THE BIG IDEAS The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire

Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence

Live from Your Soul
Connect to the Universe. BY DEEPAK CHOPRA · HARMONY © 2003 · 304 PAGES

Lose Your Fear

+ Worry, anger, hesitation.

The Power of Intention

It’s powerful. “Through synchrodestiny, you can finally become the person the universe intended
you to be—as powerful as desire, as creative as spirit. All it takes is an eagerness to
Intention & Service
Intend to serve. join the cosmic dance, and a willingness to seek the miracles of the soul.”
Hindsight & Truths ~ Deepak Chopra from The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
Why wait to love it all?
In this fantastic, wisdom-packed, yet quick-read of a book, Deepak talks about a state in which
Conspiracy Theories
The Universe is conspiring. we live our lives with “an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings,” where we are
connected with “the underlying field of infinite possibilities.”
Coincidences & Destiny
Pay attention. He calls this state “synchrodestiny.” It’s a state “in which it becomes possible to achieve the
Why Are You Here? spontaneous fulfillment of every desire.”
Well, why are you?
I like the sound of that! :)

The book walks us through, in the inspiring and wise style that Deepak has mastered, the ideas
we need to embody in order to consistently live connected to source and allow ourselves to
experience the magic of synchrodestiny.

I have no doubt The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire would be a wonderful addition to your
collection and I trust you’ll enjoy some of the Big Ideas I’ve pulled from this delightful book.

LIVE FROM YOUR SOUL

“If we could learn to live from the level of the soul, we would see that the best, most luminous
part of ourselves is connected to all the rhythms of the universe. We would truly know ourselves
as the miracle-makers we are capable of being. We would lose fear, and longing, and hatred,
and anxiety, and hesitation. Living from the level of the soul means diving past the ego, past the
limitations of the mind that harness us to events and outcomes in the physical world.”

That’s amazing.

I can’t think of anything more important than learning “to live from the level of the soul.”

We need to take every opportunity to move through our fears. Why? Because we need to take
action NOW and not get caught up in hesitation?

Fact is, most of our hatred and anxiety stem from our own unfulfilled creative impulses. And the
moment we truly commit to giving ourselves most fully—moving through our fears and doing the
next little thing in front of us WITHOUT hesitation, a funny thing happens…
“The universe has much
We find ourselves living from soul. And the fears and anxieties and competitive energies we
bigger plans for you
found ourselves consumed by yesterday feel so foreign to who we are now.
than you ever dreamed of
for yourself. Guess what happens when we let fear creep back in? When we hesitate to take the action our
intuition is guiding us to take, then the anxiety, the hatred, the disconnection steps back in.
~Deepak Chopra

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 So, my question: What can you do THIS MOMENT (!!) (and the next and the next…) to live from
“Our doubts are traitors,
your soul?
and make us lose the good
we oft might win, by fearing Please do that.
to attempt.” I’ll be here when you get back. :)
~ Shakespeare
LOSE YOUR FEAR
“People who understand the true nature of reality, those whom some traditions call enlightened,
lose all sense of fear or concern. All worry disappears.”

Fear.

How’s your relationship to it?

As Deepak says, when we gain an understanding of the true nature of reality, we lose all sense of
fear. Isn’t it amazing how easily we can get swept up by this fear and that fear?

“Taking a new step, uttering Remarkable actually. And, we KNOW that being overwhelmed by these fears is a one-way ticket
a new word, is what people to a lifetime of regret, but for some reason it can still be so hard to do anything about it.
fear most.” That’s why I consistently tap into the wisdom of some of my favorite teachers.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
Emerson (see Notes) tells us: “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” And
pleads with us: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.” And
assures us: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Hafez says: “Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in
better  conditions.”

While Paulo Coelho (see Notes) says this in The Alchemist: “There is only one thing that makes
a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

Abraham Maslow (see Notes on Motivation and Personality): “It seems that the necessary thing
to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough
from blunders to correct them eventually.”
“Do the thing you fear to do
and keep on doing it... that
The Roosevelts (first Eleanor then Franklin): “You gain strength, courage and confidence by
every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” And: “The only thing to fear
is the quickest and surest
is fear itself.”
way ever yet discovered to
conquer fear.” Frank Herbert (from Dune): “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total
obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it
~ Dale Carnegie
has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be
nothing. Only I will remain.”

Wallace Wattles, the author of The Science of Getting Rich says this in his great little book The
Science of Being Great (see Notes): “You can never become a great man or woman until you
have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried
one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper
relations by such mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God.”

