The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

“Law #1: The Law of Pure Potentiality.” You are pure potential. Period.

And when you discover that, as Deepak says, the simple knowing itself is the ability to fulfill any dream you may have.

Reminds me of one of my absolute favorite thoughts from one of my absolute favorite teachers, Ralph Waldo Emerson (see Notes): “There’s nothing capricious in nature, and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it.”

If you believe Emerson (I do), there is nothing capricious in nature. If you have the desire, you have the ability to manifest that desire.

Nature/God/Spirit/The Universe/Whatever-you-want-to-call-it is not capricious.

What do you want?

You have the power to create it. Period.

The key?

Practice Deepak’s first law (there’s a reason why this is Law #1, eh? :) and KNOW that you are pure potentiality.

And: “When you experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power… Your true Self, which is your spirit, your soul, is completely free of those things. It is immune to criticism, it is unfearful of any challenge, and it feels beneath no one.”

Ah, stillness.

Deepak talks about the importance of meditation (in fact, he recommends an ideal of 30 minutes in the AM and (yes, and) PM. :)

We’re sooo busy—always bombarded by so much stimuli that unless we consciously take the time to unplug from that noise, it’s VERY difficult (impossible?) to really connect to our deepest intuition and to our true Self.

If you’re not a regular meditator (and even if you are), see what you can do to slow down throughout the day.

In traffic? PERFECT time to get still. Turn off the radio, turn off the music, turn on Source. Breathe. Deep inhale. Deep exhale. Raise your shoulders as you breathe in. Let ‘em down as you breathe out. Turn off your cell phone/Blackberry/iPhone as often as you possibly can. (I used to live with a direct feed of email into my nervous system so I know how hard this can be but do it!)

Slooooowwww down.

Find the stillness.

Take a bath, take a walk on the beach or in the woods or the park. Go to your favorite quiet place and just sit. Each time you do that, it’s almost like you’re bringing your intuition to the gym and training it to get stronger—to get more open and more receptive to tapping the secrets of your highest Self.

Be still.

And watch your power grow!

Brilliant.

Deepak’s big point with The Law of Giving is the need to circulate our wealth.

Did you know the word affluence comes from the word affluere which means “to flow to” and that affluence means “to flow in abundance”? Or how about the word currency—which comes from the Latin currere and means “to run” or to flow?

Energy flows. Or it stagnates. If we want more of something in our life, we need to keep it flowing—whether it’s money, love, appreciation, attention or kindness.

If you want more of something, we need to learn to give more!

What do you want more of in your life? Love? Appreciation? Attention? Affluence?

Learn to give Love. Give Appreciation. Give Attention. Give Affluence.

Reminds me of Eric Butterworth’s brilliant book Spiritual Economics (if you have any desire to integrate your spirituality and your bank account, I highly recommend the book and my Notes on it!). Butterworth goes into depth on the karmic law that we must give in order to receive saying, “In an orderly Universe, there is simply no way you can get something for nothing.”

He goes on to say: “The takers are the people who believe that their lives will always be the total of what they can get from the world. They are always thinking get, get, get. They plan and scheme ways to get what they want in money, in love, in happiness, and in all kinds of good. No matter that they may be applying metaphysical techniques, they still may very well be takers. But whatever may be their spiritual ideals or lack of any, no matter what they take, they can never know peace or security or fulfillment… The givers, on the other hand, are convinced life is a giving process. Thus their subtle motivation in all their ways is to give themselves away, in love, in service, and in all the many helpful ways they can invest themselves. They are always secure, for they intuitively know that their good flows from within.”

Powerful. Practice giving today.
…

A great idea from this Law: Deepak says the best way to jump start this energy in your life is to give something to every person with whom you come into contact. It doesn’t have to be something material—it could be a compliment or a prayer or a flower. That’s REALLY cool.

Let’s GIVE.

Karma.

The law of cause and effect. The concept that we reap what we sow. My hunch is you’ve heard this at least a hundred times. But do you LIVE it? Are you aware of the seeds you are planting with each thought and each action you take?

Are you aware of these choices? Are you aware of just how conditioned our reflexes are and just how quickly we can respond in the same habitual patterns?

Stimulus—> Response … Stimulus—> Response …

We need to become aware. We need to make conscious choices.

Another beautiful thought.

Deepak’s “Law of Least Effort” is grounded in three components: acceptance, responsibility and defenselessness.

