1. One-pointedness
The Vedas tell us that purity of thought and fixity of purpose are the secret to a life of fulfillment. Ask yourself, “What do I really want?” Consider, to the extent possible, how manifesting your desire will influence and enhance the quality of your life. Then, make a commitment to take the first step along the path to fulfillment.

2. Discipline.
Discipline is the commitment to learning and practice. The word discipline derives from the same root as the word disciple, which means “being open to receive.” The fruit of discipline is grace – the universe adds its power and creativity to your capability, and you manifest something that at one point seemed beyond your reach.

3. Timing
Mastering the power of intention includes honoring the rhythms of life. There is a time to act and a time to practice forbearance. Staying tuned in to the synchronistic clues around you enables optimal results with minimal effort.

4. Discernment
Attention is the most powerful force in human awareness. Whatever we place our attention on grows stronger in our lives. Apply your attention with conscious discrimination, and nature will support you in the fulfillment of your desires.

5. Surrender
We have control over our next choice, but no control over the consequences of our choice. Knowing this, focus your resources on the choice in front of you, set the desired trajectory, and then let go, observing the outcome with curiosity and amusement. Like an accomplished archer, become clear on the target, pull back your bow to a point of stillness, release the arrow, and see what happens.

6. Oneness
Return to the state where all desires arise and are fulfilled. Bringing silence into your daily practice through meditation and yoga cultivates a state of abundance consciousness. Whatever you are seeking to accomplish in the world of form and phenomena, you can access the feeling you are striving to generate by quieting your mind and entering into the state of timeless awareness.

7. Reflection and Lightheartedness
It is easy to waste life energy taking credit for our accomplishments and casting blame for our failures. Instead of focusing on self-importance or self-pity, this energy would be better invested in making use of the lesson learned to make more evolutionary choices. Spiritual warriors practice sobriety without taking themselves too seriously. In this way, we align our personal wants and desires with universal intent. Nature then supports the fulfillment of our desires, as the line between individual and universal becomes nearly indistinguishable.

Have faith that the universe will help organize your intentions and hope that the consequences of your intentions will bring peace, happiness, love, and meaning to you and all those affected by your choices. Best wishes for an evolutionary New Year.

With love,
David

The ancient Vedic sages declare, “I am not in the world; the world is in me.” From the perspective of universal awareness, everything is consciousness―everything is Spirit―in disguise. Our inner world of memories, desires, fantasies, and feelings expresses the subjective face of consciousness. Our outer world of form and phenomena expresses the objective projection of consciousness. According to the 5,000-year-old healing system of Ayurveda, the environment is an extension of our physical bodies. When I first heard this, I thought it was an interesting metaphor, but the more I explored the idea, the more I realized it was true.

There is no “there” out there. The ecology is us in a less localized state. Our personal bodies and the environment are in a constant, dynamic exchange. We transform the energy and information of food, water, and air into the energy and information of our bodies, while simultaneously returning molecular bits and pieces of our bodies back to the environment. With every breath we exchange approximately 10 billion trillion atoms with the universe. Even more amazing, we claim ownership in our body of a quadrillion atoms that have been in someone else’s body within the past few weeks.

Perhaps most mind-boggling of all is the math that shows that at any given moment, each of us has at least a million atoms in our body that were once in the body of every person who has ever lived, from Moses to Lady Gaga, from Marcel Proust to Newt Gingrich. Our skin, the largest organ in our body, is completely shed and regenerated within about one month. The lining of our stomach is replaced every week, and our liver is swapped out about nine times a year. While you may identify closely with your body, the truth is that the molecules that compose it are only on temporary loan to you from the environmental library.

If society collectively recognized this inherent inextricability, we would dramatically change the way we treat Spaceship Earth, as the great visionary and engineer Buckminster Fuller called it. Most of us wouldn’t allow sewage in their living room or throw out garbage in our backyard, yet the toxicity we deposit in our environment is every bit as irrational and destructive. As evolving beings it’s in our highest interest to treat the planet and its living inhabitants with reverence and responsibility. We can put our attention on living in balance with our ecosystem, making choices that reflect the intimate relationship between our individuality and our universality. We can minimize our exploitation of the environment whenever possible.

I asked my young children to elaborate the things they could do that would reflect their love and caring for Mother Earth. In honor of Earth Day, here’s a partial list of what they came up with:

1)    Turn off the lights when they leave the room.
2)    Take shorter showers.
3)    Eat organic foods whenever possible.
4)    Don’t leave the refrigerator door open.
5)    Recycle bags, cans, and bottles.
6)    Use less bottled water.
7)    Be nice to bugs, plants, and animals.
8)    Pick up trash when they see it.
9)    Buy fewer plastic toys that have lot of packaging.
10)  Drive a hybrid or fuel-efficient car.

We can learn from our kids, who tend to personify everything around them―their dolls, caterpillars, flowers, and so on. From the innocence of children to the awakening of yogis, taking the world personally spontaneously leads to treating it with compassion. As Daniel Quinn told us in The Story of B, we don’t need to save our souls―our souls are already whole.

If we care about humanity, we do need to save our planet. It starts with the choices we make today.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
David Simon, M.D. is the co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. The Center offers programs and retreats focusing on mind-body health, Ayurveda, meditation, yoga, and other practices for physical health, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual awakening. For more information, visit www.chopra.com or call (888) 736-6895.

Get into the Best Mind-Body
Shape of Your Life!

Go to the Newsletter home page here.

The Answer is Inside!

