Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul

by Deepak Chopra

  I could see that this story was emotional for Brett. “What do you think of it?” I asked.

  “I think it was preordained, the whole thing. As if the first seed, which Meilland planted in 1935, was meant to become a symbol for world peace after the war. People took it that way. Who’s to deny them?”

  “I guess you could say that official reality denies them,” I pointed out. “A string of coincidences is just that.”

  “I know,” said Brett. “You have to be naïve or fanciful to think that everything could fit together so perfectly. It’s as if each event knew that it was part of the same story, and we can’t have that, can we?”

  It depends. Many people casually say that “nothing happens without a reason.” Yet at the same time they don’t see an overarching purpose to their lives. Animals are free from this dilemma. You can see their purpose simply by observing it. A hungry cow eats; a cat in heat mates. Human purpose, however, is rarely visible. When you see a crush of Christmas shoppers jamming the stores, all are doing the same thing, but they don’t share the same purpose. Some are full of holiday spirit and want to give pleasure with their gifts. Others are carrying out a social ritual. Still others are addicted consumers.

  It would help a great deal to know what the overall plan is. Otherwise we are left to observe a collection of individuals, each of whom is groping for purpose and catching glimpses of it far too rarely.

  The rules of the game

  The plan for the unfolding universe stands right before us, even though we fail to see it. We’re blind to it because the plan is us. Or, to make it personal, you are the cosmic plan—or the divine plan, if you prefer. There are no rules outside your mind, no actions outside your body. Whatever you choose to do, the plan bends to accommodate. When you have a new desire, the universe shifts accordingly. It has no choice, because there is no purpose to creation beyond you, right here and right now.

  I know that this description sounds like hyperbole. All your life you have absorbed a worldview that puts you under a higher power. If it isn’t the power of God, it’s the power of natural forces. If it isn’t the power of authority figures, it’s the power of human nature and its self-destructive impulses. None of that is true—or, to be precise, none of that is true once you discover your real self. Ultimately, to discover your purpose comes down to discovering who you really are.

  The cosmic plan that was built into you follows certain invisible guidelines:

  Everything is conscious. There are no dead zones in creation. Consciousness is an activity of the entire universe, which means that when you are aware of anything, the universe is aware through you. What you see and do alters the whole scheme.

  Everything fits together. There are no loose parts to the universe, nothing is left over. Wholeness keeps each part in place and assigns each its necessary role. When anything looks random, you are seeing one pattern moving into another.

  The whole scheme is self-organizing. No outside controller is needed. Once a galaxy, a butterfly, a heart, or an entire species is on the move, its inner workings know what to do.

  Evolution unfolds within itself. Once something grows, it seeks the highest form of itself—the best star, dinosaur, fern, or amoeba. When that form is exhausted, it makes a transition to a new form that is more creative and interesting.

  Freedom is the ultimate goal. You don’t win by getting to the end; you win by finding a new game the instant the old one is over. This isn’t an empty freedom. You never find yourself floating in a void. Rather, this is the freedom of possibilities that never run out.

  At every level, Nature follows these five guidelines. They are invisible; they exist only in consciousness. The reason you haven’t been aware of them isn’t God’s secrecy. The plan isn’t abstract. Quite the opposite—it’s built into every cell in your body. You can become aware of the plan if you choose, and then the universe acquires a new face.

  Everything is conscious. Living in accord with this truth means that you respect all life forms. You believe that you are a part of a living whole, and you act as if all your actions help the whole to evolve. You recognize a kinship with every level of consciousness, from the lowest to the highest.

  Everything fits together. This truth opens your mind to see how the whole of life interacts. Instead of thinking in mechanical terms, you see each event unfolding organically. Instead of taking life one piece at a time, you look for the larger picture. It would also be natural to investigate how and why things fit together. Is there an overarching intelligence that is thinking on the cosmic scale? If so, then are you a thought in this universal mind, or part of the thinking process—or both?

  The whole scheme is self-organizing. This is one of the most fascinating truths, because it holds that nothing has a beginning or an end. The universe isn’t like the tide going in and out again. It’s like the ocean as a whole, breathing in and out, sending up waves that fall back again into the wholeness. No event is separate. We only see separateness because our perspective is narrow. Through a wider lens you can see that all events arise together.

  Think of an ant that has learned to read. It is the world’s most intelligent ant, but it’s still quite small, so it reads a book by crawling from one word to the next. The plot of the book is completely linear from the ant’s perspective, so it would be amazed to know that you—a much bigger creature—can approach the book as a whole, and you can dip into it wherever you want, read the end before the beginning, sample high spots, or select only what interests you. You can do all those things because the linear is only one mode of many in approaching a book. The same is true of life.

