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Be unstoppable. I'm Oprah Winfrey.
Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast.
I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time.
Taking time to be more fully present.
Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now.
Deepak Chopra says he's meditated every day for the past 40 years.
He began this spiritual practice while a student in medical school to relieve stress and kick his pack -a -day smoking habit.
The effects of meditation on Deepak's life were so profound, it became a cornerstone of his teachings.
Well, you're the only person I know who's as busy and busier than I.
You're hard guy to get in this chair.
My body is busy, I'm not.
I love that. I stay home, my body travels.
Really? When we met in India, one of the things that you say, there's not been a day when you haven't meditated.
In 40 years. 40 years, wow.
Not a day. Not a day.
This is a great opportunity for us to demystify meditation.
So we're going to do Meditation 101.
Let's start with the basics.
How do you define meditation?
Meditation is defined in the following way.
It's a progressive quieting of the mind till it reaches the source of the mind, which in spiritual traditions is called the soul or the spirit.
Got it. So it takes you to your source.
Okay. Why should someone do it?
Why should someone...
Because there are lots of people listening to us right now saying, I thought about it, but I don't know.
Okay. Okay. The first reason they should do it is the most effective way to manage stress.
And when you have stress, you don't sleep well, you're not good in your relationships, and there are biological effects.
Your blood pressure goes up, heart rate speeds up, you get arrhythmias, the immune system gets compromised.
There are tons of data on why stress is the number one epidemic of our civilization.
Right. So first reason, stress.
Management, and you'll improve your physical health, you'll improve your mental health, you'll improve your emotional well -being.
Life is going to get better if you meditate.
Yeah, but here's the real reason.
Once you do all that, once you've, you know, I haven't had stress forever now, so I don't need to meditate for stress, right?
Yes. So what does that do?
It opens the door to your spirit, the field of infinite possibilities.
It opens the door of your soul so you lose the fear of death.
It opens the door to creativity.
WE CALL GOD THE CREATOR BECAUSE WE'RE CONNECTED WITH THE SOURCE OF CREATION.
AND IT ACTUALLY OPENS UP WHAT ARE CALLED PLATONIC QUALITY.
LOVE, COMPASSION, JOY, EQUIMITY, PROFOUND PEACE, WHAT IN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS THEY SAY, THE PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING.
ALL UNDERSTANDING. WOW.
SO YOU START FROM THE PHYSICAL, MOVE TO THE MENTAL, AND THEN OPEN THE DOOR.
AND THAT IS WHY WHEN WE FIRST SAT DOWN HERE, BECAUSE YOU 'VE MEDITATED FOR 40 YEARS, YOU'RE all over the world literally and you also i mean i remember when we first came into i landed in india one of the first things you did was to get a massage workout meditate take care of yourself yes there are very
few things you need to do to take care of your physical well -being good sleep really important okay because now we know that sleep is when our soul actually refreshes our body exercise even if it's half an hour or brisk walking food that is high in what they call phytochemicals phytochemicals are chemicals
from the energy of the sun so anything that has the colors of the rainbow or the six tastes of life sweet salt, bitter pungent, astringent trying to maintain ideal weight and being emotionally free that means no resentments, no grievances, no hostility, no guilt I know the last time we were sitting
here, I asked you, who do you need to forgive?
And you said, no one, you're already forgiven.
Well, to live in a life where you have not one single person to forgive means you're doing okay.
I'm doing okay. Doing okay.
Now, what's interesting is I think a lot of people misunderstand meditation.
When I first started my school in South Africa, the first thing I wanted was for the girls to be taught meditation.
got a lot of pushback from parents who didn't understand it, who thought it was, you know, about levitating or that I was trying to bring in some kind of voodoo or whatever to the girls because they misunderstood it.
They thought it was going to conflict with their religious beliefs.
Will you speak to that?
Yeah, well, meditation is, first of all, part of every spiritual tradition, okay?
When you still your mind, be still and know that I am God, okay?
So it's part of every tradition in the world.
In Christianity, they have something called Centering Prayer, which is used by Benedictine monks.
And that's very similar to the mantra meditation, very similar.
There are breathing meditations in every tradition.
There are body awareness meditations in every tradition.
