Fritjof Capra is one of the foremost green thinkers, especially in the field of ecology and systems thinking. He is the author of many seminal books, such as the Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, The Turning Point and most recently, The Hidden Connections. He is currently teaching at Schumacher College and I was lucky enough to be able to grab him for two interviews, one about relocalisation initiatives (in particular the Transition Town Totnes project due to start this September), and one about peak oil. Unfortunately one of my kids put a chair leg through my mp3 player so I was unable to record the first one, instead taking copious notes, so any mistakes herein are entirely down to my poor note taking. The second (which I’ll post tomorrow) was filmed, so the transcript is taken directly from that.
In your latest book ‘The Hidden Connections’ you write, “creating sustainable communities is the great challenge of our times”. In relation to Totnes and the relocalisation initiative about to start here how might we start to achieve this?
This is a question that would generate different kinds of answers from different kinds of people. Some would say you need a revolution, some that you need community development and so on. I always come back to education because that is my area. It is not necessarily the best way but it is the one I am most familiar with. My answer derives from the fact that the concept of sustainability is alien to most people, and many don’t understand it. Lester Brown who devised the term 25 years ago and if later became widely known as the Brundtland definition, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
When I first heard it I was confused by it. It set me thinking as to why I found it confusing, and I ended up thinking that it was because it is a moral exhortation to create as many opportunities for future generations as possible, yet it is an exhortation that doesn’t actually tell you how to do it. I tell people that what we need instead is an operational definition. The key to this is that we can use ecosystems as models. They are adaptive and sustainable, they support life, they recycle, they are solar powered.
In terms of creating sustainable human communities, our aim has to be to redesign them so that they don’t interfere with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. Our first step is to understand how Nature sustains life. The second step is then to introduce these principles into design, which we call ‘eco-design, to redesign our technologies, social institutions, commerce and so on. The first step is that we have to help communities become what I call ‘eco-literate’, there is really no way round this. It needs to happen at a very early stage in a relocalisation process.
How can the concept of the Network be applied to relocalisation, beyond just linking the various local groups together?
When you study the principles and basic concepts of ecology you can see them as basic principles of all living systems. At the Centre for Ecological Literacy we have tried to turn these principles into bite sized pieces for teaching, distilling them into 6 principles of ecology. For each one we have created a symbol and photos and we have been teaching it in schools. The 6 principles are;
Networks
Nested Systems
Cycles
Flows
Development
Dynamic Balance
Networks is listed as the first principle because it is it the defining characteristic of life. Wherever there is life there are networks, be they metabolic networks, food webs, human social networks. I tried in recent years to put all of these principles into a nutshell, as they are all different ways of seeing the same thing. Nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. We all know what a community is, even if we don’t have it. It is something that, if we have it, we recognise it, and if we don’t have it we feel its absence. Be it English football hooligans or US inner city gangs, they are all seeking community. Community is visceral and real, and that is why I think it is central to a definition of sustainability. The experience of a living network is the experience of a living community. The network concept is important, as sustainability is the quality of a community, an individual cannot be sustainable. Creating communities is creating sustainability.
How can we ‘nudge’ communities towards self-organisation (a central element of systems thinking).
If we empower people they will self organise, it is the nature of life. If you are empowered to participate you will self organise. I worked with a business consultant called Patricia Shaw, who works as a ’systemic business consultant’. She worked with a UK company with 12 people who had a very domineering boss. The boss had to leave for 2 hours, one younger woman said something, and Patricia made a point that she had spoken. Later she spoke again Patricia said the same. Within half an hour the young woman was at the flip chart giving a presentation. What Patricia did was to observe the group and to give it gentle ‘nudges’ at different points, a subtle but very powerful skill.
Does Globalisation Have a Future?
No, not economic globalisation. It has peaked, in much the same way oil has. The current global capitalism has created a number of interconnected problems - increased poverty, alienation and pollution, destroyed communities, environmental destruction, in the human political realm we have seen diminished democracy. Within the last year we have seen a turning point in perception. The model no longer works, even within its own perameters, never mind those that you or I might use. Opinion polls in the US show that people don’t believe in it anymore. South America appears to be turning away from it as a continent.
How much faith do you have that technology can save the day?
Technology has a big part to play, but if technology could solve the problems they’d already be solved. If it was only technology that is the problem we would already be there. I drive a Toyota Prius, and if everyone in the US drove one too, the US would be self-sufficient in oil, and not need to import anything from the Middle East. Wind power and biofuels are there and ready when we decide to use them. In the supermarket the organic food costs more than the non-organic, of course it should be the other way round. This is a question of taxes and subsidies. As a scientist I believe in human creativity and human discoveries, but the problem is not a matter of technology, but one of short termist politics, vested interests, and so on. The solutions exist and make sense, sense that is clear to most people. If we feed our children good food they won’t become obese, if they grow the food too they will be healthier and more cooperative, with the added benefit that they will be building soils which will be locking up carbon… there is no downside to this…
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Interview with Deepak Chopra
For the past decade, Deepak Chopra, M.D. has been at the forefront of a major trend in holistic healing. Since the early 1980's Chopra has successfully combined his impeccable credentials as a practicing endocrinologist with his exploration of mind/body medicine. By doing so, he has dramatically influenced many in traditional medical circles and helped bring the enormous benefits of holistic medicine to the general public's attention.
Chopra created a paradigm for exploring the healing process - a model he calls Quantum Healing. He recalls, "As doctors we are taught to prescribe tranquilizers for people who are feeling anxious to promote tranquility. We give sleeping pills to people with insomnia. Quantum Healing looks past all the wonder drugs and modern technology to a natural way of healing which speaks to an integration of mind and body."
Rather than turn his back on his conventional training, he extended his practice to bring together the best of ancient wisdom and modern science. In 1984, he helped to introduce Ayurvedic medicine to the United States, and within a year he established an Ayurvedic Health Centre of Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He was also the founding President of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine.
Since that time, he has emerged as one of the world's leading proponents of this innovative combination of Eastern and Western healing.
