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Consulting your Soul - by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Recently, I approached a traffic light where a man stood
in shabby clothes with a three-legged dog by his side. As I waited for the
light to change I looked at this scene with compassion and felt an urge to
contribute something. The sign he was carrying indicated that he was homeless.
The people in my car commented that he was a strong young man, there were
plenty of employment opportunities, and why should anyone give to people who
are capable of working. They indicated a kind of mild contempt for this man
soliciting funds whom they felt "should" be working. My thoughts were
on him and the fact that he cared for and fed this crippled dog. I rolled down
the window and gave him several dollars for which he expressed enormous
gratitude.
As the companions in my car semi-scolded me for being a
sucker and for enabling him to continue to be a beggar I thought of some words
of Mother Teresa. "You see, in the final analysis, it is all between you
and God, it was never between you and them anyway." Truly this was not
between me and my friends in the car, nor was it between that homeless man and
me. It was between God and me. Something inside of me urged me to extend love
and a little cash to the man and his dog. That "something" was a
fleeting moment of consulting my soul.
To me, spiritual and physical are not two separate
dimensions of reality. I think of spiritual practice as a way of making my life
work at a higher level and receiving guidance for handling my problems. The
ways in which I do this involve a few simple, basic practices:
Surrender is the most crucial and perhaps most difficult
for me. In surrendering, my thoughts are something like this: I simply do not
know how to resolve this situation and I am turning it over to the same force
that I turn my physical body over to every night when I go to sleep. I trust in
this unseen part of me to keep my heart beating, my blood circulating, and so
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Accessing spiritual solutions means converting my inner
thoughts and feelings from discord and disharmony to love. In the spirit of
surrender and love I silently chant, "I invite the highest good for all
concerned to be here now." I try to see anger, hatred and disharmony as
invitations to surrender and love. With this understanding I have the option to
allow spirit to manifest and work through me. I believe my spirit is
inseparable from the infinite. Having a relationship with the infinite part of
myself encourages my recognition of spiritual solutions. The awareness of my
infinite nature is terrific for putting everything into perspective.
My approach to problem-solving involves cultivating an
empty mind. In this space I listen, and allow myself to have complete faith
that I will be guided in the direction of resolution. I let go of my ideas
about how something should be resolved.
Does this mean I'm suggesting that you always give money to
people who ask for it? No. But I am suggesting that the next time you see
someone asking for money, look at that situation as being between you and your
spiritual consciousness - between you and God. Consult your soul and if you
feel that you don't want to give, don't. But rather than letting anger or
judgment rule the moment, offer that person a silent blessing from the part of you that is a part of him.
Finding spiritual solutions to my life's problems always
involves generosity and gratefulness. For me, this means giving my life to my
soul purpose and being grateful for the opportunity to do so. I believe that I
get back from the world what I put out to the world, not only physically but
also in terms of my thoughts. So, I recommend spiritual practices that involve
being generous and grateful with thoughts as well as actions.
Nurturing a sense of connectedness to everyone and
everything invites spiritual solutions. When I see myself as connected I am not
looking for occasions to be offended or to judge. I don't see anyone as my
enemy or an obstacle. This is how I relinquish negative self-talk and connect
to the solutions that are available to me. In moments of despair I try to
affirm, "I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing that is separate
from me."
Finally I choose cheerfulness as a gauge of my level of
spiritual consciousness at any given moment. The more cheerful, happy,
contented, and satisfied I am feeling, the more aware I am of my connection to
spirit.
About the Author
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, affectionately called the "father
of motivation" by his fans, is one of the most widely known and respected
people in the field of self-empowerment. He became a well-known author with his
best selling book, Your Erroneous Zones, and has gone on to write many other
self-help classics, including Meditations for Manifesting, Staying on the Path, Your Sacred Self, Everyday Wisdom, and You'll See It When You Believe It.
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