And there are variations of mantra meditation.
It has nothing to do with belief or ideology or doctrine.
IT'S A SIMPLE MENTAL TECHNIQUE TO GO TO THE SOURCE OF THOUGHT.
RECENTLY WE 'VE BEEN TEACHING IT TO INNER SITY KIDS IN QUEENS AND IN THE BRONX, ALONG WITH THE PROGRAM THAT WE HAVE CALLED THE URBAN YOGI, AND THESE KIDS LOVE IT.
THEY'RE PRACTICING HIP -HOP, YOGA AND MEDITATION.
YEAH, I THINK THE KIDS RESPOND SO STRONGLY TO IT BECAUSE THEY REMEMBER, THEY ALREADY REMEMBER THAT THERE IS SOMETHING DEEPER.
YEAH, NO STRUGGLING TO LEARN.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REMEMBER.
THEY COME IN TRAILING THAT.
SO HOW IS MEDITATION DIFFERENT FROM PRAYER?
PRAYER IS YOUR SPEAKING TO GOD, AND MEDITATION IS ALLOWING THE SPIRIT TO SPEAK TO YOU.
BUT IT SPEAKS IN SILENCE, AND IT THEN MANIFESTS AS INTUITION, INSPIRATION.
YOU KNOW THE WORD INSPIRATION MEANS TO BE IN SPIRIT, ENTHUSIASM, ON THEOS, TO BE IN TOUCH WITH GOD.
SO PRAYER IS GOING THAT WAY, AND MEDITATION IS COMING BACK THIS WAY.
You know, Eckhart Tolle, and also you, all of you wisdom teachers, speak a lot about being in present moment.
Is being in present moment a form of its own meditation?
That's a form of meditation.
It's called mindfulness.
Can it have the same effect as meditation?
Yes, absolutely. If you live mindfully, then you'll make conscious choices, and that will change your life.
So the best way to be in the present moment is to be aware that you're not in the moment as soon as you're aware that you're not in the moment you're in the moment be aware that you're not in the moment as soon as you're not aware you are yeah you're in the moment yeah so what do you expect will happen
to people who've never meditated before who are now going to come in and join us in a 21 day meditation it it seems that if you do have one thing every day for 21 days it starts to form a habit and if you do of course 66 days it says it creates a groove in your brain that is automatic okay but 21 days
starts to create something in the brain it's called long -term potentiation which means the you rewire your brain you start to make the shift you can make the shift yeah we have a saying in neuroscience neurons that fire together wire together so every time you meditate you're rewiring your brain networks
they're like little cable channels literally little cable channels that's it in your brain love that connect the neurons okay so what do we need to to begin to do that I when I was interviewing Curtis Jackson 50 Cent recently he said you gave him a mantra I did do you have to have a mantra to do it
no you don't but in his case I gave him a very specific mantra first of all let me tell you what a mantra is okay it has two roots one which means mind.
Man is the Hindi word for mind.
It's also the origin of the word man or woman, human.
And tra means instrument.
So mantra is an instrument of the mind that goes beyond the mind.
It takes you like taking a cab.
Okay, when I take a cab to go somewhere, when I get there, I don't need the cab anymore.
So mantra is a vehicle to take you to the source of thought.
Oh, that was really good.
The cab worked. That worked for me right there.
THE MOST BASIC MANTRA IN ALL TRADITIONS IS I AM.
YOU KNOW WHEN MOSES ASKS GOD, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?
GOD REPLIES, I AM THAT I AM.
JESUS SAID BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM.
WE SAY AMEN, AHAM, AUM.
THESE ARE ALL VERY FUNDAMENTAL SOUNDS THAT ARE MANTRAS.
SO IF NOTHING ELSE, YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR EYES AND JUST REPEAT I AM MENTALLY AND QUIETEN YOUR MIND.
