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Jay Shetty PodcastIf You FEEL LOST In Life, Watch This To FIND YOURSELF! | Deepak Chopra & Jay Shetty
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Chapter summaries
Welcome and Introducing Deepak Chopra
Jay Shetty opens the episode and introduces Deepak Chopra, recalling their meeting three years earlier. Jay describes the encouragement he felt from Deepak and sets up a conversation about Deepak's past and journey.
- •Jay introduces Deepak as co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and the Chopra Foundation and author of over 86 books
- •Jay met Deepak three years earlier in New York while interviewing him about two of his books
- •Jay says his father read Deepak's books, which were in his home growing up
- •Jay says he felt genuine encouragement and support from Deepak
- •Jay says he wants to explore Deepak's past and journey
Born at the Cusp of Independence and a First Existential Crisis
Deepak describes being born just before India's independence while his father was a prisoner of war. He recalls the death of his grandfather when he was six, which triggered his first existential crisis and shaped his life.
- •Deepak calls himself one of midnight's children, born at the cusp of colonialism and independence
- •His father was an army doctor held under siege in Imphal when Deepak was born
- •At age six he received news that his father had passed his exams in England, and his grandfather celebrated
- •His grandfather died that same night, leaving Deepak asking where he had gone
- •He says that one episode shaped his life
From Aspiring Writer to Medical School
Deepak explains that he secretly wanted to be a writer but became a doctor after reading the books his father gave him. He describes how the anatomy-based model of medicine left him seeing the body as a machine, and how he experimented with smoking, alcohol and LSD.
- •As a teenager he secretly wished to write fiction, inspired by Lost Horizon
- •His father gave him Somerset Maugham books, which inspired him to choose medicine
- •Day one of medical school was anatomy with a corpse, reinforcing the model of the body as a physical machine
- •He started smoking to get rid of the dissection smell and experimented with LSD and scotch
The Idealism of the 1960s and Why Change Stalled
Asked why he experimented, Deepak describes the mid-60s as a time of protest, idealism and a sense that the world would change. He says it did not happen, arguing that idealism without action is useless and that love must move into action without anger.
- •The era included Vietnam War protests, the feminist movement and a rising peace movement
- •He says the hoped-for world transformation did not happen and idealism was shattered by the Wall Street scandals of the '80s
- •Idealism without action is useless, and love in action for the greater good is what makes things happen
- •You cannot be an angry peace activist; you must be peaceful to create peace
- •Empathy and compassion are the basis of love, and Jay adds that changing a profile picture is not the same as acting
Coming to America, Mind-Body Medicine and a Vanity Press Bestseller
Deepak describes arriving in the US for a scholarship that turned out to be a way to fill physician shortages. He moved to Boston, studied neuroendocrinology and got hooked on the mind-body connection. After journals and publishers rejected his patient stories, a vanity-press book became a national bestseller.
- •In 1970 he came to a community hospital in New Jersey as cheap foreign labor while American doctors were in Vietnam
- •He trained in endocrinology and neuroendocrinology in Boston and learned of neuropeptides, or molecules of emotion
- •He was puzzled why patients with the same illness and treatment had different outcomes
- •Journals found his patient stories too anecdotal and publishers found them too New Age, so he paid $5,000 to a vanity press
- •A literary agent found the book, and it became a national bestseller
Maharishi, Consciousness and the Shift Beyond Mind-Body Medicine
Deepak describes meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who dismissed the molecules of emotion as not real and directed him toward Ayurveda, Vedanta and consciousness. He explains that he immersed himself in wisdom traditions and practices for 10 to 15 years because the ideas made intellectual but not experiential sense.
- •Maharishi told him the molecules of emotion were not real
- •Around age 36 Deepak shifted from mind-body medicine toward consciousness and ultimate reality
- •He spent time with seers, Ayurvedic healers and philosophers of Kashmir Shaivism and Vedanta
- •He practiced mantra meditation, the Yoga Sutras, self-inquiry and witnessing his mind, body and perceptions
- •He says that once you are experientially involved there is no going back
Time as a Monk and the Value of Anonymity
Deepak recounts spending time as a monk in a Buddhist monastery in South Korea to experience anonymity. He explains that going past ego identity opens a vastly bigger identity, and that he now keeps a yearly week of silence.
- •He wanted a break from being in the public eye and chose a Korean monastery over an Indian ashram
- •He shaved his head and eyebrows, begged for food each morning, kept silence and ate one meal a day
- •Villagers offered so much food that he returned with a lot
- •Going past ego identity reveals a bigger identity that brings freedom and joy
- •He keeps a week of silence every year, usually in September
Four Daily Questions and Living the Questions
Jay asks for a daily practice to access one's true self. Deepak describes his morning reflection and meditation and recommends four questions. He says you do not need immediate answers because life delivers them when you are ready, often through meaningful coincidences.
