PNTV - The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson.

More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got the great book, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. Awesome book. One of the most transformative books I've ever read. I'm excited to share one of the biggest ideas that I've learned in my life and that has transformed my life and actually led to the creation of Philosopher's Notes. We've got this great book, the six page PDF Philosopher's Note. Let's jump in. So Deepak Chopra is one of my favorite teachers, favorite authors, and this is one of two books that we profiled in the top 100. We also did the Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire. Both are awesome. Actually, all of Deepak's books are great. But let's get to this 1. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Super simple, super easy to read, yet densely packed with wisdom books. I jokingly describe this one as one of the most densely packed books word for word. It's extraordinary. I put James Allen's As a Man Thinketh in that category as well and a few others. But the seven Spiritual Laws of Success, I will go through them quickly. Number one, the law of pure Potentiality. We are pure potential. We are the divine, the radiant essence of the power that created our universe. Pure potentiality. Law number two is the law of giving. Right. We want to get into the habit of giving that which we want to receive in our lives. Law number three is the law of karma, which ultimately comes down to we have a choice in any given moment to plant good seeds or to plant.

Not so good seeds.

But the universe is going to return what we plant. We're going to reap what we sow. The law of Karma. Law number four is the law of least effort. Deepak says that grass doesn't try to grow. Birds don't try to fly, they just fly. Grass just grows. There's a lot of least effort we want to engage in and he's got some ideas on how to do that. Law number five is the law of intention and desire. Everything starts from intention. Setting the intention of our lives and who we are, what we want to create in our lives and in the world. And moment to moment to moment. And being in integrity with that intention is huge and that catalyzes so much. Law number six is the law of detachment. Having a desire, having clear intention, but being unattached, detached from the outcome. Passionate in our pursuit to create and be in aligned with our intention. But not attached to the outcome. Huge idea. I'll let you know when I figure out how to actually do that. Trying it out. It's a fun process. And law number seven is the law of Dharma. This idea that we all have a purpose in our lives, right? Extraordinarily big. I'm actually going to start with that one. The Law of Dharma. So I was reading this book about three years ago. I was taking a couple weeks off of the business that I was running at that time, called zods.com and letting my team run the business. And I was just reading, and I found myself reading a few extraordinary books, and this was one of them. A couple other ones were the Way the Superior man and Four Hour Workweek.

Awesome books.

Highly recommend them. But I was reading this, and I can remember where I was in my place in Santa Monica at the time when I read his seventh spiritual law of success, the Law of Dharma. And he asked the question, he said, if you have all of the time, if you had all the time and all of the money in the world, all of the time and all of the money in the world, what would you do? The idea here is that we have a unique set of gifts, a unique constellation of gifts and experiences that we're here to give to the world that make us this extraordinary human being that can do something that no one else in the world can do. And one of the leading questions he asks is that if you had all the time and all the money in the world, what would you do? And I remember sitting there and it was the first time for me in years where my answer was obvious. Right up until that time, I was passionately running my business. It was awesome. I was totally feeling it. And I was starting to get a little bit, not quite as feeling that it was quite my dharmic path to continue to do what I was doing. But I read that question. It just totally stopped me in my tracks. And I realized that if I had all the time and all the money in the world, I wouldn't be running that business. And I paused and thought about it for quite a while that day. And then over the course of the next 15, 20, 30 days, decided to sell the business I was running at the time. Within 30 days of that, the business was sold. The money was in the bank, and all the teams, the teams were being integrated. Everything was moving forward on that front. And I opened up to the possibility of what led to me doing the Philosopher's notes. At the time, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Other than wasn't quite what I was doing. And I wanted to study life. And I quickly realized I wanted to give myself a PhD in how to live, optimal living. And I couldn't find a program and integrated everything that I wanted to study. As you know, if you've watched these before of philosophy and mysticism and positive psychology and creativity and business and wealth creation and all this stuff. So I decided to give myself my own PhD and then I figured I'd get a master's when I had distilled a hundred of my favorite books into summaries. And I wanted to share them with my friends and I wanted to get paid to do them. I wasn't exactly sure how that would come to fruition. And then I was on a flight from Tokyo to back to the States with Alexander. We traveled for about five weeks, going to India and Thailand and Cambodia and Japan. And then we were flying back home. And I had these ideas of the PhD and the Masters. And then I was sitting there and I opened up a sky mall and I literally opened it up to a two page advertisement for a business that was doing summaries, business books. And their slogan was concentrated knowledge for the busy executive. And I had one of those, like, alleluia moments of total goosebumps and epiphany of, wow, this is how it all comes together. This is how I can integrate spirituality and capitalism. Get paid to learn and get paid to give myself a PhD and give myself to the world and live my dharma. It was one of those surreal moments in my life that happened because I asked myself that question. I honestly realized that what I was doing wasn't an answer to that question. I stepped into the unknown, not having any assurance of what was going to be on the other side, but kept on following what little bliss. Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. And then it just kind of opened up into that awareness, which was on January 2, 2008, or something like that. Yeah, two years ago. Just over two years ago. And here we are. Philosopher's notes. So the law of Dharma. I firmly believe that we each have unique skills we can give to the world. And this is what Deepak is talking about here in a huge, super powerful way. So if you had all the time and all the money in the world, what would you do? Press, pause, journal about that? Think about it. Live that question. Because there's something that you have that you can give to the world in a way that no one else can give. And I firmly believe, and I agree with Deepak that we really have almost a moral obligation to discover what those gifts are and give them most fully to the world. So that's the law of Dharma. I went off on that deliberately. Hopefully you enjoyed. And I'm excited to hear what you come up with and how your life reflects that in the months and years and decades ahead. Share with me what you come up with. So what else do you want to cover? I love the law of giving. This is a really cool one, this idea that we want to get in the habit of giving. Deepak says, never go anywhere without giving something. And it could be a physical gift or a flower or a certain thing that you think that the person that you're going to see would enjoy. Or it could just be a silent gift of praise or gift of love to someone as you're walking by on the street or whatever it is. But getting in the gift giving habit, either in our minds or in physical reality, is a huge idea. I love that. And then just giving that which we want to see, if we want to see more love in our lives, give more love, whatever is lacking, find a way that you can give that joy, that happiness in the world. It's really cool. Another big idea. If we want to tap into the first law of pure potentiality, the quickest and most powerful way to do that is through stillness, is through meditation. It's through sitting and finding silence, whether it's in meditation or in hikes, in nature. But something that we can do that's unplugged from the Internet, that's unplugged from our cell phones and text messaging and just us in stillness, that's one of the most powerful ways we can connect to that law of pure potentiality. Really big stuff. What else? So much here again. If you haven't read the book, check it out. Get it. I think you'll also dig the note. What else do we want to talk about? We've got another 30 seconds, which is quickly going well. How about we just leave it at that? We will leave it at that for now. Hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. And again, check out the book. Super, super cool. If this resonated with you, I think you'll love it. And check out the note. Otherwise, have an awesome day. Here's to living your dharma and look forward to sharing more with you soon. Alright, see you.

Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that Philosopher's Notes TV episode. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson. Me two basic things. One our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome and 2 our optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes when you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas for from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, et cetera. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.