Chopra combines ancient mind/body wisdom with current anti-aging research to show that the effects of aging are largely preventable. By changing your perception of aging and by being aware of your body and how it processes intelligence and experience, you will change how you age.
Chopra lectures around the world making presentations to major corporations and organizations such as the World Health Organization in Geneva, the United Nations, and London's Royal Society of Medicine, as well as a number of major U.S. medical institutions.
THE INTERVIEW
Veronica: By changing one's perception of aging, we can change our age. How?
Dr. Chopra: Well, most people think that aging is fatal and scientific data shows that that's not true. People don't die of old age, they die of diseases that accompany old age, and they are preventable.
Most people think that aging is irreversible and we know that there are mechanisms even in the human machinery that allow for the reversal of aging, through correction of diet, through anti-oxidants, through removal of toxins from the body, through exercise, through yoga and breathing techniques, and through meditation. Most people believe that aging is normal but nobody defines what normal aging is. What we call normal may be the psychopathology of the average. Most people think that aging is genetic and yet if your parents lived to age 80+ that will add three years to your life.
The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years. Most people believe that aging is universal but there are biological organisms that never age. Most people believe that aging is painful and we know that pain is from diseases that are preventable, not from aging.
People have to change their concepts of aging and I am not asking them to do so based on some fanciful notion, but on scientific fact. When they change that, then their perception of aging will change and it will become clear to them to grow old and to become wiser, to become more creative, to become the springboard for creativity and affluence. Once your perception of the whole phenomenom changes, your reality will change, because reality is nothing other than your perception of it.
Veronica: You have stated that if we could effectively trigger the intention not to age, the body would carry it out automatically. Could you explain that?
Dr. Chopra: Yes, because intentions are the triggers for transformation in the body. If you want to wiggle your toes, you do it through intention. There are two components to biological information in the body, one is intention, the other is attention. So to go back to the example I gave you, to wiggle your toes. The first thing that happens is that your attention goes there and the second thing is there is an intention, so this biological information with attention and intention is what biological information is given. Awareness that acts as biological information goes to components, then an informational component, and then there's a localizing component, and that's how the body behaves.
If you can wiggle your toes with the mere flicker of an intention, why can't you reset your biological clock? The reason most people can't do it is because, first, they never thought of it and secondly, they think that certain things are easier to do than other things. For example, it is easier to wiggle the toes than reset the biological clock, but that is just a belief that is rooted in superstition. If we could understand that the human body is a network of information and energy, then we would see that the same principles apply everywhere in the body.
Veronica: That is just what I was about to say, something as profound as stopping the aging process, or actually reversing the aging process, one would think would have to be implanted at a deep level for it to work.
Dr. Chopra: No, it's the same mechanism. It's just that we have been indoctrinated into believing that some things are easier, some things are more difficult. Expectations determine outcome, always!
Veronica: You have also said that our bodies are our experiences transformed into physical expression, in other words, our bodies are the outpouring of our belief system?
Dr. Chopra: And experiences, so if you are having the experience of anxiety, your body is making adrenaline and cortisone, if you are having the experience of tranquility, your body starts making valium, if you are having the experience of exhilaration and joy, your body makes interleukins and interferons which are powerful anti-cancer drugs. So, your body is constantly converting your experiences into molecules.
Veronica: And we can change our interpretation or experience of the world at any time.
Dr. Chopra: That's right. One person's enemy is another person's best friend. My favorite food might give you a rash, etc. Every experience that we have is unique to us because at some deep level we make an interpretation of it.
Veronica: You go even further and suggest that when you see yourself in terms of timeless, deathless being, every cell awakens to a new existence.
Dr. Chopra: Because the body is the end product of intelligence and how that intelligence shapes your reality will shape the reality of the body. The body is a field of ideas and it is a field of interpretations and when you change your experience of your own identity to a spiritual being, the body expresses the physical manifestation of that spiritual reality.
Veronica: You go on to say, true immortality can be experienced here and now in this living body. It comes about when you draw the infusion of being into everything you think and do. This is the the experience of timeless mind and ageless body.
Dr. Chopra: Yes.
Veronica: Is this why it is so important to live with passion, to have a dream, a reason for living, even if that dream is only for our own joy?
Dr. Chopra: I think that is a very important component, to have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents, and when you are expressing your unique talents, you lose track of time.
Veronica: Most people think of time as linear and some of us feel that there is only so much of it, and that it is continuously running out. Almost as though our entire life is like an hour glass and the sand is running through, and we don't know how much sand we have left so we'd better enjoy every single moment. This kind of thinking is further reinforced every time we are faced with the death of someone we know. How does this kind of motivation, of enjoying every moment because time is running out, and we don't have forever, compare with living joyfully without any kind of time anxiety at all, as if we really did have forever?
Dr. Chopra: The only way you can do that is when you know that part of yourself that is in fact, forever. There is a part of yourself that is not subject to change, it is the silent witness behind the scenes. That is essentially your spirit, the spirit being an abstract but real force. It is as real as gravity. It is as real as time. It is incomprehensible. It is mysterious but it is powerful and it is eternal. It is without beginning, without ending. It has no dimensionality, it's spaceless, timeless, dimensionless, eternal, forever. When you can get in touch with that part of yourself, then you will in fact see that present moment existence, even an entire lifetime is nothing other than a flicker in eternity, a parenthesis in eternity, a little flash of a firefly in the middle of the night in the context of eternity.
What happens with that knowledge, with that experience, is that you begin to experience mortality as quantified immortality, you begin to see time as quantified eternity and when you see it against the backdrop of who you really are, then the anxiety of daily existence disappears. So, one ceases to be troubled by, as well as influenced by, the trivial things of daily existence, the little hassles that create stress in most people. So, it becomes much more joyful and you realize that the present moment is as it should be, there is no other way. It is the culmination of all other moments and it is the center point of eternity. So, you pay attention to what is in every moment. And when you do that, then you realize that the presence of God is everywhere. You have only to consciously embrace it in your attention. And that's what creates joyfulness. You have to know the reality and the reality is that we are eternal.
