Table Of Content
ALSO BY DEEPAK CHOPRA Creating Health
Return of the Rishi
Quantum Healing
Perfect Health
Unconditional Life
Journey into Healing
Creating Affluence
Perfect Weight
Restful Sleep
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
The Return of Merlin
Boundless Energy
Perfect Digestion
The Way of the Wizard
Overcoming Addictions
Raid on the Inarticulate
The Path to Love
The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents
The Love Poems of Rumi (edited by Deepak Chopra; translated by Deepak
Chopra and Fereydoun Kia) Healing the Heart
Everyday Immortality
The Lords of the Light
On the Shores of Eternity
How to Know God
The Soul in Love
The Chopra Center Herbal Handbook (with coauthor David Simon) Grow
Younger, Live Longer (with coauthor David Simon) The Deeper Wound
The Chopra Center Cookbook
(coauthored by David Simon and Leanne Backer) The Angel Is Near
The Daughters of Joy
Gold for Enlightenment
Soulmate
The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
Peace Is the Way
The Book of Secrets
Fire in the Heart
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga (with coauthor David Simon) Magical
Beginnings, Enchanted Lives
(coauthored by David Simon and Vicki Abrams) Life After Death
Buddha
The Essential How to Know God
The Essential Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
The Essential Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
The Third Jesus
Jesus
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul
The Ultimate Happiness Prescription
Muhammed
The Soul of Leadership
War of the Worldviews (with Leonard Mlodinow)
Copyright © 2012 by Deepak Chopra All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Harmony Books is a registered trademark and the Harmony Books colophon is a trademark of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chopra, Deepak.
Spiritual solutions : answers to life’s greatest challenges / by Deepak Chopra.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Spiritual life. I. Title. II. Title: Answers to life’s greatest challenges.
BL624.C47683 2012
204—dc23 2011029750
eISBN: 978-0-30771919-5
Jacket photograph by Jeremiah Sullivan
v3.1
To the hands that reach out,
and every hand that reaches back
C
ONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
A Personal Note
ONE
WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION?
TWO
LIFE’S GREATEST CHALLENGES
Relationships
Health and Well-being
Success
Personal Growth
THREE
DEAR DEEPAK: ONE TO ONE
FOUR
CREATING YOUR OWN SOLUTIONS
Acknowledgments
A PERSONAL NOTE
E
ver since my first days as a doctor, forty years ago, people have asked
for answers. A medical treatment was what they wanted, but the
reassurance and comfort that human contact could bring was just as
valuable, perhaps even more so. Unless he’s completely burned out, a
physician sees himself as a rough-and-ready savior, yanking victims out
of danger into a state of safety and well-being.
I’m grateful for my years seeing patients, because I learned the
difference between advice and solutions. People who are in trouble are
rarely helped by advice. Crises don’t wait; something very bad will
happen if the right solution isn’t found.
I kept the same standard in mind when writing this book. It began
with people writing me with troubles on their minds. Their letters were
sent from around the world—at one point I was answering questions
daily or weekly from India, the United States, and many other locales,
mostly through the Internet. Yet in a sense everyone was writing from
the same place inside, where confusion and darkness had overwhelmed
them. These people were hurt, betrayed, abused, misunderstood, ill,
worried, anxious, and at times desperate. Sadly, that is the human
condition, almost permanently for some people, but these feelings are
always possible for people who are happy and contented—for the
moment.
I wanted to give answers that were lasting enough so that when “for
the moment” changes, when crisis descends and a challenge must be
faced, solid solutions were at hand. I call them spiritual solutions, but
the term doesn’t mean religious solutions, prayer, or surrender to God.
Instead I envision a secular spirituality. This is the only way modern
people will ever reconnect with their souls, or, to remove all religious
overtones, their “true selves.”
What has a crisis done to you personally? Whatever the situation, you
drew back, contracted inside, and felt the grip of anxiety. This state of
contracted awareness is the enemy of finding a solution. Real solutions
to a crisis come from expanded awareness. The inner feeling is no longer
tight and fearful. Boundaries give way; fresh ideas have space to grow. If
you are able to contact your true self, awareness has no boundaries.
From that place, solutions emerge spontaneously, and they work. Often
they work like magic, and obstacles that seemed immovable melt away.
When that happens, the burden of anxiety and sorrow is lifted
completely. Life was never meant to be a struggle. Life was meant to
unfold from its source in pure awareness. If this book leaves only one
lasting impression, that’s the one I’m hoping for.
Deepak Chopra
