“Every action generates a force of energy
that returns to us in like kind…..
What we sow is what we reap.
And when we choose actions that bring
happiness and success to others.
The fruit of karma is happiness and success.”
Deepak Chopra
The writer whose work I am covering today is a well-known Indian-American doctor who is devoted to promoting alternative medicine, and has been involved in the Transcendental Meditation movement for several years now, after meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1985. During my research, it became clear that all the writers about whose teaching I already have written, have a different way of presenting their views but a very similar spiritual understanding of what will provide a successful and happy life. There is a universal truth in what is the unquestionable set of moral principles.
Today’s author is Dr. Deepak Chopra.
Dr. DEEPAK CHOPRA
Born 22 October 1946 in New Delhi. His father, Krishan Lal Chopra, was a prominent cardiologist in New Delhi’s Moolchand Khairati Ram Hospital.
Moolchand Hospital, New Delhi
As a child, Deepak attended St. Columba’s School, a highly acclaimed Christian Brothers institution. Amongst the best schools in the country, it is widely known because of its prime location in the very heart of Lutyen’s Delhi, because of its long list of distinguished alumni, because of its dedicated staff, its exuberant present students and its leadership in education.
St. Columba’s School, New Delhi
His further studies were at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
After graduation, he spent his first few years in rural India. Chopra’s interest in the workings of the human brain compelled him to study endocrinology, particularly neuroendocrinology, in order to find a biological basis for the influence of thoughts and emotions.
The Indian government had banned its doctors from sitting the exams needed to practise in the USA and for that reason Chopra had to travel to Sri Lanka to take them. After he passed the exams and having got married, he moved to the USA and started working at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey. This was the place where doctors from overseas were recruited to replace those serving in Vietnam.
Muhlenberg Hospital, Plainfield, New Jersey
Shortly after meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he left the official post and established the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management in Lancaster, Massachusetts, shown below:
Chopra’s beliefs attracted a huge following and he was interviewed on many shows, including Oprah Winfrey’s, Larry King, and Good Morning America.
Deepak Chopra (left) and Larry King (centre), the famous American television and radio host, and Sanjay Gupta (right)
Chopra’s teachings are controversial and criticised by the medical profession for joining Ayurveda with quantum mechanics. He believes that an individual can attain “perfect health and live free from disease and can avoid aging.” The human body is “undergirded by a quantum mechanical body compass, not of matter but of energy and information,” that is why according to Chopra, “human aging is fluid and can be changeable, could be even reversed or stopped.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and further down below with The Beatles
To put these beliefs into practice, Chopra set up his own Center for Wellbeing in California, shown below:
It is understandable why so many people find his teaching seductive, as most people dread old age and would pay anything to stop it, preferably forever. There are many cases in history that tell of the powerful and rich employing alchemists, lately even scientists, to discover the secret of staying forever alive and healthy. So far to no avail. While we cannot live forever, there are things that everyone can incorporate into their daily life, and this is the topic of Dr. Chopra’s bestseller book, “The Healing Self,” written with Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D. The two bestselling doctors write about the supreme importance of protecting our immunity in order to ensure lifelong health. They also provide compelling evidence that ultimately, we are responsible for our own health, and not the doctors or pharmaceutical industry, on which many of us rely. The book covers many aspects of achieving a healthy, satisfying, and happy life, and is one of the best that I have read. Highly recommended.
Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi
I will concentrate here on both of Chopra’s teachings – health, and more accessible and easier to practise spiritual rules to obtain fulfillment and success through spirituals laws of nature. Deepak Chopra, M.D. is one of the world’s bestselling authors, and his 85 books have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, and were translated into over 43 languages. He has appeared on many major American shows and was the subject cover story in Time magazine, where he was described as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” His book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” is a No.1 New York Times Bestseller.
In his bestselling book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Chopra explains in 7 chapters what the rules are:
The Law of Pure Potentiality
The Law of Giving
The Law of “Karma” or Cause and Effect
The Law of Least Effort
The Law of Intention and Desire
The Law of Detachment
The Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life
To illustrate Chopra’s way of explaining his rules, I will give a few extracts here:
“You can use the ‘The Law of Karma’ to create money and affluence, and the flow of all good things to you, any time you want. But first, you must become consciously aware that your future is generated by the choices you are making in every moment of your life. If you do this on a regular basis, then you are making full use of the Law of Karma. The more you bring your choices into the level of your conscious awareness, the more you will make those choices which are spontaneously correct – both for you and those around you.”
“I will put the Law of Karma into effect by making a commitment
to take the following steps:
1) Today I will witness the choices I make in each moment.
And in the mere witnessing of these choices, I will bring
them to my conscious awareness. I will know that the best
way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully
conscious in the present.