Veronica: I suppose then that the first way of looking at life is actually unhealthy.
Dr. Chopra: Right.
Veronica: The new paradigm tells us that we are constantly making and unmaking our bodies at the quantum level which means that we are constantly unfolding hidden potential. Can you talk about this quantum level?
Dr. Chopra: If you look at anything physical, you find out that at the quantum level, it is non-physical. The body is made up of atoms and subatomic particles that are moving at lightning speed around huge empty spaces and the body gives off fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void, so essentially your body is proportionately as void as intergalactic space, made out of nothing, but the nothing is actually the source of information and energy. If you'd approach that level, then you would realize that the body is a print out and by changing the software, by influencing the programming, and by getting in touch with the program, you can create a new body anytime you want.
Veronica: How does living in the present moment contribute to agelessness?
Dr. Chopra: Living in the present moment creates the experience of eternity. It is like every drop of water in an ocean contains the flavor of the whole ocean. So too, every moment in time contains the flavor of eternity, if you could live in that moment, but most people do not live in the moment which is the only time they really have. They either live in the past or the future. If you could live in the moment, you would see the flavor of eternity and when you metabolize the experience of eternity, your body doesn't age.
Veronica: Meditation lowers biological age. How?
Dr. Chopra: By quieting the mind, which then quiets the body, and the less turbulent the body is, the more the self-repair, healing mechanisms get amplified. In fact, scientists have shown that the better your DNA, your genetic machinery is at healing itself, the longer you live. That's how meditation lowers biological age.
Veronica: What about the power of love in healing or agelessness, someone else's love or the love of our own self?
Dr. Chopra: Yes love, but in the true sense, not as a mere sentiment or an emotion but love as the experience of unity consciousness, which means to know that you are connected with everything in the universe. Not only are you connected with everything in the universe, you might be the same being in different disguises with everybody else. So, when you have that experienced knowledge you lose the ability to hurt people and you also lose the ability to be hurt by people. That's love.
Veronica: Your approach to medicine is based on Ayurveda, which comes from India. How do you describe it?
Dr. Chopra: Ayurveda is the science of life and it has a very basic, simple kind of approach, which is that we are part of the universe and the universe is intelligent and the human body is part of the cosmic body, and the human mind is part of the cosmic mind, and the atom and the universe are exactly the same thing, but with different form, and the more we are in touch with this deeper reality, from where everything comes, the more we will be able to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet.
Veronica: What will medicine look like in the future?
Dr. Chopra: Medicine in the future will give everyone the ability to become their own best healer.
Veronica: Thank you Dr. Chopra, it has indeed been an enlightening conversation
Chopra created a paradigm for exploring the healing process - a model he calls Quantum Healing. He recalls, "As doctors we are taught to prescribe tranquilizers for people who are feeling anxious to promote tranquility. We give sleeping pills to people with insomnia. Quantum Healing looks past all the wonder drugs and modern technology to a natural way of healing which speaks to an integration of mind and body."
Rather than turn his back on his conventional training, he extended his practice to bring together the best of ancient wisdom and modern science. In 1984, he helped to introduce Ayurvedic medicine to the United States, and within a year he established an Ayurvedic Health Centre of Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He was also the founding President of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine.
Since that time, he has emerged as one of the world's leading proponents of this innovative combination of Eastern and Western healing.
Chopra combines ancient mind/body wisdom with current anti-aging research to show that the effects of aging are largely preventable. By changing your perception of aging and by being aware of your body and how it processes intelligence and experience, you will change how you age.
Chopra lectures around the world making presentations to major corporations and organizations such as the World Health Organization in Geneva, the United Nations, and London's Royal Society of Medicine, as well as a number of major U.S. medical institutions.
THE INTERVIEW
Veronica: By changing one's perception of aging, we can change our age. How?
Dr. Chopra: Well, most people think that aging is fatal and scientific data shows that that's not true. People don't die of old age, they die of diseases that accompany old age, and they are preventable.
Most people think that aging is irreversible and we know that there are mechanisms even in the human machinery that allow for the reversal of aging, through correction of diet, through anti-oxidants, through removal of toxins from the body, through exercise, through yoga and breathing techniques, and through meditation. Most people believe that aging is normal but nobody defines what normal aging is. What we call normal may be the psychopathology of the average. Most people think that aging is genetic and yet if your parents lived to age 80+ that will add three years to your life.
The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years. Most people believe that aging is universal but there are biological organisms that never age. Most people believe that aging is painful and we know that pain is from diseases that are preventable, not from aging.
People have to change their concepts of aging and I am not asking them to do so based on some fanciful notion, but on scientific fact. When they change that, then their perception of aging will change and it will become clear to them to grow old and to become wiser, to become more creative, to become the springboard for creativity and affluence. Once your perception of the whole phenomenom changes, your reality will change, because reality is nothing other than your perception of it.
Veronica: You have stated that if we could effectively trigger the intention not to age, the body would carry it out automatically. Could you explain that?
Dr. Chopra: Yes, because intentions are the triggers for transformation in the body. If you want to wiggle your toes, you do it through intention. There are two components to biological information in the body, one is intention, the other is attention. So to go back to the example I gave you, to wiggle your toes. The first thing that happens is that your attention goes there and the second thing is there is an intention, so this biological information with attention and intention is what biological information is given. Awareness that acts as biological information goes to components, then an informational component, and then there's a localizing component, and that's how the body behaves.
If you can wiggle your toes with the mere flicker of an intention, why can't you reset your biological clock? The reason most people can't do it is because, first, they never thought of it and secondly, they think that certain things are easier to do than other things. For example, it is easier to wiggle the toes than reset the biological clock, but that is just a belief that is rooted in superstition. If we could understand that the human body is a network of information and energy, then we would see that the same principles apply everywhere in the body.
Veronica: That is just what I was about to say, something as profound as stopping the aging process, or actually reversing the aging process, one would think would have to be implanted at a deep level for it to work.
