: Hello, everybody and welcome to our chat with acclaimed writer Dr. Deepak Chopra, author of "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" and most recently "How to Know God."
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: It's great to be on Beliefnet today, and let's get going!
hans068
: You wrote that when one dies physically, memories of this life are lost. How is it that some people are able to remember past lives?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: No memory is ever lost. The memory goes into the virtual domain, where it exists as a potential memory. Just like a photon is not a photon until you observe it, a memory is not a memory until you actualize it. Memories of previous lifetimes remain in the virtual domain in seed form. They are actualized under special circumstances. Most people do not remember previous lifetimes, and that, of course, is in the interest of economy of expenditure of energy. It's not necessary.
markjpro
: Andrew Weil says that our beliefs trigger metabolic systems, in his book "Spontaneous Remission." Do you believe in life after death and disincorporated beings, or do you think/believe that the miracles of the body are part of a complex physical system, as Dr. Weil and Crick believe? Thank you.
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Both schools of thought are correct. Our beliefs trigger biological responses. There is survival of consciousness after death and memories and contexts and relationships of previous lifetimes influence our biological patterns and our personalities today. At the same time, our biological responses are a result of what's contained in our DNA. The DNA, however, is not the source of information. It's what information comes through. Just like if you listen to Beethoven on the radio, the radio is not the source of Beethoven, he comes through the radio. When you read Shakespeare, he is not contained in the ink, even though he comes through it.
vera_holly
: Dr. Chopra, thank you for this opportunity. I've read "How to Know God," and I think I move between the first five levels, but do you think that we should expect to get to the sixth and seventh and stay there for more than brief periods of time?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes. To get to the sixth level, study the life of enlightened beings, such as Christ, Buddha, the great saints of the Christian tradition, all the great avatars from the East, and then on the day-to-day level, ask yourself, "What would this being do in this situation?" In other words, try to see the world through the consciousness of your spiritual inheritance. Once you enter the sixth domain, you will start to have glimpses of the seventh level as well.
jfsnjax
: Another difficult Eastern concept is the fundamental emptiness of God, that the divine is empty of any conceptual identity. How do you explain this to Westerners?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: As soon as you conceptualize something, you limit it. All concepts or definitions are therefore limiting. Divine intelligence, or God, is unbounded, eternal, ineffable, without any beginning or ending in time, and beyond the edges of space. Therefore, the emptiness that you speak of is not an emptiness. It is the fullness of infinite possibilities. It is the field of pure potentiality. It is the immeasurable source of all that was, all that is, and all that will be. God is therefore not conceptualizable, but definitely realizable.
: Do you think that the mapping of the DNA structure will help change mankind into the next evolution of man?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes, the mapping of the DNA structure gives us a great insight into the physical machinery of the body. It does not, however, tell us anything about the source of free will, intention, imagination, insight, inspiration, creativity, knowingness, understanding, meaning, purpose, or decision making. Moreover, the very impulse to know the DNA is contained in the DNA! So while we must recognize the limitations of what we can learn from the DNA, we must also recognize that our knowledge of the DNA is the impulse of the universe to become self-conscious through us.
john_e_jacobson
: Deepak, could you explain "born again," a Christian concept in light of your understanding of God.
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: "Born again" simply means relinquishing the past, and stepping into a fresh experience of life. All of life goes through certain phases: creation, maintenance, destruction of the old, a period of incubation, and then resurrection into a new expression of life. Therefore, somebody who is "born again" is expressing the eternal cycle of life within an accelerated time frame. The one who is "born again" has a new interpretation and a new cognitive and perceptual experience of reality.
salle333
: How can I see God as a friend or helpmate instead of a tyrant or dictator, someone to be feared?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: You can see God as a friend and a helpmate if your relationship with God is one of loving devotion. You must at a deep level begin to first experience love for yourself, just as you are. In fact, a good exercise would be to close your eyes and experience gratitude for all the wonderful things that God has given you, and at the end of the gratitude exercise, utter a silent prayer which says, "Thank you, God, for making me just as I am." Moreover, you might want to read the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, of the great Sufi poet Rumi, and of St. John of the Cross, to get deep insight into the loving relationship with God.
chintak
: Deepak, I am a great fan of your new book, "How to Know God." It is one of the few books I read which explains spirituality without a prerequisite of faith in any particular religion. It has an amazing collection of deep ideas. What led you to discover the idea of classification of stages of spiritual development? Have such ideas been discussed in previous religious literature?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes, these ideas have been discussed in previous religious literature, and in fact the seven biological responses are contemporary and scientific explanations of the seven chakras frequently spoken about in Eastern traditions. Moreover, a conceptual framework for seven stages of consciousness is part of the teaching Vedanta, and you will also find the seven stages in the Judeo-Christian tradition. For example, the god of the "fight-flight" response is found in the Bible in the form of Jehovah. The reactive response is found in the books of Moses and Job. The restful awareness response is when the Bible talks about the peace that passes understanding, and in the Psalms, as in the phrase "Be still and know that I am God." The intuitive response is in the teachings of Jesus Christ, when he says, "Seek and ye shall find, ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." The creative response is when God says to Moses, "I am that I am." And also in the Gospel of John, when Christ says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Therefore, you find them in all the great religions of the world.
hjw10000
: Lately, I have been in some fascinating discussions on the topic What is God? Since Dr. Chopra was bold enough to name his book "How to Know God," can he give a brief description of his definition of God?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes. Look at the spelling of God: G stands for Generation; O stands for Organization; and D stands for Delivery. Therefore, GOD is the Generator, the Organizer, and the Deliverer of the Universe. God is the infinite, unbounded, eternal intelligence that constantly projects itself as the universe through the creation of space, time, matter, and infinite energy. But God is also infinite love, infinite compassion, infinite joy. God is also the source of the progressive expansion of happiness, God is the source of meaning and purpose in life, God is the source of that which is considered a miracle, God is the fulfillment of our deepest desire, and God is the source of the abolishment of all fears, including the fear of death.
vera_holly
: With all of the spiritual techniques available, how does one avoid becoming overly anxious and not try to force the process?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Really be simple. There are four ways to access this divine intelligence we call God. Number one: The Way of Action. Whenever you do something, have the inner attitude that everything you do, your every thought and breath, comes from God and belongs to God. In other words, every movement of yours is of the divine eternal. Just having this attitude will give you a direct experience of the eternal mystery that we refer to as God. Number two: The Way of Love. Make love the most important reason for making every decision in life. Before you make a choice, ask yourself, Is this going to enhance the experience of love in my life, and all those in my life? Number three: The Way of Spiritual Discipline, which includes prayer and meditation and silence. And number four, The Way of Intellect and of Scientific Inquiry.
: I have heard that God can be proven mathematically.
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes. If you define infinity by infinity, what remains is infinity. If you subtract infinity by infinity, what remains is infinity. Therefore, God is the infinite absolute that is measured out as the relative world. And even though the relative world appears to be measurable, it is an illusion, in that it is the absolute appearing to be the relative. This great principle was the source of inspiration to Albert Einstein, who once said, "I want to know the face of God. Everything else is detail."
jfsnjax
: Is it tough to get Westerners to understand non-duality? That evil is a part of God?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: It is not easy. By saying simply that evil is a part of God you are likely to turn a lot of people off. In my book "How to Know God," I discuss the seven stages of good and evil. In stage 1, "good" is that which ensures your physical survival; "evil" is that which threatens your physical survival. In stage 2, good is that which satisfies your ego needs, evil is that which threatens your ego needs. In stage 3, good is peace of mind, and evil is inner turbulence. In stage 4, good is understanding and knowingness and intuition, and evil is lack of awareness. In stage 5, good is creativity, and evil is lower consciousness. In stage 6, good is the cosmic force of evolution, evil is the cosmic force of entropy and stagnation. And in stage 7, the non-dual stage, good and evil do not exist, they are contained as potential in the womb of creation.
i_am_haelen
: If you had to describe a way for moving through the levels of perception of God, what would they be?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: In stage 3, meditation; for stage 4, going into the silence and asking questions. In stage 5, asking how can I create something that never existed before. In stage 6, emulating and modeling the action and behavior of great seers. For stage 7, finding the source within.
coastman39531
: I think I'm stuck in stage 3. How do I get past it?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Begin to write down on a piece of paper the following questions: Who am I? What do I want? What's my purpose in life? How can I help my fellow human beings? Just write the questions, look at them, then go into silent meditation. God will provide the answers through situations, circumstances, encounters, omens, and other clues.
nightfall360
: What inspires you to write the way you do?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: I just write with great passion something I'm excited by, and then it seems to happen spontaneously. You used the word "inspired." And the word means to be "in spirit." So when you are in spirit, everything happens spontaneously.
