Are you drifting aimlessly or pushing through life with forceful intensions? There is another way...
How to get the most out of these Wisdom Quotes:
Put aside everything you think you already know.
Open your mind and heart to receive something new.
Take your time going through each point.
Return to any points that particularly touch you.
In the coming days, listen carefully to the wisdom within you.
* All quotes are by Dr. Wayne Dyer, from the movie, The Shift
1. What Is My Purpose?
"One of the things that has intrigued me over the years is, when I talk about purpose and finding meaning in life, so many people coming up and asking, "What is my purpose? How do I find it? It always seems to be eluding me. I can’t seem to get there."
I’ve always felt that the real purpose of life is just to be happy, to enjoy your life, to get to a place where you’re not always trying to get someplace else.
So many people spend their lives striving, trying to be someplace that they’re not. They never get to arrive.
One of the ways to understand how to find your purpose in your life is to return to nature, to find your own nature.
Lao Tzu reminds us that all being originates in non-being. Jesus put it this way in the New Testament: "It’s the Spirit that gives life." You didn’t really come from your parents. All of us came from this place called Spirit.
When you showed up here in this world, you showed up from a tiny little drop of human protoplasm, a spec, if you will. And everything that was in that little spec, that became you, everything you needed was in that tiny little spec.
One of the most important metaphors that I use is that, in the first nine months of your life, from the moment of your conception until the moment of your birth, everything was being handled for you. There was nothing for you to do.
To me, it’s not too great a stretch to say, if everything you needed for the physical journey was already handled in there, then why not everything for the rest of the journey as well?
All of your purpose, it’s in there, everything that you are to be - not just the physical you, but everything - if you just let go and allow."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Have you spent your whole life striving, trying to be somewhere you're not, and never arriving? Be honest with yourself.
There are a multitude of messages for us to consume in today's world, but how many of them point us back to our spiritual nature and real life purpose? Consider what you consume on a regular basis in the form of news, social media, videos and reading material.
In a world where happiness is always just around the corner, an elusive promise of fulfillment after certain conditions have been met, how can you finally "get to a place where you’re not always trying to get someplace else?" How long do you need to wait to get to that place of rest?
What does finding your purpose in life have to do with discovering your true nature?
2. The Culture of More and Better
"The ego is the part of us that starts to tell us, who you are is not this perfect, divine creation, this piece of God that you came from.
It says, who you are is what you have. It begins with things like our toys and then our bank accounts and then the possessions that we have. Before you know it, we’ve begun to identify ourselves on the basis of our possessions. We begin to take on a set of beliefs about, the more that I have, the more valuable I am as a person.
So, we spend our lives taking these young children and immersing them in a culture that emphasizes “more.” It becomes almost a mantra of the ego. You have to have more. And the more you have, the more you’re aware of how much other people are trying to take it away from you, the more you get consumed with, “How do I protect it?” and, "How do I make more of what I have?"
The dilemma here is that if you are what you have, and things go away, then who you are also goes away in the process.
The second component of this ego is the idea that not only is who I am what I have, but it’s what I do, and what I do becomes this thing called achievement. Then we become consumed with this whole idea of success - my value, my worth as a human being is based upon how much I accomplish.
I have to make more money, I have to get a promotion, I have to compete with everybody else who is trying to get what I have. We are taught this over and over and over again.
All of our young people are taught this when they go into athletics. The most important thing you can do is be number one and we say, "We’re number one! We’re better than everyone else!"
We constantly find ourselves in this competitive notion, of believing that our world is one in which we have to compete.
That’s what the ego says."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Have you, to a certain extent, defined yourself by what you own? How often do you compare your house, your car, your clothes and other belongings with those of other people and see them as a reflection of worth?
One of the first questions we ask people we meet is, "What do you do?" How do you feel when you answer that question? Consider a time when you or someone you know may have been ashamed to answer that question.
Can you recognise the energy of competition within you, spurring you on to strive for a better life - better according to your egoic concepts?
Can you be still for a moment and tune into the part of you that is divine energy? The simplest way to do this is to focus on your breathing and recognise it as the miraculous gift of life. What more is there to add to this aspect of you?