Dr. Chopra: No, it's the same mechanism. It's just that we have been indoctrinated into believing that some things are easier, some things are more difficult. Expectations determine outcome, always!
Veronica: You have also said that our bodies are our experiences transformed into physical expression, in other words, our bodies are the outpouring of our belief system?
Dr. Chopra: And experiences, so if you are having the experience of anxiety, your body is making adrenaline and cortisone, if you are having the experience of tranquility, your body starts making valium, if you are having the experience of exhilaration and joy, your body makes interleukins and interferons which are powerful anti-cancer drugs. So, your body is constantly converting your experiences into molecules.
Veronica: And we can change our interpretation or experience of the world at any time.
Dr. Chopra: That's right. One person's enemy is another person's best friend. My favorite food might give you a rash, etc. Every experience that we have is unique to us because at some deep level we make an interpretation of it.
Veronica: You go even further and suggest that when you see yourself in terms of timeless, deathless being, every cell awakens to a new existence.
Dr. Chopra: Because the body is the end product of intelligence and how that intelligence shapes your reality will shape the reality of the body. The body is a field of ideas and it is a field of interpretations and when you change your experience of your own identity to a spiritual being, the body expresses the physical manifestation of that spiritual reality.
Veronica: You go on to say, true immortality can be experienced here and now in this living body. It comes about when you draw the infusion of being into everything you think and do. This is the the experience of timeless mind and ageless body.
Dr. Chopra: Yes.
Veronica: Is this why it is so important to live with passion, to have a dream, a reason for living, even if that dream is only for our own joy?
Dr. Chopra: I think that is a very important component, to have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents, and when you are expressing your unique talents, you lose track of time.
Veronica: Most people think of time as linear and some of us feel that there is only so much of it, and that it is continuously running out. Almost as though our entire life is like an hour glass and the sand is running through, and we don't know how much sand we have left so we'd better enjoy every single moment. This kind of thinking is further reinforced every time we are faced with the death of someone we know. How does this kind of motivation, of enjoying every moment because time is running out, and we don't have forever, compare with living joyfully without any kind of time anxiety at all, as if we really did have forever?
Dr. Chopra: The only way you can do that is when you know that part of yourself that is in fact, forever. There is a part of yourself that is not subject to change, it is the silent witness behind the scenes. That is essentially your spirit, the spirit being an abstract but real force. It is as real as gravity. It is as real as time. It is incomprehensible. It is mysterious but it is powerful and it is eternal. It is without beginning, without ending. It has no dimensionality, it's spaceless, timeless, dimensionless, eternal, forever. When you can get in touch with that part of yourself, then you will in fact see that present moment existence, even an entire lifetime is nothing other than a flicker in eternity, a parenthesis in eternity, a little flash of a firefly in the middle of the night in the context of eternity.
What happens with that knowledge, with that experience, is that you begin to experience mortality as quantified immortality, you begin to see time as quantified eternity and when you see it against the backdrop of who you really are, then the anxiety of daily existence disappears. So, one ceases to be troubled by, as well as influenced by, the trivial things of daily existence, the little hassles that create stress in most people. So, it becomes much more joyful and you realize that the present moment is as it should be, there is no other way. It is the culmination of all other moments and it is the center point of eternity. So, you pay attention to what is in every moment. And when you do that, then you realize that the presence of God is everywhere. You have only to consciously embrace it in your attention. And that's what creates joyfulness. You have to know the reality and the reality is that we are eternal.
Veronica: I suppose then that the first way of looking at life is actually unhealthy.
Dr. Chopra: Right.
Veronica: The new paradigm tells us that we are constantly making and unmaking our bodies at the quantum level which means that we are constantly unfolding hidden potential. Can you talk about this quantum level?
Dr. Chopra: If you look at anything physical, you find out that at the quantum level, it is non-physical. The body is made up of atoms and subatomic particles that are moving at lightning speed around huge empty spaces and the body gives off fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void, so essentially your body is proportionately as void as intergalactic space, made out of nothing, but the nothing is actually the source of information and energy. If you'd approach that level, then you would realize that the body is a print out and by changing the software, by influencing the programming, and by getting in touch with the program, you can create a new body anytime you want.
Veronica: How does living in the present moment contribute to agelessness?
Dr. Chopra: Living in the present moment creates the experience of eternity. It is like every drop of water in an ocean contains the flavor of the whole ocean. So too, every moment in time contains the flavor of eternity, if you could live in that moment, but most people do not live in the moment which is the only time they really have. They either live in the past or the future. If you could live in the moment, you would see the flavor of eternity and when you metabolize the experience of eternity, your body doesn't age.
Veronica: Meditation lowers biological age. How?
Dr. Chopra: By quieting the mind, which then quiets the body, and the less turbulent the body is, the more the self-repair, healing mechanisms get amplified. In fact, scientists have shown that the better your DNA, your genetic machinery is at healing itself, the longer you live. That's how meditation lowers biological age.
Veronica: What about the power of love in healing or agelessness, someone else's love or the love of our own self?
Dr. Chopra: Yes love, but in the true sense, not as a mere sentiment or an emotion but love as the experience of unity consciousness, which means to know that you are connected with everything in the universe. Not only are you connected with everything in the universe, you might be the same being in different disguises with everybody else. So, when you have that experienced knowledge you lose the ability to hurt people and you also lose the ability to be hurt by people. That's love.
Veronica: Your approach to medicine is based on Ayurveda, which comes from India. How do you describe it?
Dr. Chopra: Ayurveda is the science of life and it has a very basic, simple kind of approach, which is that we are part of the universe and the universe is intelligent and the human body is part of the cosmic body, and the human mind is part of the cosmic mind, and the atom and the universe are exactly the same thing, but with different form, and the more we are in touch with this deeper reality, from where everything comes, the more we will be able to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet.
Veronica: What will medicine look like in the future?
Dr. Chopra: Medicine in the future will give everyone the ability to become their own best healer.
