David Simon is the Medical Director/Co-Founder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being and co-wrote with Deepak Chopra the recent book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga. In this volume he brings together the spiritual modalities of East and West in a look at the transformations that can take place in our lives when we translate our intentions into choices that enrich ourselves and others. He sees the Ten Commandments as "moral guideposts of our Judeo-Christian society" but also notes that it is one thing to be commanded and another to make choices that serve the common good. Change cannot come about when we are frightened of being caught and punished. It arrives when we begin to become all we were meant to be.
Simon says the heart of the First Commandment is a commitment to freedom. The yearning for self-determination is a universal one, and no one wants to be limited by the constraints of bondage or servitude. That is why we thrill to biblical story of God leading the Jews out of slavery into freedom. We can demonstrate our commitment to freedom by:
"1. Paying attention to my body and the sensations it generates to identify and quiet internal conflicts.
"2. Cultivating the habit of asking myself, 'What choice can I make now to move in the direction of well-being?'
"3. Taking an honest inventory of my internal restrictions that fail to serve me and changing one thing that will expand my freedom."
Other commitments covered by the author are authenticity, acceptance, relax, wholeness, forgiveness, love, abundance, truth, and peace. Simon makes a good case for charting a new course in our lives that accentuates "clarity of purpose and purity of intention."
