18 Things I'm Learning About Metaphysics From Deepak Chopra
My spiritual journey has been filled with twists and turns, but it is incredibly meaningful to me. As a child I learned holistic healing, yoga, meditation, and manifestation at home.
However, I was raised in the Christian faith. Later I spent some time at a Catholic university where I studied theology and philosophy, then graduated from a Southern private Christian university where I delved further into philosophy. After that, I set out to Washington, DC, where I was determined to make a positive impact through policy work. But back in high school, I walked away from my faith. Through all of my cerebral studies on theology, philosophy, and the ethics of public policy, I was still coming up short in my spiritual groundedness. I didn’t feel calm, peaceful, or safe. Family members recommended Deepak Chopra’s teachings to me, and I have been thankful ever since.
Deepak Chopra is a trained medical doctor, spiritual leader, and Ayurvedic medicine advocate whose teachings have propelled my spiritual growth.
I recall learning of Deepak Chopra while watching The Oprah Winfrey Show as a child. If someone had told me then that his teachings would have impacted my life this way, I would not have believed them.
1.Applying intentionality to an everyday problem.
2.Turning within transforms my conditions.
I wrote about how a while ago I was working so much that it led me to burnout, but I didn't mention that I almost lost my love for writing. At that time a 9–5 writing job felt meaningless. Several months into the pandemic I was relieved to be released from a four-hour daily commute, but I felt trapped in isolation. I focused on doing yoga, meditating, dancing, and filling my gratitude jar.
That’s when I got an email from an editor who offered me a writing opportunity that changed my life — writing for Deepak Chopra’s blog Chopra Global. First, it always feels great when an editor courts you to write for their publication. But the kicker here is that I was being encouraged to invest in my spiritual journey and share it with others.
At the time I was working a lot so I relied heavily on meditation. While meditating I connected with my higher self and asked for guidance on falling back in love with writing. I asked to be directed to express what it is that others need to read, and then I began to write articles about my spirituality. Since then, I’ve published articles in Chopra Global and other leading publications — like BuzzFeed — that focus on sharing tools for transformation with people, and the world around me has blossomed. I am so grateful to bring this article to you here on BuzzFeed because it is a round-up of so much that I have wanted to share with the world.
3.Helping me understand more about sutras.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the Kama Sutra, a set of Indian Sanskrit texts that focuses on intimacy, sexuality, emotionality, and eroticism. Maybe that’s the first time some people have heard of "sutra" before — I think it was for me.
It is important to know two things: 1) The Kama Sutra is about more than the physical activity of sex, and 2) Sutras are a sacred tradition in Indian culture.
“In ancient times, most teachings were done orally and students learned by way of sutras. The word sutra comes from the same root as the medical term suture, meaning to connect or hold together. When the teacher expounded on a piece of knowledge, the student would be given a short phrase that would later remind him/her of the greater body of material. This was somewhat the equivalent of modern-day cue cards," says Roger Gabriel in “Yoga Sutras 101: Everything You Need to Know” on Chopra Global’s website.
I became more familiar with sutras while studying Buddhism at a Buddhist church in the heart of Chinatown, San Francisco, California. After visiting to learn more about practicing Buddhism, a teacher took me into the church library, where I stood in a room lined with books of ancient texts. After the tour ended, I asked the church leader how much it would be for me to buy one book, and he handed the first three of the set to me for free. I absorbed the books and returned for more. Once I finished all the dharma books — books detailing the life of Buddha — I received a book called The Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.
It makes sense that a Buddhist church would have a book of sutras because Buddhism is known to have developed in ancient India. The sutra book I received contains stories mentioning multiple teachers who passed down traditions over centuries. It details how they set out to achieve ultimate enlightenment and how they responded to their students’ questions. It is filled with metaphysical lessons and ways to apply them to daily life.
The yoga sutras that Walter Gabriel writes of for Chopra are from a set of Vedic texts, which were also developed in ancient India. Though both the Vedas and Buddhist studies also use the same terms — such as sutra, dharma, brahman — they are distinct practices with beliefs that converge and diverge from one another.