Veronica: Thank you Dr. Chopra, it has indeed been an enlightening conversation
Work assiduously on your belief system
• VITHAL C NADKARNI
IF RECENT research is to be believed most of the newer anti-depressants do very little for people. In fact, a placebo or dummy pill may work just as well for people with mild or moderate depression, British doctors who analysed a large number of published and unpublished studies said. They added that people taking the drugs say they feel better simply because they’re swallowing tablets which they think are helping them. Other treatments like exercise and talk therapy provided as much benefit as the drugs, the experts said. All this only validates the power of belief. So instead of blaming your brain for its alleged deficits and frantically popping pills to correct the chemical imbalance, you might be better off if you worked more assiduously on your belief system. But that still does not satisfactorily explain what causes depression in the first place. Once you understand that, you can correct its maladaptive cycle incredibly fast; in just 24 hours, claims British psychologist Joe Griffin who has pioneered a revolutionary theory that links REM sleep and evolution of dreams to roots of depression and other neuroses. For 40 years it’s been known that depressed people have excessive REM sleep, he writes in Dreaming Reality, co-authored with Ian Tyrrell. They dream more than healthy people. Griffin and his colleagues at The Human Givens Institute claim that the negative introspection or ruminations that depressed people engage in actually causes the excessive dreaming. When you dream you burn up much more energy, and your brain cells aren’t refreshed because you are not getting enough slowwave sleep. That’s why depressed people wake up feeling tired and drained. But once they understand the link between dreaming and depression they can begin to work on it immediately. For today’s worry is tomorrow’s depression. Nip it in the bud and it will not bloom into tomorrow’s nightmare. That’s exactly why Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra recommends thought control (chitta-vritti nirodha). “Take physical exercise,” Griffin adds (echoing Patanjali). “Keep your mind focused outwards off the negative introspection. Know the importance of bringing in a bit of pleasure and challenge back into your life.” The Gita gives exactly same advice: balance right amount of work, play, and fun with the proper amount of dream and thought (yukta swapnavbodhasya) to banish pain.
IF RECENT research is to be believed most of the newer anti-depressants do very little for people. In fact, a placebo or dummy pill may work just as well for people with mild or moderate depression, British doctors who analysed a large number of published and unpublished studies said. They added that people taking the drugs say they feel better simply because they’re swallowing tablets which they think are helping them. Other treatments like exercise and talk therapy provided as much benefit as the drugs, the experts said. All this only validates the power of belief. So instead of blaming your brain for its alleged deficits and frantically popping pills to correct the chemical imbalance, you might be better off if you worked more assiduously on your belief system. But that still does not satisfactorily explain what causes depression in the first place. Once you understand that, you can correct its maladaptive cycle incredibly fast; in just 24 hours, claims British psychologist Joe Griffin who has pioneered a revolutionary theory that links REM sleep and evolution of dreams to roots of depression and other neuroses. For 40 years it’s been known that depressed people have excessive REM sleep, he writes in Dreaming Reality, co-authored with Ian Tyrrell. They dream more than healthy people. Griffin and his colleagues at The Human Givens Institute claim that the negative introspection or ruminations that depressed people engage in actually causes the excessive dreaming. When you dream you burn up much more energy, and your brain cells aren’t refreshed because you are not getting enough slowwave sleep. That’s why depressed people wake up feeling tired and drained. But once they understand the link between dreaming and depression they can begin to work on it immediately. For today’s worry is tomorrow’s depression. Nip it in the bud and it will not bloom into tomorrow’s nightmare. That’s exactly why Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra recommends thought control (chitta-vritti nirodha). “Take physical exercise,” Griffin adds (echoing Patanjali). “Keep your mind focused outwards off the negative introspection. Know the importance of bringing in a bit of pleasure and challenge back into your life.” The Gita gives exactly same advice: balance right amount of work, play, and fun with the proper amount of dream and thought (yukta swapnavbodhasya) to banish pain.
The Golden Mean Is Well Within Reach
Indu Jain
In governance, the core idea is to ensure the positive alignment of the pancha tattvas. For this, action has to first spring from within, from the inner core that all of us have, including those of us who are in the business of governance. India’s growth rate is computed on the basis of material resource development. This involves spending these resources. The focus is on production and consumption. However, resource management ought to give sufficient importance to the regeneration and revitalisation of these material resources as well as the subtle resource that resides within us. As individuals we need to align outer growth with inner growth through inner engineering. We expend our physical,mental and spiritual energies without making a conscious effort to rejuvenate ourselves through the preservation and enhancing of these energies. Our failure to look at resource rejuvenation and not just resource mobilisation and exploitation arises from our weakness for tamasic activity. Conservation, preservation and rejuvenation are intrinsic to sustainable inner and outer development. Pre-industrial India was considered Soney ki Chidiya or the golden bird because people were content. Lifestyles were environment-friendly and there was room for reflection and introspection that enabled people to seek the truth without encroaching on another’s path. There was greater scope for creative pursuits in the fields of art, philosophy, culture and spirituality. And there was greater tolerance and understanding of different perspectives. What was the secret of a system that allowed for both inner and outer growth? How did people find the Golden Mean? Achieving this ought to be easier with technological advances that are meant to make life easier, our chores simpler, and so leave us with enough time for meditation and deep thinking. However, this does not seem to be happening. Technology and other advancements seem to have made our lives more hectic and stress-ridden. Life has become a race against time. Therefore, inner growth is intrinsic to sustainable development. Earlier, conditions fostered the flowering and growth of different schools of thought. Diversity was celebrated, even respected. Today, the trend is towards uniformity of thought, word and deed. There are greater conveniences but less comfort. There are more time-saving devices but we seem to have less time at our disposal to think about what we are doing. The Kumbh Mela, a congregation of people of various persuasions on a given day every year, happened despite the absence of sophisticated communication tools like TV, newspapers or the internet. In Haridwar, for instance, everyday is a celebration of sorts for people from across the country. Those in governance could take the initiative to revive our ancient knowledge systems that are rich in healing techniques besides containing a wealth of wisdom on a variety of subjects. Tradition and culture are as much a part of our heritage as are stone monuments. In ancient India the individual was encouraged to live in harmony with himself, his environment and community, by bringing about a balance between his inner and outer realities. It was recognised that growth on the material plane must be balanced with growth on the subtle plane. As individuals and as members of society we need to strive towards achieving the right balance, inside out.
