Power, Freedom, and Grace

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 3 JUL. 2006

Though we all seek happiness, usually it's a side effect of having what we want, whether that's a family, a house, a good job, friends or money. But according to holistic well-being expert and one-man media empire Chopra (The Ten Commitments, The Seven Spiritual Laws), all of those reasons come and go like a passing breeze. Citing the wisdom of Vedanta, one of the world's oldest philosophies, Chopra demonstrates how happiness for a reason is just another form of misery-as that reason can be taken away from us at any time. Chopra offers no quick fixes for this inner journey to happiness for its own sake-"the key to lasting happiness is to identify with the unchanging essence of your inner self, your source"-but does offer provocative questions along the path: "How can I live with effortless ease?," "When will I be fully awake?," "What is grace and how do I live in it?" The wordy chapters can be hard to get through, and some passages may require multiple readings to fully digest ("Thought, at a primordial level, is an impulse of energy and information, and it comes from the field of pure consciousness"). Still, millions of devotees will find this title, extending the philosophies laid out in his other books, audio and video programs, of great interest. For neophytes, though, Chopra's panoply of ideas may be too hard to grasp and his goals too lofty for practical self-help.