A personal note from the author: Creating a New Self: Smashing the Superstition of Materialism
Dear readers and friends, In our quest to grow and evolve, we all run into obstacles. We meet resistance. Change proves stubborn and at times impossible. Anything that I can do to overcome these obstacles is a contribution I never wish to pass up. In my new book I address the most difficult obstacle of all: the body. The human body can be a source of the miraculous. The very minute I write this message to you, someone in a laboratory somewhere is breaking through old concepts about the body, discovering that what was once a machine made of flesh and bones is actually a living process, a river without boundaries. Yet you and I find ourselves with bodies that wear out, age, grow sick, and disappoint our highest aspirations for freedom and creativity. Clearly, the body body needs to be reinvented. That's the main main theme of my new book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul. I throw out every fixed belief about what the body can and cannot do. In their place, I offer five breakthrough ideas that can completely alter how you see your body and what you do with it.
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Breakthrough #1 -- Your Physical Body Is an Illusion Breakthrough #2 -- Your Real Body Is Energy Breakthrough #3 -- Awareness Has magic Breakthrough #4 -- You Can Improve Your Genes Breakthrough #5 -- Time Isn't Isn't Your Your enemy
Each of these breakthroughs overturns an outmoded belief that turns into a physical limitation. If you think of your body as a physical object, you will cooperate with aging, because what is aging but a physical object wearing out? If you believe that time is your enemy, aging has gained another ally. If you accept that that your genes are fixed, they take away your freedom to change. What these five breakthroughs have in common is this: you can change your body through consciousness, because despite its physical appearance, your body is the product of consciousness to begin with. There is no difference between a thought and a molecule in the brain. Each intention sends sends signals to every cell in the body, body, causing the cell to change. Therefore, the most natural way to achieve change is through the power of intention. The second half of the book's title, Resurrecting the Soul , extends the power of consciousness far beyond the physical. The soul is your spiritual body. It brings nourishment nourishment to every every cell as surely as nutrients are brought by the blood. Most people believe they have a soul, but they rarely if ever feel connected to it. When you reconnect, a kind of resurrection occurs: you discover that the closer you live to your soul, the better for your body.
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Health, anti-aging, a strong sense of self, centeredness, spontaneous right action, the increase of love and compassion -- these are all united at the deepest level of consciousness. Every cell is aware of the state of your soul, and vice versa. One consciousness, constantly moving and evolving, is who you really are. This conclusion is the most important one I've arrived at after thirty years of teaching people how to unite body, mind, mind, and soul. Union cannot be achieved one piece at a time. Even though most people attack their problems one at a time and have mixed priorities in their lives, the truth is that wholeness wholeness is wholeness. People don't feel feel whole because they have excluded their bodies from the spiritual journey, judging the body to be inferior, defective, ugly, and devoid of intelligence. At the other end of the scale, they have sent the soul into a never-never region above and beyond this world. So as you reinvent your body, which means accepting it as part of your whole consciousness, the soul must also be brought back into partnership with it. Five soul breakthroughs are needed: Breakthrough #6 -- There's an Easier Way to Live Breakthrough #7 -- Love Awakens the Soul Breakthrough #8 -- Be as Boundless Boundless as Your Soul Soul Breakthrough #9 -- The Fruit of Surrender Is Grace Breakthrough #10 -- The Universe Evolves through You
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When you absorb these ten ideas, and follow the practical exercises attached to each, you will turn the process of life in a new direction. Instead of being blocked by obstacles, areas of freedom open up where you never imagined them. I speak personally, because the seed of this book dates back to my first days in medical school. When I used a scalpel to slice beyond the barrier of the skin, I gained scientific knowledge about the body, but at the same time I sacrificed the body's mystery and holiness. We need to have both. The reason you can reinvent the body rests upon solid new evidence about the brain, genes, and lifestyle changes. Yet those are the windows through which a much greater truth can be seen, which is this. When the flow flow of life encompasses mind, mind, body, and soul, a person has found the easiest way to live. We must put out of our heads that unity is an exotic, faraway goal reached only by the spiritually gifted. When you delve into Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul , your allegiance will shift to wholeness. You won't be fixated on your body, your mind, or your spiritual path. The three will merge, as they must in order to to be whole. The reunion is the most joyous experience anyone can have, and happily for all of us, it's also the most natural.
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D E E PA K 0 C H O P R A
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Reinventing the
B O DY, Resurrecting the
SOUL 0 HOW TO CREATE A NEW YOU
Harmony Books N E W
Y O R K
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Copyright © 2009 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 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-inCataloging-in-Publication Publication Data is available upon request ISBN 978-0978-0-307307-4523345233-7 7 Printed in the United States of America Design by Lynne Amft 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition
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To my beloved grandchildren, g randchildren, Tara, Leela, Leela , and Krishan
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0 Contents
I n t r o d u c t i o n : T h e Fo r g o t t e n M i ra c l e
1
reinventing your body
5
Breakthrough #1: Your Your Physical Body Is a Fiction 20 Breakthrough #2: Your Your Real Body Is Energy Energ y 35 Breakthrough #3: Awareness Has Magic
51
Breakthrough #4: You Can Improve Your Genes Breakthrough Breakthrou gh #5: Time Isn’t Isn’t Your Your Enemy
73
88
resurrecting your soul
1 0 5
Breakthrough Breakthrou gh #1: # 1: There’s There’s an Easier Way Way to Live 127 Breakthrough #2: Love Awakens the Soul
151
Breakthrough #3: Be as Boundless as Your Your Soul
171
Breakthrough #4: The Fruit of Surr Surrender ender Is Gr Grace ace
191
Breakthrough #5: The Universe Evolves Through You You 211
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10 steps to wholeness
23 2 31
C o n c l u s i o n : “ W h o M a d e Me ? ”
274
Ackn Ac know owll e dg dgm m en entt s
2 77
In d e x
279
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