Deepak Chopra - Total Meditation: Practices in Living the Awakened Life

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was completed in the dire months of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, and more than ever I feel grateful to those who have become my extended family. There is a personal connection and a bond of devotion with the Chopra Foundation and Chopra Global, my publisher, and most especially my longtime editor, Gary Jansen, who is remarkably fair and astute in our collaboration. Carolyn Rangel remains just as remarkable in her tireless devotion. Thanks to all of you from my heart. My wife, Rita, and I feel blessed to be surrounded by children and grandchildren who are just as precious to us now as the day they came into the world. May these bonds only strengthen as the world learns to heal again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEEPAK CHOPRA, MD, FACP, founder of the Chopra Foundation, a nonprofit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Dr. Chopra is a clinical professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of more than eighty-nine books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His ninetieth book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. Time magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.

EPILOGUE

The Master Meditation

There are many ways to describe the state of complete awakening. One is said to dissolve like a drop in the infinite ocean or to radiate the light of life. In all directions all you can see is infinity. These are inspiring descriptions, but they have one fatal drawback. They try to express the inexpressible. This book was based on the notion that your mind is naturally capable of going into meditation. I thought that this one simple point had been missed by other meditation books, and it seemed to me to be a very profound point.

It is important to have a vision of your goal. Otherwise you cannot achieve it. If the goal of total meditation is to be completely awake, here and now, once and for all, can we envision it? I believe we can, through one final meditation. Its like a master meditation that includes all other meditations. In it, you dont disappear into the ocean of consciousness, but the opposite. You experience quite clearly that you are present everywhere, right this minute.

Unlike the previous meditations in this book, the master meditation has more than one stepthere are seven, in factso youll need 5 to 10 minutes to do the complete meditation.

The Master Meditation

STEP 1: I am present in everything I see.

Sit quietly with eyes closed and center yourself. Take 5 minutes to meditate on the following mantra: Aham (pronounced Ah-hum).

When you feel calm and settled, open your eyes but remain in your inner place. Let your eyes land on your surroundings without focusing on any particular object.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I see. Nothing is visible without me.

STEP 2: I am present in everything I hear.

Close your eyes and remain centered. Now let the sounds in our surroundings come to you for a moment.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I hear. There is nothing to be heard without me.

STEP 3: I am present in everything I touch.

With your eyes still closed, remain centered. Now let your fingers lightly touch your skin, clothing, and any object nearby like the chair you are sitting in.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I touch. There is nothing tangible without me.

STEP 4: I am present in everything I taste.

With your eyes still closed, remain centered. Now taste the inside of your mouth. Mentally see a lemon being cut in half with a knife, spurting drops of juice. Taste the lemons sourness.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I taste. Nothing has a taste without me.

STEP 5: I am present in everything I smell.

With your eyes still closed, remain centered. Now gently inhale the smells in your surroundings; it doesnt matter what they are.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I smell. Nothing has an odor without me.

STEP 6: I am present in everything I think.

With your eyes still closed, remain centered. Now let your mind go wherever it wants for a moment, to any random sensations, images, feelings, or thoughts. It doesnt matter what they happen to be.

Say to yourself, I am present in everything I think. There is no mind without me.

STEP 7: I am present everywhere.

With your eyes still closed, remain centered for the last step. Put your attention in the region of your heart. See invisible waves pulsing out from your heart in all directions. Follow them as far as you can until they fade away. For a moment expand how far the waves reach in all directions. It might help to envision the still surface of a pond. A raindrop strikes the surface, sending circular waves spreading out as far as the eye can see until they subside, and the pond is totally still once more.

Say to yourself, I am present everywhere. Nothing can be without me.

To end the meditation, sit in the awareness of your being, which is silent, unmoving, unbounded, and present as the real you.

Once you have practiced it a few times, the master meditation is simple, but what does it mean? The meaning will change depending on your state of awareness. The goal is the same for everyone: to show you who you really are. Its good to have this exercise at hand, because we are constantly shifting our identity. You are no longer an infant, toddler, child, adolescent, or young adult. Those stages in life defined your ego as your personal story unfolded. Each stage was provisional; therefore, I was temporary, even though the ego likes to pretend that it is permanent and defines who you are.

Being a slave to change and impermanence, the ego cant really tell you who you are. You only begin to glimpse the truth when you notice that no matter how much your life changes, something remains constant. I call it the sense of self. Not many people pause in the busyness of their life to notice this silent companion. It has nothing to say, because your sense of self simply exists. It is your being. Words can only describe it as I am.

I am doesnt sound like much. It doesnt participate in your personal story. I doesnt choose experience A and reject experience B. It has no likes or dislikes. Youd never expect that theres a secret hidden in I am, but there is. Thanks to your sense of self, you are present everywhere. As you have found out in the master meditation.

You are present in everything you see. Try and see anything without being presentyou cant. You cannot even imagine yourself not being present. Try to hear a sound without being present. Again, you cant. You went through the five senses and the mind (these are the six blind men in the Indian fable about the blind men and the elephant), and each shows you how present you are in every experience.

The reason the men are blind in the fable is that unless you experience wholenessthe elephantthe five senses and the mind cannot grasp reality. This is where Step 7 comes in. The waves spreading out in all directions are ripples in consciousness. The ripples rise and fall, and creation emerges in all its richness and magnificence. You are present in every aspect of reality that human beings are able to perceive. Try to imagine nonexistence. Try to imagine a time before you were born or a time after you die.