Free to Love weekend in San Francisco

Such profound sadness…

I stand in the shower, water running down my shoulders, back, legs…tears streaming down my face…

Huge, unbearable, purifying, sweet sadness… Read more

The Law of Least Effort

An integral being knows without going, sees without looking, and accomplishes without doing.

Lao Tzu

Listen to The Law of Least Effort class:

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About a month ago I was reading Candace Pert’s book “Molecules of Emotions”.

In one of the chapters she talks about her discovery of Peptide T, a brilliant new drug to treat AIDS. At the time of discovery, the only treatment option available was a highly toxic chemotherapy cocktail, that targeted the symptoms but not the virus itself. Candice and her partners had become more and more frustrated, as the medical community refused to consider Peptide T as the viable option. Paradoxically, the harder Dr. Pert and her colleagues tried, the more rejection they’ve encountered.

By chance of luck Candace Pert was introduced to Dr.Chopra at one of the meetings. Here is what she writes about their conversation:

“Deepak, I don’t know what’s going on. I have a brilliant drug that can save people’s lives. I’ve been working on it for years, and I can’t get in out the gate. What am I doing wrong?”

He listened carefully and then, gazing calmly and deeply into my eyes, gave me a stunning answer: “You are trying too hard!” he said and then smiled.

I took this in for a moment and then responded.

“Trying too hard? But I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

In the world I lived in, there was no such thing as “trying too hard”.

Two years later, as  Dr. Pert at last has secured financing for the clinical trials, she wrote: “True to Deepak’s diagnosis of my problem, the solution had come only when I had stopped trying.”

Here are three ways to bring the Law of Least Effort into your life;

• Practice Acceptance: “Today I will accept people, situations and circumstances as they are, not as I want them to be”
• Take Responsibility – doesn’t mean blaming yourself or anybody for current situation. It simply an ability to respond creatively to whatever arises.
• Become Defenseless: ever had a conversation with somebody in which you were trying to convince that person of something? Have you noticed that the harder you tried to get your point across, the more resistance you’ve encountered? It is a tremendous loss of energy for everybody involved, the energy that could be used for something positive and productive.

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The mantra for The Law of Least Effort is:

Om Daksham Namah.

I achieve maximum benefit with minimal effort.