Monday, March 10, 2008
top 22 lessons I've learned from him
Dr. Wayne Dyer
1
You get whatever you think about most. Whatever you think about expands… and therefore, we must be careful to not think about what we do not want.
2
You can never get enough of what you don't want. Why? Because we're thinking about what we don't want and we keep getting more of it. From an abundance and prosperity perspective, it can be costly (meaning you can lose great opportunities) to contemplate the conditions you do not want to produce for your life…for fear of getting more of what you don't want.
3
Think from the end. I'm a big believer in starting with the end outcome and working backwards to reach it. Dyer takes a more mental approach to it as he encourages you to contemplate yourself surrounded by the people, events, and things that represent your version of a "perfect life."
4
An attitude of gratitude will take you a long way. Rumi said, "Trade your knowledge for bewilderment." It is good to be in awe of all that you have attracted into your life and the more you are grateful for that - the more that will flow freely into your life.
5
Paraphrasing Dyer: There are no branches of any trees that think it is wise to fight with each other. In other words, there is no value in fighting with others as we are all from the same metaphorical human tree of life. There is an old zen saying that goes something like this: Whatever you are for, strengthens you and whatever you are against, weakens you.
6
It is only natural to have abundance and prosperity in your life. It is unnatural to resist the gifts you have been given in life to share with others. Therefore act confidently with a "knowing" that you already have all of the resources you need to succeed.
7
You must be independent of the opinion of others. No one can make you into what you are not. You are responsible to no one for your actions and thoughts except yourself. In addition, you are not in control of your reputation. All you can control is yourself and how you act on a day to day basis.
8
You alone choose your emotional state each day. No one can make you feel any different than you choose to feel on any day. Therefore take full responsibility for the emotional states that you choose to embrace each day.
9
You are not your body nor are you the possessions that you believe you have. You are timeless; perfect; …just the way you have forever been and will forever be. You are a spiritual being having a human experience. Live your truth.
10
Meditation can help you solve problems and achieve inner peace. While mental visualization of your intentions or goals are a good thing to do, think of "meditation" as quieting your mind to achieve a place of "no where" -- It's one of the best ways to center yourself.
11
Your EGO is often at odds with universal laws and principles. Best to identify when you are acting from ego vs. acting from your true authentic self. Your ego wants you to feel special and different than others but the reality is that we share more in common than we have differences. Focus on radical humility and respect for yourself and others in order to keep your ego at bay. You can only extend to another that which you are in truth.
12
You can only give others what you have inside of yourself. Therefore to give love away to others, you must cultivate love for yourself FIRST. Dyer uses the metaphor of squeezing an orange - asking you what comes out when you squeeze it. Most people answer, "orange juice" comes out. Why? Because that is what is inside. When humans are squeezed, what comes out of them is what they harbor inside of themselves. Harbor love, acceptance, joy, confidence, peace and harmony towards yourself so that you can radiate it towards others.
13
Your relationship with others does not really exist. You only have your perception of your relationship with others to act on. Therefore you must focus on making sure you perceive your relationship with others on the terms that you hope for the future of the relationship to exist. In other words, you must see harmony within yourself and then with the other person. You must always have within you what you wish to see or give another.
14
Our intentions create our reality. We each create our own personal realities by what we focus on and intend to happen for our experiences. Therefore we have an enormous responsibility to choose our intentions carefully.
15
Be attached to nothing but rather connected with what you want for your life. Attachment can cloud your ability to attract what you want. When you let go and surrender to your perfect self, you will attract what you desire.
16
There is never any scarcity of opportunity, but rather there is only scarcity of resolve to seize the opportunities that knock on our door every day. Scarcity does not exist unless we choose to embrace it…therefore, it is better to never embrace scarcity only embrace the possibility for abundance.
17
When the teacher is ready, the students will appear. When the student is ready, the teachers will appear. We can not learn the lessons we are here to learn if we are not open and receptive to learn. Do not resist the possibility to change, but rather expand and become more open.
18
No one was ever hurt by practicing random acts of kindness. The law of reciprocity always rewards kindness and even more-so when you are kind without any expectation of needing a return. There is no difference in the words "giving" and "receiving."
19
The best way to maximize book sales is to release related products that can be purchased. For example, a book could be followed up with an audio tape, audio CD, DVD, flip calendar, playing card decks and more. Each of these creates additional revenue streams that help to maximize the ROI from each published works. (My marketing brain wanted to insert this lesson in here ;-)
20
Judgment: One of our purposes in life is to find a way to free ourselves of our need to judge others in a negative light. This is the work of our ego and judging others prevents us from seeing the good in them. There is no value in judging others poorly. As we see others, we also see ourselves.
21
Dyer says, "It's Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile." That means that we must always give more than we expect to receive. In doing so, we join the small percentage of achievers that consistently go above and beyond the call of duty to serve others. The rewards are often disproportionate for those who go the extra mile vs. those who only do the minimum they need to get by. We give without expectations.
22
Trust in yourself and in doing so, you trust in the very wisdom that created you. It is impossible to become a no-limit person if you focus on limitations…therefore only focus on what you want to attract for your life. You already are complete, whole and perfect. Trust in the perfection of your life.
1
You get whatever you think about most. Whatever you think about expands… and therefore, we must be careful to not think about what we do not want.
2
You can never get enough of what you don't want. Why? Because we're thinking about what we don't want and we keep getting more of it. From an abundance and prosperity perspective, it can be costly (meaning you can lose great opportunities) to contemplate the conditions you do not want to produce for your life…for fear of getting more of what you don't want.
3
Think from the end. I'm a big believer in starting with the end outcome and working backwards to reach it. Dyer takes a more mental approach to it as he encourages you to contemplate yourself surrounded by the people, events, and things that represent your version of a "perfect life."
