Power, Freedom and Grace by Deepak Chopra

 

Power, Freedom and Grace by Deepak Chopra has been my 100th of 2020.

Vedanta declares,  "know that one thing by knowing which everything else is known, " for one who knows the self, the limitations of the world disappear"

Your essential being is the source of all being  the field of pure consciousness that manifests as the entire universe. In this very moment, pure consciousness illuminates and animates your mind and body, and it is powerful, invincible, inbounded and free. When you know yourself as this field of consciousness, you have power to manifest your desires, you have freedom from fear and limitations, and you live in grace, which is that state of consciousness where things flow and your desires are easily fulfilled.

Joy and sorrow, happiness and suffering, are the play of opposites, they are transient because they are time-bound. Spirit, the essential you, is independent of the play of opposites; it dwells in the silent bliss of the eternal. That's why the key to happiness is to identify with the unchanging essence of your inner self - to live and play in the field of intelligence that is beyond positive and negative. This field is your source, and it is magical, holy, joyful and free.

To experience lasting happiness, you have to go to a place beyond thought and experience inner peace. It's not that you have to have a positive attitude. It's not that you have to shed your sadness and bring in happiness. You have to go beyond the world of duality to the field of pure potentiality and live from your source. 

Happiness and sadness are different faces of infinite consciousness. Both are transient, and you are neither because you are not a state of consciousness. You are consciousness itself expressing all of these states. Why would you want to identify with a wave on the ocean or a mere drop of water when you are the ocean? You are not the ever-changing behavior of the ocean. You are the water-i-ness of the ocean. And this water-i-ness does'nt change. 

Chopra has organized the book in three parts to address it.

Part I: The Problem: Not Knowing Who We Are

Chapter 1 What do I want?

The world has been waiting for our transformation because it, too, wants transformation. When we are transformed, the world is transformed, because we and the world are one. 

Happiness:

• Happiness is the goal of all goals, and it's a state of consciousness that already exists within you
• Happiness for a reason is a form of misery because the reason can be taken away from you at any time. To be happy for no reason is the happiness you want to experience.
• When your life is an expression of your inner happiness, you feel a sense of connection to the creative power of the universe. Having that connection, you feel that you can accomplish anything you desire.

Chapter 2 Who am I?

Universe:

• You are a field of awareness; your real essence is pure consciousness, or spirit, which become both the mind and the body.
• The intellect mistakes the image of reality for reality itself, and this image overshadows the real you.
• When you identify with your real essence, your escape the prison of the intellect, and enter the world of the infinite, inbounded and free. 

Chapter 3 Why do I forget who I am?

Superstition:

• You forget who you are because you have been socially conditioned to trust your senses and to believe in the superstition of materialism.
• You are inseparable form the field of intelligence that creates the entire cosmos. Knowing this frees you from the hallucination of a separate self that lives inside a separate body.
• When you realize that your body-mind is a field of pure consciousness, then you know that you have power, freedom and grace. Therefore, happiness is knowing your true nature, which is all of these things. 

Chapter 4 How do I participate in creating my reality?

Causation:

• You participate in creating your reality by interpreting your sensory experience. The world is a construct of your own interpretations.
• The human body is a field of ideas, and the body you experience is a expression of all the ideas you have about it. 
• When the rhythms of your body-mind are in synch with nature's rhythms, everything is effortless and the universe flows through you in joyful ecstasy. 

Part II : The Prescription: Remembering Who We Are

Chapter 5 where do I go when I die?

Discontinuity:

• When you die, you don't go anywhere; your soul is simply vibrating at another frequency.
• All is transforming, and yet nothing ever dies. Just as in life, so beyond death you continue to transform.
• When you identify with the external spirit, the unchanging essence of consciousness itself, you transcend all suffering, including the fear of death.

Chapter 6 What is the key to lasting happiness?

Source:

• The key to lasting happiness is to identify with the unchanging essence of your inner self, your source, Then you no longer look for happiness because you know that you already have it.
• More important than a positive mind is a silent mind. A silent mind is a nonjudgmental, nonanalytical, non interpretive mind. 
• When you can accept all the contradictions that life offers, when you can comfortably flow between the banks of pleasure and pain, experiencing both while getting stuck in neither, you have achieved freedom. 

Chapter 7 How can I live with effortless ease?

Flow:

• You can live with effortless ease by allowing universal intelligence to flow through you without interference in the form of fear, resistance, or attachment. 
• Inherent in every desire is the mechanics for its spontaneous fulfillment. Desire is pure potentiality seeking manifestation. 
• When you are stressed, when you anticipate problems, when you use too much effort, you constrict the flow of nature's intelligence as it moves form the unmanifest to the manifest. 

Chapter 8 When will I be fully awake?

Wholeness:

• You are fully awake when you see and feel the presence of spirit in everything
• The universe flows though you and plays through you in many different frequencies simultaneously. 
• When you remember you true nature, you return to the memory of wholeness, and you are healed. 

Part III: The Practice: Experiencing who we Are

Chapter 9 What is power and how do I obtain it?

Power:

• Spend time in silent communion with your soul
• Pay attention the the qualities of pure consciousness
• Never stop asking questions

Chapter 10 What is freedom and how do I experience it?

Freedom:

• Practice life-centered, present-moment awareness.
• Observe your addictive behaviors without judgment
• Transcend your fear of the unknown

Chapter 11 What is grace and how do I live it?

Grace:

• Listen to your body's wisdom
• Maintain inner-body awareness at all times
• Pay attention to the rhythms and cycles of your body-mind

Chapter 12 The infinite

The winds of grace are always blowing, it is for us to raise our sails. Just allow the universe, the infinite to express itself though you without interfering. When we eat - it is the light of the sun and the starts and the moon that made the food we eat. At the deepest level of your being, you are already powerful and free. When universal intelligence is flowing though you without interference, your life flows with effortless ease. This is the experience of grace. Though your body-mind you create and experience the world of objects and events in space-time. Through your intellect, you create and experience the world of ideas. Only through your soul can you create and experience the world of power, freedom, and grace. In the depth of your being is the light of pure being, pure love ad pure joy. When you live form here, a new world opens. This world is unbounded, infinite, eternal, joyful. In this world there is no limit to your power, freedom and grace. Once you know your true self, you will know true happiness, the intoxication of love, spirit flowing in its pure essence - unimpeded, unrestricted, full of mystery, magic and adventure. Happiness resides in the realm of spirit. To find happiness is to find your soul. To find your soul is to live from the source of lasting happiness. This is not happiness for this or that reason, which is just another form of misery. This happiness is true bliss, and it follows you wherever you go. 

Vedanta tells us that our true nature is divine. The divine self is the underlying reality and source of all that exists, and to realize this truth experientially is the goal of Vedanta. Revered for its enduring wisdom, Vedanta is a timeless philosophy that expresses the heart of all religions and spiritual doctrines.