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Early morning Quote by Deepak Chopra

“ASITA AWOKE in the forest thinking about demons. He hadn’t for many years. He could remember glimpsing one or two in the past, on the fringes of a famine or a battle, wherever bodies were being harvested. He knew the misery they caused, but misery was no longer Asita’s concern. He had been a…” quote by Deepak Chopra
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““ASITA AWOKE in the forest thinking about demons. He hadn’t for many years. He could remember glimpsing one or two in the past, on the fringes of a famine or a battle, wherever bodies were being harvested. He knew the misery they caused, but misery was no longer Asita’s concern. He had been a forest hermit for fifty years. The affairs of the world had been kept far away, and he passed whole days in a hidden cave when he retreated even from the affairs of animals, much less those of men. Now Asita knelt by a stream and considered. He distinctly saw demons in his mind’s eye. They had first appeared in the dappled sunlight that fell on his eyelids at dawn. Asita slept on boughs strewn over the bare ground, and he liked the play of light and shadow across his eyes in the early morning. His imagination freely saw shapes that reminded him of the market village where he grew up. He could see hawking merchants, women balancing water jugs on their heads, camels and cara-vans—anything, really—on the screen of his closed eyes. But never demons, not before this morning. Asita walked into the nearly freezing mountain stream, his body naked except for a loincloth. As an ascetic, he did not wear clothes, not even the robes of a monastic order. Lately he had felt an impulse to travel very high, nearly in sight of the snowcapped peaks on the north-ern border of the Sakya kingdom. Which put him close to other lokas,worlds apart from Earth. Every mortal is confined to the Earth plane, but like the dense air of the jungle tapering gradually into the thin atmosphere of the mountains, the material world ta-pered off into subtler and subtler worlds. Devas had their own lokas, as did the gods and demons. Ancestors dwelt in a loka set apart for spirits in transition from one lifetime to the next.””

Deepak Chopra

About This Quote

Source Book: The Book of Secrets, 2004

An ascetic reflects on demons as mental projections, recognizing that worldly suffering is separate from inner peace, and contemplates transcending material reality.

In simple terms: Inner peace comes from seeing beyond mental demons and material concerns.

Key Takeaway

Seek inner stillness beyond external turmoil.

Themes

spiritual growth mindfulness transcendence inner peace

Mood

contemplative peaceful

Type

philosophical poetic reflective

When to use this quote

  • meditation retreat
  • mountain solitude
  • spiritual pilgrimage

Key Concepts

mental projections asceticism subtle realms detachment

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do you confront personal "demons" in daily life?
  • What practices help you feel detached from material concerns?
A Different Perspective

The narrative may romanticize ascetic isolation, ignoring practical challenges.

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