Embrace Success In His New Book, Best-Selling Author Deepak Chopra Tells How To Use Spirituality Laws To Realize Your Goals
Spirituality and success are words seldom used in the same sentence. Many of us think the most spiritual people are somehow above seeking the things we associate with being successful in today’s world.
But you can be spiritual and achieve success in your life. It all depends on how you go about it.
That’s the message best-selling author Deepak Chopra delivers in his latest book, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.”
In a telephone interview last month, the San Diego-based physician and lecturer said that a true understanding of the principles behind the workings of nature will give you the ability to create unlimited wealth with effortless ease, and to experience success in every endeavor.
Those principles are the seven laws that comprise the bulk of the slim volume.
The kicker is, once you achieve material wealth or whatever it is you wanted in the first place, your original goals inevitably evolve.
“The idea in this book,” Chopra said, “is to show you the progressive realization of goals. And ultimately as you begin to realize your material goals, you move on to more spiritual goals.
“The goal of all goals ultimately is happiness. And sometimes that new Jaguar or new automobile or a new house will give you happiness. But you know - ask anyone, it’s temporary. It comes and it goes.”
What you want to do is create wealth consciousness. Chopra told an anecdote about meeting a holy man in India. He said to the holy man, “You’ve given up everything.” And the holy man replied, “No. I’ve given up nothing, I’ve embraced everything.”
“And that,” Chopra said, “is where we’re all headed. Where you don’t have to give up anything but you embrace everything. And then you know, the world is yours. It’s not that I own this car, I own all the cars in the universe, I own the sunset, I own everything.”
He subtitled his book “A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams.” And in it, he gives the philosophy behind each of the seven laws of success and then offers three practical tips for each law.
“For example,” he said, “the first chapter (on the law of pure potentiality) is the basic philosophical framework that says that the spirit is a real force, that the spirit to those who are intimate with it is as real as gravity is to a physicist.
“And then, the practical approach to that is, ‘How do I get intimate with the spirit?’ ” To answer that question, he offers these three tips: “The first being to go into silent meditation twice a day or just observe silence.
“The second is to commune with nature.
“And the third is to consciously practice nonjudgment.
“Putting your attention on those three things on a given day allows you to become intimate with the essence of the spirit within you. So it’s practical.”
He advises focusing on one spiritual law each day, so on Sunday, you’d think about the law of pure potentiality and follow the steps detailed above. On Monday, it would be the law of giving; on Tuesday, the law of “karma” or cause and effect, and so on. The others are the laws of intention and desire; least effort; detachment; and “dharma,” or purpose in life.
“We practice the seven spiritual laws in my family,” said Chopra, who taught them to his children when they were growing up. Now both live in New York City - one works for MTV, the other is at Columbia University. And although they live across the country from Chopra and his wife, they know that on any given day they’re focusing on the same spiritual law.
“One way of connecting with each other every day is to remind each other what we are practicing. So on Sunday we know that we are practicing the law of pure potentiality. And Monday we are practicing the law of giving, etc. And we connect on that level.”
Out of that form of connection came his idea for starting a Global Network for Spiritual Success, which allows people who practice the seven spiritual laws to connect with people of similar values around the world. Participation in the fledgling network is free and open to anyone who chooses to practice the laws, he says.
Ultimately, he hopes the network will serve to benefit humanity.
“Having your attention on a spiritual law will completely transform your life, as it has mine, and if we collectively put our attention on the same law each day, we could soon reach a critical mass of successful people that could transform life on planet Earth.”
MEMO: For information about the Global Network for Spiritual Success, write to Infinite Possibilities International Inc., P.O. Box 1001, Del Mar, Calif. 92014.