113: Four Books from January 2022

This month, I wanted to read two books. I managed to read four This was only possible because I scheduled 25 minutes for reading every day and entire Sunday mornings for reading. This month, I also read on a couple of Sunday afternoons , one Saturday evening and another Saturday full day for reading!

This is all in an effort to get a lot more reading done this year. In the past, reading has fell through the cracks of my calendar as other urgent things have taken up my time. But I love reading books and feel a great sense of happiness and satisfaction when I can read a book without feeling that I “should be doing work in my business”. And so I have scheduled time in my calendar so I can “officially” read and not have a voice of guilt nagging my conscience!

Here are the three books I read:

1 | Mahamudra by Lama Yeshe

This is book that is a compilation of teachings given by the Tibetan Monk, Lama Yeshe, during a retreat in Australia in the early 1980s. The Australian Buddhist Nun, Venerable Robina Courtin has edited this book. And I found many insightful things about the nature of the mind and about meditation. I highly recommend it.

2| Tax-free Wealth by Tom Wheelwright

This book is one of the books in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series and was written by Robert Kiyosaki’s tax advisor. There are many ideas in here that a self-employed business person in the US can benefit from and the concepts can be used by anyone worldwide. A couple of concepts didn’t sit well for me such as showing your less income on your taxes so you can get the poverty tax credit; that just felt ethically inappropriate. But the author gives context to why he suggests that strategy. Many interesting ideas and strategies in this book which definitely have made me think. This is my first book about taxes and the author made it quite an interesting and fascinating read.

3| Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier

This has been a very enlightening book about creating financial freedom and giving yourself the choice to retire early and not wait till you are 65 to retire. I learnt many new ideas about building wealth from this easy-to-read book which confirmed some of the things I am already doing and encouraged me to think strategically about creating financial freedom in my life. Very inspiring and I highly recommend it. My last blog #112 was a result of reading this book.

4| The Money Tree by Chris Guillebeau

I finally had one of those days where I did nothing but read. I read this book from start to finish last Saturday. How delightful it is to do nothing but read. I haven’t had days like this in a while so it was a very special treat. Designing my life so I can have many more of those days. In fact, this book is all about finding alternate ways to build wealth other than the 9 to 5 full-time job. In fact, it shows the precarious situation we put ourselves when we only have the job to support our family and our life. What we think, or what he have been taught to think as secure, is actually among the most un-secure thing! Create multiple revenue avenues and help fellow beings along the way! Another takeaway of this book for me was - When creating your content, product pages, products, marketing and so on, speak only to your target audience and to NO ONE ELSE. Big takeaway!

Well, that’s it for the January 2022 books. See the 25 books on 2021 book list here and the 20 books on my 2020 book list here.

How to Break Karmic Patterns: The Law of Karma

How to Break Karmic Patterns: The Law of Karma

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We continue in our series of blogs that look in-depth at the philosophy and practical advice laid out in Deepak Chopra's book, Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. This edition is about the Third Law, The Law of Karma.

The word Karma has sometimes been understood in a way that scares a lot of people. Does Karma mean I will be punished for my "wrong" actions? I myself have thought: Do I have to think of all the consequences of my actions all the time so I don't experience the "wrath of Karma"?

Growing up in India, I heard the word Karma all the time. It was often referred to in casual talk and was as normal as talking about the weather. But in my experience it was not something we would go deep into, hence, the fear and misunderstandings around the whole concept. In the rest of the world, this misunderstanding and fear found a new dimension to it, even though the word itself has found itself a cozy spot in our English language lexicon. With the help of Deepak Chopra, I am going to share some ideas that will make the concept of Karma, a practical resource, something you and I can use in our lives to make our lives richer, happier and peaceful in every sense possible.

So let's dive in.

What is Karma?

Karma comes from the Sanskrit language which literally translates to "action". The Law of Karma as Deepak states in his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, is:

“Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind...what we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.”

