It's not all genetics, it's also your choices

Remember, in all those moments when you want to rationalize away your health issues, that: you are in power of your body and not beholden to genetic determinism. As Deepak Chopra explains, "You are in a constant conversation with every cell in your body..."

Furthermore, he insists: "This post is too short for me to detail how such a revolutionary change occurred in genetic thinking, so I will only point to the findings of Dr. Dean Ornish, the country's most respected advocate for heart prevention, which indicate that improving your diet, exercise and stress levels leads to improved genetic output from 400 to 500 genes."

In conclusion, this means that, "you can be the controller of your body's trillions of cells, and the control switch lies in consciousness."

Read the rest of Chopra's HuffPo article here.

Feeling so very loved...

sA

Love is..?

Originally published in Huffington Post (feel free to comment there or here):

Krishnamurti defines love as the intense will, resolve, and determination for liberation from samsara (the round of births and deaths), and for union with God. And Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition, defines love in one instance as "the expansion of the self to include others" in the viral YouTube video "The Revolution is Love" (which I highly recommend viewing in its 5 minute entirety below). Tying these two definitions is a love predicated on the dissolution of the self, the me, the I, a "perfect unselfishness" (as Krishnamurti called it)---whether it be in the service of and gifting to others or the will to be one with God. It is interesting then, when we look at the cultural manifestation of romantic love---in movies, music, poetry--- that we would be compelled to possess and own the other, or a depend on the other to provide that love one must build within to gift to others..."Baby I want you," "I can't quit you," "I need you," "Please come back to me, I NEED you. I am alone without you," etc...These "yous" that are NEEDED by "me" are usually humans, sometimes, as in the case of Rumi, Hafez, and others, they have been metaphors for that will to be one with God. And as one of my spiritual guides reminds us "Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love." So what is the appeal of associating love with possession and ownership? How have we come to be compelled with this application of "love"? Can this even be love?

There are no shortage of definitions of love, so why did I think to put the two in conversation with each other? For me, these two definitions do not just create a crossroads of meaning when intersected but more so, the saliency of the connection is that one is a mircocosm standing in for the macrocosm. How can we hope to perfect that consummate unselfishness to merge with One, if we can't first practice that with other humans? Why should we even be qualified to receive to the peace, love, mercy and grace of God, if we cannot even be that for the other? Krishnamutri closes his section on love (one of the four qualifications on the Pathway) by asserting, "For if you yearn to be one with God, it is not for your own sake; it is that you may be a channel through which his love may flow to reach your fellows."

And this is my lifeblood...

Deepak Chopra on "Science, Consciousness & God"

DEEP. 

"Consciousness explains physical laws but physical laws do not explain consciousness."

"Selective attention and intention is an attribute of consciousness."

"What is the most primal experience of life that we have? It is our subjective experience of reality. and this reality is within consciousness."

"Pure consciousness is infinite possibilities."

One thing---Nothing---Everything

A Sufi once said: "Every religion serves a Divine purpose. Hinduism
teaches us how to master the body. Buddhism teaches us how to master
the mind. Judaism teaches us how to master the intellect. Christianity
teaches us how to master the heart. Islam teaches us how to master the
soul."

word to 108. 

On Spirituality & Religion

Although it can be problematic to see the two as isolated binaries, I once had a friend brilliantly characterize the difference between spirituality and religion:

Spirituality is an experience with the Divine

Religion is an explanation of that experience.

Drool...

At Diwan Heliopolis in Cairo

I got my copy of "I Speak For Myself"---the book I contributed to...

And look at who is reading it right now...

This might have something to do with it...meaning look who's name is above my head:

So the question is, do you have yours? You can either pre-order it for a dramatically reduced price through our website (www.ispeakformyself.com) or through me for a reasonably reduced price (apparently I need to work on this whole saleswoman thing).

My interview with DJ Halal on One Legacy Radio

It's clickable!

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Thanks to DJ Halal for inviting me on and for designing a great set of questions.

"Me, we."

-Muhammad Ali