  Evolution unfolds within itself. Once you see that linear thinking is just a choice—and a fairly arbitrary one—you can look at evolution in a new way. Think of that museum diagram showing a stooped-over primate turning into a Neanderthal, then a caveman and finally Homo sapiens, each one standing taller and straighter. That’s a perfect example of linear thinking, but it overlooks that the driving force of human evolution is the brain, and it didn’t develop in a straight line, not even remotely. It grew in a global fashion. Every new area of the brain added to the evolution of the whole. Every new skill was recognized by the whole brain.

  For example, when our ancestors first stood upright, this affected motor coordination, eyesight, balance, blood circulation, and many other aspects of the body-mind you recognize as your own. The opposable thumb, offered as a textbook example of physical evolution that separates human beings from lower primates, would be meaningless without a brain that learned the infinite possibilities inherent in this new ability to press a thumb against a forefinger. It took a global response by the brain to develop from this rudimentary skill all of art, agriculture, tools, buildings, and weapons. Evolution is a total activity of the universe.

  Freedom is the ultimate goal. If evolution is happening everywhere in a global fashion, where is it heading? For centuries human beings assumed that we were the highest goal of God’s creation, and despite Darwin’s shocking demotion of humans to one species among many, we still believe we hold a privileged place. But it’s not at the top of the ladder of life. Instead, we are the one creature who grasps that creativity is infinite. Evolution is heading everywhere, not to an end point. The ultimate goal of the universe is to unfold without limits. To put it in a word, evolution is becoming more and more free, and its ultimate goal is total freedom.

  Laws of nature dictate how units of matter combine when atom collides with atom, yet infinite variety is permitted at the same time. We are embedded in a design that is dynamic, free, creative, and unpredictable. Evidence of this lies in what we call games. Consider how a baseball game is run. It exists entirely in consciousness. Human beings decided that hitting a leather ball with a stick has value. Invisible rules were devised that each player keeps in his head. No one speaks of these rules as the game is being played, but infractions are instantly noticed and penalized. The baseball field is strictly demarked with lines and b
oundaries, yet within these limits the players are free to improvise. No two games are exactly alike; no two players have the same style, or level of talent. And once a game starts, this combination of fixed rules and free play determines who wins. A baseball game is open-ended until the bottom of the ninth inning, despite the rigid set of rules that enclose it.

  Every game is a display of consciousness in creative mode. The universe is in the same mode. The defenders of so-called intelligent design—the notion that an all-knowing Creator made everything in the universe to fit perfectly—aren’t wrong to stand in awe before creation. The real problem is that intelligent design isn’t intelligent enough. It limits God to one big idea that never changes, when in reality the universe changes constantly and is ever more inventive.

  If the whole universe is conscious, we have an instant explanation for why nothing is accidental. Yet it’s hard to imagine a rock by the side of the road being as conscious as you and I are. There’s a way to get past this objection, however. Imagine that you live in a dream, but don’t know it. Inside your dream you see other people moving around, so they seem conscious to you. You view animals behaving as if they possessed consciousness as well—they are curious, for example, and can be trained into new behavior. But when it comes to rocks and clouds, they are inanimate, so you assume they aren’t conscious. Then someone comes along and says, “Everything is conscious. It has to be. All that you see around you is happening in a person’s brain. That person is you. You are the dreamer, and as long as this is your dream, it shares in your consciousness.”

  There is only the finest line between “I am dreaming” and “I am in a dream,” since the brain creates both states. Why not cross the line? In some cultures, no other invitation is needed. The ancient rishis of India compared life to a dream because all experience is subjective. There is no way to experience the world except subjectively. If every experience happens “in here,” it makes perfect sense that things all fit together: we make them fit together. Even randomness is a concept created by the human brain. As mosquitoes swarm at sunset, they don’t feel random, nor do atoms of interstellar dust. We don’t see form and design until they fit our preconceptions, but this doesn’t matter to Nature. Seem through an electron microscope, every cell in your body looks like a swirling haze of activity, but that’s just a perception. As far as Nature is concerned, every aspect of your body is orderly and purposeful.

  So you face a choice. You can take the position that order only exists where humans say it does, or you can take the position that order is everywhere. Either way, all you’ve done is to take a point of view. If half the people in the world said that God designed all of creation and the other half said that creation was a random event, the universe would still be what it is. Consciousness would still be flowing through your body, brain, mind, and all living creatures, ignoring the artificial boundaries we impose. The either/or isn’t between science and religion, but between participating in the cosmic plan or not. There’s a voluntary aspect and an involuntary aspect. As with a baseball game, you have to want to play, but once you do, you’re all in.

