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• SF Chronicle: How to win Pakistan’s culture war

  March 2nd, 2009

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  By Deepak Chopra and Salman Ahmad:

  Pakistan is a war zone, but its battle is far more cultural than military. The whole country realizes this fact and is holding its breath, hoping that President Obama will come to the same realization. As long as the United States pursues the futile military policy of the Bush years, the situation in Pakistan will grow increasingly dire.

  Catastrophe looms. Although Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, culture, not religion, is the glue that binds the souls of its people. But now the Taliban are grafting an alien form of Islam onto Pakistan. Earlier this month a weak Pakistani government, realizing that its frontier regions are completely out of control, was forced to make a deal. After countless pitched battles with the militants, they ceded a key area, the Swat Valley, to fundamentalist control.

  Imran Khan, formerly Pakistan’s greatest cricket star and now a political activist, appeared on CNN over the weekend with a desperate plea to the U.S. The points he made are crucial to understand:

  * The Taliban are extremists but they are not terrorists. Merging them with al-Qaeda was a serious mistake on the part of the U.S.

  * The bombs dropped from fly-over drones do little to stop the real terrorists but have destroyed civilian morale. As a result, the militants gain sympathy among the population. What was once a hated insurgency is steadily becoming a people’s revolution.

  * The frontier territories have reverted to tribalism and chaos. There are no police or law courts. The Pakistani army has lost to the militants.

  * The democratic honeymoon after General Musharraf gave up his power is over. The current government is seen as a bigger stooge of the U.S. than its military predecessors. Khan, and every other informed Pakistani, despairs over the blindness of the U.S. as it stubbornly does everything it can to increase the radicalization of the country. War has two children: sorrow and chaos. Both are running wild in Pakistan today.

  So what to do? The first thing is to realize that there is no military solution. The Soviet Union sent a massive force into Afghanistan, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and achieved nothing. The whole regional conflict will turn into Obama’s Vietnam unless he changes course drastically and soon.

  The next step is to realize your final goal. In this case, the final goal is to isolate al-Qaeda from the Taliban. Fundamentalists can be talked to. Dialogue can reduce tensions. Power sharing and compromise become possibilities. But as long as you equate the Taliban with the terrorists, there is no hope for peace and much risk that you will drive the two camps into each other’s arms. Imran Khan made a critical point when he said that the U.S. must begin to understand the people, in particular the Pashtuns who occupy the region shared by Afghanistan and Pakistan. Over 40 million strong, these tribes furnish an unlimited supply of young males to fight for the militants.

  To understanding these people, a basic fact must be known about Pakistan. For six turbulent decades as an independent state, Pakistan has been held together by its music, poetry, films, literature and sports. There is no hope of winning a military war, but the U.S. could win the culture war. The Taliban’s strict puritanism is widely hated as they forbid dancing, singing and the watching of television. They also suppress women, who make major contributions to culture — they are its heart and soul. The fanatics’ idea is simple: to strangle Pakistan’s rich and vibrant culture and replace it with a totalitarian brand of Islam.

  In short, the Taliban is a cultural enemy far more than a military one. Contrary to the Bush era, when Islam stood for a “clash of civilizations,” Obama needs to support, respect, and appreciate the value of Islamic culture. Keeping that culture alive will win the allegiance of moderate Muslims, but even beyond that, it will uphold the dignity, beauty, and worth of Muslim life everywhere.

  For the last twenty years, Pakistani music and pop culture has built a global following. The late Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan collaborated with Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam on Hollywood soundtracks. Pakistani rock bands and singers like Junoon, Strings, Jal and Atif Aslam have been huge draws in India, America and Europe. Last year Pakistani director Shoaib Mansoor’s movie “In the Name of God” became the first Pakistani film to be released in India. The film portrays the difficulties of being a liberal Muslim in Pakistan after 9/11 — something that will become harder if voices like Mansoor’s are silenced by radicalism.

  The U.S. has an important role to play. America must help strengthen Pakistani civil society — the artists, writers, humanitarians, rights activists and educators who have braved military dictators, corrupt politicians and religious fanatics. They are America’s natural allies against extremism. By promoting creative collaborations in film, television, fashion and music, the U.S. will empower the voices that the Taliban seek to silence. But with the Taliban creeping farther into Pakistan every day, that precious window of opportunity is closing fast.

  Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

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• NATURE OF LOVE

  February 24th, 2009

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• SF Chronicle: Our biggest ‘toxic asset’ ideology

  February 23rd, 2009

  2

  The government is trying to solve the problem of toxic assets that have infected America’s biggest banks. But apparently it hasn’t disinfected its own toxic asset — political ideology. It was ideology that made House Republicans vote against the first bailout in September, a bailout proposed by their own party. Ever since, the same ideological stubbornness has led to constant obstruction of any Democratic-endorsed plan to end the economic meltdown. Since time is of the essence, it’s a race between history and ideology at this point. Hanging over us is the memory of the Great Depression, when Republican obstruction was a constant, year after year, no matter how dire the economy became.

  What is ideology, and why does it have such a tight grip on the mind?

  In its simplest form, ideology is group think. Neocons on the right think alike, as do liberals on the left. Each has an ideology. The problem is that group think can become so rigid that it forbids actual thinking, which needs to be open and flexible. We hear euphemisms like “philosophy,” “tradition,” and “mind set” that cloud the problem and make it hard for people to admit that they are victims of rigid ideology. Many Republicans feel that they are opposing every rescue plan that involves government spending because it isn’t part of their philosophy to be big spenders. This flies in the face of reality, however. Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt, and the past eight years under George Bush repeated the feat through runaway spending led by House Republicans.

  The key point is that a philosophy opens your eyes to reality, while an ideology blinds you to reality. When ideology gains power, it forces blindness on others. North Koreans are starving but must still worship their benefactor, the “dear leader,” or else. (This recalls the Soviet Union seventy years ago, when starving Russians lived in “a workers’ paradise” and the mass murderer Stalin was benign “Uncle Joe.”) It becomes habitual for ideologues to turn suffering into a false rosy picture. Thus Iraq was touted by neocons as a fledgling democracy when in reality it was a killing ground for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

  Ideology freezes the mind. It substitutes a dogma for rational thought, and the dogma cannot be shaken. At this moment, free-market ideologues are unshakably wedded to permanent tax cuts that would beggar future government programs. Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican Party, absurdly declared that government has never created a single job. To an outsider, these are irrational lapses of the mind, but they are symptoms of a fixed ideology. If your dogma tells you that government is bad while creating jobs is good, then like a mathematical formula, government never creates jobs. How can bad create good?

  The toxic asset of ideology, when masked by power, can force dissenters to keep quiet. But by extending a hand to the right wing, President Obama is doing more than promoting bipartisanship. He’s running a reality check. So far, the Republicans have stuck to their ideology in the face of dire need in the country. They are turning the free market into a morality-free market. The suffering of ordinary citizens demands as a duty that government relieve that suffering. The moral choice couldn’t be clearer. But the embattled Republican minority feels that its only chance for survival is to wish failure on the stimulus, the rescue, the bailout, and Obama’s administration in general. There is another alternative, however. The right wing could actually help in restoring hope and prosperity to the shattered economy. To do that would mean abandoning, or at least altering, their ideology. Blindness isn’t the only way to live, but it is if you refuse to open your eyes.

  Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

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• Ask Deepak – Witnessing vs. Intervening

  February 6th, 2009

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  Question:
  I am trying to understand the balance in being the silence witness to my mind, (in just witnessing all it’s churning thoughts of insecurities etc. and knowing that it is not my true essence), verses taking what an insecurity says to me and working it through. An example is that I can witness my thoughts (and know they are just thoughts) regarding my fears of not being good enough, but should I not try to change this fear as well to grow as a person (by risking being vulnerable, open, honest etc.)?

  Answer:
  If I understand you correctly, you are trying to determine whether you should work on an issue like fear or low-self esteem primarily through the cultivation of your silent witness, or through a more active approach involving changes in behavior and beliefs. I believe both are needed, but because the awakening of the spiritual self has been so neglected in our society, and because it is the real foundation of self-esteem and fearlessness, I may tend to place more emphasis on it than on psychological modalities. However, the two practices are complementary and mutually supportive, so you don’t really have to decide between them.

  If we have deeply ingrained conditioning like phobias or limiting behavioral patterns, then it is helpful to use specific techniques to assist in clearing those blocks. Meditation awakens the silent witness value that will eventually wash all that away, but that can take a long time. The same rule applies to physical illness and imbalances—meditation will help improve the ability of the body to heal itself, but for chronic or acute situations, it is also important to intervene with physical treatment.
  Love,
  Deepak

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• Ask Deepak: Can Journaling Make Things Worse

  December 15th, 2008

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  Question:
  I have some confusion about the concept of journaling. I know that it is meant to be helpful and healing, but doesn’t it also cause us to focus on (in my case) negative thoughts and feelings that which we are writing about? And focussing on those things can cause them to become exactly what you fear? I would love to hear your opinion on this.
  Answer:
  Journaling can be a helpful process for those who need to gain perspective and some distance on their inner feelings and conditioning. When you write out your thoughts and emotions, you make them explicit and objectify them in a way that is not always easy to do when these thoughts are embedded in the background of the flow of your everyday life.

