That, I think, is
the crucial question. There’ s not much challenge in accepting that one’ s life
contains suf fering, and only a small challenge in accepting that flux and
change create dissatisfaction. Both facts seem psychologically self-evident. But to accept that the entire world, and everyone in it, is an illusion? That’ s
an enormous challenge, and it requires a complete shift in consciousness to
meet it. The word illusion  has a host of meanings, and some are very enticing. The illusion, for example, that when you fall in love it will last forever . The
illusion that you will never die. The illusion that ignorance is bliss. Buddha
saw the danger hidden in these enticements. He rarely spoke harshly , but I
can imagine him bursting all these bubbles: love ends, everyone dies,
ignorance is folly . But if he had stopped there, Buddha would have wound
up a tiresome moralist.His definition of illusion was so absolute it almost freezes the blood. Whatever can be seen, heard, or touched is unreal. Whatever you cling to as
permanent is unreal. Whatever the mind can think of is unreal. Does that
leave anything free from the withering grip of illusion? No. Yet once we get over our shock, Buddha declares that with a shift in
consciousness, reality reveals itself. Not as a thing. Not as a sensation. Not
even as a wisp of thought. Reality is purely itself. It is the ground of
existence, the source from which everything else is projected. In the most
basic terms, Buddhism exchanges a world of infinite projections for the
single state of Being. A freedom so complete it doesn’ t have to think of
freedom or say its name. Which brings me to the subversive reason I decided to write a novel on
the life of Buddha. By telling his story from the inside (early on I intended
to call the book I, Buddha ), I could trace every step that led Siddhartha to
stop believing in the world. His tale isn’ t really that of a romantic prince,
suffering monk, or triumphant saint. It’ s a universal soul journey that begins
asleep and ends awake. Siddhartha woke up to the truth, which sounds
inspiring, but in this case the truth demolished his entire self. It overturned
every belief, purified every sense, and brought total clarity to the mind’ s
confusion. In sum, this book has been a kind of seduction, coaxing the
reader step by step toward a vision that none of us was brought up to see. Through the eyes of Buddha, the root of suf fering is illusion, and the only
way out of illusion is to stop believing in the separate self and the world
that supports the separate self. No spiritual message has ever been so
radical. None remains so terribly ur gent. OceanofPDF .comThe Art of Non-Doing
A Practical Guide to Buddhism
After being inspired by Buddha’ s life, the most important thing is not to let
him slip through your fingers. This can easily happen. First of all, because
he didn’ t want anyone to hold on to him. Buddha was like a supernova
exploding in the sky , spreading light in all directions. Before the explosion
you could locate him in time and space. He was a person like any other ,
however brilliant and charismatic. But after the explosion known as
enlightenment, he turned into something else, something very impersonal. Call it pure spirit, essence, or transcendent wisdom. By any name, he was
no longer a person, which makes for special dif ficulties. How do you follow
a teacher who is everywhere at once? I can imagine sitting down with a reader and being asked that question,
which would lead to quite a few more. How am I supposed to follow someone who constantly insisted that he was
no longer a person and didn’ t have a self? Ideally , you follow him by losing your own self. Which seems
impossible, since it’ s your self that’ s fascinated by him. It’ s your self that’ s
suffering and wants to be rid of suf fering. The primary message of
Buddhism is that this self cannot accomplish anything real. It must find a
way to disappear , just as Buddha did. The self r eaches its goal by not being the self? It sounds like a paradox. Yes, but Buddhists found three ways to live the wisdom their teacher
left behind. The first way was social, forming groups of disciples into a
Sangha, like the group of monks and nuns that Buddha gathered in his
lifetime. The Sangha exists to establish a spiritual lifestyle. People remind
themselves of the teaching and keep the Buddhist vision alive. They
meditate together and create an atmosphere of peace. The second way to follow Buddha is ethical, centered on the value of
compassion. Buddha was known as The Compassionate One, a being who
loved all of humanity without judgment. Buddhist ethics bring the same
attitude into everyday life. A Buddhist practices being kind and seeing
others without judgment, but in addition displays love and reverence for life
itself. Buddhist morality is peaceful, accepting, and joyous. The third way to follow Buddha is mystical. Y ou take to heart the