IT WILL QUIETEN YOUR MIND.
so you're using the mantra like a cab to get to the destination then you don't need it anymore once you get to the destination now here is something else we talked about intention yes there are mantras that code intention so there are mantras that you use that have a code in there for abundance or focused
intention so because the code is a certain kind of word or sound yeah it's a vibration and how does create how does meditation create abundance the specific abundance meditation opens you up to what we call abundance consciousness so let's say you're feeling gratitude yes that opens your heart and your
spirit to the source of abundance which is actually the source of abundance is the universe itself so if you open yourself to abundance consciousness, then you create neural networks, literally connections between neurons that make you notice abundance, that make you feel grateful, that make you open
your consciousness to opportunity.
Where other people see, you know, a problem, you might see an opportunity.
So what is good luck?
It's opportunity meeting preparedness.
Yes, yes. So what we're really doing is rewiring THE BRAIN IN THIS MEDITATION TO OPEN OURSELVES TO THIS STATE OF BEING WHERE WE LIVE IN ABUNDANCE CONSCIOUSNESS, NOT SCARCITY CONSCIOUSNESS.
BECAUSE IF YOU'RE SCARED AND YOU'RE LIVING IN SCARCITY CONSCIOUSNESS, THEN THAT WILL BE THE SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY.
BUT I THOUGHT THAT THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION IS TO SORT OF, IS FOR THE MIND TO STOP AND SO YOU'RE just in the space you're just in the god space right that you're not in a space of you know wanting anything or creating anything that you're just in the god space okay I thought that's what it was that is true
but now let me explain to you what you do in these meditations yes is that you introduce the intention then you let it go and then you use meditation to transcend to get INTO THE GOD SPACE, AND THEN YOU LET THE UNIVERSE HANDLE THE DETAILS AND IT HANDLES THE DETAILS THROUGH INSIGHT, INTUITION, INSPIRATION,
CREATIVITY, GREATITUDE, CHOICE MAKING, THESE ARE THE BY -PRODUCTS OF INTRODUCING.
SO HERE'S THE FORMULA, INTENTION.
INTENTION. TRANSCENDENCE.
TRANSCENDENCE, DETACHEMENT.
LET THE UNIVERSE HANDLE THE DETAILS.
THE UNIVERSE, THE SOURCE OF THE UNIVERSE IS THE SOURCE OF YOU.
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And what's going to happen to me, you, all of us, joining in this force of a 21 -day abundance meditation challenge.
You will create a consciousness that will change the way you think, the way you feel, the way you behave, the way you socially interact, your personal relationships, all in the direction of abundance consciousness.
That is what is going to happen to us at the end of this 21 days.
And you'll actually rewire your brain.
Okay. One of our Facebook friends, Liz Kay, wants to know, is there a better time of the day to do it?
Ideally speaking, in the morning because you've had a restful night, hopefully.
And when you do meditation, then it actually energizes you.
If you're tired, then it'll put you to sleep, OK, because that's what you need.
So early in the morning and then late in the afternoon, about 4 or 5 o 'clock, but definitely before your evening meal.
Yeah, we have a little tone that goes around the building here.
9 o 'clock we do it, 5 o 'clock we do it.
There you are. That's perfect.
How much time do you do it?
Do you set aside? Well, again, this is for me.
Do you set aside? Well, again, this is for me.
It's not for the world because I have a different life.
I meditate two hours in the morning.
Good God! Really? Two hours from 4 to 6.
Well, that is not happening here.
And then I... You meditate from 4 to 6!
Yeah, I do it. I'm not saying everybody should.
Well, we're not. You can meditate 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, and that's enough.
And that's enough? Yeah.
Okay. Does it matter what space you're in to do it?
No. You can be in an airplane.
You can be in a taxi cab as long as you're not driving.
You can be anywhere.
Just like you can think a thought anywhere, you can meditate.
You can meditate anywhere.
Sharon M. on Facebook has a list of quick questions, and I know many of other people have too.
She wants to know, sitting versus lying down.
Preferably sitting because when you're lying down, you're likely to fall asleep.
Om or silence? Om is better.
I am. Om. So hum. So is the sound of the breath.
So when you inhale, you say so.
When you exhale, you say hum.
So so on the in -breath, hum on the out -breath.
That's a fantastic mantra.
So in the beginning, mentally.
Italy. Yes, not out loud.
Yeah. Okay. Soft music or sounds of nature or nothing?
Sounds of nature, soft music are frequently used as additional aids, and we do that in some of our meditations.