  Putting this material out on paper through journaling gives you a more powerful point of view with respect to these feelings. You can look at them more as the contents of your psyche, rather than having to trying to sort out your sense of self through the filter of those mental attitudes.  When you read what you have written down, you do so from a quieter, more uninvolved reference point inside. That inner reference is closer to your true Self, the  silent witness within, and so instead of magnifying the negativity, this attention will help you heal and unplug those patterns from their unconscious sources.
  Love,
  Deepak

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• Ask Deepak: Experience of Unity

  December 10th, 2008

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  Question:

  I think through my whole life I have always felt more then most. Sometimes this has been good, it allows me to communicate well and  is my secret skill, but equally I can feel when people are uncomfortable  or worse. When I was young this caused all sorts of issues, because my  reaction to people and situations was not always apparent. A few years  ago I had a profound experience. This experience seemed to manifest itself without any intention or goal of achievement. Before this and to this day I live my life as an average working Joe enjoying the simpler things.
  I was working outdoors on a summer afternoon and had stopped to rest at the foot of a large pine tree. I suddenly had a sense of everything, it is a very difficult experience to explain, it instantly changed my understanding of reality. For months after I had a persistent sense of peace, synchronicity and knowing.  I feel uncomfortable talking to people about this as everyone wants a concrete definition not an abstraction. Is this a common way these things are revealed?
  Answer:
  This is exactly how the unity of life is revealed—in a simple moment of communing with nature, the underlying connection of all things can shine through. Your natural intuitive sensitivity can be an advantage in apprehending this reality of peace which lies just beyond the limits of the five senses.
  Love,
  Deepak

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• I Take The Vow: Personal Transformation Tools – How to Keep the Vow

  December 3rd, 2008

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  How to keep the vow

  Since we started the itakethevow.com web site only a few weeks ago, we have had over 3000 people take the vow for nonviolence. A number of questions though have come up on how to keep the vow.

  I will try to address some of these questions here:

  Q. What does nonviolence in thought and speech mean in everyday situations?
  A. It means simply reminding yourself that you have made a commitment and that you have taken this vow. When the situation arises and your tendency is to be reactive, a simple reminder will often prevent you from generating a hostile reaction and by and by you will find yourself creating and calmer more creative response in subsequent situations.

  Q. How is the vow supposed to work in difficult or life-threatening situations?
  A. In difficult life-threatening situations you must respond instinctually to protect yourself. I would like to give you two personal stories as examples. The first is an incident that occurred when my daughter Mallika was only 6-weeks old. We were living in a tenement apartment in a very poor section of Boston. I was a resident in Internal Medicine at Boston City Hospital. My wife Rita had gone to the grocery store and I was baby-sitting. Mallika was in a little basket next to me and I was reading a medical journal. The doorbell rang and when I opened it a 6’ 11’’man suddenly entered the apartment wielding a baseball bat in his gigantic hands. I let out the loudest scream in my life. It was so piercing and shrill I’m surprised it didn’t shatter all the glass in the place. The baseball bat fell from his hands. Without thought, I instinctively picked it up and hit him in the back. The next thing I knew, he was crumpled on the floor and police sirens were wailing outside. It turns out he had just escaped from prison where he had been incarcerated for multiple murders.

  The police handcuffed him and took him back to prison. The next day my photo appeared in the local newspaper as a hero.
  The second situation occurred only five years ago. After giving a lecture in a Southern city, I was walking back to my hotel through a dark alley behind a theater. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by four male teenagers. One of them had a gun which he held against my head. This time, I remained calm and centered. It had been approximately 30 years since the first encounter with violence and I had been practicing meditation for much of that time. I took out my wallet gave my terrorist “friends” all the cash I had. Then I found myself saying to them “You don’t want to be in prison for murder for just a $150. Will you please allow me to keep my credit cards as they will be of no use to you? If you throw the gun away and run as fast as you can, I promise you I will tell no one about this episode except my wife.” They hesitated, and I said “Please throw the gun away, and run quickly.” The apparent leader of the group then threw his gun away, and they ran off. The next day I went to an ATM and took out $150 to replace the cash. I kept my promise and did not tell anyone but my wife about this episode for 6 months. If you stay connected to your soul the right response will occur as it needs to happen.

  Q. When we say “nonviolence,” it still contains the word “violence,” shouldn’t we say take a vow of “peace” instead?
  A. The vow of non-violence is a vow of peace. It amounts to the same thing. Whatever language one chooses there are bound to be certain pitfalls associated with it. As we know, people have tried to justify war and violence in the name of peace as well. I see the vow of nonviolence in terms of the Sanskrit word Ahimsa, which is anactive interaction with others and nature on the basis of the spiritual unity which connects us all. So nonviolence is not passive, but active in a nurturing way. Ahimsa describes behavior that respects and supports all who are involved. It assumes a universality the way that the greeting namaste recognizes that the divinity in others is the same as the divinity within us.
  When we see, feel and know that consciousness that we are all a part of, then becoming a peacemaker comes naturally, and compassion, joyfulness, and friendliness towards others is just an expression of who we are.

  Q. Isn’t nonviolence too naïve and impractical of an approach to our complex world?
  A. The world is a projection of our collective consciousness. If enough of us are nonviolent, the world will be more peaceful. The psychological frame of “impractical” reflects history of past failures based on limited consciousness, so by its very nature that framing cannot fathom emerging potentialities.
  It is the very notion that it is a naïve and impractical idea that prevents us from creating this peaceful reality.

  Q. Isn’t war and violence built-in to human nature?
  A. War and violence is built into human nature. It has been part of the struggle for survival in our evolution. The problem is that when you have the combination of ancient habits of violence and modern technological capacities then you see devastating effects. A handful of people in Mumbai created this devastation recently. We see it everywhere in the world and read about it everyday in the media. Jonas Salk the discoverer and of the polio vaccine, and great evolutionary thinker, said, “ Survival of the fittest must be replaced by survival of the wisest.” He suggested this as the next stage of humanity’s evolutionary growth.
  The time has come where we must collectively participate in the next state of evolution from our violent nature into our wise and peaceful nature or else we will not survive.

  Q. I’m afraid that taking a vow of nonviolence will mean that people will take advantage of me.
  A. You are coming from fear. That is living your life based on the past. Come from love and trust and you will access you real strength and power from where no one can take advantage of you.

  Q. What good can come of promising to behave better than your actual ability? Isn’t it like priests vowing celibacy, repressing and thereby empowering their shadow side impulses?
  A. If you take the vow, you must seriously ask yourself if you are ready for it. Personally, when I took the vow myself, I thought I was ready for it. Having recently come under attack in the media I find myself getting combative and defensive. I observed this response of mine and have tried to use that insight to understand myself better and thereby strengthen and mature my nonviolent behavior.

  When I look deeper into my heart , I find no malice or hostility toward my attackers. I did experience anger, expressed it, and then let it pass, reminding myself that I had taken the vow. Anger as an natural expression (as long as you don’t cause physical harm) can sometimes be a healthy emotion, and repressing or denying it only distorts the normal human response. It is important to find a healthy, creative and constructive outlet for emotions.
  There is a difference between anger and hostility. Hostility is when you seek vengeance and want to maliciously hurt another person. It is now known to be the number one emotional risk factor for premature death from cardiovascular accidents such as heart attack and stroke.

  In summary, do not commit to the vow if you seriously think that you cannot observe any aspect of it. On the other hand if you feel ready for the next stage of evolution then take the vow and do what comes to you most naturally, while remembering that you did take the vow. This isn’t meant to be grim, life or death oath to bind your soul to. It is intended to be a expression of the emerging truth of you real Self, so have fun, laugh, and be light-hearted about it at the same time. You are right that repression and suppression are definitely pathological and can perpetuate violence. This vow is certainly not about squashing healthy emotions to try to live some imaginary spiritual ideal. Be easy, stay conscious and enjoy life.

  Q. I like the idea of making nonviolence a guiding principle in my life, but I am vow-phobic. Can I participate in being a part of this global effort without having to make a formal vow?
  A. Even if you aren’t comfortable taking the vow formally but are dedicated to nonviolence, then you are still participating in this global effort on the level of your consciousness, and that of course is the most powerful contribution we can make. Feel free to participate in whatever way that feels right to you. Some affirm their intention without saying the word “vow” others feel better using the word “peace,” some just like saying “I am” as their way of participating in this collective shift in global consciousness. So find whatever way joining the effort that resonates with you.