4.Opening my eyes to The Secret of Love.
5.Getting real and un-complicating the idea of marriage.
6.Tapping into my Daily Breath with Deepak Chopra.
7.Getting deep into understanding karma.
8.Keeping me connected with my mother.
9.Evolving my understanding of grace.
My spiritual journey continues to lead me to a place of resolution with my feelings about religion, as unpopular as that may sound. Grace is something that has long amazed me from my days growing up in the church to my studies of the concept across cultures. My name — Janessa — means “God is gracious.” As a child, my understanding of grace was if something goes wrong, I’m good. As I studied it more, I came across theological definitions, which focus on grace being something that requires no action, reaction, or lack of action — because God's grace simply exists.
This is a concept I struggled receiving when I was young, particularly in high school, but eventually, I learned that it was my perspective that required some growth. A few years ago I was reading through Deepak’s work when I came across this article about grace. He says:
"Grace is the state of freedom that exists within every action and moment of existence. It is a state of consciousness in which the constant pull of God’s loving presence overrides our attachment to the laws of cause and effect.
Heartfelt atonement can open this state of grace within us and free us from the limitations of our karma. Grace doesn’t cancel the reaction of the action itself. It’s not that the principle of cause and effect in karma is altered, but the nature of karma is altered when the consciousness of the doer changes."
10.Using Ayurvedic healing practices can be good for digestion.
11.Understanding the nature of sexual energy.
12.Tapping into the vagus nerve to improve my holistic health.
Deepak’s work has expanded my knowledge and understanding of how to self-regulate my vagus nerve. Jennifer Weinberg, preventative and lifestyle medicine physician, explains it as "the main nerve of the parasympathetic (rest and digest) division of the autonomic nervous system." She continued, "It is an important route of communication between the brain, cardiovascular system, gut, and immune system. This bi-directional nerve pathway travels all the way from the brainstem down through the chest and into the abdomen, branching off to multiple organs."
I recall learning about the vagus nerve in anatomy class in high school. Then again when I ran varsity track and our coaches warned us that over-stimulating it could make us pass out. From what I can tell, it doesn’t matter if someone is physically active or emotionally charged, the vagus nerve feels it all, which triggers either the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system — relaxation or negative stress. However, humans can influence the behavior of their vagus nerve and stimulate a parasympathetic response by creating a state of relaxation rather than negative stress.
As I learned of all this, I had already been practicing yoga daily. I took these learnings and then used them to re-train my competitive mind and athlete’s body to evolve past being reactionary so that it may know peace. Doing this led me to a place of profound personal maturity because, as I have learned, stillness is a gift.
13.Learning more about what mindfulness is and how it can propel spiritual growth.
14.The power of awakening lies in the awareness of the “observer.”
15.Continuing to encourage me to study astrology.
16.Being intentional about having a healthy relationship with money.
Let’s talk about manifestation. According to Google’s search statistics, searches for the word “manifestation” saw a sharp uptick in July 2020 — making that the month with the highest recorded search for the term on Google since 2004.
Manifestation is “all the rage” right now and while there’s been a slow climb of Google searches between 2010 and 2018, something must have happened in 2019 that seems to have sky-rocketed the term into widespread popularity.
Google's interactive graph displays interest over time by assigning a ranked number to each month between January 2004 and the present day. It assigns a single number to indicate the performance of that search term out of a score of 100. Between November 2019 and July 2020, “manifestation” searches increased. The sharpest uptick occurred from a score of 35 in March 2020 to a score of 100 in July 2020.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. Breonna Taylor was killed in March 2020 and George was taken in May 2020. By the summer of 2020, the world has erupted into what felt like chaos with social uprisings against state-sanctioned killings, demand for economic income stimulus, and overall fear of a virus that was spreading like wildfire — plus wildfires were happening. Is it possible that amidst all that chaos, people were searching for a way to create a reality that felt like one they would want to live in? I think so.
17.The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.
18.Activating the law of least effort.
I love sharing a few of the lessons and thoughts I have received along the way.
