CREATING AFFLUENCE The A-to-Z Steps to a Richer Life By DEEPAK CHOPRA FOREWORD BY RICHARD CARLSON EasyRead Large Copyright Page from the Original Book This optimized ReadHowYouWant edition contains the complete, unabridged text of the original publisher's edition. Other aspects of the book may vary from the original edition. Copyright © 2008 Accessible Publishing Systems PTY, Ltd. ACN 085 119 953 The text in this edition has been formatted and typeset to make reading easier and more enjoyable for ALL kinds of readers. In addition the text has been formatted to the specifications indicated on the title page. The formatting of this edition is the copyright of Accessible Publishing Systems Pty Ltd. Set in 16 pt. Verdana ReadHowYouWant partners with publishers to provide books for ALL Kinds of Readers. For more information Registered Reader and to find more about Becoming A titles in your preferred format, visit: www.readhowyouwant.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................................i FOREWORD............................................................................iii INTRODUCTION.......................................................................v A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR.....................................................vii PART I: Creating Affluence........................................................1 CHAPTER 1: The Source of All Abundance......................................2 CHAPTER 2: The A-to-Z Steps to a Richer Life................................7 PART II: Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities.......27 CHAPTER 3: The Magic of Attention.............................................28 CHAPTER 4: The Power of Knowledge, Desire, and Spirit................34 ABOUT THE AUTHOR..............................................................59 ALSO FROM DEEPAK CHOPRA..................................................60 UNLEASH THE HEALING POWER OF YOUR MIND........................63 ALSO FROM NEW WORLD LIBRARY...........................................65 ALSO FROM AMBER-ALLEN PUBLISHING...................................67 Front Cover Flap....................................................................71 Back Cover Flap.....................................................................72 Back Cover Material...............................................................73 i DEDICATION To all those who give of themselves, and in their giving receive the lavish abundance of the universe. *** ii AFFLUENCE, unboundedness, and abundance are our natural state. We just need to restore the memory of what we already know. iii FOREWORD Wealth consciousness is so much more than simply having the ability to make money. It’s a mind-set that involves seeing life, not as a struggle, but as a magical adventure where our needs are met with grace and ease. It includes the ability to see beauty wherever you go, to have gratitude as your primary emotion and an open heart to all you meet. Wealth consciousness is a state of mind, a sense, not of believing, but really knowing that what we need is available to us. As Deepak clearly demonstrates in this remarkable little book, affluence is indeed our natural state of being. He shares with us specific tips that assist us in tapping into this unlimited potential. As I read through the wisdom contained in these pages I was struck by the fact that, to the extent that I have created affluence in my own life, I have done so by these very same principles; they are universal. I’m confident in my prediction that, should you read this book and take to heart the steps that are clearly laid out, you will discover that life is easier and more abundant than you ever thought possible. I send you my love and best wishes. Treasure the gift of life, Richard Carlson iv author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff v INTRODUCTION Once upon a time in a far-away land, a young man went to the forest and said to his spiritual master, “I want to have unlimited wealth, and with that unlimited wealth, I want to help and heal the world. Will you please tell me the secret to creating affluence?” And the spiritual master replied, “There are two Goddesses that reside in the heart of every human being. Everybody is deeply in love with these supreme beings. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is. “Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to one of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge, and her name is Sarasvati. Pursue her, love her, and give her your attention. The other Goddess, whose name is Lakshmi, is the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to Sarasvati, Lakshmi will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever.” *** vi There is power in knowledge, desire, and spirit. And this power within you is the key to creating affluence. vii A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR The material in this book is extremely concentrated and has to be literally metabolized and experienced in the consciousness of the reader. For best results, I suggest that you read the entire book once and subsequently read five pages on a daily basis. Upon completing the book, start again. Make this a lifelong habit, and wealth in all its forms will follow you wherever you go. 1 PART I Creating Affluence Infinite worlds appear and disappear in the vast expanse of my own consciousness, like motes of dust dancing in a beam of light. —Ancient Vedic Saying 2 CHAPTER 1 The