message of non-self. Y ou do everything possible to break the bonds of
attachment that keep you trapped in the illusion that you are a separate self. Here your aim is to tiptoe out of the material world even as your body
remains in it. Ordinary people are doing things all day , but in your heart
you’ve turned your attention to non-doing, as the Buddhists call it. Non-
doing isn’ t passivity but a state of openness to all possibilities. If I practice non-doing, what would I actually do? It still seems like a
paradox. The third way confronts Buddha’ s most enigmatic side. How can you
shed the separate self when it’ s the only thing you’ve known? The process
sounds frightening, for one thing, because there’ s no guarantee. Once you
accomplish “ego death,” as it’ s often called, what will be left? Y ou might
wind up enlightened, but you also might wind up a blank, a passive non-self
with no interests or desires. People find the Buddhist path rigorous because
you are asked to re-examine everything you think will get you ahead in life
—money , possessions, status, accomplishments—and see them as a source
of suf fering. For example, having money doesn’ t directly cause suf fering,but it ties you to the illusion by hiding from sight the fact that there’ s
another way to live that’ s actually real. Money , like possessions and status,
creates a treadmill that brings one desire after another . So enlightenment is the same as having no desir es? You have to understand “no desires” in a positive sense, as fulfillment. At the moment a musician is performing, there’ s a state of no-desire
because he feels fulfilled. At the moment you’re eating a wonderful meal,
hunger is fulfilled. Buddha taught that there is a state, known as Nirvana,
where desire is irrelevant. Everything desire is trying to achieve exists in
Nirvana already . You don’ t have to pursue one desire after another in a
futile quest to end suf fering. Instead, you go right to the source of Being,
which is neither full nor empty . It just is. Do you still want to live after that? Nirvana is no longer about life and death, which are opposites. Buddha
wanted to free people from all opposites. If you are following his teachings
the second way , through morality and ethics, then being good, truthful,
nonviolent, and compassionate is important. Y ou don’ t want to practice the
opposite behavior . But if you follow Buddha the third way , the mystical
way of non-doing, duality is the very thing you try to dissolve. Y ou go
beyond good and evil, which is scary to many people. What is the non-self? It’s who you are when there are no personal attachments. This sounds
mystical, but we shouldn’ t be distracted by semantics. The non-self is
natural; it’ s rooted in everyday experience. When you wake up in the
morning there’ s a moment before your mind gets filled with all the things
you have to do today . In that moment you exist without a self. Y ou don’ t
think about your name or your bank account; you don’ t even think aboutyour spouse and children. Y ou just are. Enlightenment extends that state and
deepens it. Y ou aren’ t burdened by having to remember who you are, ever
again. When I wake up in the morning I r emember who I am almost immediately . How does that change? By gradually shifting your allegiance. Consider how you relate to your
body . You mostly for get about it. Heartbeat, metabolism, body temperature,
electrolyte balance—literally dozens of processes go on automatically , and
your nervous system coordinates them perfectly without interference from
the conscious mind. Buddha suggests that you can let go of many things
that you’re certain you must control. Instead of devoting so much ef fort and
struggle to thinking, planning, running after pleasure, and avoiding pain,
you can surrender and put those functions on automatic, also. This is
accomplished gradually by a practice called mindfulness. You mean, I simply stop thinking? You stop investing yourself in thinking, because Buddha teaches that
you haven’ t been in control of your mind anyway . The mind is a series of
fleeting, impermanent events, and trying to ground yourself in
impermanence is an illusion. T ime is exactly the same, a sequence of
fleeting events that has no solid basis. Once you hear this teaching, you put
it into practice through mindfulness. Whenever you are tempted by the
illusion, you remind yourself that it’ s not real. In a way , a better term might
be re-mindfulness. The process of shifting your consciousness takes time. This is an
evolution, not a revolution. W e’re all pulled in by the temptation to choose
between A and B. Duality makes us believe that making good decisions and
avoiding bad ones is all-important. Buddha disagrees—he says that getting
out of duality is all-important, and you’ll never escape as long as you keep
burying yourself deeper into the game of “A-or -B?” Reality isn’ t A or B.
