fits the scientific method. But no matter how many rats run through the maze, it's futile to pretend that we are outside the experiment. The truth is completely different:--We are imbedded in the universe. What we observe is ourselves reflected back at us.--Every sight, sound, texture, taste, and smell is the product of an observer. As the observer changes, so do all these qualities.--We perceive imagination, beauty, creativity, etc. in ourselves and thus we see the same in Nature. Every attribute of the human mind is imbedded in the universe.Why can you remember your birthday and the face of someone you love? Because DNA can remember how to produce generations of human beings. Why does DNA remember? There's the mystery. We can link memory as a human attribute to chemical memory. But when we ask where chemicals learned to remember, science is baffled. Dissecting DNA is one thing. Asking the "why" of DNA is another.Dawkins feels that why is a foolish, probably meaningless question, totally devoid of scientific interest. So be it. But why is the single most important question humans ask, particularly when it comes to ourselves. Ultimately we want to know who we are and our purpose for being here. Dawkins doesn't seem to have any doubt about who he is: he's the evolutionary byproduct of chemical forces, physical laws, random events, natural selection, competition, adaptation, and survival. So is an amoeba. Sadly, this reductionist picture of human life is devoid of meaning. It's merely a map of how a physical machine called the body came to be built. Such knowledge is like knowing everything about a computer except how to plug it in.What if memory is an attribute of Nature itself? All around us we see memory at work. The insulin that functions in primitive organisms retains the same function in higher mammals. The chemical reaction that propels a butterfly's wings to beat is duplicated to make human heart cells beat. Once we take seriously the notion that we are inside the bake shop, not standing outside with our noses pressed up against the glass, it becomes obvious that memory isn't a separate, isolated attribute.

Nature is constantly remembering. Nature is constantly creating, exercising imagination, discovering quantum leaps. When hydrogen and oxygen combined, the result wasn't another inert gas. It was water, and water represents a huge imaginative leap on the part of the universe. The reason one can say this with confidence is simple: if the universe didn't have imagination, neither would we. That's what it means to be imbedded in the field. Nothing we know about ourselves can be separated from what Nature displays.Which finally, at long last, breathes new life into God. Dawkins is absolutely right to declare a requiem service over the God of organized religion and to warn us about the dangers of superstition, dogma, and pseudo-science. (Too bad he isn't wise enough to heed the words of a right-wing fundamentalist on CNN: "As long as you hate us, we're not going away.") But what Dawkins tragically misses holds far more optimism for the future than he ever could: the universe is renewing itself through us. Science is God explaining God to God using a human nervous system. Or as one wit put it, God created scientists to prove that he doesn't exist--and failed.There is nothing outside the field. It displays omnipresence and omnipotence, being all-pervasive and containing all matter and energy. Soon science will come to terms with the presence of consciousness in the field (advanced systems theory as well as information theory is hard at work already) and we will add omniscience to the list. This new God will be the source of mind. Its ability to orchestrate evolution will make sense because it must. Humans cannot have any knowledge except knowledge of ourselves. Every facet of the cosmos is a mirror. The fact that the chemical reaction driving a butterfly's wings also keeps you and me alive is no accident--it's part of a design.Contrary to what Dawkins thinks, this design isn't a blueprint or a diagram set down by a fictitious God. It's a vital, ever-evolving, imaginative, dramatic process. Strangely enough, so is human existence. The similarity isn't a coincidence--there is nothing we call human that isn't, quite literally, transcendent. Beyond the physical world lies the womb of creation, and whether we call it God is irrelevant. We came from a source, we are forever in contact with our source, and we are constantly returning to our source. This is the real mystery of existence that Dawkins trivializes with his over-heated skepticism. Far more profound are the words of T.S. Eliot:And what you thought you came forIs only a shell, a husk of meaningFrom which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled.

In the final post on this topic I will address some of the responses I have recieved to this subject.
P.S.Some responders have problems with a sentence from this post: "When hydrogen and oxygen combined, the result wasn't another inert gas. " I meant, of course, another inert gas like radon or neon. If I thought that oxygen and hydrogen were inert gases, I wouldn't have stated that they combine, since by definition inert gases can't combine. They have no free electron(s) in their outer orbits with which to combine. This discussion will be more productive if we all grant each other the respect we would like to receive.

Love, Deepak

We are not what we think we are!

PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA

WE ARE not labels. We are all beings living inside the labels. We are not doctor, husband, friend, or anything. We are more than that. We are a total of all that. We are so deeply attached to the labels. We wear labels very proudly. When people don’t notice and appreciate our labels we feel slighted, neglected, and annoyed. Our labels say things such as ‘I am a manager’ or that ‘I am a big businessman’ or that ‘I own many cars.’ When we associate ourselves with these well-known labels, it makes us feel part of the world. It makes us feel successful. We are no longer alone. We feel pride in the fact that we are somebody well known. We are continuously partying, shopping or watching TV. We are constantly busy. Why? We are afraid to face ourselves. Our chief entertainment is running away from ourselves. We believe that all this activity is the path to joy. We have always believed that we will be joyful at some point or other. We think it is only a matter of time. By the time we are about forty we may get everything we have always wanted. What we don’t understand is why we wanted all this. This question haunts us because we continue to be deeply unhappy. This is the ‘depression of success.’ This is a peculiar disease of the rich and successful. The more affluent we are, greater are the chances of being afflicted with this kind of depression. The depression of success is the greatest illness in developed western countries. Material success fails to make people happy. We are restless. We need to keep experimenting in search of happiness. So, we tend to change or acquire new possessions. We change cars every year, we change houses every second year, and we change wives every third year. Still, we stay deeply unhappy. At some point in the journey we have forgotten that we are not the labels. If we are a parcel travelling from the US to India, various stamps and identification marks will be placed on it to route and speed it on its way. The parcel may think that these external stamps are its true identity. The parcel is wrong. It is not what is outside, but the stuff inside that makes the parcel what it is. Dive within. Let go of the labels and seek the inner being. This is the way to bliss.

A Yoga Technique That Opens Doors

Swami Kriyananda

Most efforts to transform oneself involve a laborious struggle to correct an endless array of individual faults like a tendency to gossip, craving for sweets and laziness. We must, of course, fight such battles as they present themselves. But purely psychological efforts at self-transformation are a never-ending task. Even after one has succeeded, finally, in turning a few mental habits in the right direction, there is no guarantee that they’ll remain turned that way once we leave them to work on the next lot. The correlation between spiritual awakening and a directional movement of energy can be observed in ordinary human experience. When a person feels an increase of happiness or inspiration, he will, if he introspects, observe an accompanying upward flow of energy to his brain. He may find himself standing or sitting more erect, holding his head higher, looking upward, turning the corners of his mouth up in a smile. If he feels depressed or discouraged, he will note a corresponding flow of energy,downward, away from the brain. He may even slump a little, look down at the floor, turn the corners of his mouth downward, and actually feel physically a little heavier. Spiritual awakening takes place when all one’s energy is directed upward. But this upward flow is obstructed in most people by countless eddies of desires which, once formed, get distributed along the spine according to their anticipated level of fulfilment. The lower the level, the more materialistic the desire. The higher the level, the more spiritual. These eddies can be dissipated by a flow of energy through the spine strong enough to neutralise their centripetal force. Numerous techniques of yoga have as their main objective the awakening of this energy-flow. Kriya Yoga directs energy lengthwise around the spine, gradually neutralising the eddies of chitta or feeling. At the same time it strengthens the nerves in the spine and brain to receive cosmic currents of energy and consciousness. Kriya Yoga strengthens you in whatever path you choose to follow, whether devotion,discrimination or service. A visitor who once came to his Ranchi school had been practising Bhakti Yoga, the path of singleminded devotion, for 20 years. Though deeply devoted, he had never yet experienced the Lord’s blissful presence. “Kriya Yoga would help you”, the Master suggested to him. But the man was fearful of being disloyal to his own path. “No, Kriya won’t conflict with your present practices”, Master insisted. “It will only deepen you in them”. Still the man was hesitant. “Look here”, Master finally said, “you are like a man who for 20 years has been trying to get out of a room through the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Kriya Yoga will simply show you where the door is. There is no conflict with your own devotional path. To pass through the doorway you must still do so with devotion”. The man relented. Hardly a week passed before he received his first deep experience of God. “I wasn’t sent to the West”, Yogananda often told his audiences, “by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatise you with a new theology. Jesus himself asked Babaji to send someone here to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly. I want to help you to attain actual experience of Him, through your daily practice of Kriya Yoga”.