Deepak Chopra: November 2008 Archives

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: President-elect Obama hasn't been to church in three weeks, saying he doesn't want to disrupt the service for others. Reagan and Bush said the same thing, but Carter and Clinton attended church regularly. What's your advice? Where should presidents worship?

Since Barack Obama ran to bring hope in a time of change, I'd like to see him extend that to how he worships. Presidents are forced to attend church as an empty ritual. A cynic would say that if they wanted to worship the way that 70% of American males do, they should attend the church of televised football and golf. Other honest alternatives would be the worship of ambition, money, and political revenge, wherever those dogmas happen to be preached. To overcome such cynicism, and to end the masquerade of public piety, soon-to-be President Obama might consider the following innovations:

Worship where your conscience takes you: He might go to a church in the worst ghetto of gang-infested East L.A. or the scene of a recent disaster. A President praying with the victims of Katrina inside the refugee camp of the Astrodome would have done a lot for their healing and our national sense of compassion.

Worship where "the other" worships: Our so-called enemies consist of "the other," people we claim aren't enough like us. So let Obama worship in a mosque in suburban Maryland. Let him spend a Sunday with Black Muslims in Detroit. Film him praying with illegal immigrants in an impoverished corner of southern New Mexico.

Worship on the fringes: Millions of Americans prefer alternative churches, such as the hundreds of Unity churches scattered around the country. Some of the most humane and liberating theology to be found is preached there. I'd like to see Obama expose himself to these new ideas -- for his own good, really -- and make fringe believers feel more included. By the same token, he should pray with the fundamentalists in Dallas or Columbia, S.C. who think he's a Muslim and vociferously opposed him.

In short, if Obama went to a different church every week, with the intention of healing the wounds of divisiveness, he'd be extending the message he was elected on. It's already a sign of hope that we are going to be led by a uniter and not a divider. Even better would be a uniter of souls.

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.


http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

Sometimes life takes a creative leap that's almost miraculous. Nobody knows how this happens, and it can never be predicted. You'd never know, looking at a reptile's round, hard, shiny scales, that they could genetically morph into feathers. Paleontologists know that they did, however, and finding the very first dinosaur that sprouted feathers is one of the great discoveries waiting to happen. (You might recall that a spectacular fossil was found in China that seemed to fit the bill, but after debuting on the cover of National Geographic and many other publications, it turned out to be a fake.)

Read the rest of this article in the San Francisco Chronicle

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.

When a box turtle is crossing the road and it hears a car coming, it reacts by drawing in its head and feet, contracting for protection. Evolution has kept turtles alive for hundreds of millions of years that way. What works as a natural defense isn't much use, though, when a Yukon or Explorer is barreling down on you. There are times when contracting inward is the very worst thing you can do.

Read the rest of this article in the San Francisco Chronicle

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Religion scholar Karen Armstrong is asking the world to write a Charter for Compassion, based on her premise that compassion is central to all religions. Do you agree? If so, what has gone wrong?

Compassion is universally revered and universally ignored. The situation is primal. It has existed as far back as Buddha and Christ, and long before them. In a sense we may feel disadvantaged compared to our ancestors -- for them, drawing your hand back from an enemy meant laying down a spear or mace. For us, it means laying down a nuclear arsenal. But despite that gap in destructive power, the essential problem remains the same: whether human nature can be changed, and if so, on how large a scale.

The teaching and preaching of compassion has done some good, perhaps. Most people are happy that Christ and Buddha lived, even if they give little thought to them, much less to the age-old concept of Daya, the original Sanskrit word for sympathy that later evolved into compassion. I feel more secure starting there, because sympathy is as natural to human beings as aggression.
It turns out that the brain is extremely variable when it comes to sympathy. Functional MRIs taken inside a New Mexico prison (the only program of its type) show that inmates who score high on tests for psychopathic tendencies also have distorted brain function. Psychopaths possess the least innate sympathy imaginable; they have no conscience; they can commit acts of terrible cruelty without feeling a shred of the pain they are inflicting. Their polar opposites are a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks who were also studied with MRI scans at the Univ. of Wisconsin. Having meditated on compassion for many years, the monks exhibited the highest level of gamma waves ever seen in the laboratory, as well as heightened function in the left prefrontal cortex, an area associated with positive feelings such as happiness. Gamma waves are thought to link the brain into a whole and are linked to consciousness itself.

