PNTV: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes by Deepak & Gotham Chopra (#161)

Foreign. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, a Fun 1. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes. Deepak Chopra with his son Gautam Chopra. It's kind of a mashup of Deepak's seven Spiritual Laws of success. Fantastic book. We've got a note and an episode on that and his son Gautam Chopra's passion for superheroes and comic books and all that good stuff. Really good book. Fun philosopher's note with a bunch of big ideas. Here are five of my favorites. Let's jump straight in. Big idea number one. Superheroes rise to the occasion. So look at any of your favorite superhero stories. Whether it's ancient Greek or Indian culture or modern day blockbuster movies. What happens? You have some demon or some evil creature or some aliens come and attack our civilization. Something goes wrong, very wrong. Most people are responding and panicking and there's chaos that's created. But what does our superhero do? Our superhero sees those challenges as a call to action. They aren't flailing, panicking with everybody else. They're calmer than ever. They're making sure that their equipment, their costume is ready to go and they're ready to rock. It's a call to action. They rise to the occasion. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the response from them. They don't curl up in bed and give up and wail and complain and blame and criticize. They do something. It's a very big idea. We want to be superheroes in our lives. So if you haven't noticed, there are a few things in our world that aren't quite optimal. What do we do about it? A lot of people panic and they get into the chaos and they criticize and they complain and blah, blah, blah, blah. What we want to do is see it as a call to action, a call to our own. Rising to the occasion. Big idea number one. Rise to the occasion. I like it. Alright. Second big idea. Superheroes live their ideals. It's related. Superheroes aren't sitting here preaching. Pardon me for preaching right now. Preaching and saying this is what you should do. They, they're out doing it. Their costumes on, they're flying out the window. They're out doing what needs to get done. They're not telling people what should be done. They're doing it right. Big idea. The world needs demonstration more than it needs instruction. Wallace Waddle said, really cool idea. So we want to live our ideals passionately. That's what superheroes do. Big idea number two. The Third big idea is a good one. Impulses versus process. So we all have moments of inspiration. An impulse of inspiration. Wow. I want to do something great. Right? The superhero is committed to the process. Eknath Eswaron has a great, great phrase he talks about in Sanskrit. Apparently there's a phrase that talks about a hero in the beginning. In his context is spirituality and meditation. So he talks about. A lot of people start their meditation practice with huge fanfare, trumpets blaring, just awesomeness. They announced to the world, I'm doing this. Right? They're a hero. Then what he says is the moment it gets difficult. And that might be two days later or two weeks later or two months later or two years later. Right. It's no longer quite as fun. He says they tiptoe out the back door. They're heroes in the beginning. We don't want to be heroes in the beginning and then give up. That's impulses. We want to embrace the process. So you've heard me say a ton of times, I'm going to keep on saying it. Process is primary. It's really, really, really, really easy to get fired up. It's an entirely different thing to sustain that inspiration. Superheroes a la Deepak and Gotham sustain that. They have processes. Deepak talks about the specific process of creativity that superheroes engage in. Right. Modern superheroes. But think about that. It's easy to get fired up. It's a lot more challenging to sustain that. We want to be focused on the process, not these ups and downs and ups and downs. Another great idea that I share in the note this idea that a creative person versus a creative producer, creative person versus creative producer. The difference between a creative person and a creative producer is hard work. It takes work to be a superhero. You got to show up consistently, whether you feel like it or not. Process is primary. Fourth big idea. We've got to work out our vision muscles. Superheroes have good vision. They can see what they want. They have a very clear and deep sense of their purpose. Their orientation to the world is powerful. They know what they want to see. They know what their ideal world looks like, and they fight to preserve it. Right. Challenges come in. They have a deep purpose. They can see those obstacles as just part of the process, part of a good story. Well, you only can orient that way if you have a very clear sense of who you are and what's important to you and a vision for what you want to create in the world. So we want to work on our vision muscles. How do you do that? Well, one of the best ways to do that is to turn off your tv, turn off the talk radio on the way to work and think. Turn off the TV at night and read and journal and contemplate. Start your day a little earlier with some meditation. Let the big superhero divine intelligence come through you in those moments of silence. Take the jumper cables off your brain. We've been talking a lot about that phrase from Stephen King, right? Slow down and contemplate and journal and write and think. Go for long walks, cultivate your vision muscles. You're not going to cultivate your vision muscles if you're constantly reacting to an unending stream of emails and social feeds and TV shows and movies and stimulation. You got to slow down, unplug to see the bigger picture. That's the fourth big idea. Fifth big idea is love and the superhero or super questions. So Deepak tells us that love is the ultimate superpower. Love is the ultimate superpower. The ultimate super question is superhero. Question is, how can I serve? How can I serve? Ultimately, the call to action is how can I serve? The question is not what's in it for me? The hero's journey is not. Is actually a journey from what's in it for me to how can I serve? Look at all the great heroes stories that go on and you see oftentimes a narcissistic self centered hero in the beginning, immature, whose primary question is not how can I serve? It's what's in it for me? And as they evolve, the question becomes how can I serve? How can I give back? How can I use my gifts in service to the world? How can I make my greatest superpower? Love and service, that's where we want to wind up. So think about that. How can you serve? And again, it doesn't need to be huge. Can be. But let that be an extension of your little tiny microcosmic service for your family and for your local community and let that kind of ripple out rather than manically chasing the big thing. Because the big thing is often you looking for something that you can get out of it. It's your fame and your fortune and all this other stuff, your celebrity status. Focus on the little bits of opportunities we have day in and day out to serve profoundly and then let that grow, rise to the occasion. When life is challenging, we step up. A good story has challenges. Recognize that too. No good hero's journey is devoid of challenges. Stated positively, all heroes journey have dragons, not lizards. The hero isn't going out sidestepping a lizard. That's not challenging. Heroes battle dragons, big scary demons, same with us. And when those demons and those dragons confront us, we don't need to wilt. That's when we step up. That's when we rise to the occasion. That's when we see it as a call to action. To put all the stuff that we're so passionate about into practice. Embrace those challenges. Embrace. Live your ideals. Don't talk about it, be it, do it, demonstrate it. And again, it's easy to get fired up. It's an entirely different thing to sustain that over an extended period of time. We don't want to be heroes in the beginning, we want to be heroes throughout. And of course we're going to have self doubt and times we give up, etc. Etc. Fine, dust yourself off, get back up and go and crush it again. Focus on the process. Vision muscles, you got to cultivate them. What do you want? Who are you? What's important to you? You can't do that if you're constantly plugged into the matrix of absurdity. Unplug. See the bigger picture. And remember, the ultimate superpower is love. The ultimate superpower question is, how can I serve? So there you go. How can you serve? Think about how you can do that today. How do you serve today? Consciously, deliberately. And make that a deeper part of who you are day in and day out. Let's get on that. Let's embrace our superhero powers and hope you have another awesome day. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. See you.