4
An attitude of gratitude will take you a long way. Rumi said, "Trade your knowledge for bewilderment." It is good to be in awe of all that you have attracted into your life and the more you are grateful for that - the more that will flow freely into your life.
5
Paraphrasing Dyer: There are no branches of any trees that think it is wise to fight with each other. In other words, there is no value in fighting with others as we are all from the same metaphorical human tree of life. There is an old zen saying that goes something like this: Whatever you are for, strengthens you and whatever you are against, weakens you.
6
It is only natural to have abundance and prosperity in your life. It is unnatural to resist the gifts you have been given in life to share with others. Therefore act confidently with a "knowing" that you already have all of the resources you need to succeed.
7
You must be independent of the opinion of others. No one can make you into what you are not. You are responsible to no one for your actions and thoughts except yourself. In addition, you are not in control of your reputation. All you can control is yourself and how you act on a day to day basis.
8
You alone choose your emotional state each day. No one can make you feel any different than you choose to feel on any day. Therefore take full responsibility for the emotional states that you choose to embrace each day.
9
You are not your body nor are you the possessions that you believe you have. You are timeless; perfect; …just the way you have forever been and will forever be. You are a spiritual being having a human experience. Live your truth.
10
Meditation can help you solve problems and achieve inner peace. While mental visualization of your intentions or goals are a good thing to do, think of "meditation" as quieting your mind to achieve a place of "no where" -- It's one of the best ways to center yourself.
11
Your EGO is often at odds with universal laws and principles. Best to identify when you are acting from ego vs. acting from your true authentic self. Your ego wants you to feel special and different than others but the reality is that we share more in common than we have differences. Focus on radical humility and respect for yourself and others in order to keep your ego at bay. You can only extend to another that which you are in truth.
12
You can only give others what you have inside of yourself. Therefore to give love away to others, you must cultivate love for yourself FIRST. Dyer uses the metaphor of squeezing an orange - asking you what comes out when you squeeze it. Most people answer, "orange juice" comes out. Why? Because that is what is inside. When humans are squeezed, what comes out of them is what they harbor inside of themselves. Harbor love, acceptance, joy, confidence, peace and harmony towards yourself so that you can radiate it towards others.
13
Your relationship with others does not really exist. You only have your perception of your relationship with others to act on. Therefore you must focus on making sure you perceive your relationship with others on the terms that you hope for the future of the relationship to exist. In other words, you must see harmony within yourself and then with the other person. You must always have within you what you wish to see or give another.
14
Our intentions create our reality. We each create our own personal realities by what we focus on and intend to happen for our experiences. Therefore we have an enormous responsibility to choose our intentions carefully.
15
Be attached to nothing but rather connected with what you want for your life. Attachment can cloud your ability to attract what you want. When you let go and surrender to your perfect self, you will attract what you desire.
16
There is never any scarcity of opportunity, but rather there is only scarcity of resolve to seize the opportunities that knock on our door every day. Scarcity does not exist unless we choose to embrace it…therefore, it is better to never embrace scarcity only embrace the possibility for abundance.
17
When the teacher is ready, the students will appear. When the student is ready, the teachers will appear. We can not learn the lessons we are here to learn if we are not open and receptive to learn. Do not resist the possibility to change, but rather expand and become more open.
18
No one was ever hurt by practicing random acts of kindness. The law of reciprocity always rewards kindness and even more-so when you are kind without any expectation of needing a return. There is no difference in the words "giving" and "receiving."
19
The best way to maximize book sales is to release related products that can be purchased. For example, a book could be followed up with an audio tape, audio CD, DVD, flip calendar, playing card decks and more. Each of these creates additional revenue streams that help to maximize the ROI from each published works. (My marketing brain wanted to insert this lesson in here ;-)
20
Judgment: One of our purposes in life is to find a way to free ourselves of our need to judge others in a negative light. This is the work of our ego and judging others prevents us from seeing the good in them. There is no value in judging others poorly. As we see others, we also see ourselves.
21
Dyer says, "It's Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile." That means that we must always give more than we expect to receive. In doing so, we join the small percentage of achievers that consistently go above and beyond the call of duty to serve others. The rewards are often disproportionate for those who go the extra mile vs. those who only do the minimum they need to get by. We give without expectations.
22
Trust in yourself and in doing so, you trust in the very wisdom that created you. It is impossible to become a no-limit person if you focus on limitations…therefore only focus on what you want to attract for your life. You already are complete, whole and perfect. Trust in the perfection of your life.
BE HERE for Him, NOW
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Wayne Dyer talks about spiritual teacher and friend Ram Dass
One of the truly great men of our time needs our help. I write these words to encourage your generosity and support. Back in the 1960's a Harvard professor named Richard Alpert left behind the hectic world of academia and traveled to India—there he was to meet his spiritual teacher who gave him a new purpose to fulfill along with a new name. He of course is Ram Dass.
His guru told him love everyone, feed people and see God everywhere. Ram Dass became a person who lived out this mandate—he did what so many of us could only dream. He connected to his spirit and devoted his life to serving others.
In 1969 he wrote and published the signature book on spirituality and applied higher awareness, Be Here Now. In keeping with his commitment to love everyone and feed people, he donated all of the royalties and profits to foundations that did just that. With millions of dollars at stake, Ram Dass simply chose to live his life as a man of service to God.
After years spent in India in pursuit of a higher more enlightened consciousness for himself and for our troubled world, he returned to the United States to lecture throughout the country. He spoke to packed venues wherever he went, and as always he donated the proceeds to such causes as would keep him in harmony with his mandate to serve. He co-founded the Seva Foundation and his writing and lecture fees were primary sources for this compassionate and inspired work.
To me Ram Dass was and is the finest speaker I have ever heard, period! He was my role model on stage; always gentle and kind, always speaking without notes from his heart, sharing his inspiring stories and always with great humor. I tell you this from my own heart; I could listen to his lectures for hours and always felt saddened when they would end. He was the voice for Applied Spirituality—his life was the model. When he was threatened by having his own private sexual preference exposed, in a time when a closet was the only place that was even mildly safe, Ram Dass called a press conference and proudly announced his preference to the world. He paved the way for tolerance and love when no one else would dare to do so.
