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#4045 - Friday, October 15, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
As nonduality stands on the brink of a presence in major media, let's look at how Deepak Chopra addresses a question about why he has held back on delivering the full teaching of nonduality. The bottom line may be strictly commercial. However, ask yourself whether the times are a-changing and whether major media can absorb the full and diverse teaching of nonduality.
Question to Deepak Chopra
Joe writes:
You’ve
answered many of my questions about 8 years ago on the ‘ask
deepak’ site.
I’ve been a long time fan of your brain.
Having been a seeker for many years I have been through
everything.
The seeking has not been particularly fun. Bouncing around from
teacher to teacher, system to system, wasting much time not to
mention money.
Everything came to a halt when the raw truth, the raw black
coffee was presented through expressions of advaita.
The false self center is revealed and THIS completely demolishes
every concept.
Everything was exposed as false and misleading- food for the
seeker for a future time that will never ever ever come. The
illusion of time itself. The mind trembled with fear- terror
really… Thoughts pop up and try to regain ‘control’
but once it is seen as false ALL BS it comes up with fade quickly….
So, of course this brings me to a question for you: Looking at
your body of work and apparent past I am curious as to why you
aren’t more direct- why don’t you tell these seekers
that there is no individual and this appearance is all arising in
the present moment?
You reference Nisargadatta Maharaj in your work and I’ve
heard you mention some potent clear pointings but the emphasis on
meditation and ‘doing things’ is what attracts more
seekers.
You are a very charismatic expression and I have seen you in
public and been thoroughly entertained by you for the past 15+
years. So as this understanding is appearing and this false
person that was taken to be ‘me’ continues to
disintegrate, I just wanted to ask you why you do not take a more
direct approach and dynamite the masses that hold you as their
guru. Can you imagine if Deepak went on Oprah and told people
that their twenty years of meditation has absolutely no value to
you because there IS NO YOU????
Well, Oprah probably wouldn’t have you back on…HA
It’s funny though because as these beliefs keep falling
apart there are many pointing that you have said which surface
and suddenly resonate.
I understand that most do not want to hear the ‘raw black
coffee’ and there are very few offering clear pointing. A
dude named Paul Heddermann said something like “People don’t
want to be free- they want to want to be free”.
Hope that this note didn’t have a confrontational edge to
it- I was only expressing curiosity. I still enjoy you
(especially your occasional tv appearances), and much of the
‘humor’ you bring to the whole thing, whatever this is.
I don’t expect you to post this on your site but if you have
a moment and would like to directly email me a response that
would be cool.
Warm Regards,
Joe
Answer from Deepak Chopra:
Don’t worry, I didn’t think your letter had a confrontation tone at all. First of all, congratulations on your growing awakening. The essence of your message is the same as the basic message of advaita Vedanta—that individuality is universality, Atman is Brahman—and this is the teaching of unity consciousness that I have talked about for the last 25 years. What I would add to your description of the falsity of the self is that it is false insofar as it conceives of itself as a separate, isolated entity that acts independently. The disappearance of illusion world is the dissolution of the conceptual world we have built out of those false premises of who we are. The experience of the wholeness through individuality remains. Wholeness does not negate individuality, and individuality no longer negates wholeness. The drop of water in the ocean can still have the perspective of being a drop of water while it knows it is one with the ocean of water.
And while this insight is powerful and transformative to you based on your life experience, the reason I don’t spend all my time on this message to “dynamite the masses” as you say, is because this is a not the most useful message for most people who are aspiring to spiritual freedom. In fact it can be spiritually counterproductive to many people because it can confuse and disorient them. Especially if they misinterpret it as: “Everything I know myself to be is false, meaningless and wrong. It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do, nothing matters because I don’t exist and neither does anyone else.” It can make them morally confused and take away their sense of purpose and productivity which are still important for spiritual growth at that point.
When one is ripe for this knowledge of unity, then you feel liberated, blissful and powerfully engaged with all of life within and around you. You are everything. When you aren’t ready for it, it and you try to adopt the teaching intellectually, then it can make one’s behavior unnatural, artificial, or apathetic.
For copyright reasons only part of Chopra's response was given. Read the rest of Deepak's letter here:
http://www.intent.com/deepakchopra/blog/spreading-message-non-dual-reality