You'll see that in our 21 -day challenge, but also sounds of nature.
Deep breathing, focused on the breath or not?
You can observe the breath, but you don't manipulate the breath.
The breath by itself will It will get slower and deeper.
And at a certain point when you transcend, it will stop.
We come into this life with a breath.
Okay, I got that. And we leave this life with a breath.
Because we come with a thought and then we go back to the source of thought.
Very deep, Mr. Deepak.
Deepak. Deepak. Okay, that was a deep -pak moment.
Okay, I love this one.
silence the thoughts or visualize your dreams when you're meditating.
Are we trying to silence the thoughts?
See, trying to silence the thought is the thought.
Okay? So don't try to silence the thought.
But otherwise, if you don't do that, then the thoughts are just yakety -yak.
Yeah, but you see, if you leave them alone, they start to say to themselves, nobody's noticing me.
So you don't try to get out of the thought because that is a thought by itself.
But isn't in that moment sometimes it's good to notice that there they are, all those thoughts yakety -yaking across your mind, and who is the observer?
Because isn't that the space you're trying?
That's an analysis.
The awareness of a thought is not a thought.
For sure. It cannot be, right?
Right, right. So just be aware of it.
That's all. Don't try to.
We'll teach this. This is part of our teaching.
This is part of the 21 day.
Yeah, the 21 day. Okay.
But there was another question there.
Yes. Or visualize your dreams.
If you want to visualize your dreams, do it before meditation, not during meditation because then you're activating the mind.
In meditation, you want a quiet mind, not a turbulent mind, and even a positive mind can be a turbulent mind.
Even the dreamy mind can be a turbulent mind.
I learned to do that.
Get the dreams out of the way.
Before. Because when I first go to silence myself, THEN HERE COME UP ALL THE THOUGHTS.
SO I JUST LET THEM COME, LET THEM COME.
WATCH THEM, LIKE CLOUDS FLOATING ACROSS THE SKY.
THEN WHEN, WHEN THE MIND HAS HAD ITS SAY.
THERE YOU GO, THERE YOU GO.
DO YOU IMMEDIATELY JUST GO INTO IT?
I DO. I WOULD SAY AFTER 40 YEARS, YEAH.
YOU CAN JUST GO. I CAN STAY IN THAT PLACE ANY TIME.
YOU CAN. I'M THERE NOW.
WELL, STAY WITH ME.
I'M WITH YOU. I'M WITH YOU.
I'M WITNESSING THE WHOLE THING, BOTH OF US.
WITNESSING THE WHOLE THING, BOTH OF US.
whole thing? Yeah, both of us.
Do you have to do those weird finger positions?
This is what Sheriniam also wants to know, because we've seen, you know, people doing this or doing that.
Very interesting questions, by the way.
Yes, Sheriniam, very good.
These finger positions are mudras, okay?
Hand movements. You don't have to do them, but there's something very interesting that happens.
So, for example, if I have my hands like this, my breathing will be diaphragmatic if i have my hands like this it will be chest like what like what okay okay this diaphragmatic this chest and if i make a fist it'll all be here so that's why people who are angry they make fists and they don't breathe properly
they're all breathing from the upper chest from here so those are advanced meditations there are lots of these mudras that accelerate what we call mind body coordination, we're not teaching them right now but maybe one day we will.
Should your legs be crossed, or out straight?
The most important thing is you should be comfortable.
So if you're crossing your legs, and it's bothering you, you're not going to be able to meditate.
Be comfortable. that's the only rule.
What form of meditation do you practice?
I practice mantra meditation, I practice what I call Sutra meditation which we're gonna teach in intention I practice meditating on the body on the breath on mental space on relationships and actually I'm also meditate on the universe and its origins of course you do tell me how do you think the world
is doing right now there are two things that are happening in the world yeah one is there's a lot of chaos there's a lot of turbulence war racism ethnocentrism, terrorism, global warming, radical poverty, social injustice, so if you want to look at that, you would shudder.
Yeah, I was going to say, that's enough not to get out of bed and meditate.
But then there's something else happening and it's happening right now, you see, because what we are seeing now is that through this interaction we are changing the conversation, and we're using social networks, literally social networks, and you have to ask them, what are these social networks?