- •Deepak describes stilling the mind and becoming a silent witness of the screen of consciousness
- •His four questions are: who am I, what do I want, what is my purpose, and what am I grateful for
- •You don't need to know the answers; live the questions and life moves you toward answers
- •Answers come as insight, intuition, inspiration, creativity and meaningful coincidences, which Jung called synchronicity
- •Jay says it is a better morning habit than reaching for the phone
Genes, Lifestyle and the Microbiome
Deepak says integrative medicine has become mainstream and explains that only 5% of disease-related gene mutations fully guarantee disease. He argues that sleep, stress management, movement, yoga, relationships and diet influence gene activity, including the microbiome, and he describes the vagus nerve and the meaning of asana.
- •Only 5% of disease-related gene mutations are fully penetrant, and CRISPR may address those
- •The rest depends on how you live, including sleep, meditation, stress management, movement and yoga
- •He explains the vagus nerve and says asana means seat of awareness
- •The microbiome has about two million bacterial genes versus 25,000 human genes
- •Changing diet can change the population of your genes in less than six weeks
Research on Meditation, Telomerase and the Meanings of Age
Deepak describes a one-week retreat study with collaborating institutions in which genes for healing rose and disease-related genes fell, with telomerase up 40%. He mentions Kaya Kalpa and distinguishes biological, chronological, psychological and spiritual age.
- •After one week of meditation and Yoga Sutras practice, healing and self-regulation genes rose some 17-fold
- •Genes that cause disease or inflammation went down drastically
- •Telomerase rose 40% in one week, which he says means reversing biological age at a genetic level
- •He describes the Ayurvedic Kaya Kalpa retreat
- •He distinguishes biological, chronological, psychological and spiritual age
Metahuman: Witnessing Experience and Freedom from It
Jay asks why the book Metahuman opens with two questions about watching yourself being happy or angry. Deepak explains the immanent and transcendent worlds, says the observer is not the thought or emotion, and says identifying with experience binds us to the karmic web while observing it opens infinite choice.
- •Deepak says spiritual traditions speak of the immanent and transcendent worlds, and we are in both
- •The awareness of a thought or emotion is not the thought or emotion
- •Body, mind and world are human constructs built from raw sensations
- •Identifying with experience binds you to karma, memory and desire, and to seeking validation
- •Observing your reaction opens a range of choices that is infinite
Is the Physical World an Illusion? Qualia and Constructs
Deepak takes up the objection that a bus can still hurt you, and argues that before naming things we only have experience such as color, form and shape. He introduces qualia and describes the world as a collective dreamscape. He says that deconstructing it leaves the formless, infinite field, and that human suffering comes from confusing perceptual with fundamental reality.
- •He says the color red does not exist in the physical world, only electromagnetic vibrations
- •Colors, shapes, sensations and thoughts have no location in the physical world, yet we build the idea of a physical world from them
- •Qualia are units of experience that we string together into body, mind and world
- •He compares everyday reality to virtual reality and a collective dreamscape
- •Per Vedanta, suffering comes from not knowing fundamental reality, clinging to what can't be grasped, and the fear of impermanence and death
Living in the World Without Being Of It
Jay asks how to function day to day if experience isn't ultimate reality. Deepak answers that we should enjoy and upgrade everyday reality while being in the world and not of it, and he describes the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. He says to base life on love and identify with the creative center, and Jay adds that you are not your experiences.
- •Deepak says we are spiritual beings having a human experience, timeless but in time
- •Self-inquiry, nonjudgmental observation and transcendence loosen identification with body, mind and world
- •He outlines the seven spiritual laws of success and defines success as the progressive realization of worthy goals and the ability to love
- •His catchphrase is to pursue excellence and ignore success
- •Love should radiate like light from a bonfire, and for Deepak seeing yourself in an object is beauty and in another person is love
Looking Ahead and the Final Five
Jay and Deepak plan a follow-up conversation around the book coming in October. Jay then asks his rapid-fire final five questions, and the episode closes with thanks and a recommendation to read The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.
- •They plan to discuss Living the Awakened Life when the book comes out in October
- •Deepak's favorite principle is "How can I serve?"
- •He would have everyone ask "Who am I? What am I?" daily
- •He defines the human experience as "sacred and profane" and names his grandkids as his greatest accomplishment
- •He says he looks forward to sharing his revelations with the world