2) Whenever I make a choice, I will ask myself two questions:
‘What are the consequences of this choice that I’m making?’
and ‘Will this choice bring fulfillment and happiness to me
and also to those who are affected by this choice?’
3) I will then ask my heart for guidance and be guided by its message of
comfort or discomfort. If the choice feels comfortable, I will plunge
ahead with abandon. If the choice feels uncomfortable, I will pause
and see the consequences of my action with my inner vision.
This guidance will enable me to make spontaneously correct choices
for myself and for those around me.”
From the Law of Intention and Desire:
“On the material level, both you and the tree are made up of the same recycled elements: mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements in minute amounts. You could buy these elements in a hardware store for a couple of dollars. The difference. therefore, between you and the tree is not the carbon, or the hydrogen, or the oxygen. In fact, you and the tree are constantly exchanging your carbon and oxygen with each other. The real difference between the two of you is in the energy and in the information.
In the scheme of nature, you and I are a privileged species. We have a nervous system that is capable of becoming aware of the energy and informational content of that localised field that gives rise to our physical body. We experience this field subjectively as our own thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires, memories, instincts, drives, and beliefs. The same field is experienced objectively as the physical body – and through the physical body, we experience this field as the world. But it’s all the same stuff. Your body is not separate from the body of the universe, because at quantum mechanical levels there are no well-defined edges. You are like a wiggle, a wave, a fluctuation, a convulsion, a whirlpool, a localized disturbance in the larger quantum field. The larger quantum field – the universe – i.e. your extended body.
From The Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life:
“Everyone has a purpose in life, a unique gift or special talent to give to others. Dharma is a Sanskrit word that means “purpose in life”. The Law of Dharma says that we have taken manifestation in physical form to fulfill a purpose. The field of pure potentiality is divinity in its essence, and the divine takes human form to fulfill a purpose. According to this law, you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world – and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that creates affluence.”
“The third component of the Law of Dharma is service to humanity – to serve your fellow human being and ask yourself the questions, “How can I help? How can I help all those that I come into contact with?” When you combine the ability to express your unique talent with service to humanity, then you make full use of the Law of Dharma. That is the real way abundance is achieved, not by asking the question, “What’s in it for me ?” Discover your divinity, find your unique talent, serve humanity with it, and you can generate all the wealth that you want. When your creative expressions match the needs of your fellow humans, then wealth will spontaneously flow from the unmanifest into the manifest, from the realm of the spirit to the world of form. You will begin to experience your life as a miraculous expression of divinity- not just occasionally, but all the time. And you will know true joy and the true meaning of success – the ecstasy and exultation of your own spirit.”
There is quite a large part of Chopra’s writing dedicated to yoga and meditation. He explained the remarkable benefits of yoga, which include improved flexibility, balance, muscle tone, endurance, and vitality, only hinting at the extraordinary power of this deeply spiritual practice. When adhered to and practised mindfully, yoga can unlock your full creative potential, your capacity for love and compassion, and your ability to find success in all areas of life. Yoga provides you with breathing exercises, meditation techniques, mantras, and much more enlightenment. This applies only to those who are spiritually connected with yoga. Others, especially in the Western world, who practise yoga for a health benefit or because it is a trendy thing to do, will not experience anything close to Chopra’s prediction of enlightenment. An example would be the celebrity actress Gwyneth Paltrow selling her Goop heated gemstone-embedded yoga mat for £700.
Extract from Dr. Chopra’s book “The Healing Self”:
“The total immunity is the measure of holistic health.
Benefits of the Healing Self
• It is non-invasive and involves no reliance on external therapies.
• It maintains natural balance and boosts your immune system
through lifestyle choices.
• Lifestyle choices can prevent many forms of cancer and hold promise for
preventing Alzheimer’s disease and even reversing symptoms of dementia.
• Successful aging will consist of a long healthspan as well as a long lifespan.
• Drug dependency is staved off because healing occurs before the stage of symptoms begins. The vast majority of drugs are prescribed late in the disease process, a stage you don’t have to reach if you act early enough.
• This is true for almost every lifestyle disorder, including heart disease, and other disorders that create the strongest need for drug treatment.
All living things need to repel outside threats to their DNA. Modern medicine recognises two types of immunity, passive and active. As the term implies, passive immunity is beyond our control, being genetically based. The other kind of immunity, active immunity, fights disease organisms (pathogens) directly in the front lines. All living creatures above a certain level have innate, or inborn, immune defenses, including plants, fungi, and multicelled animals. The innate immune system is very general. It can detect that a pathogen is invading the host and then release chemicals to fight back. But active immunity in higher animals, including humans, has evolved far beyond this stage. We have specific immune cells (for example, T-cells and B-cells) that have evolved to a nearly miraculous capacity for responding to invaders.