They're the extensions of our mind.
They're the extensions of our brain.
Like right now. Right now.
People are in 120 different countries.
We are rewiring the global brain, literally, through cyberspace.
You can't see these cable channels, but they are.
They're going through this air, and they're also going through cable channels.
They're bouncing off the satellites.
Yeah. But if you understand that what we call our mind is actually an embodied, it's in our body, and relational, it's through relationship, process that is regulating the energy and information in the world.
This definition, by the way, comes from a UCLA psychotherapist, Dan Siegel, who says the mind is regulating energy and information in the ecosystem that we call the planet.
And so with what we're doing and the cyberspace and the social networks, we're rewiring the brain for a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthy, happy world.
That's what we're all doing right now.
Right now. Here on Super Soul Sunday, all of us who are in community around the world at the same time, listening to you, having this conversation.
That's what we're doing.
Yes. And you know, the data shows this research.
I'm not making this up.
The best way to get rid of your enemy is to increase their capacity for happiness and well -being.
So if we can do that across the world, we'll make the old ways of solving conflicts obsolete.
So you've written, I've lost count of how many books you've written.
You've been in this business, this work, of trying to lift people's consciousness to get them to see their lives differently for quite some time now.
What is it you most now feel the urgency to say to people, to have them know for sure?
I'd say that we are at a crossroads.
It's our choice right this moment.
Mahatma Gandhi said, you have to be the change you want to see in the world.
So one of the other things that...
Hasn't it always been so, though?
Yes. I mean, is it any different than it was during the transcendental time?
Is it any different than it was during...
Yes, it is. It is? if they had the technology they wouldn't with the you know oprah has the technology they didn't have the technology yeah we can definitely reach more the capacity to reach people to reach tipping point to reach critical mass was never there as it is today so that's the big difference
you know even jesus spoke within 30 miles of where he lived okay but today if something works if it works if it's no if it's hokey then forget it but if it really works you can change the world because of this ability to communicate across the planet there are so many reasons to get or stay strong whatever
motivates you reach your fitness goals in a special judgment -free environment planet fitness at planet fitness you'll find best in class equipment for a full body workout from strength training to cardio to stretching.
There are free weights, cable towers, Smith machines, upper and lower body strength machines, treadmills and stair climbers.
And don't miss out on the brand new plate -loaded machines like hack squats and supine benches too.
Most Planet Fitness locations are open 24 hours so you can work out whenever it fits your schedule.
Plus all members have access to free fitness training and memberships start at just $15 per month.
Join today at any convenient location near you, online at planetfitness .com, or on the free Planet Fitness app.
Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club.
Must be 18 years old to enroll, or 13 through 17 with a parent or guardian.
At the UPS store, we know being a small business owner means holiday time is still go time.
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Come into your local store today.
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How has technology and this ability to communicate across the planet changed the way you operated in your spiritual life?
manifestation of the word see I would often say I'll make two people happy today by giving them a little attention affection appreciation and then they make two other people happy and they make two other people happy now I just put a hashtag be happy make happy and soon you have an epidemic a million twitter
followers yes you do a pandemic of happy people all across the world So technology is certainly helping.
Are you, though, in your lifetime amazed at our ability to span the bridge of our otherness with each other?
And our identity will feel more for each other, which is really the true gist of spirituality.
When I came to the United States in 1970, I'd never seen a TV in my life.
and then fax machines and cell phones and internet, and now you can email and do meditations.
I mean, this has all happened in the last few decades.
Uh -huh. Uh -huh. And do you feel like, we've had part of this conversation before, do you feel like we are getting better as a species?
Yes, we are, because we're becoming more aware, and I think it's the next stage of our human evolution.
You know, there are only two uses we can put our imagination to.
One is anxiety, which is a form of imagination.
The other is creativity.
And we have to choose this in order to transform the world.
And I am seeing spontaneous evolution of what I call self -organizing dynamic networks of karmically connected souls.
you have to say that again Deepak, self -organizing dynamic dynamic networks these are social got that of karmically connected souls people who have the same soul values or same values and they're organizing themselves by themselves and this is oh that's what this is that's what this is community right now
someone actually said this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago It's how wonderful it is to watch Super Soul Sunday.
