I've not been a big fan of Deepak Chopra's. Even after reading and discussing and enjoying his Way of the Wizard, I didn't immediately dive into more of his books. Speaking of the power of words, it was probably the fact that my sister referred to him as "Deep Pockets" that turned me off. On the other hand, it was her copy of Unconditional Life: Discovering the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams (Bantam Books, 1991) that I borrowed last June when I was visiting. Mind you, though, I didn't open it until this past month. I finally had nothing more pressing to read.
I'm sure it's been patiently waiting to add its words to the ever-increasing litany that seem to appearing before my eyes. Phrases that have appeared on a day calendar that has sayings from assorted well-known and not-so-well-known authors. Phrases that are telling me to go quiet, to experience stillness, to do no thing, and to put one's mind to one thing and get it done rather than nibble at many things piece-meal.
It's extremely hard for me to do any of that. For someone who believes that she likes stillness and quiet, I seem to spend much, much time with people. I've read and read about attentiveness and being present to what one is doing, but I do not resist opening the newspaper while I'm eating breakfast. The opinion page lies beneath the cereal bowl as I avoid the topics I don't want to read another word about and scan the ones I do.
Even when I go for walks on the path along Big Dry Creek, I'm watching and listening for the birds. I don't want absolute stillness; I just don't want traffic noise and construction noise. Or even too many people. And meditating? Well, I've been subtly avoiding it because I find myself sitting at the computer playing mind-numbing, time-burning games. I mean, geeze, how many games of Freecell do I need to play? I have reached the point where I can't stand to play more than two games of something in succession, and then I want to scream at myself, why? Why am I doing this?
The real question is, perhaps, what am I avoiding?
Oh, lots of things. Do I want to talk about them? Not really.
"Unconditional" seems to be a word in favor these days. I've got a book called Unconditional Money; Al Carmichael writes about unconditional love, and Chopra focuses on an unconditional life. What exactly is "unconditional?" No conditions. I can understand the concept of unconditional love...simply loving with no thought of returns. The conclusion of the book Unconditional Money was the result, again, of simply loving and giving with no thought of return. Although it took some time to break through the operating thought that one should think about money...and its lack.
So, how does one have an unconditional life? The traditional phrases crop up: detachment, love, awareness. Okay, if I work on being detached from the outcomes of things, being detached from things...if I work on truly feeling love for everything...if I open my senses to full awareness, will I know a life lived with no conditions? And what does that do and how does that feel in the context of all the things that I actually live with?
Drifting back to Unconditional Life, it's the people who come to him as patient/clients that are fascinating. He writes them into the book as he is discussing the mysterious parts of our lives. For instance, Patrick came home to find his wife had locked him out and wasn't answering the phone. He walked to the nearby park, sat down, meditated, and felt restless and upset all the time, but when he opened his eyes, his mind became very quiet.
"It is hard to capture how free I felt just at that moment. It was like having all these dead layers fall off to expose some sensitive, living part of myself. I walked around a little, and everything had taken on the same vibrant quality. My intense feelings of aloneness and shame were now completely gone. I was totally different from the suffering person who had sat down on a park bench half an hour before."I [Chopra] believe Patrick had hit upon the breakthrough that meditation causes; the self expands beyond the confines of the ego, at first gradually, but with greater and greater intensity, until it is in complete union with everything. "I and the world are one," an ancient Upanishad declares. The transformation of the small, isolated self may come in glimpses, but this is the true self. It is only a matter of time before one lives its truth permanently.
This is going to be a short piece this month. I did find Unconditional Life a very good piece of work, and gave a much more human sense of Deepak Chopra than I had, helped, I'm sure, by the hearkening back to childhood experiences growing up in India. In fact, there is much to be re-read in the book because the tying together of Eastern and Western experiences and ancient wisdoms speaks to both sides of my Self.
I will leave you with the ending of his book:
Nick paused to collect himself. He had found out the secret of his birth, which opened a deep well of emotions inside him, but there was more to it. He was caught up by the wonder of a heart that is just beginning to know itself, which is a second birth. I thought about how much I have changed, too. My hard belief that life is merciless, like a mill wheel impartially grinding out birth and death, is gone. To see things that way is to accept the appearance and miss the essence. Come closer, and the world looks much more like a wish, a great desire coming true all around us, with our own wishes and desires woven into it.
Even Deepak was not born knowing.
(Copyright by Cherie Staples - No reproduction without express permission from the author)
Table of Contents
Letter to the Author: