The Book of Secrets - Deepak Chopra [0]
The
BOOK
of
SECRETS
Unlocking
the Hidden Dimensions
of Your Life
Harmony Books
NEW YORK
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
To my father,
KRISHAN LAL CHOPRA:
your graceful life and your graceful death
inspired and finally unlocked
the hidden dimensions of my life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Peter Guzzardi, my very skillful editor: you are both my critic and one of my best friends;
Shaye, Tina, Tara, Brian, Jenny, and the rest of my family at Harmony: you have been loving, gracious, and tolerant since the beginning of my career;
Rita, Mallika, Gotham, Sumant, Candice, and darling Tara: you make everything worthwhile and sacred;
Carolyn Rangel, Felicia Rangel, and Jan Crawford in my office: your dedication and hard work make everything possible;
And finally, thanks to my family at the Chopra Center, who translate my words into a practice that makes a difference in people’s lives.
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