Source of All Abundance Affluence is the experience in which our needs are easily met and our desires spontaneously fulfilled. We feel joy, health, happiness, and vitality in every moment of our existence. Affluence is reality, and the true purpose of this book is to give us an insight into the nature of reality. When we are grounded in the nature of reality and we also know that this same reality is our own nature, then we realize that we can create anything, because all of material creation has the same origin. Nature goes to the same place to create a cluster of nebulas, a galaxy of stars, a rain forest, or a human body as it goes to create a thought. All of material creation, everything that we can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell is made from the same stuff and comes from the same source. Experiential knowledge of this fact gives us the ability to fulfill any desire we have, acquire any material 3 object we want, and experience fulfillment and happiness to any extent we aspire. The principles expressed in this book relate specifically to the creation of unlimited material wealth, but these principles can be applied to fulfill any desire, because they are the same principles that nature uses to create material reality out of a nonmaterial essence. Before we go into these principles, I would like to discuss in a little detail what science, and particularly physics, has to say about the nature of this universe we live in, the nature of our human bodies, the nature of our minds, and the relationship of all these to each other. *** According to quantum field theorists, all material things—whether they are automobiles, human bodies, or dollar bills—are made up of atoms. These atoms are made up of subatomic particles which, in turn, are fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void of energy and information. Elsewhere in my books and tapes I have explored in detail the nature of quantum reality. Without going into detail, the basic conclusion of quantum field theorists is that the raw material of the world 4 is nonmaterial; the essential stuff of the universe is nonstuff. All of our technology is based on this fact. And this is the climactic overthrow of the superstition of materialism today. Fax machines, computers, radios, television—all these technologies are possible because scientists no longer believe that the atom, which is the basic unit of matter, is a solid entity. An atom is not a solid entity at all; it is a hierarchy of states of information and energy in a void of all possible states of information and energy. The difference between one material thing and another material thing—for example, the difference between an atom of lead or an atom of gold—is not on the material level. The subatomic particles such as protons, electrons, quarks, and bosons that make up an atom of gold or lead are exactly the same. Moreover, although we call them particles, they are not material things; they are impulses of energy and information. What makes gold different from lead is the arrangement and quantity of these impulses of energy and information. All of material creation is structured out of information and energy. All quantum events are basically fluctuations of energy and information. And these impulses of energy and information are the nonstuff that make up everything that we consider stuff or matter. So it 5 becomes clear that not only is the essential stuff of the universe nonstuff, but that it is thinking nonstuff. For what else is a thought but an impulse of energy and information? We think of thoughts as occurring only in our head, but that is because we experience them as linguistically structured thought that is verbally elite and speaks to us in the English language—in my case, with an Indian accent. But those same impulses of energy and information that we experience as thoughts—those same impulses—are the raw material of the universe. The only difference between thoughts inside my head and those outside my head is that I experience thoughts inside my head in linguistically structured terms. But before a thought becomes verbal and is experienced as language, it is just an intention. It is, once again, an impulse of energy and information. In other words, at a preverbal level, all of nature speaks the same language. We are all thinking bodies in a thinking universe. And just as thought projects itself as the molecules of our body, so too the same impulses of energy and information project themselves as space-time events in our environment. Behind the visible garment of the universe, beyond the mirage of molecules, the maya—or illusion—of 6 physicality, lies an inherently invisible, seamless matrix made up of a nothingness. This invisible nothingness silently orchestrates, instructs, guides, governs, and compels nature to express itself with infinite creativity, infinite abundance, and unfaltering exactitude into a myriad of designs and patterns and forms. Life experiences are the continuum in this seamless matrix of nothingness, in this continuum of both body and environment. They are our experiences of joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of wealth and poverty. All these events seemingly happen to us, but at very primordial levels we are making them happen. The impulses of energy and information that create our life experiences are reflected in our attitudes toward life. And our attitudes are an outcome of and expressions of self-engendered impulses of energy and information.