In this month’s Agni Light, we invite you to:

Share a special meditation with David Simon

Meet the Masters! Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and David Simon

Listen to a guided meditation led by davidji

Enjoy a replay of this month’s teleseminar featuring David Simon and davidji

There is a scene in Zorba the Greek in which Zorba encounters a butterfly attempting to come out from a cocoon. Because it is not moving along as fast as he would like, Zorba breathes his warm breath on it, hastening its emergence. To his horror, he realizes the butterfly’s wings are crumpled, and it does not have the strength to open them. It dies in his hands as a result of his impatience. This poignant lesson reminds us to allow our lives to unfold naturally. It reminds us to trust that what emerges next is the expression of sublime evolutionary creativity.

With love,
David Simon

The Seven Spiritual Laws are powerful principles that you can use to fulfill your deepest desires with grace and ease. Each month in the Chopra Center’s free online newsletter – Agni – you can learn more about the keys to creating more happiness, fulfillment, and balance in your life. Each issue contains articles from Deepak Chopra and David Simon, as well as practical guidance on getting into the best mind-body shape of your life.  Click here to sign up for Agni and visit our rich archive of past issues.

The Answer is Inside!

This month we invite you to connect to the rich inner wisdom of your body, mind, and spirit . . .

Begin by taking the Dosha Quiz to identify your mind-body type; join davidji for a guided meditation; practice a powerful technique to let go of food cravings; awaken your intuition through chakra-opening yoga; and watch our new video about our upcoming Journey into Healing workshop, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and David Simon weave their messages together. In his letter, Deepak discusses how discovering and embracing your shadow can help you reclaim your hidden power, while David Simon writes about the journey to the heart and shares a special guided meditation on love.

We wish you a wonderful month filled with peace, self-acceptance, joy, and love.

In gratitude,
The Chopra Center Staff

Dear Beloved Extended Chopra Family:

I and my personal family ― Pam, Max, Sara, and Isabel ― would like to express our profound gratitude for the love and support you have been infusing into us. Despite the turbulence and uncertainty this challenge has swept us into, I feel deeply established in a state of peace and acceptance that life, as always, is unfolding perfectly. I was out of the hospital within 48 hours and after a couple weeks of recuperation, anticipate beginning my medical treatments, which fortunately are generally benign.

Because my thinking, speech, and functioning are fine, I intend to stay fully involved in Chopra Center activities for the foreseeable future. I am speaking and meeting regularly with my core team, and we are confident that the programs, workshops, seminars, trainings, and certifications will continue without interruption. I intend to continue teaching and fulfilling my clinical and executive duties. I am particularly enthusiastic about seeing you at upcoming seminars where we can create our beautiful consciousness-expanding communities.

As I consider the meaning of this experience, I can only share with you that everything we have been exploring together on the journey into healing, transformation, and awakening seems more important and relevant than ever. I’m not accessing a whole new field of thoughts, but rather my past ideas have been taking on a deeper sense of authenticity. Healing is about returning to wholeness and I am experiencing an effortless flow into deeper connectivity with my family, friends, community, and nature. The peace that pervades the cells in my body and the thoughts in my mind is succulently luscious and supports a sense of appreciation for every moment.
I encourage you to share this reminder of the beautiful delicacy of life with me. Take a few minutes today to feel the sun on your face, wiggle your toes in the grass or inhale the fragrance of a summer flower. Tell someone in your life that you love them unconditionally. Take a few moments to do something creative that brings you a wave of joy. Prepare yourself a delicious colorful meal, and savor it. Struggle less today and celebrate more.

I look forward to seeing and speaking with many of you soon. Although I have not yet been able to personally respond to the thousands of love-filled notes from around the world, know that my family and I feel and cherish your support.

In love,
David

Dear ones,

Thank you for all your prayers, inspiring messages, and jokes, which I’ve been enjoying immensely. I have been deeply touched by the support and love you all have given me. Yesterday’s surgery went very well and I feel grateful for the amazing team of doctors and nurses here at the U.C. San Diego medical center. I expect to be home by Monday and look forward to returning to my work at the Chopra Center. I hold all of you in my heart.

Love,
David

Dear Chopra Center Family,

In the amazing and mysterious ways of the universe, earlier this week, I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

If you wish to lend your support, which I would greatly appreciate, here’s what you can do:

1.  Keep my family and me in your prayers. Knowing that the collective plays a vital role in shaping reality, I sincerely welcome your loving thoughts   and good intentions.

2. The Chopra Center team has set up a website www.lovefordavid.com where you can post your prayers and good wishes, share stories if I have touched your life positively, and send jokes and funny story’s for I truly believe that laughter is the best medicine. I plan to visit this site on a daily basis for your precious inspiration.

3.  Tell the people in your life that you love them now. Life is so delicate and precious. Take advantage of this opportunity to express your love and gratitude to all those who will listen.

On our last Teleseminar about Journey Into Healing, Dr. David Simon told an enlightening story about his daughter, Izzy, finding her wallet.

To listen to the teleseminar, please click here.

Thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday’s teleseminar! If you missed the teleseminar or you simply want to listen again, the recording is now available here.

In gratitude,
The Chopra Center Staff

Use the control panel below to stream the audio. Please be patient as the audio may take a few moments to begin. (Turn up your volume)

Listen to a Guided Healing Meditation from davidji

STREAM: Use the control panel below to stream the audio. Please be patient as the meditation may take a few moments to begin. (Turn up your volume)

DOWNLOAD: Right click on the download link or (control click mac) and hit “save link as” to download the podcast to your computer. (~5 minutes)