The Book of Secrets - Deepak Chopra [80]
• As you access more intelligence, you are evolving. On the other hand, if you constrict your mind to what you already know or can predict, your evolution will slow down.
• As you access more creativity, you are evolving. On the other hand, if you try to use old solutions to solve new problems, your evolution will slow down.
• As you access more awareness, you are evolving. On the other hand, if you continue to use a fraction of your consciousness, your evolution will slow down.
The universe has a stake in which choices you decide to make, for the overwhelming evidence is that it favors evolution over standing still. In Sanskrit, the evolutionary force is called Dharma, from a root word that means “to uphold.” Without you, Dharma would be confined to three dimensions. Even though you spend almost no time thinking about your relationship to a zebra, a coconut tree, or blue-green algae, each is your intimate in the evolutionary scheme. Human beings extended the evolutionary scheme when life reached a certain limit in physicality—after all, in physical terms, the earth depends on blue-green algae and plankton more than on humans. The universe wanted to have a new perspective, and for this had to create creators like itself.
I once asked a physicist if everyone in his community accepted by now that reality was nonlocal. He conceded that they did. “Isn’t nonlocality the same as omniscience?” I said. “There’s no distance in time, no distance in space. Communication is instantaneous, and every particle is connected to every other.”
“Could be,” he said, not exactly agreeing but letting me go on.
“Then why did the universe bother to become local?” I said. “It already knew everything. It already includes everything, and at the deepest level it already encompasses all events that could possibly happen.”
“I don’t know,” my physicist said. “Maybe the universe just wanted a vacation.”
This isn’t a bad answer. Through us the universe gets to play. Play at what? At giving someone else the controls to see what he or she comes up with. The one thing the universe can’t experience is getting away from itself. So, in a sense, we are its vacation.
The problem with dilemmas like free will and determinism is that they don’t leave enough playtime. This is a recreational universe. It provides us with food, air, water, and a great deal of scenery to explore. All of that comes from the automatic side of cosmic intelligence. It continues on its own, but the side that wants to play is plugged into evolution, and Dharma is its way of telling us how the game works. If you look carefully at the critical turning points in your life, you’ll see how closely you were paying attention to the evolutionary game.
BEING IN THE DHARMA
• You were ready to move forward. The experience of your old reality was worn out and ready for change.
• You were ready to pay attention. When the opportunity arrived, you noticed it and took the necessary leap.
• The environment supported you. When you moved forward, events fell into place to ensure that you didn’t backslide.
• You felt more expanded and free in your new place.
• You saw yourself as in some way a new person.
This set of circumstances, both inner and outer, is what Dharma provides. Which is to say that when you feel ready to move forward, reality shifts to show you how. And when you aren’t ready to move forward? Then there is the backup system of Vasana, which moves you forward by repeating those tendencies that are embedded in you from the past. When you find yourself stuck and unable to make any progress at all, the following circumstances usually apply:
1. You aren’t ready to move. The