I could go on for quite a while but I think you get the idea. Fear, the mind-killer, is the only
“There was never any
thing we have to fear. We MUST conquer our fear if we hope to live our hero’s journey to the
fear for me, no fear of fullest. Here’s one question that’s helped me address a lot of my fears: “What would I do if I
failure. If I miss a shot, wasn’t  afraid?”
so what?”
You know who answers that question?
~ Michael Jordan
Your Highest Self.

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 And that’s a good person with whom you should have an ongoing dialogue, eh? :)
“The soul will not invest
itself in a compromise.” So ask and answer that question (through your actions) every day. Why? Because that question

~ Robert Fritz
gets us closer and closer to the power of intention.

THE POWER OF INTENTION

“Everything that happens in the universe starts with intention.”

Ah… The Power of Intention.

Wayne Dyer wrote an (amazing!) entire book on the subject (highly highly recommend it and my
Notes on it).

And Deepak is very clear: “Intention is the very basis of creation.”

As he points out, the Upanishads, the ancient Vedic texts, declare: “You are what your deepest
desire is. As is your desire, so is your intention. As is your intention, so is your will. As is your
will, so is your deed. As is your deed, so is your destiny.”

Wow. That’s worth a re-read.

And, it certainly triggers the questions: What is your intention? What are your DEEPEST
desires?

We MUST be in touch with our deepest desires.

As Deepak says, “That’s why, if you really want to break out of the mundane, you must learn to
think and dream the impossible. Only with repeated thoughts can the impossible be made possible
through the intention of the nonlocal mind.”

It’s frightening how quickly we give up on our hopes and our dreams—falsely thinking it’s
possible to invest our soul in a compromise. But you know what happens when we do that?
We’re miserable.

The remedy? We need to learn to dream again. We need to remember there’s something much
(!) bigger than us that’s generating those ideas of ours. We need to get over ourselves, get out of
our own way and get on with the business of manifesting our greatest lives!! Ahem. Pretty please.

“The Wright brothers If we want to create something (our ideal lives, perhaps?) we MUST learn to hold that vision in
our minds as often as possible. The fact is we’re going to manifest what we think about most of
didn’t contemplate the
the time—if that’s a failed relationship, we’ll get that; if it’s a failed business, we’ll get that. OR, if
staying on the ground of
we spend our time contemplating our deepest desires—a wonderful relationship and successful
things. Alexander Graham
business and a life in which we are living as our Highest Selves, we’ll create that.
Bell didn’t contemplate
the noncommunication of So…
things. Thomas Edison didn’t What are you spending the majority of your time thinking about? Is your life pretty much a
contemplate the darkness reflection of that?
of things. In order to float
What is your ideal?
an idea into your reality,
you must be willing to Can you spend more time thinking about it today?

do a somersault into the And, every time you catch your mind taking you down the “Oh, no!!” path, catch it and steer it in
unconceivable and land on the direction of your dreams.
your feet, contemplating
And then take the next step toward that dream.
what you want instead of
Amazing things will happen…
what you don’t have.”

~Wayne Dyer

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 “Intention orchestrates INTENTION & SERVICE
infinite possibilities. You
“When the intention of the nonlocal mind is served by the local mind, it is more holistic, and
might wonder what kind
therefore more effective… For every intention, we might well ask, ‘How could this serve me and
of intent is ideal. What how would it serve everybody I come into contact with?’”
would you ask if your
I love that.
intention could be fulfilled
right now?” Deepak’s basically saying that as you set your intention, check in and see how the manifestation
of your desire would affect the world. The fact is that we are part of a much larger organism and
~ Deepak Chopra
every single part of this organism MUST serve every other part. Period.

Martin Seligman, one of the pioneers of the modern Positive Psychology movement was clear
on this as well. In Authentic Happiness (see Notes), Seligman breaks down the science of
happiness. He tells us that if we want happiness we need to discover our greatest strengths and
learn to use them in our lives every day. He goes further to say that if we want to have a truly
meaningful life, we must not only strive to use our strengths often, we need to give these gifts to
the world and serve a purpose bigger than ourselves.

Viktor Frankl, in the Introduction to his seminal book Man’s Search for Meaning (see Notes)
paints one of the most beautiful pictures of this truth.

He says: “Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don’t
aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss
it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the
unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the
by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the
same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen
to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your
knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will
follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.”

Amazing.

What do you want? And how can you serve?

HINDSIGHT & GREAT TRUTHS

“If we were able to live at the level of the soul all the time, there would be no need for hindsight
to appreciate the great truths of life.”

You ever notice how when you look back on your life you can see the innate wisdom and flow and
rightness to the path? You know—the job you lost or the relationship that ended that, although it
felt horrible when it occurred, in hindsight was so clearly the exact right thing for you?!?

Funny how that works, eh?

Well… Deepak’s telling us that as we align with Source, we don’t need to wait to appreciate
the  perfection!!

