Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life
DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D.
Who am I, Where Did I Come From, Why am I Here
1. Spiritual life. 2. Meditations. 3. Life skills.
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Book Details
Price
|
3.00 |
|---|---|
Pages
| 246 p |
File Size
|
973 KB |
File Type
|
PDF format |
eISBN
| 1-4000-8314-1 |
Copyright©
| 2004 by Deepak Chopra |
DEEPAK CHOPRA’S books have become international bestsellers and classics of
their kind. Dr. Chopra is founder of the Chopra Center for Well Being in
Carlsbad, California. Visit his website at www.chopra.com.
....
Introduction
OPENING THE BOOK OF SECRETS
THE GREATEST HUNGER in life is not for food, money, success, status, security,
sex, or even love from the opposite sex. Time and again people have achieved all
of these things and wound up still feeling dissatisfied—indeed, often more
dissatisfied than when they began. The deepest hunger in life is a secret that is
revealed only when a person is willing to unlock a hidden part of the self. In the
ancient traditions of wisdom, this quest has been likened to diving for the most
precious pearl in existence, a poetic way of saying that you have to swim far out
beyond shallow waters, plunge deep into yourself, and search patiently until the
pearl beyond price is found.
The pearl is also called essence, the breath of God, the water of life, holy
nectar—labels for what we, in our more prosaic scientific age, would simply call
transformation. Transformation means radical change of form, the way a
caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. In human terms, it means turning fear,
aggression, doubt, insecurity, hatred, and emptiness into their opposites. Can this
really be achieved? One thing we know for certain: The secret hunger that gnaws
at people’s souls has nothing to do with externals like money, status, and
security. It’s the inner person who craves meaning in life, the end of suffering,
and answers to the riddles of love, death, God, the soul, good and evil. A life
spent on the surface will never answer these questions or satisfy the needs that
drive us to ask them.
Finding the hidden dimensions in yourself is the only way to fulfill your
deepest hunger.
After the rise of science, this craving for knowledge should have faded, but it
has only grown stronger. There are no new “facts” to discover about life’s hidden
dimensions. Nobody needs to peer at more CAT scans of patients undergoing a
near-death experience or take more MRIs of yogis sitting deep in meditation.
That phase of experimentation has done its work: We can be assured that
wherever consciousness wants to go, the human brain will follow. Our neurons
are capable of registering the highest spiritual experiences. In some ways,
however, you and I know less about the mystery of life than our ancestors.
We live in the Age of the Higher Brain, the cerebral cortex that has grown
enormously over the last few millennia, overshadowing the ancient, instinctive
lower brain. The cortex is often called the new brain, yet the old brain held sway
in humans for millions of years, as it does today in most living things. The old
brain can’t conjure up ideas or read. But it does possess the power to feel and,
above all, to be. It was the old brain that caused our forebears to sense the
closeness of a mysterious presence everywhere in Nature.
That presence, which is found in every particle of creation, suffuses your life,
too. You are a book of secrets waiting to be opened, although you probably see
yourself in totally different terms. On a given day, you are a worker, a father or
mother, husband or wife, a consumer combing the mall stores for something
new, an audience member waiting impatiently for the next entertainment.
When you are living the truth of one reality, every secret reveals itself without
effort or struggle.
It comes down to the age-old choice of separation or unity. Do you want to be
fragmented, conflicted, torn between the eternal forces of darkness and light? Or
do you want to step out of separation into wholeness? You are a creature who
acts, thinks, and feels. Spirituality fuses these three into a single reality. Thinking
doesn’t lord it over feeling; feeling doesn’t stubbornly resist the higher brain;
doing occurs when both thought and feeling say, “This is right.” The one reality
can be recognized because once you are there, you experience the flow of life
without obstacles or resistance. In this flow, you encounter inspiration, love,
truth, beauty, and wisdom as natural aspects of existence. The one reality is
spirit, and the surface of life is only a disguise with a thousand masks that keeps
us from discovering what is real. A thousand years ago, such a statement would
have met with no argument. Spirit was accepted everywhere as the true source of
life. Today, we have to look with new eyes at the mystery of existence, for as
proud children of science and reason, we have made ourselves the orphans of wisdom.
Therefore, this book must work on two fronts. First, it must persuade you that
there really is a mystery lying in the hidden dimensions of life. Second, it must
inspire you to feel the passion and dedication required to get there. This isn’t a
project to postpone until you are ready. You have been ready since the day you
forgot to keep asking who you are and why you are here. Sadly, most of us keep
shutting out thousands of experiences that could make transformation a reality. If
it weren’t for the enormous effort we put into denial, repression, and doubt, each
life would be a constant revelation.
Ultimately you have to believe that your life is worth investigating with total
passion and commitment. It took thousands of tiny decisions to keep the book of
secrets closed, but it takes only a single moment to open it again.
I take it literally when the New Testament says, “Ask and you will receive,
knock and the door will be opened.” It’s that simple. You will know every secret
about life when you can truly say I must know. I can’t wait a moment longer.
Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree and Jesus wrestling with demons in the
desert are symbolic of the same drama of the soul that you were born to repeat.
Never doubt this: You are the most significant being in the world, because at the
level of the soul you are the world. You don’t have to earn the right to know.
Your very next thought, feeling, or action can begin to uncover the deepest
spiritual wisdom, which flows as pure and free as mountain waters in spring. It
isn’t possible for the self to keep secrets from itself forever, no matter how
thoroughly we’ve been trained to believe otherwise.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Opening the Book of Secrets
Secret #1
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE IS REAL
Secret #2
THE WORLD IS IN YOU
Secret #3
FOUR PATHS LEAD TO UNITY
Secret #4
WHAT YOU SEEK, YOU ALREADY ARE
Secret #5
THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING IS UNREALITY
Secret #6
FREEDOM TAMES THE MIND
Secret #7
EVERY LIFE IS SPIRITUAL
Secret #8
EVIL IS NOT YOUR ENEMY
Secret #9
YOU LIVE IN MULTIDIMENSIONS
Secret #10
DEATH MAKES LIFE POSSIBLE
Secret #11
THE UNIVERSE THINKS THROUGH YOU
Secret #12
THERE IS NO TIME BUT NOW
Secret #13
YOU ARE TRULY FREE WHEN YOU ARE NOT A PERSON
Secret #14
THE MEANING OF LIFE IS EVERYTHING
Secret #15
EVERYTHING IS PURE ESSENCE
Epilogue: Second Birth
About the Author
Also by Deepak Chopra
Copyright
Screenbook
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Published by Harmony Books, New York, New York. Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Random House, Inc.