It’s both and it’ s neither . Mindfulness keeps you aware of that fact. How am I to understand “both and neither”? You can’ t, not with the mind. The mind is basically a machine that
processes the world only in terms of “I want this” and “I don’ t want that.”
Buddha taught that you can step outside the machinery and simply watch it
working. Y ou witness the whole fantastic jumble of desires, fears, wishes,
and memories that is the mind. When you gain practice doing that in
meditation, things change. Y ou begin to be aware of yourself in a simpler
way, without so much mental jumble. In time your allegiance shifts, and the
space between thoughts—the silent gap—dominates instead of thoughts. Is that Nirvana? No, it’ s just a sign that you are successfully practicing mindfulness. The
silent gap between thoughts goes by too fast for anyone to live there. Y ou
have to give the gap a chance to expand, and at the same time silence
deepens. It may sound strange, but your mind can be silent the whole time
it’s also thinking. Ordinarily , silence and thought are considered opposites,
but when you go beyond opposites, they mer ge. Y ou identify with the
timeless source of thought rather than the thoughts emer ging from it. What advantage does this bring? Assuming I take the time and effort to
achieve such a state. One can speak of the advantages in glowing terms that sound very
alluring. Y ou gain peace; you no longer suf fer. Death no longer holds any
fear. You stand unshakably on your own Being. In reality the gains are
highly individual and proceed at their own pace. Everyone is in a dif ferent
state of unreality that’ s highly personal. I may be obsessive, while the
person next to me may be anxious and the person next to him depressed. In
meditation these knots of discord and conflict begin to unravel of their own
accord. Y et there’ s always an evolutionary unfolding. In your own way youwalk the path to peace, non-suf fering, fearlessness, and everything else
Buddha exemplified. From the outside this third way of following Buddha looks mystical, but
over time it becomes as natural as breathing. Buddhism survives today and
thrives all around the world because it is so open-ended. Y ou don’ t have to
obey a set of rules or worship God or the gods. Y ou don’ t even have to be
spiritual. All you have to do is look into yourself and yearn to become clear ,
to wake up and be complete. Buddhism counts on the fact that everyone
possesses at least a bit of these motivations. Mindfulness and meditation
form the basis of Buddhist practice—although every sect and teacher has a
particular slant on them. Za-zen, the style of Buddhist meditation practiced
in Japan, isn’ t the same as V ipasana meditation in South Asia. In the end,
however , Buddhism is a do-it-yourself project, and that’ s the secret of its
appeal in the modern world. Don’ t we all ultimately concentrate on personal
suffering and what our individual fate will be? Buddha asked for nothing
else as a starting point, and yet he promised that the end point would be
eternity . OceanofPDF .comA c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
First and foremost I must thank a friend whose imagination sparked this
project, film director Shekhar Kapur . We spent long, fascinating sessions
together trying to imagine Buddha’ s life. W ithout his contributions, the best
parts of this book would never have appeared. Thanks to Gideon W eil, my editor , who made invaluable suggestions
every step of the way and intervened at just the right moments. As always, my family and everyone at the Chopra Center provided their
support and love. I am deeply grateful and hope that this book makes you
proud. OceanofPDF .comAbout the Author
DEEP AK CHOPRA , the founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, is the preeminent teacher of
Eastern philosophy to the Western World. He has been a bestselling author for decades, and his
writings have sold millions of copies. V isit the author online at www .chopra.com. Visit www .AuthorT racker .com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author . OceanofPDF .comC r e d i t s
Jacket design: LeV an Fisher Design
Jacket image: Shutter Stock/Andy Lim
OceanofPDF .comC o p y r i g h t
BUDDHA . Copyright © 2007 by Deepak Chopra. All rights reserved under International and Pan-
American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-
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introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether
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Buddha_by_Deepak_Chopra.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        That, I think, is
