Why a Mental Universe Is the “Real” Reality

livingbodyBy Deepak Chopra, MD, Menas Kafatos, PhD, Bernardo Kastrup, PhD, Rudolph Tanzi, PhD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science concerns itself with reality, in the form of “real particles”, “real organisms”, and the “real universe”. The tacit assumption is that science can answer the question of reality itself. If this wasn’t the case, science would have a hard time explaining why it holds a special place as a human activity. So one must grant that science concerns itself with the reality of “objects”. What this assumes, of course, is that objects exist independent of conscious experience. In the first two articles of this series, we’ve discussed the evidence that our universe is in fact fundamentally mental. What we call physical things and events, as it turns out, do not exist independently of subjective experience.

 

If they did, how would one even prove such existence? Conscious experience is the only way that reality can be known. The implications of this increasingly unavoidable conclusion—that the universe must be approached as fundamentally mental—are often misunderstood. For this reason, the vast majority of scientists cling to the belief in materialism, regarding anything else as metaphysics and not science. The goal of the present article is to address some of these misunderstandings.

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Want to Lead a Happier Life? Talk to Your Genes

 

wellbeingBy Deepak Chopra, MD, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD

 

Genetics may be on the verge of solving a very complex question in a revolutionary but quite simple way. The question is, What does it take to be happy? The question never goes away. It hangs over our heads every day. The possible answers are many, but they follow two general trends whose results, frankly, have been disappointing. One trend is psychological, holding that happiness is an emotional state. The other trend is philosophical, holding that happiness is a mental state. When someone is unhappy, psychologists aim to improve their mood, largely by addressing anxiety, depression, and various psychological wounds from the past. A philosopher, on the other hand, would examine the underlying idea of happiness itself and why it is or isn’t feasible. In the end, happiness is all about health and wellbeing.

 

Yet after thousands of years of deep thinking and a hundred years of psychotherapy, the condition that the vast majority of people find themselves in is marked by total confusion. We muddle through on a wobbly combination of wishful thinking, hope, bouts of high and low spirits, denial, family ties, love, distraction, and the constant pursuit of external pleasures, as if happiness can be cobbled together more or less randomly.

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Sleepout to Support the Homeless Youth

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On November 19, 2015,  Board of Director Chris Clarke joined thousands nationwide and slept outside the Covenant House crisis center in New York to support homeless youth.  Please read his story.

 

The Urban Yogis and Deepak

Deepak and Urban Yogis

Deepak and the Urban Yogis at Peace Week

Seven Practices of Peace (taken from Peace is the Way, by Deepak Chopra)

1. Sunday: Being for Peace

Today take five minutes to meditate for peace. Put your attention on your heart and inwardly repeat these four words: Peace, Harmony, Laughter, Love☺

2. Monday: Thinking for Peace

Today introduce the Intention of peace in your thoughts. Take a few moments of silence, then repeat this prayer: LET ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY, LOVED & PEACEFUL. LET THE WHOLE WORLD EXPERIENCE THESE THINGS.

3. Tuesday: Feeling for Peace

Today is the day to experience the emotions of peace. The emotions of peace are COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING and LOVE☺
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