First, Acceptance: the idea of accepting what is, not trying to force something to be something other than what it already is. With that, we gain new energy and our efforts become less strained, more grounded in love and pure expression.

Reminds me of Byron Katie’s brilliant (and hilarious) comment that forms the basis of her book Loving What Is (see Notes) where she says: “I realized that it’s insane to oppose it. When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.”

Hah! She loses when she argues with reality. But only 100% of the time . :)

How about you? My hunch: the % is the same. It definitely is for me.

Second, Responsibility: this is much like Stephen Coveys Habit #1 of the 7 Habits (Notes available). Namely, BE PROACTIVE. Don’t be a victim, blaming others for your responses to a given situation. Take responsibility and choose a constructive response to reality as it is showing up!

As Deepak says: “All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it to a better situation or thing.”

Third, Defenselessness: this is a place of being where you don’t need to convince people you’re right/wrong/worthy/whatever. Don’t be defensive.

As Deepak says: “When you remain open to all points of view—not rigidly attached to only one—your dreams and desires will flow with nature’s desires… you can be sure when the season is right, your desires will manifest.”

Want to flow on the path with least effort?

Practice: Acceptance. Responsibility. Defenselessness.

Genius.

Deepak differentiates between desire and intent. Desire has attachment. Intent does not. It’s imperative that we harness the power of our pure intention—INDEPENDENT of the outcomes of our actions.

My hunch is you’ve felt your power when you’re just flowing—creating fearlessly and totally independent of attachment. AND, you’ve experienced “forcing” things. (I know I certainly have!!)

Which one got you the better results?

Amen. Again, we’ve heard this before, but do we LIVE it?

We tend to go in one of two directions: We’re ridiculously wound up in a knot worried and stressed about whether we’re going to achieve a result (I’ve mastered that state as I’m sure you have)—whether it’s a new job, a new relationship or whatever. Or, we go the opposite way and misinterpret the idea of detachment to mean no desires—and then go through life wide-eyed and unblinking and aimlessly (pseudo-) “spiritual.”

The trick?

Let’s maintain our passionate commitment to our ideals and goals and intentions and desires. Just don’t be attached. The easiest way to hold the tension? Take the next step in front of you.

Don’t get all caught up in whether it’s going to all work out in the end. What do you need to do next? Do that. Impeccably. And, odds are that faster than we can imagine, our results will show up on our doorsteps.

Newsflash: We each have a unique gift to give to the world!!

This is the chapter that did it for me. I can vividly remember sitting in the middle of my living room, having read the quote above and to the left and, after deep reflection, realizing that I had unique gifts that were no longer being shared with the world in the context of my current business and that, if I was truly committed to living with integrity to my ideals, I needed to align myself with a new, higher purpose. Not knowing exactly how this would manifest, I trusted my instincts, sold my business and, shortly thereafter, I had absolute clarity that my next step was to create these PhilosophersNotes.

I’m going to share a bunch of different perspectives from brilliant teachers to drill the idea into our heads! Here we go.

As the Buddha (see Notes on The Dhammapada) says: “Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart, to give yourself to it.”

Marcus Aurelius puts it this way in Meditations (see Notes): “Everything—a horse, a vine—is created for some duty… For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”

Emerson likes to say: “Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes him necessary to society.”

Krishna (see Notes on The Bhagavad Gita) says: “It is better to perform one’s own duties imperfectly than to master the duties of another. By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief.”

Abraham Maslow (see Notes) says: “Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.”

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons has this to say (see Notes on Do You!): “Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.”

Martin Seligman (see Notes on Authentic Happiness) describes the science of fulfillment as knowing yourself well enough to use your “signature strengths” often in your day to day life in the greatest service to the world.

I could go on (for quite a while) but I think we’re on the same page here. You have a purpose. There is something you are uniquely suited to do. Something that you can do better than anyone.

This is the chapter that transformed my life. Completely. More than once. And, this is where the “WARNING” comes from. If you take this idea seriously and you’re not on purpose (you know if you are or not), you’re at a crossroads. You can go deep into your soul and begin taking steps that are more resonant with your highest calling. Or not.

Your choice determines your destiny. The Law (Yes, LAW) of Dharma states that you have a unique blend of skills that you are here to give the world. To the extent you give the world these gifts, you feel joy. If you don’t, you rot from the inside out.

Deepak has a series of questions and exercises to aid you in discovering and living your dharma. If all you did was pick up the book, turn to this chapter and read and do these exercises, you would get a benefit countlessly greater than the cost of the book. I recommend you do.