— The Third Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

So that's it in a nutshell. Whatever action we take (cause), we will experience a result (effect) that corresponds to that action. So in that sense, karma is neutral to the person. There is no such thing as "the wrath of karma". It just is. Like rain. Like sunlight. It is a structural element of life and even though it comes from spiritual traditions, like sunshine, the phenomenon itself doesn't belong to a single school of thought.

So the question to ask ourselves is: What do I want to create in my life? If I want to create a peaceful life with harmony in my relationships, I must sow peaceful seeds. If I want to create a life of happiness, I must sow seeds of happiness.

Understanding how our choices influence karma

Deepak Chopra shares with us that the best way to understand and maximize the use of karmic law is to become aware, consciously aware of each and every choice we make. Our life is literally a series of choices; some conscious, some unconscious. The more awareness we can bring to our choices, the more conscious we become of how we decide and take action, the more we can influence the karmic law to create what we want in our lives. Then, we can make conscious choices that lead to the result we are looking for.

Choices are key because everything that is happening in your life right now is a result of a previous choice you made. The past choices take shape in your life as present circumstances and result in how you experience your body, your physical environment, how you perceive your relationships with others and how the world appears to you. Sometimes we are surprised at how the present looks and we feel we did not consciously choose this result.

We feel that way because those choices that caused the unpleasant present were unconscious choices, decisions we made under the influence of ego (automatic trigger-reactions to people and situations), pride, unawareness of your higher self, disconnection from nature and the cycle of life; being under the influence of toxic foods such as fried, overcooked, extremely sweet, excessive food, and non-sacred/ non-ethical consumption of meat, alcohol and other intoxicants. (My definition of non-sacred/non-ethical consumption of meat is eating other living beings without asking their permission, without asking for their forgiveness, eating abused and mistreated animals, wasting meat and a few other specific criteria. Being a Vegan practitioner myself, I think of how the native people around the world used to consume meat with sacred ritual, love and respect for the animal species as exemplary of ethical consumption of meat.) Many unconscious choices we make are without a thorough understanding of what we are doing and these unconscious choices result in alienation with family and friends, physical illness and emotional pain and sadness and a life that is without peace, harmony and joy.

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Karma as a useful tool to break the cycle

This is where the law of karma becomes a tool, a useful resource to positively affect our life situation no matter how young or old we are, no matter how unconsciously we have led our life so far. Because karma is not restricted by time or space, you can influence your life path even on the last day of your life. This is the unlimited power of karma which we can use to completely transform our life and to transcend any karmic past stemming from unconscious actions. This is very encouraging - the sweet spot of the law of karma!

It all begins by becoming more conscious of our choices. So how do we go about doing that? This is what Deepak Chopra has to say:

“If you step back for a moment and witness the choices you are making as you make those choices, then in just this act of witnessing, you take the whole process from the unconscious realm into the conscious realm. This procedure of conscious choice-making and witnessing is very empowering.”

— The Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

Spontaneous Right Action that brings peace

Just by witnessing ourselves as we make a choice, we are changing the game. That's the first step. Then we need to ask ourselves two questions:

1. What are the consequences of this choice? and
2. Will this choice that I'm making now bring happiness to me and to those around me?

There is only one choice out of an infinite number of choices that will lead to happiness both for you and for the people in your life. And when this choice is made, it comes from what Deepak calls, Spontaneous Right Action, which is essentially the right action at the right time. I often have an experience of knowing the right action at the right time and my term for it is, Inspired Action. Basically, as Deepak says, "it's the action that nourishes you and everyone else who is influenced by that action."

Body Clues to Spontaneous Right Action

But how do we know what is the right action to take? Well, there is a mechanism that the Universe uses to help us make these spontaneous right actions. It is the sensation of comfort or discomfort in our body. So when you are consciously making a choice, pay close attention to what your body is feeling.

“Only the heart knows the correct answer.”

— The Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

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Find in your body a sensation that feels good or doesn't feel good. This sensation can be felt in the solar plexus (just above your belly button and under the rib cage) or you may feel it in your heart or center of your chest. Then consciously bring your attention to your heart and ask your heart what to do. Then, simply wait and listen to the response which you will get in the form of a sensation in the body.