Most of us could only dream of defying the conventional life and living out our inner callings to promote a cause that was bigger than our own lives—to leave the security of a guaranteed career—to leave a country where comfort was ensured; all to live in a foreign land with few conveniences, traveling and meditating for a more peaceful world. It is what St. Francis did in the 13th century and what Ram Dass did in our lifetime.
When Ram Dass' own father, who had largely criticized his son's unconventional lifestyle, was close to death, Ram Dass devoted himself to 100% service in those final years. He fed his father, he bathed his father, he placed him on and off the toilet until the day he died. Why? Because he felt this was his mandate. He wanted to experience true service on a 24/7 basis and know firsthand the joy that comes from giving one's own life away in the service of others. Always, for over 30 years, Ram Dass was in the service of others.
In 1997 Ram Dass was struck by a semi-paralyzing stroke and became wheelchair bound. Still he wrote of his adventure in a powerful book titled, Still Here. He continued to travel, though he could no longer walk and continued to speak to audiences, though he spoke from a slowed down body, but still he did it to serve others.
Now it is our turn...Ram Dass' body can no longer endure the rigors of travel. He has come to Maui, where I live and write. I speak with him frequently and I am often humbled by the tears in his beautiful 73-year-old eyes as he apologizes for not having prepared for his own elderly health care—for what he now perceives as burdensome to others. He still intends to write and teach; however without the travel—we can now come to him. Maui is healing—Maui is where Ram Dass wishes to stay for now!
He is currently living in a home on Maui, which he doesn't own and is currently in jeopardy of losing. I am asking all of you to help purchase this home and to set up a financial foundation to take care of this man who has raised so much money to ensure the futures of so many others. To live out what Ram Dass has practiced with his actions. Please be generous and prompt—no one is more deserving of our love and financial support. In the end these donations will help ensure that Ram Dass and his work will reach another generation or remind a current generation that it is in giving that we receive.
If there has ever been a great spirit who lived in our lifetime, literally devoting his life to the highest principles of spirit, it has been Ram Dass. I love this man; he has been my inspiration and the inspiration for millions of us. It is now time to show him how we feel by doing what he has taught all of us to do—Just , BE HERE for him, NOW.
Two crows, a kid and the Master
MUKUL SHARMA
ONCE upon a time (said the Master) there were two crows. Every spring when the weather began maturing to warmth and mulberry trees grew their simple lobed leaves back from winter, they would come and perch amid the foliage of one such tree. Together they would sit on the same branch every year and gaze all over in the mid-morning sun doing nothing else for hours as if they were just content to be in each others’ company. “But were they actually experiencing happiness in their own company? Asked the Disciple. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “They were only crows.” Now this tree (continued the Master) was in the backyard of a house in which lived a little boy who loved mulberries. Every morning around this time he would go up to the terrace on the first floor where some of the high branches drooped, looking for the first signs of fruit. He had seen the two crows through a few seasons by then but they didn’t interest him any longer. For neither would the birds get startled as he approached, nor fly off when he began rummaging around the leaves. Moreover, when he came for a second inspection in the evening, they were invariably gone. “But wasn’t he even a little bit curious about them?” asked the Disciple. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “He was only a little boy.” One season the boy noticed only one crow sitting on the branch. He didn’t know that, in general, unless one of them is killed or severely incapacitated, crows appear to stay with the same mate year after year. And then too, if older, they often don’t bond again. So this boy saw this solitary crow perched all by itself and suddenly felt that perhaps something was not completely right with the world. Not that the crow was doing anything it had never done before. For, as usual, it had hunkered on its haunches prepared for a long and typically uninteresting roost and was looking lazily around here and there from time to time. But the fact that there were not two of them any more made the boy fleetingly sad. However (concluded the Master), soon he forgot all about it. This was when the Disciple thought he could finally ask the question, fomenting inside him for a while. A question that had to be answered sincerely or it would make no sense to anybody. “But are you not yourself happy, curious or sad sometimes — even fleetingly?” he asked. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “I’m only a Master.”
ONCE upon a time (said the Master) there were two crows. Every spring when the weather began maturing to warmth and mulberry trees grew their simple lobed leaves back from winter, they would come and perch amid the foliage of one such tree. Together they would sit on the same branch every year and gaze all over in the mid-morning sun doing nothing else for hours as if they were just content to be in each others’ company. “But were they actually experiencing happiness in their own company? Asked the Disciple. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “They were only crows.” Now this tree (continued the Master) was in the backyard of a house in which lived a little boy who loved mulberries. Every morning around this time he would go up to the terrace on the first floor where some of the high branches drooped, looking for the first signs of fruit. He had seen the two crows through a few seasons by then but they didn’t interest him any longer. For neither would the birds get startled as he approached, nor fly off when he began rummaging around the leaves. Moreover, when he came for a second inspection in the evening, they were invariably gone. “But wasn’t he even a little bit curious about them?” asked the Disciple. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “He was only a little boy.” One season the boy noticed only one crow sitting on the branch. He didn’t know that, in general, unless one of them is killed or severely incapacitated, crows appear to stay with the same mate year after year. And then too, if older, they often don’t bond again. So this boy saw this solitary crow perched all by itself and suddenly felt that perhaps something was not completely right with the world. Not that the crow was doing anything it had never done before. For, as usual, it had hunkered on its haunches prepared for a long and typically uninteresting roost and was looking lazily around here and there from time to time. But the fact that there were not two of them any more made the boy fleetingly sad. However (concluded the Master), soon he forgot all about it. This was when the Disciple thought he could finally ask the question, fomenting inside him for a while. A question that had to be answered sincerely or it would make no sense to anybody. “But are you not yourself happy, curious or sad sometimes — even fleetingly?” he asked. “Who knows,” replied the Master. “I’m only a Master.”
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