One of the most helpful works I ever had contact with is the audiobook by Deepak Chopra, called "The Higher Self". Chopra has many books and by chance the first one I started with was "The Return of the Rishi", the story of a young Indian doctor flying to the US to begin being a physician in an American hospital. I have listened to "The Higher Self" several times through. I find it charming and inspirational. I credit the work with focusing my attention on meditation and learning my own mind as deeply and fully as I can, staying as comfortable with all my thoughts and non-thought sensations that I can.
Chopra has been trained as a physician and specifically as an endocrinologist, a specialist in the body's communication systems other than the system of nerves. He is also familiar with ayurvedic medicine, the Hindu medical system. Chopra is in a good position to see the shortcomings of Western medicine as well as its "longcomings", to coin a word.
I read the other day of some advanced students listening to a foreign professor teaching them some complicated subject. Afterwards, one said to the other," He keeps talking about droot and how important droot is. What is this droot?" The friend told him that the teacher was using the English word 'truth' but was having pronunciation difficulties with "tr" and with "th".
If you listen to Chopra in The Higher Self, he works hard at emphasizing the influence of our minds on our moods. He tells the story of some miners trapped underground with limited oxygen. One of the miners had a watch and called out that one hour had passed for every two that actually passed by. They were rescued in time except that the man wearing the watch died. He was unable to fool himself.
Chopra's Indian accent causes him to say the word "thought" in a way that sounds to me like "taut", like a rope that is not slack is taut.
One of the ways we can help ourselves is to get a little distance between ourselves and our thoughts, to take our tauts with a grain of salt, to doubt their accuracy, value and importance a little. It can help in my pursuit of droot to recognize that much of what is in my head is just a taut.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