An extract on diet:
“Foods That Fight Inflammation
Fatty cold-water fish ( such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring)
Berries
Harvesting cranberries
Tree nuts ( such as walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, but not peanuts and groundnut)
Seeds
Whole grains
Dark leafy greens
Soy (including soy milk and tofu)
Tempeh
Mycoprotein (from mushrooms and other fungi)
Low-fat dairy products
Peppers (bell peppers and various chillies)
Tomatoes
Beetroots
Tart cherries
Ginger and turmeric
Garlic
Olive oil
On Harvard Medical School’s recommendation, also:
Cocoa and dark chocolate
The healthy way to indulge!
Basil and many other herbs
Black pepper
other additions:
Cruciferous vegetables ( cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower)
Avocados
Carrots
Cucumbers,
Turnips
Zucchini
Leaving aside their anti-inflammatory effects, these are all healthy whole foods, and making them a mainstay of your diet can only be beneficial.
The last extract is interesting to those who love coffee:
The coffee connection
“Many studies have validated the health benefits of drinking coffee, and quite often the mechanism is unknown. A 2015 study of more than 200,000 subjects whose health was assessed for thirty years found a 15 percent lower risk of mortality among those who drank 1 to 5 cups of coffee a day. We’ve used this as our guide, but drinking at the higher end (four or more a day) seems to increase the benefits. There are improvements in the risk for type 2 diabetes (perhaps connected with coffee’s ability to lower blood sugar), heart attacks, and strokes (probably linked to an anti-inflammatory effect), liver cancer (cause unknown), suicide (cause unknown), and disorders as diverse as gallstones and Parkinson’s.
Because the most probable link with living longer is reduced inflammation, we’ve chosen this as the best reason to drink coffee. For longevity, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the coffee is caffeinated or decaffeinated. Since coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke, it is important to note that increased longevity applied after removing smoking from the equation. Also, tea and especially green tea are claimed to have broad health benefits, most likely due to an anti-inflammatory connection, but research is less extensive and conclusive than for coffee. Rather than jump on coffee as a magic elixir, you should add it to the list of beneficial foods while keeping the broader picture in mind.”
This post is based on all the books shown below.
I know about the vine making families from wonderful documentaries, and the people are fascinating. It is their passion, as you said, it is catching. Both my parents were not very healthy, and it put me off medication of any kind for life. As to children, if they are given just fresh, preferably organic food, it will be so much so under their skin (!) that they will not want to eat rubbish, especially if they know why things are good or bad for them. I just love talking to you, it is a shame that my French now is so bad, because I would phone you now and then, when convenient, and you would tell me about your adventures. Thank you and Good night.
Love & kisses.
Joanna
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Thank you.
Joanna
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Thank you, Cindy, very kind of you to read and comment here. Indeed one could learn a lot from the health book.
Joanna
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Thank you,
Joanna
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Thank you!
Joanna
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❤️
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You are most welcome Joanna, it’s my pleasure!!!
i agree with you on that! ❤️
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Wow! I will be eagerly waiting! All the best❤❤
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You are so kind.
Take care and keep up the good work.
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Thank you.
Joanna
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Another informative and inspirational post, Joanna. Thank you for all the time and effort inserted into your posts. He is amazing and it looks like I have more books for my list. As I perused the foods you shared, I nodded with most of them, but some my taste buds just won’t tolerate. 🙂
Take care, Lauren
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Thank you, Lauren, for your very kind comments. Yes, he is a very talented writer in every way. Anything you don’t like you can always replace or, if this specific food is very good for you, like garlic, you could ‘hide’ in the other food.
Thank you.
Joanna
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Joanna,
Thank you for your message which gives me great pleasure.
My English is not great, because I rarely practice it. Unfortunately, I lost my English language when I was a very good student in this subject.
English made me dream because I knew that this language opened many doors. When I was a child, in the evening to fall asleep I listened to English radio on headphones, it allowed me to discover in preview the hits that would arrive a year later in France
And then while learning by heart some songs of my favorite singers I preferred the syntax and the style;)
I was not a light in math but I was much better in so-called literary subjects …
My daughters have been eating organic super foods from my childhood and the more they get older the more they reject what I cook for them. It’s quite heartbreaking but I tell myself it’s adolescence!
It’s great that you are disciplined about your food, it’s very important, “we are what we eat” and as Hippocrates said “let your food be your medicine”, he is right …
See you soon Joanna
Je t’embrasse bien fort
Corinne
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Thank you again.
Joanna
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I don’t read spiritual books at all except the Bible but this post has piqued my curiosity. The excerpts you included here seem really interesting and the kind that become more clear with time and pondering and I love that he’s a man of Science who’s trying to unify so many diverse fields into one.
Brilliantly wholesome post as always, Joanna! I’m excited to check out The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success soon!
