Spiritual Solutions: Answers to Life's Greatest Challenges PDF
Preview Spiritual Solutions: Answers to Life's Greatest Challenges
ALSO BY DEEPAK CHOPRA Creating Health Return of the Rishi Quantum Healing Perfect Health Unconditional Life Journey into Healing Creating Affluence Perfect Weight Restful Sleep The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success The Return of Merlin Boundless Energy Perfect Digestion The Way of the Wizard Overcoming Addictions Raid on the Inarticulate The Path to Love The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents The Love Poems of Rumi (edited by Deepak Chopra; translated by Deepak Chopra and Fereydoun Kia) Healing the Heart Everyday Immortality The Lords of the Light On the Shores of Eternity How to Know God The Soul in Love The Chopra Center Herbal Handbook (with coauthor David Simon) Grow Younger, Live Longer (with coauthor David Simon) The Deeper Wound The Chopra Center Cookbook (coauthored by David Simon and Leanne Backer) The Angel Is Near The Daughters of Joy Gold for Enlightenment Soulmate The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire Peace Is the Way The Book of Secrets Fire in the Heart The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga (with coauthor David Simon) Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives (coauthored by David Simon and Vicki Abrams) Life After Death Buddha The Essential How to Know God The Essential Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire The Essential Ageless Body, Timeless Mind The Third Jesus Jesus Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul The Ultimate Happiness Prescription Muhammed The Soul of Leadership War of the Worldviews (with Leonard Mlodinow) Copyright © 2012 by Deepak Chopra All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com Harmony Books is a registered trademark and the Harmony Books colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chopra, Deepak. Spiritual solutions : answers to life’s greatest challenges / by Deepak Chopra.—1st ed. p. cm. 1. Spiritual life. I. Title. II. Title: Answers to life’s greatest challenges. BL624.C47683 2012 204—dc23 2011029750 eISBN: 978-0-30771919-5 Jacket photograph by Jeremiah Sullivan v3.1 To the hands that reach out, and every hand that reaches back C ONTENTS Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication A Personal Note ONE WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION? TWO LIFE’S GREATEST CHALLENGES Relationships Health and Well-being Success Personal Growth THREE DEAR DEEPAK: ONE TO ONE FOUR CREATING YOUR OWN SOLUTIONS Acknowledgments A PERSONAL NOTE E ver since my first days as a doctor, forty years ago, people have asked for answers. A medical treatment was what they wanted, but the reassurance and comfort that human contact could bring was just as valuable, perhaps even more so. Unless he’s completely burned out, a physician sees himself as a rough-and-ready savior, yanking victims out of danger into a state of safety and well-being. I’m grateful for my years seeing patients, because I learned the difference between advice and solutions. People who are in trouble are rarely helped by advice. Crises don’t wait; something very bad will happen if the right solution isn’t found. I kept the same standard in mind when writing this book. It began with people writing me with troubles on their minds. Their letters were sent from around the world—at one point I was answering questions daily or weekly from India, the United States, and many other locales, mostly through the Internet. Yet in a sense everyone was writing from the same place inside, where confusion and darkness had overwhelmed them. These people were hurt, betrayed, abused, misunderstood, ill, worried, anxious, and at times desperate. Sadly, that is the human condition, almost permanently for some people, but these feelings are always possible for people who are happy and contented—for the moment. I wanted to give answers that were lasting enough so that when “for the moment” changes, when crisis descends and a challenge must be faced, solid solutions were at hand. I call them spiritual solutions, but the term doesn’t mean religious solutions, prayer, or surrender to God. Instead I envision a secular spirituality. This is the only way modern people will ever reconnect with their souls, or, to remove all religious overtones, their “true selves.” What has a crisis done to you personally? Whatever the situation, you drew back, contracted inside, and felt the grip of anxiety. This state of contracted awareness is the enemy of finding a solution. Real solutions to a crisis come from expanded awareness. The inner feeling is no longer tight and fearful. Boundaries give way; fresh ideas have space to grow. If you are able to contact your true self, awareness has no boundaries. From that place, solutions emerge spontaneously, and they work. Often they work like magic, and obstacles that seemed immovable melt away. When that happens, the burden of anxiety and sorrow is lifted completely. Life was never meant to be a struggle. Life was meant to unfold from its source in pure awareness. If this book leaves only one lasting impression, that’s the one I’m hoping for. Deepak Chopra
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