Deepak Chopra doesn’t believe you’re too busy to meditate

One of the world’s most famous well-being experts, Chopra has written more than 95 books, advising his readers on how to find and maintain spirituality, health and contentment, including “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" and “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind."

His latest book, “Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-Being," came out this fall. It features several passages written by ChatGPT and Perplexity in response to his prompts, showing his readers how they can use the technology as a tool. He likens asking it a question to rubbing Aladdin’s lamp: “A genie wakes up and gives you everything you need." With entrepreneur Poonacha Machaiah, Chopra co-founded Cyberhuman.ai, a health and well-being focused AI service.

Chopra lives in New York City with his wife, Rita, in a wellness-focused building that includes vitamin-filtered showers and bio-based insulation for soundproofing outside noises. Here, he discusses his unconventional writing routine, the secret to a happy marriage and what annoys him.

What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?

If I sleep at 10, I wake up at 6. Sometimes I sleep earlier, so I wake up at 4 or 5. Then I do yoga and meditation for three hours. I am addicted to yoga. After that, I have a cup of coffee and then I start work at 11. It’s very focused from 11 to 5. Before I go to bed, I meditate again for an hour or two, these days on the mystery of death.

How do you like your coffee and breakfast?

Usually I make my own coffee, and then there’s a little shop here outside, Madman [Espresso]. They make these paninis with artichokes.

Do you do anything for exercise apart from yoga?

Ten thousand minimum steps per day.

You’ve written more than 95 books. How do you manage so much writing? Do you have a daily writing routine?

I write every day. I used to write longhand, then I used to type, then I used to dictate. Now what I do is a video every morning on what’s on my mind. That will go on YouTube, and it will transcribe it. Once it’s transcribed, I’ll use Grammarly to edit it. I thought I knew English, but it corrects me. So by the time my editor gets something, it’s perfect.

Your new book “Digital Dharma" is about AI. How did you start using AI in your own life?

I wanted to see how we can use AI to elevate spiritual intelligence, health and well-being.

At one point, the book compares AI to the counsel of a wise friend or therapist. Do you think AI could replace therapists in the future?

I did an experiment a while back with a chatbot that we created for teens who were contemplating suicide. We had 16 million conversations going on simultaneously by text, with 4,800 suicidal detections and interventions. Teens were more comfortable speaking to this machine than they were to a person because they didn’t feel judged and became friendly with them, because they got to know them. Then I realized, I’m not an expert in this. The chatbot should be created by therapists. So I stopped that program. I’m hoping somebody will take that over.

There are a lot of passages written by AI in the book. As you were working on it, was there ever a time when you thought AI was seriously wrong about something?

No. The passages by AI in the book were experiments. I was just testing it out, and I was blown away by how good it was because of the database. It still “hallucinates," by the way. Right now if you ask a question on ChatGPT to which there is no answer in the search engine, it will make one up, and sometimes inaccurately.

If someone is extremely busy, what is the minimum amount of time they can spend meditating or on mindfulness in a day to see benefits?

The people who say they don’t have time, they’re not busy, they’re just scattered. If you’re present, there’s no fatigue. As soon as you think of what’s next, there’s fatigue. As soon as you think “I shouldn’t have done that," there’s fatigue.

People say, “I can’t meditate in New York City." Last week, I did a meditation in Bryant Park and I had them meditate on the sounds of the traffic, of the ambulances, sirens and all the conversation. And in 15 minutes, everybody was experiencing the symphony of New York.

Do you ever get stressed?

I don’t get stressed.

Do you ever get bored?

No. I do get annoyed at trivial collective conversation, whether it’s politics or whether it’s social networks. It’s so banal considering we live in a galaxy that might have 60 billion habitable planets, and that there are two trillion galaxies. I walk around New York City surprised that nobody is shocked that they exist.

What’s the secret to a happy marriage or relationship?

Give up being right.

Do you have anything you consider a guilty pleasure?

Pleasure is overrated. More [important] is meaning and purpose and joy. Pleasure is very temporary. As long as you have pleasure, then you have unease about not having it anymore. So it’s addictive.

What do you do to have fun?

I’m enjoying myself all the time. I don’t have to do anything special. I love to read. I like people with extraordinarily outrageous ideas. There are lots of people like that.

What have you been reading lately?

My next book is called “The Awakened Life: The Path to Freedom and Enlightenment." So I’m reading “The Tibetan Book of the Dead" and “The Tibetan Book of the Living [and Dying]"—all these very esoteric spiritual texts from the East.

What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you?

Way back in the ’80s, my guru asked me, “What is stress?" He had never heard of stress because he came from the Himalayas. I told him stress is the perception of threat: physical, emotional and psychological. After a while, he said, “You mean resistance to existence." And he said, “If you don’t resist existence, you will have flow." That’s the best advice.

Write to Lane Florsheim at lane.florsheim@wsj.com