  In Your Life: Core Participation

  As with any game, once you’re in the game of life, you should play to win. You must commit yourself from your very core. Knowing the guidelines of the divine plan gives you an enormous advantage in this regard. Not knowing them is like playing a game whose rules are revealed one at a time, and only when you break them. Life works that way for most people. They discover how to live by trial and error. Other people fall back upon a rule book that is supposed to apply to everyone and cover all contingencies—the Bible is such a rule book, but many others exist. In India, these guides for living (gathered in texts known as the Puranas) run to thousands of pages, with minute descriptions of the most arcane situations and combinations of behavior. In the end, however, no one has ever led an exemplary life by following a recipe.

  Between having no rules and imposing rigid ones, the universe has left room for dynamic guidelines that impose the least restraint on free will. To participate fully, each guideline allows for maximum achievement. Achievement doesn’t mean material success. It means fully understanding how consciousness works.

  Your Best Game

  Let consciousness do the work.

  Don’t interfere with the flow.

  View everyone as an extension of yourself.

  Watch for change and use it wisely.

  Gather information from every source.

  Wait until your intention is clear.

  Realize that nothing is personal—the universe is acting through you.

  Ask for nothing less than inspiration.

  See every step as part of the process.

  These tactics have one thing in common: they are in accord with the invisible plan that underlies everyone’s life. But because participation is voluntary, there’s a sharp contrast between people who align themselves with the plan and those who don’t. Let me illustrate this point by point.

  Let consciousness do the work. People who follow this guideline are highly subjective, but their subjectivity isn’t fickle; they don’t give in to each passing mood. Instead they are self-aware, which means that they know when they are uncomfortable in a situation, and don’t move forward until it feels right. Their bodies give them signals of stress and strain that they take seriously. Such people trust themselves, which is a totally subjective state, yet a very powerful one. To trust a self that is rooted in ego would be folly, but when you truly know who you are, you can trust yourself from the soul level. At that level, consciousness isn’t merely subjective. It flows through the universe, the soul, the mind, and the body. Letting consciousness do the work means surrendering to an organizing principle that is vaster than yourself, vast enough to keep all of reality together.

  Don’t interfere with the flow. There is a profound Buddhist doctrine that speaks of a great river that flows through all of reality. Once you have found yourself, there is no more cause for action. The river picks you up and carries you along forever after. In other words, effort from the personal level, the kind of effort all of us are used to in daily life, becomes pointless after a certain point. This includes mental effort. Once you become self-aware, you realize that the flow of life needs no analysis or control, because it’s all you. The great river only seems to pick you up. Actually, you have picked yourself up—not as an isolated person, but as a phenomenon of the cosmos. No one gave you the job of steering the river. You can enjoy the ride and observe the scenery.

  Learning to step aside from your false responsibilities means giving up your urge to control, defend, protect, and insure against risk. All of that is false responsibility. To the extent that you can let it go, you will stop interfering with the flow. To the extent that you cling, life will continue to bring even more things to control, and to defend yourself against. Risks will loom everywhere. It’s not that fate is set against you. You are simply seeing reflections of your deepest beliefs, as consciousness unfolds the drama drawn up beforehand in your mind. It’s the universe’s task to unfold reality; yours is only to plant the seed.

  View everyone as an extension of yourself. When people get on the spiritual path, they often find themselves misunderstood. The accusation is leveled against them (if only behind their backs) that they have become self-centered. The implication is “It’s not all about you.” If “you” means the isolated ego, that’s certainly true. But at the level of the soul, the self changes. Losing its boundaries, it merges with the flow of life. On the spiritual path you come to sense the flow and willingly join it. Then—and only then—is everyone else an extension of yourself. How do you know that you have reached this point? First, you have no enemies. Second, you feel another’s pain as your own. Third, you find that a common sympathy links everyone.

  As these three perceptions dawn, reality is shifting. You are claiming your new home in the unlimited landscape of spirit. But even before that comes to fruition, you are connecte
d to everyone else. Nothing keeps you from living that truth. There will always be differences of personality. What changes is self-interest. Instead of being about “me,” it starts to be about “us,” the collective consciousness that binds everyone. On a practical basis this means seeking agreement, consensus, and reconciliation. These are the primary goals for anyone who lives in the flow.

  Watch for change and use it wisely. You can use the transient nature of life to your advantage. Most people fear change; others allow it to pass them by. To use change creatively, those attitudes won’t work. Nothing will work as a life strategy that isn’t dynamic and growing. Change itself is neutral, since for every constructive change there is a destructive one. But the principle of change holds the key, for it dictates that going with the flow of life brings growth and creativity, while attempting to freeze events, memories, pleasure, and inspiration brings stasis. The most inspiring or pleasurable moments in your life beg to be savored and held on to. You must resist that temptation, because the minute you try to hang on to an experience, it loses the vitality that made it special in the first place.