“The heart is intuitive; it’s holistic; it’s contextual, it’s relational. It taps into the cosmic computer - the field of pure potentiality, pure knowledge, and infinite organizing power - and takes everything into account. At times it may not even seem rational, but the heart has a computing ability that is far more accurate and far more precise than anything within the limits of rational thought.”

— The Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

The Simple Formula for using The Law of Karma

We can use the law of karma to manifest anything our heart desires: material abundance in the form of money and things, spiritual abundance in the form of inner-peace, harmony in our relationships and in our world and true inner-happiness.

The formula for using the law of karma is simple. First, you must become more and more conscious of your actions. You need to become aware that your future is a result of the choices you are making in every moment of your life. Just with this awareness, you will be shifting some energetic patterns in your life.

Second, as you become more and more aware of your choices, you will make more and more spontaneously right actions which will bring peace and happiness to you and to those around you. The more you do this, the more you will reap the benefits of the Karmic Law.

How to Resolve the Debt of Past Karma?

So, now you are focused on creating a better future by paying close attention to your present. But what about the results that are yet to come because of the past karmic actions which were potentially unconscious? Do not be afraid of past karma. Because Deepak shows us how we can diffuse the effects of old unconscious, negative actions.

When we do nothing about our past karma, it results in the form of karmic debt that needs to be repaid. When we are unconscious or unaware of how karma works, karmic law still works and we pay back for our actions sometimes in the form of great suffering. It essentially is a form of an energetic exchange.

But, there are two powerful things we can do about past karma.

Breaking the cycle by seeing the seed of opportunity

First, you can transmute or transform your karma to a more desirable experience. In other words, let us say you are experiencing something negative or unpleasant in your life. Somehow, either consciously or unconsciously, you caused this experience into your life. The past actions are done and now you are in karmic debt repayment phase. It is causing you mental anguish, emotional pain, physical illness or some other form of discomfort or suffering. This is how you are paying back the debt of your past actions. But this does not mean you are breaking out of it. You may do the same actions again unconsciously because you do not know which actions are causing these unwanted results; and not realize that you are sowing seeds for future suffering. So you need to break this karmic pattern.

To do that, while you are going through a difficult time in your life, Deepak suggests you ask yourself:

1. What can I learn from this experience?
2. Why is this happening and what is the message that the universe is giving to me?
3. How can I make this experience useful to my fellow human beings?

By doing this, essentially, you are looking for the opportunity in that situation. And then you tie this opportunity with your Life Purpose or dharma. (More on the Law of Dharma in this post). So what was a painful episode in your life now becomes the source of something positive that helps you and other people because of your very experience of that painful episode. You need to find a way that your life experience can in some way inspire or help other people

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This doesn't get rid of your karma, but you do create a new positive karma out of it.

An example he gives is of somebody breaking their leg while playing sports. They can then ask the three questions above to learn from it. The message they might need is to, perhaps, slow down and be more mindful. Or they need to write about their experiences and help others play sports safely. This way, they take what happened to them and transform it to help somebody else and create a benefit for humanity.

Transcending Old Karmic Patterns

The second way to deal with karma is to transcend it using practices of meditation. By doing this, by transcending karma, we become independent of karma and break its hold on us. By quieting our mind and experiencing the silence between thoughts, we can clear out old karmic patterns.

“The way to transcend karma is to keep experiencing the gap, the Self and the Spirit. ”

— The Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

I would like to add to this discussion another way of cleaning the influence of old karma that comes from Buddhist philosophy. Geshe Michael Roach, in his book The Karma of Love, writes about cleaning the affect of old karma. He describes it in these steps:

1. We need to understand the concept of seeds. That everything is a result of seeds or actions we have taken.

2. We need to make the intention and the decision to stop the action that caused this karma. One way of doing this is to decide to not do the action that causes this situation for the next 24 hours. It is important to not break this decision because breaking promises to ourselves sows more bad seeds and creates negative Karma.