I feel like I'm in a community of like minds.
That's it. They're karmically connected souls.
Yeah, exactly what you just said.
So tell us, now you've written two books.
How do you write these books so quickly?
You wrote God. You wrote God, A Story of Revelation, and now The Super Brain.
When do you find time to write?
I'm on a plane a lot of the time.
I'm also compulsive about downloading anything that comes to me.
Because I have the only anxiety I have in my life right now.
And I'm sorry to, embarrassed to admit it, that if it stops coming to me, then I'll have to stop.
So I might as well write as fast as I can while it's coming.
yes so you and all of your business know your body's business business found the time to co -write another book called superbrain with a harvard neurologist first of all how did so are you always hanging out with neurologists i was at ted med yes which is the ted mendison medical aspect of ted yes and we met
in the men's room and i said yeah i said to him he's a neuroscientist He's discovered over 100 genes.
This book started in the men's room?
In the men's room, yes.
So I said to him, Rudy, do you realize that our genes are coding our karma?
And he looked at me as if I was totally weird.
And then afterwards he came out and he said, let's talk.
And I discovered that actually...
This is what you discuss in the men's room.
Yeah, that's how we...
And we ended up doing this book.
because the basic thesis of this book is you're not your brain.
You are the user of your brain, and the user of the brain is your consciousness, your spirit.
And if you learn to use the brain correctly, you can rewire.
You know, this is what they call a handy model of the brain, other scientists.
So this part is my reptilian brain.
This part is my emotional brain.
This part is my creative cortical brain.
We can actually influence all these parts of our brain to create a healthier life for us and change longevity, creativity, and find our own spirit.
And that's what the book is about.
It's about unleashing the power.
Yeah. It has a section called the enlightened brain, as well as scientists.
So this part is my reptilian brain, this part is my emotional brain, this part is my creative cortical brain.
We can actually influence all these parts of our brain to create a healthier life for us and change longevity, creativity, and find our own spirit.
And that's what the book is about.
It's about unleashing the power.
Yeah. It has a section called the enlightened brain.
Enlightened brain. Is this the kind of thing that gets you, makes you giddy?
I love it. I love it.
It makes me ecstatic.
You know, just to talk to Rudy makes me ecstatic.
Yeah. Because we both kind of, you know, we're kind of asking ourselves, can we ever understand the mind of God?
That was a favorite quote of ours from Einstein.
Yes. I want to know how God thinks everything else is a detail.
That's from Einstein.
I think now we have the technology to kind of not ever figure it out, but get pretty close.
Okay. One of the myths you debunk is that the brain's hardwiring, can't be changed.
How do we then begin to train our brains if we're predisposed to certain ways of thinking?
Well, we are starting right now with our 21 -day challenge.
With our 21 -day challenge, that's part of what I'm trying to do.
We're changing the hardwiring of the brain.
And, you know, certain parts of the brain get activated that were never activated before.
So we're going to reshape our brain.
You say we can reshape our brain by personal growth.
The actual structure of the brain.
Good God. I do mean.
And that through your mind and through your consciousness and through your spirit.
If you choose to grow, you are really, what, evolving or guiding your own evolution.
Yeah, this is our next phase of our evolution.
That we are consciously, you know, when they talk about Darwinian evolution, it was random, natural selection.
Human evolution from now on can be conscious evolution.
What are you most proud of in all of your work?
Oh, my grandchildren.
Okay. Other than your grandchildren, what are you most proud of in all of this work?
In all of this work, what I'm proud of is bringing science into spirituality.
Because, you know, traditionally people say faith and reason.
Yes. Well, it's silly.
Why can't you have both?
You know, if I say, do you have faith in gravity?
YOU'D SAY, THAT'S A RIDICULOUS QUESTION, RIGHT?
SO WE SHOULDN'T HAVE FAITH IN SPIRIT.
YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPERIENCE, YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWLEDGE, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SAY THAT IT WORKS AND NOW WE CAN DO ALL THOSE THINGS.
BUT SCIENCE IS GOD.
SCIENCE IS HOW GOD THINKS.
THAT'S REALLY GOOD.
GOD IS A MATHEMATICIAN, PHYSICIST, BIOLOGIST, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
ABSOLUTELY. AND SO YOU 'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET THE WORLD TO SEE THAT, TO KNOW THAT.
For 30 years I've been doing, and finally it's happening.
Recently, Deepak Chopra spent a year traveling the world and allowing his son, Gautam, to film him every step of the way.
The documentary Decoding Deepak is an intimate portrait of Deepak's spiritual work as well as a revealing look at his complex relationship with his son.
In Decoding Deepak, first of all, you had to cooperate with Gautam to do that.
What else could I do?
What else could you do?
You do what your kids want to do.
HE SAYS THAT YOU HAVE NOW, NOW THAT YOU'RE OLDER, YOU GET MORE ANXIOUS ABOUT GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT.
I DO. IF THERE'S ANYTHING ABOUT ME THAT'S RESTLESS, IT'S ABOUT SAYING, YOU KNOW, LET'S WAKE UP AND CHANGE THE WORLD.
WE CAN ALL DO IT TOGETHER.
AT WHAT STAGE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE IN, IN YOUR OWN SPIRITUAL GROWTH?
DO YOU HAVE AN ULTIMATE GOAL?
OF COURSE EVERYONE HAS AN ULTIMATE GOAL.
I THINK I'M PRETTY CLOSED.
Uh -huh. Do you ever have spiritual struggles?
There's never doubt for you?
No. I have to be honest.
I want you to be honest.
So would you say that you're sort of now at guru status?
I don't like the word guru because people kind of have all kinds of images of gurus.
I feel I have the status where I can live my truth, truth, that I have no anxiety about what people think or say about me, whether it's good or bad.
That's why I let Gautam do the movie, because, you know, there's a public Deepak, there's a private Deepak, there's a Deepak to his family, and then there's the real Deepak.
And so it's all right to show all those aspects which Gautam did very skillfully.
There's a lot of skillful editing, so he shows me on the Blackberry all the time, which I'm not.
But that's fine. Oh, that's the skillful editing.
That's the skillful.
That's the part I most believed.
Well, again, tweeting good messages, Facebooking good messages, nothing ordinary.
Are you feeling somewhat rewarded now?
First of all, the fact that we can have a Sunday morning conversation like this, that people join us from all over the world in multiple countries, that the word, literally, is spreading.
It is. Yes. I feel very fulfilled that, you know, We can meditate in the lab at Harvard Medical School.
And people not laugh, or better yet, you not get thrown out for doing it.
They want to join. Want to join.
Do you always feel, Deepak, like you're constantly growing into the fullest expression of yourself?
Do you always feel like there's more, there's more, there's more?
So do you ever feel like, okay, enough, I'll go sit on the beach?
No. No. No. You let your body sit on the beach sometimes.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I actually, you know, when we last met, I'd been to a Buddhist monastery.
Yes, and shaved your head and spent all that time.
Two weeks ago, before I went to China, actually, I went to a place in California and I spent a week in silence.
So that's my reward, you know, when I can go and spend an entire week in total silence and then I come back totally refreshed.
Your wife must be the most.
She went with me this day.
I was going to say, she must be the most extraordinary person.
We both went to a Silamar and had the most amazing time.
So you both went to spend a week in silence?
Yes. And had the most amazing time.
We take long walks, go by the beach, never say a word.
But, you know, without a word we were communicating, without even gestures, we just knew what was happening in the other.
And do you do that for yourself often?
I do it twice a year at least, sometimes more often.
When I was preparing to go to India, you asked me a question that I later said took me three days to answer because I knew you didn't want, you know, a standard answer.
Who are you? Well, I've thought about it all my life, and I've realized that I'm a spark of the divine, and so is everyone else, that we limit ourselves by defining ourselves, that if we go beyond the labels and definitions, All that's left is infinite possibility, infinite creativity, infinite intelligence,
and we are that till we squeeze ourselves into an identity which is the volume of a body in the span of our lifetime.
We are way beyond that.
Thank you. Thank you, Oprah.
Thank you very much.
I'm Oprah Winfrey, and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast.
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