Going through a “challenging” patch? Flow with it. KNOW it’ll reveal its divine perfection in time.

And it’s not just Deepak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson likes to say: “The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred
tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency.”

And Tony Robbins (see Notes) has one of my favorites. He says: “Ten years from now you’ll
laugh at whatever’s stressing you out today. So why not laugh now?”

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 I love that.
“When you want something,
all the universe conspires in What’s stressing you out right now?
helping you to achieve it.” You really think you’re still going to be stressed about it in 10 years? Probably not!
~ Paulo Coelho
So, why wait?!? Laugh now. And enter the flow and live at the level of the soul!

CONSPIRACY THEORIES
“This is the ultimate truth of synchrodestiny—that the sum total of the universe is conspiring to
create your personal destiny… We cannot even imagine the complex forces behind every event
that occurs in our lives. There’s a conspiracy of coincidences that weave the web of karma or
destiny and creates an individual’s personal life.”

I love that.

So… WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?

* whispers … *

Don’t tell anyone but there’s a conspiracy working to help you get it. :)

COINCIDENCES & DESTINIES

“When a coincidence arises, don’t ignore it. Ask yourself, What is the message here? What is the
significance of this?”

The whole idea behind Deepak’s book is the concept that: “In synchrodestiny, we consciously
participate in the creation of our lives by understanding the world that is beyond our senses, the
world of the soul.”

As Deepak advises, one tool we can use to get better at seeing the synchrodestiny in our lives is
to ask ourselves: “What is the message here? What is the significance of this?”

As we ask and answer this question, at the very least, you’ll gain a deeper sense of pragmatic self-
awareness and knowledge of your life.

And, if you believe Deepak’s ideas (I do), you’ll be aligning yourself with a force much bigger
than yourself and learning to dance with your soul!

LIGHT & DARK

“The most enlightened people in the world embrace their full potential of light and dark. When
you’re with people who recognize and own their negative qualities, you never feel judged by
them. It’s only when people see good and bad, right and wrong, as qualities outside themselves
that judgments occur.”

That’s brilliant.

If we can’t own our own flaws, guess what?

We’ll be annoyed by anyone who has the same flaws we do. It’s a classic case of projecting our
issues on someone else.

I’ve heard this many times and I bet you have as well.

The bottom line is simple: When you’ve fully embraced your own light and dark, you accept
these qualities in others.

If you haven’t, pay attention to what most annoys you in people. Is it their ambition? Their
vanity? The fact they’re always interrupting people or always late for meetings?

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 Guess what?
“If you knew you could
have it all and do anything Whatever bugs you is almost definitely what you most need to own within yourself. Next time
you wanted, what would you you get really upset with someone. Stop. Look at what’s upsetting you. Check in and see if YOU
choose to have and what do the same thing a little more than you may care to admit. OR, maybe you need to do more of

would you choose to do?”

that thing.

~ Deepak Chopra
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
“You will begin to see your life as an opportunity to share the special gift you alone can bestow
upon the world.”

Here’s one of the many great exercises from the book: Get out your journal. Ask yourself: “Why
am I here?” Write down what first comes to your mind. Don’t edit or fret. Just write.

Do it again. Ask yourself, “Why am I here?” Again, just write. Doesn’t need to be complete
sentences. Just write what comes to mind. Do this 20 times.

Now check out your responses. Notice the patterns and notice that there is something bigger at
play than just you. As you do this: “You will begin to see your life as an opportunity to share the
special gift you alone can bestow upon the world.”

What are your gifts? How are you giving them to the world?

Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher

P.S. Per Deepak: “If a critical mass of people were to express their expanded selves, not only
would they spontaneously fulfill their personal desires, they would change the very way culture
articulates itself.”
P.P.S. Per me: Let’s lead the creation of that critical mass.

If you liked this Note,

About the Author of “The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
you’ll probably like…
DEEPAK CHOPRA
Seven Spiritual Laws of
Success Deepak Chopra’s books have become international bestsellers and classics of
their kind. Dr. Chopra is founder of the Chopra Center for Well Being in Carlsbad,
The Power of Intention
California. Visit his website at Chopra.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson
From me: Deepak is amazing. If you haven’t gotten into his work yet, please
Tony Robbins
do! My top picks: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success & The Spontaneous
Man’s Search for Meaning Fulfillment of Desire. They’re both life-changing. And Deepak’s an absolute
MASTER writer. Dive in and enjoy!

About the Author of This Note

BRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson loves helping people optimize their lives as he studies, embodies
and teaches the fundamentals of optimal living—integrating ancient wisdom
+ modern science + common sense + virtue + mastery + fun. Learn more and
optimize your life at brianjohnson.me.

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