3. We need to take some positive action, sow positive seed as payment for the karma.

To learn more details, check out his book, The Karma of Love, which is written like a novel and is really fun to read, very practical and you can really use the information and apply it right away in your life.

So, in conclusion, all actions are karmic episodes, meaning every action generate karma. By becoming conscious of your actions, you consciously influence your reality.

“By becoming a conscious choice-maker, you begin to generate actions that are evolutionary for you and for those that are around you. And that’s all you need to do. As long as the karma is evolutionary - for both the Self and everyone affected by the Self - then the fruit of karma will be happiness and success.”

— The Law of Karma, Deepak Chopra

The Three Commitments

As in each chapter, Deepak Chopra offers us three commitments we can choose to make in order to put the law into effect. Here are the three commitments for The Law of Karma:

1. Today, I will witness the choices I make in each moment. And in the mere witnessing of these choices, I will bring them to my conscious awareness. I will know that the best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious in the present.

2. Whenever I make a choice, I will ask myself two questions: "What are the consequences of this choice that I'm making?" and "Will this choice bring fulfillment and happiness to me and also to those who are affect by this choice?"

3. I will then ask my heart for guidance and be guided by its message of comfort of discomfort. If the choice feels comfortable, I will plunge ahead with abandon. If the choice feels uncomfortable, I will pause and see the consequences of my action with my inner vision. This guidance will enable me to make spontaneously correct choices for myself and for all those around me.

Onwards

I hope that this presentation of the Law of Karma according to Deepak Chopra's book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, was useful to you. What I take most from this law is the simplicity of it. We can make it complicated if we want to but the simple message for me is that the more conscious I become of my actions, the better I can act, and the more conscious actions I take, the more flourishing and abundant my life situation will be. So all I need to do is to become conscious and aware in the moment. It is not that scary after all. And no, I do not need to fear the "wrath of Karma", as there is no such thing. There is karmic debt which can be painful but it needn't become a suffering. Pain and suffering are two very different things and suffering is entirely up to us. Even a karmic debt can be a source of something positive and useful for our fellow humans and animals and our planet. We can break free from old unconscious actions by helping others and by meditating. The Law of Karma really is a very practical tool in our every day life for creating peace, abundance and harmony.

Do share in the comments: how has Deepak's presentation of the Law of Karma now changed how you view karma?

Wishing you lots of love, peace and Karmic freedom,

Sophia
 

PS: I do not have a video version for you as I am working on a project that is taking my complete focus - a project which you will hear and learn about soon if you are on our Happiness Lovers Family Email List. (Exciting!) If you would like to join the HL Family and receive free emails along with the exciting new announcement, click here. I am happy to have you join us!!
 

How to Live With Ease: The Law of Least Effort

The Law of Least Effort

Do you want to live a life of ease?

I am guessing your answer to that question is, "Yes". We all want to be living a life of ease, with ease and flow like everything in Nature seems to be doing.

What would your life look like if it was filled with ease?

Sometimes we have not even taken a moment to reflect on this. So I invite you to think for your life: what would it mean to be in flow, to live with ease? You will amazed at how just reflecting on this question clears up the muddy waters of our lives.

A R D is the way
Our German members of the Happiness Lovers Family may think of ARD, the television broadcasting company. :-) But I am referring to something altogether different! ARD stands for Acceptance, Responsibility and Defenselessness. These are the three principles that make up the Fourth Spiritual Law of Success from the book, "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" by  Deepak Chopra. And this is a simple way of creating ease in our lives.

I have prepared a 14 minute video for you outlining the main insights from it in this video on the Fourth Law of Least Effort and I think you will get something useful out of it.

Some of the Key Insights that I share in this Video:
- how the act of acceptance can be a launching point for conscious emotion-free action
- the difference between responsibility and blame (and knowing that is so empowering!)
- how defenseless as a way of being makes life easier

I am so happy you are a Joy Person in our Happiness Lovers Family. Thank you for your time and for being uniquely YOU.

Love and harmony,

Sophia
Helping You Live A Happier Life

PS: This edition is part of my seven part series on The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. If you would like to see the previous three laws just click older post below.