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Thank you, D, for your interesting, as always, comments. All spiritual teachings are presented in a different way but all contain the same universal message of morality. What Hinduism calls Dharma, we call The Life Well Spent. I think you will like it very much is the Self-healing book, it is based on science and clearly explains what is good for us and what is not, and why.
Apology for falling asleep yesterday, I will come back. It was a good achievement.
Joanna
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Thank you, D, greatly appreciated.
Joanna
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Yes, I wish I had a chance to keep my French in a better form. I wouldn’t worry about youngsters, they will come back later. Perhaps, keeping a Self-Healing book on the coffee table would make them have a look, and seeing in print what happens to us when we don’t eat the right food, might make them think.
Love.
Joanna
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See you soon, and thanks.
Joanna
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Great post and interesting read as always! Thank you for sharing
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Thank you, for your kind comment, Very much appreciated.
Joanna
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Thank you again.
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My pleasure, Joanna! I look forward to reading books such as this and the one you recommended soon!
It’s all good! Please take your time! Thank you so much!
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Great extract, thanks for sharing! It’s always good to remind ourselves about anti-inflammatory foods! 🙂
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Thank you for your kind comment. Very much appreciated,
Joanna
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Thank you again.
Joanna
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a very interesting post!
good night
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Thank you for your kind comment. I do appreciate that you must be reading with the help of a translater, which requires more effort.
Joanna
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Thank you again, and Good night!
Joanna
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Interesting and informative! Thanks for sharing!
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Hi, Jina, how are you, Dear. I have not seen you for such a long time, I have often wondered how you are? Thank you for reading and for your kind comment. You know that your resilience always moved me. Welcome back. I think you would like no13, as if I am not mistaken, you are originally from Brasil, and this post is about Paolo Coelho.
Thank you.
Joanna
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Thank you again, greatly appreciated.
Joanna
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Thank you kindly for thinking of me, Joanna. I took a few months away from blogging, but hope to be back for good now. I didn’t see number 13 in the post – or maybe I didn’t pay attention enough? I found the part about the immune system and the foods/vegetables and fruits that fight inflammation the most intriguing . In my household, tomatoes, garlic, onions, green leafy things, cucumbers, olive oil (from our own trees) and so on, can basically be found on our table every single day, and not because it’s something healthy to eat, but because we genuinely love those stuff.
I always plan to read Paulo Coelho’s books, but I’ll be honest and tell you upfront I’ve never read any – though I do know some about his life and background.
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You’re welcome!
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I am glad you are back. All posts in my Literary Series (15 now), are interesting. The vegetables and fruit/ herbs are my diet too, and I love all of them. You own olive trees?! Sounds like a paradise. I put a lot of extracts to help readers to decide if they would like to read so you will find some in the post about him. Actually, it was the most-read post – in the firsts, five days over 6000 people read it.
Joanna
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Ah yes, I did read the number on the title. We have 7 olive trees. They usually make enough live oil to last us a year, but last year the trees didn’t make much fruit, so we pickled the olives. yum.
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I adore olives and have them always in the pantry or in the fridge. And of course, the extra virgin olive oil. Natural food is so wonderful! I planted an orchard in my wildlife garden – 6 apple trees, 3 pears, 3 plums, and 2 cherries, plus many fruit bushes. Love Harvest time.
Joanna
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Clever and beautifully presented post, I love this kind of philosophy, gotta read some of his stuff. Best wishes:)
-Christo
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Thank you, Christo, very kind. Definitely, at least his Health book covers everything about wellbeing, mind, and body.
Joanna
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Thank you so much. Greatly appreciated.
Joanna
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Hello again, Joanna, I have nominated you for the Outstanding Blogger Award. (http://microofthemacro.com/2021/02/12/outstanding-blogger-award/). If you don’t wish to or simply cannot participate, no worries at all. Just showing my appreciation for you and your amazing blog! 🌞
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Thank you, Lisa, so very kind! When you see this post you will understand why I don’t have any time, This post is heading towards the 7000 words mark! But just knowing that you are thinking of me in those terms makes all the difference.
Joanna
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Oh my goodness! You really commit your time to your posts, Joanna. I truly respect that. And, you are quite welcome. 🌞
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Thank you, Lisa, for your understanding. I tend to write about interesting people or places, that is why readers like it.
Joanna
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Thank you.
Joanna
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You explained it with clarity that makes good sense to be proactive about our health choices. It’s a gift. Thank you, Joanna. 🙏🏻🍃🌸
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Thank you, Gail, I do appreciate the praise from the Master. I do love your beautifully presented masterpieces, like today’s cake.
Joanna
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Thank you again, and I must add your cooking is healthy!
Joanna
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💕🍃🙏🏻
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I try. Blessings. 🌟✨💫
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