Can a psychopath's brain be turned into a compassionate brain? No one knows (the psychiatric profession has largely given up changing psychopaths either through drugs or conventional couch therapy). But at least we know that the brain is malleable enough that meditating on compassion produces changes that are real. Thinking that you are compassionate doesn't do the job, but practicing compassion inwardly does.

Which leads me to believe that compassion isn't a mood, a moral teaching, an ethical obligation, or a social ideal. It's a subtle activity of the brain, prompted by desire and will. You have to desire to be compassionate and possess the will to train your brain to fulfill your desire. I'm not implying that the brain does the work. It merely adapts to your intention. The brain learns new skills by forming neural networks, actual connections between brain cells. If you think of compassion as a skill, like learning to play the violin or walking a tightrope, then the brain must also learn this skill by developing a special neural network.

I don't mean to sound inhumane. Compassion has been a spiritual ideal for centuries. But it has also been a frustrating failure for centuries. We can turn that around by being realistic. If a child playing video games creates a new neural network in a matter of weeks, why not apply this knowledge to spiritual skills? The process is quite basic:

1. Be genuinely interested.
2. Pursue what interests you.
3. Keep practicing until you see improvement.
4. Stick with your practice until you see permanent change.

Step 1 requires inspiration. To be interested in compassion isn't an ordinary thing in our society, even among mature, psychologically developed people. Step 2 requires turning inward, because the inner landscape is the country of compassion. Step 3 requires discipline, since you must go inside over and over, renewing your dedication in the face of old conditioning that tempts you to turn away from compassion in pursuit of the ego's constant demands. Step 4 requires patience, because there are many inner forces -- and outer ones, too -- that defeat compassion.

If you can adjust to these conditions, it's entirely possible to become compassionate by developing a compassionate brain. I call this process "subtle action," which means doing at the level of awareness. It was through subtle action, leading to self-transformation, that Buddha and Christ unshakably established compassion in themselves. They didn't realize, perhaps, that they had to transform their brains at the same time. The two go together, however. At the very least, to be compassionate while not changing the brain can only be a temporary achievement, not permanent change. Because we were all born with the capacity to sympathize, our brains await their next instruction, to expand this capacity to the level of compassion.

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.


http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

Dear Friends,

On November 7, 2008, at 9:45am , I, Deepak Chopra, took a vow of non-violence in my thoughts, in my speech and in my actions. I, then, also had an opportunity to ask the almost 500 people attending the plenary session for the Alliance for a New Humanity in Barcelona if they would join me in this commitment.

I first asked them to close their eyes, put their awareness in their hearts and ask themselves honestly and seriously if they were willing to take a vow.

I told them that a vow is a sacred commitment from which there is no going back. It is like a child that is born, who cannot return to the womb.

I told them if they were ready to take this vow, they should stand up.

People stood up, one by one at first, then in groups of twos and threes, and finally in tidal waves, until more than 450 people had stood up and taken the vow.

Following this, everybody agreed to have at least two people in their lives take the vow. The two in turn, would have two others join them in taking the vow. Our immediate goal now is to get 100 Million people across the world to take this vow. In the meantime, we will be setting up ways to measure and support the dramatic effects this tidal wave of shift in consciousness is going to create.

Are you seriously committed to bringing about a world of peace, harmony, laughter and love by taking this vow and getting two people to join you?

If you are ready, please post a blog on Intent.com entitled: I take the vow.

Let us know that you have passed on the vow to two friends. And, if you wish tell us your thoughts in the post, we would love to hear them.

Love,

Deepak Chopra
President and Founder of the Alliance For A New Humanity

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