  Q. What is it about stating one’s intentions explicitly by taking a vow that is supposed help actualize nonviolent behavior?
  A. By stating the vow of nonviolence explicitly and asking those who are close to you to remind you when you are deviating from those principles of nonviolence, accelerates the process of evolution. Recently when I found myself being combative as a result of the personal attacks in the Wall Street Journal , my wife and children kept reminding me I had taken the vow. I found that very useful in mitigating my aggressive tendencies.

  Q. Do I have to be vegetarian to take the vow?
  A. We are all part of the food chain. The Upanishads say “ We are tomorrows food.” Eating habits are based on culture, geography and influenced by religion. It is well know that if you give only vegetarian food to indigenous Inuit people, who have survived for eons on whale blubber, you will quickly see the deleterious effects of switching to a vegetarian diet. They become uncharacteristically ill-tempered, their teeth decay, and the incidence of heart attacks increases dramatically. Another study published in Lancet years ago showed that when people were forced to switch to a vegetarian diet because they had high risk factors for heart disease, but were not prepared emotionally and psychologically for the change, their rate of heart attacks actually increased rather than decreased.

  In general, it is obvious that a vegetarian diet is healthier, it is better for ecology, and less violent on life as a whole. However, what is best for us as an individual cannot be dictated by general principles or statistics. You must do what you are emotionally and psychologically prepared to do. Childhood habits that are culturally ingrained can be difficult to break, and their impact cannot always be overridden by will power, nor from a health standpoint should they necessarily be overridden. Find the path that works best for you. Being a non-vegetarian should not prevent you from taking the vow.
  Love,
  Deepak

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• Personal Transformation Tools: Purpose of Creation – Part I

  November 25th, 2008

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  Deepak Chopra discusses the topic of creation, its purpose and our role in it. …
  

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• How to be happy in a recession

  November 19th, 2008

  2

  Deepak Chopra in the San Francisco Chronicle

  

  When a box turtle is crossing the road and it hears a car coming, it reacts by drawing in its head and feet, contracting for protection. Evolution has kept turtles alive for hundreds of millions of years that way. What works as a natural defense isn’t much use, though, when a Yukon or Explorer is barreling toward you. There are times when contracting inward is the very worst thing you can do.

  That’s true now in the recession that economists see barreling toward us — the road noise has gotten alarmingly loud already. But as the economy contracts, we must resist our natural reflex to contract with it. Instead, we need to do the opposite. Expansion is the best way to survive any crisis.

  The lesson should have sunk in after 9/11, when the whole country learned what it means to contract with fear, anxiety, suspicion, and distrust. We felt threatened by a vast, unseen enemy, which was magnified as large as fear itself.

  Fear deprives people of choice. Fear shrinks the world into isolated, defensive enclaves. Fear spirals out of control. Fear makes everyday life seem clouded over with danger.

  A lot of people are approaching the economy that way, and not enough leaders are warning them that it’s the worst possible reaction.

  To be happy in a recession means, first and foremost, resisting all the threats that fear possesses. Don’t obsess anxiously over what you could lose. Don’t reduce your world to a bank account or a 401k. Isn’t there an upside to losing some “consumer buying power”? To be honest, we went too far with consumerist mania. By any measure this is an inordinately rich country, and instead of mourning sagging profit margins, can’t we use the current slowdown to ask what makes for true personal happiness?

  Relationship. Gratitude. Appreciation. Compassion. Mutual regard. Strong social connections. Love you can trust.

  I don’t know why it takes a crisis to bring out those fundamental human qualities. But it often does. We all realize that the next video game, the next new car, the next flat-screen TV means nothing compared to the rewards of relating to other people. Yet we live as if the opposite is true. The pursuit of happiness is blocked just as much by indulgent over-consumption as by an economic downturn. More, in fact. An impoverished country like Nigeria recently scored number one in a survey of the happiest countries on earth, while the U.S. has never broken the top ten in any such survey.

  Some may protest that expanding and becoming more human is all well and good if you have a job but totally unrealistic if your livelihood is threatened. I don’t think so. Whatever happens, the worst-off will be the ones who need more compassion, kindness, and relating to. They will need real coping skills, not a show of group pity.

  There’s a lot more to say about how to be happy in a recession, but the main thing is to remind yourself that it’s possible. Refuse to contract just because the economy does. You have the tools to be happy in the worst of times. They’re just hidden under the box your new iPhone came in.

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