the crucial question. There’ s not much challenge in accepting that one’ s life
contains suf fering, and only a small challenge in accepting that flux and
change create dissatisfaction. Both facts seem psychologically self-evident. But to accept that the entire world, and everyone in it, is an illusion. That’ s
an enormous challenge, and it requires a complete shift in consciousness to
meet it. The word illusion  has a host of meanings, and some are very enticing. The illusion, for example, that when you fall in love it will last forever. The
illusion that you will never die. The illusion that ignorance is bliss. Buddha
saw the danger hidden in these enticements. He rarely spoke harshly, but I
can imagine him bursting all these bubbles: love ends, everyone dies,
ignorance is folly. But if he had stopped there, Buddha would have wound
up a tiresome moralist. His definition of illusion was so absolute it almost freezes the blood. Whatever can be seen, heard, or touched is unreal. Whatever you cling to as
permanent is unreal. Whatever the mind can think of is unreal. Does that
leave anything free from the withering grip of illusion. No. Yet once we get over our shock, Buddha declares that with a shift in
consciousness, reality reveals itself. Not as a thing. Not as a sensation. Not
even as a wisp of thought. Reality is purely itself. It is the ground of
existence, the source from which everything else is projected. In the most
basic terms, Buddhism exchanges a world of infinite projections for the
single state of Being. A freedom so complete it doesn’ t have to think of
freedom or say its name. Which brings me to the subversive reason I decided to write a novel on
the life of Buddha. By telling his story from the inside (early on I intended
to call the book I, Buddha ), I could trace every step that led Siddhartha to
stop believing in the world. His tale isn’ t really that of a romantic prince,
suffering monk, or triumphant saint. It’ s a universal soul journey that begins
asleep and ends awake. Siddhartha woke up to the truth, which sounds
inspiring, but in this case the truth demolished his entire self. It overturned
every belief, purified every sense, and brought total clarity to the mind’ s
confusion. In sum, this book has been a kind of seduction, coaxing the
reader step by step toward a vision that none of us was brought up to see. Through the eyes of Buddha, the root of suf fering is illusion, and the only
way out of illusion is to stop believing in the separate self and the world
that supports the separate self. No spiritual message has ever been so
radical. None remains so terribly ur gent. OceanofPDF. comThe Art of Non-Doing
A Practical Guide to Buddhism
After being inspired by Buddha’ s life, the most important thing is not to let
him slip through your fingers. This can easily happen. First of all, because
he didn’ t want anyone to hold on to him. Buddha was like a supernova
exploding in the sky, spreading light in all directions. Before the explosion
you could locate him in time and space. He was a person like any other,
however brilliant and charismatic. But after the explosion known as
enlightenment, he turned into something else, something very impersonal. Call it pure spirit, essence, or transcendent wisdom. By any name, he was
no longer a person, which makes for special dif ficulties. How do you follow
a teacher who is everywhere at once. I can imagine sitting down with a reader and being asked that question,
which would lead to quite a few more. How am I supposed to follow someone who constantly insisted that he was
no longer a person and didn’ t have a self. Ideally, you follow him by losing your own self. Which seems
impossible, since it’ s your self that’ s fascinated by him. It’ s your self that’ s
suffering and wants to be rid of suf fering. The primary message of
Buddhism is that this self cannot accomplish anything real. It must find a
way to disappear, just as Buddha did. The self r eaches its goal by not being the self. It sounds like a paradox. Yes, but Buddhists found three ways to live the wisdom their teacher
left behind. The first way was social, forming groups of disciples into a
Sangha, like the group of monks and nuns that Buddha gathered in his
lifetime. The Sangha exists to establish a spiritual lifestyle. People remind
themselves of the teaching and keep the Buddhist vision alive. They
meditate together and create an atmosphere of peace. The second way to follow Buddha is ethical, centered on the value of
compassion. Buddha was known as The Compassionate One, a being who