Reach Any Heights: The Law of Intention & Desire

3 Lessons From Deepak Chopra: The Law of Intention & Desire

Here is a question for you to think of. Answer it quickly without thinking much or censoring because whatever comes as a response is fine. 

What is it that you really want in your life?

Take a moment to acknowledge the response that emerges for you.

For me, what I really want is to create a life out of my own design where I can navigate the ocean of life with ease and joy, have plenty of time to do all that I want, feel fulfilled with my contribution to our world, work from anywhere I want and have plenty of time with my husband and cat (and future fur babies) while living comfortably by the beach.

Tell me, in the comments below, your answer to this question because I really want to know what your heart is yearning to create.

Reach Any Heights
Now, what if I told you that inside this desire of yours is everything that you need to make it happen. Because you have that specific desire, you are also equipped with the exact skills, wisdom, strength and any other quality you need to experience that desire in reality. It is already here, within you.

Amazing, right?

Too often, we think struggling and stressing and going crazy over getting things done is the way to make things happen. If a new deal falls through, if a promotion is passed on to someone else, if something happens that is not what we want, we think, "Ah, I will just put 100 more hours into the week where I am already working a 100 hours and that should do it." Or, we think of some other scheme to get what we want or we drop into the stressing-over-it-mode that simply doesn't feel right but we think we have to do it or else....or else we will never get to where we are going. Or so we think.

But does it have to be that way?

Changing the Energy Field
Deepak Chopra in the chapter on the Fifth Law of his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, says otherwise. It is called The Law of Intention and Desire and he writes:

"You can consciously change the energy and informational content of your own quantum mechanical body, and therefore influence the energy and informational content of your extended body — your environment, your world — and cause things to manifest in it."

This is a very different way of getting things done than the old struggling and stressing! It is all about understanding how our world is structured and how to wisely use that understanding to create what we want, and do it with ease and joy. If you want to know more about how to activate this "way of being", you will love this video on the Fifth Law of Intention and Desire.

Creating Our Desires With Ease
You will love it because in this video, I go deep into the Fifth Law and share a powerful yet simple 5 Step Process for using the Law of Intention and Desire to create what we desire. Of course, we still have to do things out in the world and take actions, but this process helps us to make our lives simpler and helps us manifest what we want with a sense of ease that is very freeing. And I am all about simplicity, ease and joy, so I love that!!

Key insights that I share in this video:
- the quantum nature of our world and what separates human beings from trees (!)
- how we can use the structure of the universe to influence it
- why time is a key element in manifesting our intentions and how understanding the nature of time can give you enormous bolts of energy
- how the quality of our intentions influences the results
- the fast way to dissolve 90% of the obstacles we face (and how we bring present can dissolve the remaining 10%)
- what "accepting things as it is" doesn't mean and what it does
- Deepak's 5 Step Process to manifesting our intentions

So do take a look yourself and watch the video.

And I am looking forward to reading about what you really want to create in your life in the comments below. By doing this, you will already be done with the first step in the 5 Step Process for using the Law of Intentions and Desire.

Thank you for your time and for reading all the way down here and for watching the video. I am happy to have you part of our Happiness Lovers family.

Love and harmony,

Sophia
Helping You Live A Happier Life

3 Lessons From Deepak Chopra: On Detachment

I keep reading in various books on happiness and abundance that to really achieve what we want, we need to be detached. I have wondered about this idea and many questions have come up:

Does being detached mean not setting goals?
Should I not care whether or not my intention actually manifests? But I do care, so how can I be detached?
How can I take the next steps on my way to achieving my goals if I am to be detached.

Have you wondered like I have, what does it actually mean to be detached? And how can I apply it in my life to make my dreams into a reality?

Detachment doesn't mean not caring.
First of all, what I learned is the word detachment has many meanings and in psychology one meaning is the inability to emotionally connect with others. Another meaning is disconnecting emotionally from others in order to protect oneself.

