Evil actions are born of a deep misunderstanding

I see evil not as an intrinsic property of the universe, but rather as a by-product of ignorance – lack of self-knowledge. Evil actions are born of a deep misunderstanding of what one is and what one is not.

You can look at ignorance and knowledge as opposites, but I don’t think of knowledge as needing ignorance as a required contrasting experience. We may find ourselves in a state of ignorance and the suffering that comes with it, but that doesn’t mean suffering is necessary.
Coming into full self-realization, or enlightenment, puts a permanent end to ignorance and suffering. Having attained that knowledge, there is no losing it or going back into ignorance.

Keeping Up with Meditation

Bear in mind that meditation is the best preparation for your daily activities. It will save you time by making you more efficient and will make you less stressed and tired by making everything easier. Once you have set your meditation practice as a daily priority over the other million things you are doing, then you no longer need to waste energy in deciding whether to do it or when to do it. You simply do it automatically, without giving it much thought, like brushing your teeth.

This straightforward attitude will help you ride through the rough patches too, because you aren’t reevaluating whether to do it everyday based on your mood or expectations – you know it is helping regardless so you just do it.

Desires of the Body

Desires are the force of evolution manifesting in our life, so the underlying intent of every desire is to bring real fulfillment and union with God. We don’t need to eliminate desires of the body, but rather we need to listen to and satisfy the deeper drive underneath superficial desires, for that will always lead to greater awakening. Spirituality encompasses the entire range of life – body, mind, and spirit.

Some desires through ignorance and habit have twisted the normal evolutionary intelligence in desire.

These distorted desire patterns lead to further imbalance, such as eating disorders, drug addictions, or other unhealthy dependencies.

These desires are really compulsions that are counterproductive and distract us from our path to fulfillment. In that situation one must discriminate whether the desire is coming from the part of you that seeks wholeness and harmony, or whether it is a pattern of imbalance that seeks to perpetuate itself.

Then locate the deeper spiritual intent at the source of the desire and follow that.

Overeating

You need to recognize that your desire to eat is disconnected from your body’s intelligence and it’s messages of when you need to eat, what you need to eat and how much you need to eat. Presently your desire to eat has become an unconscious impulse to placate your anxiety.
That is why no amount of food is satisfying because you are trying to satisfy an emotional need with physical food. To separate these two confused impulses, you need to become fully present and aware when you eat. Get back in touch with your body’s inner intelligence.

The 66th birth anniversary of Deepak Chopra was observed on October 22
Deepak Chopra