loved all of humanity without judgment. Buddhist ethics bring the same
attitude into everyday life. A Buddhist practices being kind and seeing
others without judgment, but in addition displays love and reverence for life
itself. Buddhist morality is peaceful, accepting, and joyous. The third way to follow Buddha is mystical. Y ou take to heart the
message of non-self. Y ou do everything possible to break the bonds of
attachment that keep you trapped in the illusion that you are a separate self. Here your aim is to tiptoe out of the material world even as your body
remains in it. Ordinary people are doing things all day, but in your heart
you’ve turned your attention to non-doing, as the Buddhists call it. Non-
doing isn’ t passivity but a state of openness to all possibilities. If I practice non-doing, what would I actually do. It still seems like a
paradox. The third way confronts Buddha’ s most enigmatic side. How can you
shed the separate self when it’ s the only thing you’ve known. The process
sounds frightening, for one thing, because there’ s no guarantee. Once you
accomplish “ego death,” as it’ s often called, what will be left. Y ou might
wind up enlightened, but you also might wind up a blank, a passive non-self
with no interests or desires. People find the Buddhist path rigorous because
you are asked to re-examine everything you think will get you ahead in life
—money, possessions, status, accomplishments—and see them as a source
of suf fering. For example, having money doesn’ t directly cause suf fering,but it ties you to the illusion by hiding from sight the fact that there’ s
another way to live that’ s actually real. Money, like possessions and status,
creates a treadmill that brings one desire after another. So enlightenment is the same as having no desir es. You have to understand “no desires” in a positive sense, as fulfillment. At the moment a musician is performing, there’ s a state of no-desire
because he feels fulfilled. At the moment you’re eating a wonderful meal,
hunger is fulfilled. Buddha taught that there is a state, known as Nirvana,
where desire is irrelevant. Everything desire is trying to achieve exists in
Nirvana already. You don’ t have to pursue one desire after another in a
futile quest to end suf fering. Instead, you go right to the source of Being,
which is neither full nor empty. It just is. Do you still want to live after that. Nirvana is no longer about life and death, which are opposites. Buddha
wanted to free people from all opposites. If you are following his teachings
the second way, through morality and ethics, then being good, truthful,
nonviolent, and compassionate is important. Y ou don’ t want to practice the
opposite behavior. But if you follow Buddha the third way, the mystical
way of non-doing, duality is the very thing you try to dissolve. Y ou go
beyond good and evil, which is scary to many people. What is the non-self. It’s who you are when there are no personal attachments. This sounds
mystical, but we shouldn’ t be distracted by semantics. The non-self is
natural; it’ s rooted in everyday experience. When you wake up in the
morning there’ s a moment before your mind gets filled with all the things
you have to do today. In that moment you exist without a self. Y ou don’ t
think about your name or your bank account; you don’ t even think aboutyour spouse and children. Y ou just are. Enlightenment extends that state and
deepens it. Y ou aren’ t burdened by having to remember who you are, ever
again. When I wake up in the morning I r emember who I am almost immediately. How does that change. By gradually shifting your allegiance. Consider how you relate to your
body. You mostly for get about it. Heartbeat, metabolism, body temperature,
electrolyte balance—literally dozens of processes go on automatically, and
your nervous system coordinates them perfectly without interference from
the conscious mind. Buddha suggests that you can let go of many things
that you’re certain you must control. Instead of devoting so much ef fort and
struggle to thinking, planning, running after pleasure, and avoiding pain,
you can surrender and put those functions on automatic, also. This is
accomplished gradually by a practice called mindfulness. You mean, I simply stop thinking. You stop investing yourself in thinking, because Buddha teaches that
you haven’ t been in control of your mind anyway. The mind is a series of
fleeting, impermanent events, and trying to ground yourself in
impermanence is an illusion. T ime is exactly the same, a sequence of
fleeting events that has no solid basis. Once you hear this teaching, you put
