Deepak Chopra's 4 Meditation Techniques (VIDEO)

Comments

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:03 AM on 07/27/2011

This guy is a WOO WOO.

[HeevenSteven]

09:19 AM on 07/22/2011

What, no Quantum?

[aFtersootdamP]

01:11 AM on 07/22/2011

This is the stuff chopra knows a lot about.

[Saijanai]

01:28 AM on 07/22/2011

Of course he does .

"I learned everything I know from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi" (which is why I contradict his teachings with every money-making word I speak).

[Jimmy Goodman]

11:48 AM on 07/22/2011

Anyone who knows Maharishi's knowledge of consciousness sees that the fundamentals of Deepak's approach, even the language and phrases he uses, came straight from Maharishi's revival of practice and theory -- especially Deepak's most powerful ideas that launched him into public awareness in the 80s.

But Deepak over the years has spread out and embraced the language and practices common throughout the New Age scene, represented in the above video. Not to criticize him, because he's doing some good for people. But I think he's lost some of the clarity and understanding he got from Maharishi, about transcending and experiencing pure awareness. He doesn't even mention transcending in the above video, even though in the Vedic tradition, transcending is the most powerful and life-transforming of all meditative states.

He mentions the word 'transcendence' but uses it generically and generally, and from the description he gives it's clear he's not referring to transcendental consciousness (the 4th state, turiya) but to an active, focused state of mind in waking state consciousness. He seems to be going for the most general audience, but forsaking what is most beneficial to people: the process of going beyond or transcending the realm of thinking and feeling and imagining, to experience the deepest, most silent level of awareness, pure transcendental Being.

[budanatr]

12:13 PM on 07/22/2011

Good job.
And the TM folks make their appearance as usual.

[gcarl]

05:55 PM on 07/29/2011

buda, I didn't know we had a TM infestation :) Seems to be some cultlike rigidities. See my permalink today, where I copied a guy's quote that the ultimate idolatry is worship of belief.

[Blackorpheus]

12:35 AM on 07/22/2011

Chopra is a veritable Tony Robbins.

[ThinkCreeps]

11:03 PM on 07/21/2011

Four techniques? You stare at and fixate on the dollar bill from the top, bottom, short edge, long edge?

[Rosie Green]

10:37 PM on 07/21/2011

I love Deepak. You guys leave him alone. I love his books and read them all.

[Saijanai]

11:29 PM on 07/21/2011

I used to do volunteer PR work for him. So nyah nyah.

[exxman]

07:12 PM on 07/24/2011

Ego?

[jax56]

09:53 PM on 07/21/2011

Tell us about physics, Poptop.

[buggeroffyou666]

09:44 PM on 07/21/2011

Oh good. More nonsense from this long ago discredited snake oil salesman charlatan.

[BurtonDesque]

08:33 PM on 07/21/2011

1. Lie
2. Use "Quantum" wrongly a lot.
3. Word Salad
4. Profit

[Scottsman]

07:31 PM on 07/21/2011

What Chopra is peddling is quantum gibberish.

[Saijanai]

06:35 PM on 07/21/2011

Chopra was the front man for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's revival of Indian Medicine back in the 80's. He finally decided that he could make more money by striking out on his own, whereupon he rewrote all his books that extolled the practice of Transcendental Meditaiton over all other forms of meditation, to be more in-line with the New Age crowd. When he was the official Maharishi Ayurveda spokesman, he would charge $10,000 per appearance + expenses. The $10,000 was made out to the Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation, a non-profit organization he had set up to promote ayurveda. The New Age community constantly denounced him and his efforts as being greedy.

These days, he easily charges 2+x that much, and the money goes to him and/or his Chopra Foundation, a for-profit business. Chopra brags about how he donates 10% to charity and all his New Age colleagues now praise him to high heaven.

Meanwhile, the David Lynch Foundation, arranges for donations to teach kids in ghetto schools how to meditate TM-wise. The TM teacher provides a structured program with a 1 year followup in the school and a lifetime free followup for anyone who ever learned TM. The cost per student for the David Lynch Foundation is $600.. The TM teacher takes that as salary and the New Age community denounces them as money grubbers.

Chopra meanwhile, laughs all the way to the bank.

[budanatr]

12:15 PM on 07/22/2011

Good for you. A TM person putting down Dr. Chopra on the money issue.

Wow. So funny.

[Saijanai]

12:38 PM on 07/22/2011

Dude, its not the money. Its what you DO with the money. The umbrella TM organization is legally bound to spend its income on projects related to its charter. That is ALL it does with the money. The highest-paid person that I am aware of in any of the affiliated organizations is John Hagelin, who makes $100K per year. THe rest of the money, while not necessarily spent *wisely* goes directly to the various projects. Chopra used to be smack dab in the middle of that. He decided to make his own way, doing his own thing, and everyone is oh-so-pleased with him while denouncing the organization that he was educated through. His knowledge of Ayurveda came out of his association with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In his autobiography, he describes this process, but, interestingly enough, while you can purchase audio tapes of excerpts of his auto-biography, his websites don't promote the actually book itself because it is too contradictory to the official Chopra message.
I, and many other people, helped create the PR that allowed Chopra to become well known. We did it with the intent of promoting a specific set of techniques and practices. Chopra decided to use his newfound publicity to re-invent himself as a New Age guru. This is his right, but it still rankles.

[exxman]

07:18 PM on 07/24/2011

Yes. It just makes you want to run right to a TM teacher doesn't it? I'm hearing a lot of ego expression going on, "My guru's better than your guru." Apparently enlightenment is not the goal of the TM practice.

[Nate35]

06:24 PM on 07/21/2011

Meditation is a great tool for personal exploration and development, but Deepak is an unapologetic hack, get your advice somewhere else.

[Newfoundlander]

03:38 PM on 07/21/2011

Does the person in the video look like he is not aging? He's the author of "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" which is more properly titled "Aging Body, Shameless Mind". He must have discovered a way to make money off meditation.

[Mason Jason]

03:17 PM on 07/21/2011

I like this guy but I heard he's gone all political. If true, that's sad.

[Ami Toben]

01:34 PM on 07/21/2011

I have an even better technique for transcendent meditation. It involves listening to the nonsensical babblings of Deepak Chopra and allowing their Zen-like tedium to bore me out of my mind and transcend me into a relaxing sleep.

[Jimmy Goodman]

11:53 AM on 07/22/2011

Unfortunately, Deepak dosn't advocate Transcendental Meditation anymore, but these other same-old same-old techniques.