Shawn4you2
: I have been reading your book "How to Know God" all week. It is fascinating and a great gift. Sometimes I dream, perhaps four times a year, of tragic events, such as ships or airplanes crashing. These dreams are different, and I know they will appear in the news within a few days. Why do I only see future sad events?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: This might lead you to a past experience of a tragedy, either in this lifetime or another lifetime. And that karma triggers the actualization of similar information of the submanifest order of being. You should pay attention to all the good things that are happening around you, express appreciation and gratitude for them, and you might start accessing a different domain in being.
jfsnjax
: Your seven stages of understanding God would seem to relegate the Old Testament God to stage 1. Has this caused hostility from Christians?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: By and large, no. Moreover, the Old Testament contains all the seven stages, as I mentioned in response to a previous question. Furthermore, the God of stage 1 is also found in Eastern traditions. So God as a dysfunctional parent appears in all religions.
pauli1044
: Why do you think the world is such an evil place? Because so many people have lost God?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: It is the play of opposites. Without darkness, there is no experience of light, and vice versa. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, sinner and saint, the sacred and the profane, create the play of opposites which make life a meaningful experience. If you went to a movie and it was all about good people doing good things, you probably would get bored and not sit through it. Our life is a larger version of the same soap opera. We enact these different archetypal scenes and in a particular lifetime it may be our choice to choose a few of these eternal themes in the cosmic soap opera. If you abhor evil, then you should not put too much attention on it, and not be too self-righteous about it. The best way to fight darkness is not really to fight it, but to switch on the light.
chintak
: Could you please give examples of people in the 20th and 21st centuries who reached the fifth and higher stages?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi. Rabindranath Tagore, Ramana Maharashi, Sri Aurobindo, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, probably the pope, and many others. Could cover several volumes or books.
: Mr. Chopra, as a student of Western philosophy and Christian mystical tradition, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the late Thomas Merton? It seems you resonate well with him.
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: I do. And as I do with many other Christian mystics, including Tielhard de Chardin.
Sujay_1
: We live to amass knowledge created by man, rarely by nature. How can we experience the beauty of nature in our everyday lives?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Don't make the mistake of divorcing man from nature. Everything we do as humans is an expression of nature coming through the human nervous system because the human nervous system is part of nature. Therefore jet planes, and fax machines, and information highways on the internet, and cell phones, and concrete buildings are also expressions of nature, because humans are expressions of nature. Having said that, we are those expressions of nature that can make choices that disrupt the ecosystem and cause disasters and creativity and the emergence of new properties in nature herself. Therefore, we must constantly be alert. The universe has given us the privilege of being self-conscious, and we are always at a crossroad to make a choice that either destroys or creates imbalance in the biosphere of which we are a part.
walkin_02909
: I am in the process of learning about the Buddha and his teachings. I feel as though I have awakened more since I started to research this than I have in my previous 26 years of life. Do you have any suggestions to offer so that I may further myself on this path?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Read the work of Robert Thurman. He is a professor of Buddhism at Columbia University. Also come to the howtoknowgod.com website, where I have done an interview with him, and you will find a transcript of talks by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and also discussions with other scholars.
monica30_2000
: Mr. Chopra, I am terrified of losing my loved ones. How can I get past this fear?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Just by loving them more and more, and not expecting anything in return. Remember, we are all on death row. The only uncertainty is the method of execution and the length of reprieve. Therefore, treasure every single moment you have together.
Sujay_1
: What is your perception on life-after-death theory? Can we really shut down? Or is there more to the inner spirit that is emphasized? beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: There is much more. Once again, for an in-depth discussion, go to "Deepak's Board" on howtoknowgod.com and look under "reincarnation."
omahababs
: Do you feel the collective is in transition?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Yes, thanks to websites like Beliefnet.com!
hjw10000
: Mr. Chopra, are you familiar with the work of Joseph Campbell? Did he influence your writing?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Subconsciously I am sure he did. I think he has made a great contribution into understanding how the mystical domain influences our spiritual inheritance.
jfsnjax
: What is the most effective, shortest way to achieve God-consciousness?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: Think about God, talk about God, do godly acts, and love God, and make God the reason for everything you do. You will discover that God is not difficult to find. God is impossible to avoid, because there is nowhere that God is not. God is on this website you are interacting with now. Look carefully! Be attentive. Life-centered present-moment awareness is God. If you can't find God in a rainbow, if you can't find God in a blade of grass, if you can't find God in the eyes of another being or in the smile of a child, you will not discover God in a book of religion.
beckicarter97
: Why does God let bad things happen?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: God allows us the freedom to make choices, and our collective choices influence the ecosystem or the biosphere in which we are contained. And when there is a critical mass of choices being made in the conscious energy field that expresses itself as the biosphere a critical mass of inappropriate choices, then evil erupts. And see the previous discussion on good and evil.
vmk007
: How do you think mankind will view God after the recent announcement of the mapping of the human genome?
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: As the ultimate and supreme genius who uses four alphabets to mastermind the entire web of life.
beliefnet_ellen
: Thank you so much for joining us tonight, Dr. Chopra, and thanks to all of you for such great questions!
beliefnet_deepak_chopra
: It was really fun to be with you! Very stimulating for all of us. Thank you for making me think. Hope to be back again.!
beliefnet_ellen
: Thank you. And make sure to check out the How to Know God
website for further conversation.