it into practice through mindfulness. Whenever you are tempted by the
illusion, you remind yourself that it’ s not real. In a way, a better term might
be re-mindfulness. The process of shifting your consciousness takes time. This is an
evolution, not a revolution. W e’re all pulled in by the temptation to choose
between A and B. Duality makes us believe that making good decisions and
avoiding bad ones is all-important. Buddha disagrees—he says that getting
out of duality is all-important, and you’ll never escape as long as you keep
burying yourself deeper into the game of “A-or -B. ” Reality isn’ t A or B. It’s both and it’ s neither. Mindfulness keeps you aware of that fact. How am I to understand “both and neither”. You can’ t, not with the mind. The mind is basically a machine that
processes the world only in terms of “I want this” and “I don’ t want that. ”
Buddha taught that you can step outside the machinery and simply watch it
working. Y ou witness the whole fantastic jumble of desires, fears, wishes,
and memories that is the mind. When you gain practice doing that in
meditation, things change. Y ou begin to be aware of yourself in a simpler
way, without so much mental jumble. In time your allegiance shifts, and the
space between thoughts—the silent gap—dominates instead of thoughts. Is that Nirvana. No, it’ s just a sign that you are successfully practicing mindfulness. The
silent gap between thoughts goes by too fast for anyone to live there. Y ou
have to give the gap a chance to expand, and at the same time silence
deepens. It may sound strange, but your mind can be silent the whole time
it’s also thinking. Ordinarily, silence and thought are considered opposites,
but when you go beyond opposites, they mer ge. Y ou identify with the
timeless source of thought rather than the thoughts emer ging from it. What advantage does this bring. Assuming I take the time and effort to
achieve such a state. One can speak of the advantages in glowing terms that sound very
alluring. Y ou gain peace; you no longer suf fer. Death no longer holds any
fear. You stand unshakably on your own Being. In reality the gains are
highly individual and proceed at their own pace. Everyone is in a dif ferent
state of unreality that’ s highly personal. I may be obsessive, while the
person next to me may be anxious and the person next to him depressed. In
meditation these knots of discord and conflict begin to unravel of their own
accord. Y et there’ s always an evolutionary unfolding. In your own way youwalk the path to peace, non-suf fering, fearlessness, and everything else
Buddha exemplified. From the outside this third way of following Buddha looks mystical, but
over time it becomes as natural as breathing. Buddhism survives today and
thrives all around the world because it is so open-ended. Y ou don’ t have to
obey a set of rules or worship God or the gods. Y ou don’ t even have to be
spiritual. All you have to do is look into yourself and yearn to become clear,
to wake up and be complete. Buddhism counts on the fact that everyone
possesses at least a bit of these motivations. Mindfulness and meditation
form the basis of Buddhist practice—although every sect and teacher has a
particular slant on them. Za-zen, the style of Buddhist meditation practiced
in Japan, isn’ t the same as V ipasana meditation in South Asia. In the end,
however, Buddhism is a do-it-yourself project, and that’ s the secret of its
appeal in the modern world. Don’ t we all ultimately concentrate on personal
suffering and what our individual fate will be. Buddha asked for nothing
else as a starting point, and yet he promised that the end point would be
eternity.
An enormous challenge, requiring a complete shift in consciousness.
What is the main challenge in accepting the concept that the entire world and everyone in it is an illusion?
The self cannot accomplish anything real and must find a way to disappear.
What is the primary message of Buddhism, according to the author?
To shed the separate self and attain a state of non-duality, where one is no longer burdened by personal desires and attachments.
What is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, according to the author?
To seduce the reader into seeing the world in a new light, by tracing Buddha's journey from being a separate self to the state of non-self.
What is the author's intention in writing the book about Buddha's life?
To shift one's allegiance and stop identifying with the mind's constant stream of thoughts, and instead focus on the timeless, silent space between them.
What is the key to achieving enlightenment, according to the author?