But that is not what is meant by the well-known and prolific author of the book, "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success", Deepak Chopra. What he means by detachment is the practice and the art of releasing attachment to the end result. So we still make our goals. We still plan and take actions in alignment with our values and priorities. But we focus on what we can do and let go of how something should turn out. This is all encapsulated in a beautiful short chapter called, The Law of Detachment and I made a video about it.

In this video, I share with you:

- What is attachment and how it emerges from the prison of the past.
- The role fear plays in preventing us from being detached.
- How adventurous and exciting it can be to be detached and I share the example of baking a cake.
- Why we are not going for perfection but practicing bit by bit.
- The amazing quote from the book on how we can achieve our dreams with ease.

What I love about this law is that it is all about making things happen by getting out of our way and letting the Universe conspire events in our favor. It doesn't mean not taking action and leaving it up to the Universe, it means being flexible not stubborn and not clinging to our idea of how it should all turn out. When we do that, our intentions become a reality.

This is yet another long video, so get yourself a nice cup of herbal tea or nourishing juice or whatever nourishes you, get comfy and enjoy this video. I shot this video outdoors so there will be helicopter sounds and happy birds singing in the background - for me, that's all part of being detached of how my videos should turn out!

Also, as you noticed this the second video from Chopra's book. There are total of seven laws in the book and I intend to continue making a video on each single law because I feel that the wisdom and practical directions in this book has made an enormous impact on my life. And I believe that my sharing from the book can help you be happier and more fulfilled.
 

What I would love to know is how you view detachment, how you have have dealt with it or how you practice letting go of attachment to the end results.

I am really grateful that you took the time to read this message. Thank you for being part of our Happiness Lovers Family. And if you are not yet a Happiness Lover, join our family now by going here.

Love and harmony,

Sophia
Helping You Live A Happier Life

PS: Click here to go to the video where I share 3 Lessons from Deepak Chopra's Seventh Law of Dharma or Life Purpose.



 

3 Lessons from Deepak Chopra: On Life Purpose and The Law of Dharma

3 Lessons from Deepak Chopra: On Life Purpose and The Law of Dharma

One of the things that I have struggled with for a long time in my life was the question of life purpose.

What am I here to do?
What is my purpose?
What was I meant to create during this life time?

I felt lost, clueless and without direction.
Forget about purpose and meaning, I didn't even feel happy about the simple pleasures of life. Confused, I have wandered at many different avenues and at each stop, I learned something about my purpose. And this was only a few short years ago.

If I had come upon this book at that time, I know I would have seen a lot of answers pop-up. The book I am referring to is, "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" written by the well-known and prolific author, Deepak Chopra. More than anything, the book is about living a fulfilled, happy life. It consists of seven laws derived from ancient Vedic texts but one can find parallels in almost every spiritual tradition. The seventh law in this book is a succinct, summarized guide to finding our life's purpose or Dharma.

Essentially, this law says that our purpose is to find our inner-most talents that we enjoy, connect it to serving others and in the doing of it experience the divine.

Straightforward, right? Well...

Too often, we need an intermediary to understand and explore the concepts that are laid out in a book. And I decided that this chapter is so essential that I wanted to share my insights from it with you. So I made a video - around 20 minutes long, which goes deep into just this one chapter of this one book. I know that's long for our busy schedules but it is worth it, if you ever wonder about existential questions like "what is my purpose in life".

Watch the video below where I share 3 Lessons from Deepak Chopra.

In this video, I share with you:

- I share with you how to put into practice the steps laid out for finding our life purpose.
- I will make clear how to find what we are passionate about especially for those who are not sure what they love doing.
- I will share how you can connect the dots when you have found what you love to do and whether it serves others.

Do take a look and let me know in the comments what your main challenge around life purpose has been or what you are currently facing. I will be reading your thoughts, so go ahead and share. You might just offer the missing link to someone on their path looking for answers.

Thank you for being part of our Happiness Lovers Family. And if you are not yet a Happiness Lover, join our family now by going here.

Lots of love,

Sophia
Helping You Live A Happier Life

PS: If you have questions that I could answer in one of my future videos around this subject of finding and living one's life purpose, go ahead and write it in the comments.