consciousness - The Chopra Foundation

Why a Mental Universe Is the “Real” Reality

By 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.

(more…)

Why Don’t We Know We Are Enlightened Already?

By Deepak Chopra, MD

“Enlightenment” is a word that has gotten so entangled with vague confusion that many people have given up on it. I don’t mean the classic seeker who hungers for God, Nirvana, or higher states of consciousness. There isn’t an accepted definition of enlightenment that allows for a general discussion where everyone knows what the topic is. Behind this apparent fuzziness, however, the concept of enlightenment has evolved tremendously over the past few decades, and in that time the possibility of being enlightened has come closer and closer to everyday experience.

Forty years ago enlightenment was inevitably associated with “Eastern mysticism,” a phrase that appears in the subtitle of Fritjof Capra’s famous book, The Tao of Physics. Meditation was associated with religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Enlightenment was a spiritual attainment for Indian gurus or monks sitting in Himalayan caves. The fact that meditation is now a common practice in the West, with many research studies proving its benefits in terms of mind and body, shows how much the landscape has changed.

The next major change, which could bring a seismic shift in our worldview, would bring enlightenment into daily life the way that meditation is comfortably established in daily life. I’ll devote the next few posts to exploring how enlightenment affects everyone, not just a select few living under exotic circumstances. We can begin with the most obvious question you can ask yourself. Are you enlightened already?” This may seem at first like an almost absurd question. If there are ancient traditions for reaching enlightenment, a project that can take a lifetime’s effort and discipline, it must be impossible that a normal person going about his everyday life could already be enlightened. (more…)

Faith, Itself, Must Evolve in Our Modern World

Originally published by MariaShriver.com on September 21, 2015

Faith, Itself, Must Evolve in Our Modern World

By Deepak Chopra, MD

Photo Credit: Jacob Sciacchitano, Unsplash

Like everything in human life, faith evolves—or not. Among the species on the planet in danger of extinction is the creature of simple faith, a person who accepts the supernatural reality upon which Christianity is based. Too many secular forces fight against simple faith; therefore, to counter the possibility of extinction, the faithful must evolve.

But in what direction? First is the movement toward faith based on compassion. Thanks to a Pope who embodies kindness and humility, and who has decided that the Church must speak out about worldly problems, it is foreseen that faith is on the rise. But this bump in popularity doesn’t resolve the central problem of how to hold one’s faith in an impossible world. (more…)

A Conversation with Fred Alan Wolfe and Deepak Chopra

[youtube]https://youtu.be/1NWJnO2-baA[/youtube]

Fred Alan Wolf and Deepak Chopra discuss consciousness is the way the universe turns nothing into something, Fred explains why he thinks consciousness may be the stuff of the universe.

From Facts to Meaning, Through Beauty

By Frank A. Wilczek, PhD and Deepak Chopra, MD

Science tells us what the world is, not what it means. As expert as they are at collecting and analyzing data, most modern scientists tend to shy away from the question, “What does it all mean?” To them, the question seems so vague as to be, well, meaningless.

(more…)