24th
Some wisdom from a personal hero: Deepak Chopra
The body’s wisdom is a good entry point into the hidden dimensions of life, because although completely invisible, the body’s wisdom is undeniably real-a fact that medical researchers began to accept in the mid-1980s. The former view was that the brain’s capacity for intelligence was unique. But then signs of intelligence began to be discovered in the immune system, and then in the digestive system. In both these systems, special messenger molecules could be observed circulating through every organ, bringing information to and from the brain, but also functioning on their own. A white cell that can distinguish between invading enemy bacteria and harmless pollen is making an intelligent decision, even though it floats in the bloodstream apart from the brain.
Ten years ago, it would have seemed absurd to speak of intestines being intelligent. The lining of the digestive tract was known to possess thousands of nerve endings, but these were just remote outposts of the nervous system-a way for it to keep in touch with the lowly business of extracting nutrition from food. Now it turns out that the intestines are not so lowly after all. Their scattered nerve cells form a finely tuned system for reacting to outside events-an upsetting remark at work, the threat of danger, a death in the family. The stomach’s reactions are just as reliable as the brain’s thoughts, and just as intricate. Your colon, your liver, and your stomach cells also think, only not in the brain’s verbal language. What people had been calling a “gut reaction” turned out to be a mere hint of the complex intelligence at work in a hundred thousand billion cells.
In a sweeping medical revolution, scientists have stepped into a hidden dimension that no one had ever suspected. Cells have been outthinking us for millions of years. In fact, their wisdom, more ancient than cortical wisdom, could be the best model for the only thing more ancient than they, which is the cosmos. Perhaps the universe has been outthinking us, too. No matter where I look, I sense what cosmic wisdom is trying to accomplish-to grow, expand, and create-the main difference being that my body is cooperating with the universe better than I manage to.
Cells have no problem fully participating in the mystery of life. Theirs is a wisdom of total passion and commitment. So let’s see if we can link the qualities of bodily wisdom with the hidden dimensions we want to uncover:
THE WISOM YOU ARE ALREADY LIVING
Identifying with the Body’s Intelligence
1. You have a higher purpose.
2. You are in communion with the whole of life.
3. Your awareness is always open to change. From moment to moment, it senses everything in your environment.
4. You feel acceptance for all others as your equal, without judgement or prejudice.
5. You seize every moment with renewed creativity, not clinging to the old and outworn.
6. Your being is cradled in the rhythms of the universe. You feel safe and natured.
7. Your idea of efficiency is to let the flow of life bring you what you need. Force, control, and struggle are not your way.
8. You feel a sense of connection with your source.
9. You are committed to giving as the source of all abundance.
10. You see all change, including birth and death, against the background of immortality. Whatever is unchanging is most real to you.
None of these items are spiritual aspirations; they are facts of daily existence at the level of your cells.
Higher purpose: Every cell in your body agrees to work for the welfare of the whole; its individual welfare comes second. If necessary, it will die to protect the body, and often does-the lifetime of any given cell is a fraction of our own lifetime. Skin cells perish by the thousands every hour, as do immune cells fighting off invading microbes. Selfishness is not an option, even when it comes to a cell’s own survival.
Communion: A cell keeps in touch with every other cell. Messenger molecules race everywhere to notify the body’s farthest outposts of desire or intention, however slight. Withdrawing or refusing to communicate is not an option.
Awareness: Cells adapt from moment to moment. They remain flexible in order to respond to immediate situations. Getting caught up in rigid habits is not an option.
Creativity: Although every cell has a set of unique functions (liver cells, for example, can perform fifty separate tasks), these combine in creative ways. A person can digest food never eaten before, think thoughts never thought before, dance in a way never seen before. Clinging to old behavior is not an option.
Being: Cells obey the universal cycle of rest and activity. Although this cycle expresses itself in many ways, such as fluctuating hormone levels, blood pressures, and digestive rhythms, the most obvious is sleep. Why we need sleep remains a medical mystery, yet complete dysfunction develops if we don’t enjoy its benefits. In the silence of inactivity, the future of the body is incubating. Being obsessively active or aggressive is not an option.
Efficiency: Cells function with the smallest possible expenditure of energy. Typically, a cell stores only three seconds of food and oxygen inside its cell wall. It trusts totally on being provided for. Excessive consumption of food, air, or water is not an option.
Bonding: Due to their common genetic inheritance, cells know that they are fundamentally the same. The fact that liver cells are different from heart cells, and muscle cells are different from brain cells, does not negate their common identity, which is unchanging. In the laboratory, a muscle cell can be genetically transformed into a heart cell by going back to their common source. Healthy cells remain tied to their source no matter how many times they divide. For them, being an outcast is not an option.
Giving: The primary activity of cells is giving, which maintains the integrity of all other cells. Total commitment to giving makes receiving automatic-it is the other half of a natural cycle. Hoarding is not an option.
Immortality: Cells reproduce in order to pass on their knowledge, experience, and talents, withholding nothing from their offspring. This is a kind of practical immortality, submitting to death on the physical plane but defeating it on the nonphysical. The generation gap is not an option.
When I look at what my cells have agreed to, isn’t it a spiritual pact in every sense of the word? The first quality, following a higher purpose, is the same as the spiritual qualities of surrender and selflessness. Giving is the same as returning to God what is God’s. Immortality is the same as a belief in life after death. The labels adopted by my mind are not my body’s concern, however. To my body, these qualities are simply the way life works. They are the result of cosmic intelligence expressing itself over billions of years as biology. The mystery of life was patient and careful in allowing its full potential to emerge. Even now, the silent agreement that holds my body together feels like a secret because, to all appearances, this agreement doesn’t exist. More than two hundred and fifty types of cells go about their daily business: The fifty functions that a liver cell performs are totally unique, not overlapping with the tasks of muscle, kidney, heart, or brain cells-yet it would be catastrophic if even one function were compromised. The mystery of life has found a way to express itself perfectly through me.