3. Don't Ignore the Calling
"Don’t ignore that calling inside of you. Don’t ignore that part of you that says, "You came here to create something powerful and you have just as much of an influence in doing that, just as much of a right to do that as anyone else does."
The ego has a very strong belief system that who I am is separate from everybody else, and that I’m also separate from everything that’s missing in my life. Finally, the ego teaches us that we are separate from God.
We move into the afternoon of our life. We take the same ego construct that we learned in the morning of our life, which is all about competition, winning, being better than everybody else, and we try to apply these same constructs to the afternoon of our life.
What happens is, we end up living a lie, for what was true in the morning, in the evening, has become a lie.
Imagine yourself as being able to live and work and do everything you need to do from this place of darma (a spiritual principle that implies there is a purpose to our lives). Everything has a purpose, and when you find yourself living from that purpose, you have found your darma. Your darma is something that you will be living by and, rather than constantly using the ego, you will begin to say, this is what I’m here for. It’s like an inner calling.
Your darma isn’t anything you’re going to find. It’s something you’re connected to. It’s your divine purpose. It’s something you’re aligned with your entire life. The ego has kept us away from it.
We’re talking about a shift from the morning of your life and having to do everything for external reasons into a higher place in your life."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
How long have you ignored the calling within you? Do you even recognise it anymore, or has it been buried so long that it feels as though it doesn't exist?
From today, can you allow that calling to rise up by nurturing it with love? Can you stop ignoring it and pushing it down with rational and skeptical thoughts, and simply allow it to be expressed?
Do you see the folly in applying what you learned in the morning of your life to the afternoon and evening of your life? In other words, are the early concepts of separation and being better than others still serving you?
"This is what I'm here for." Have you ever said these words to yourself? Or have you felt, instead, that you've been living a lie, out of alignment with your true nature? "Imagine yourself as being able to live and work and do everything you need to do" from a place of authenticity and alignment.
4. Stay Aligned With What You're Here For
"I was writing books about psychology. All of them were doing well, all of them were best sellers, but inside of me, I was shifting. There was a calling to something else and I could see the shift taking place in my life.
The shift was more in the direction of spirituality, more in the direction of higher consciousness. I began to become excited and thrilled by reading people like Krishnamurti, like Muktananda.
I remember going to my agent and I said, "I want to write a book about how to take some of these great spiritual ideas…" He said, "No, no, no, no, you’re going to write a book about sex!" He said, "This is going to sell. And then, I’ve got a second book for you and we’re gonna do a two-book deal, and you’re gonna write a book about how to make money - Wayne Dyer’s approach to making money."
I said, "I can’t do that. I have to write about…" He said, "Nobody’s gonna buy this stuff. That’s airy, fairy stuff. That’s all that new agey stuff... I said, "But I have to write that! That’s what I’m living. That’s what I’m feeling. It’s so exciting."
There was a strong, inner feeling that I had something greater to give, that I had something I had to do that was beyond just going through the motions, just doing what I had already mastered, what I knew how to do.
I remember when I made the shift, even though there was a little bit of fear, I remember feeling probably the freest that I felt ever in my life.
I wasn’t motivated by: what if people are gonna buy it, how much money I’m gonna make, what if people are gonna put me on a best seller list?
You get to a place in your life where you start to be guided by something that’s larger than yourself. Just stay aligned with what you’re here for and stay in harmony with Spirit, with God, with Source.
Stay there and, as you stay there, the meaning phase of your life begins to take over. And once you cross over into the afternoon of your life, it’s impossible to go back."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Have you stopped, really stopped, to check in with yourself and sense whether you feel aligned with life? Are you open to there being a shift in your being? Are you open to something new?
Wayne Dyer was inspired by the words of spiritual teachers. When you read inspirational wisdom quotes, do you allow the words to speak deeply to you? Or do you read them like you read everything else, and then move on with your life as usual?
"There was a strong, inner feeling that I had something greater to give." Do you also have this inner feeling? Be honest with yourself. What if, instead of ignoring or worrying about what to do with this feeling, you simply opened your being to it?
"Stay aligned with what you’re here for and stay in harmony with Spirit, with God, with Source." The result of this is feeling free. What self-imposed pressure have you succumbed to in order to satisfy expectations? Is the freedom you long for available at the end of your projected acheivements in the future, or in the absence of them right now?
5. Moving into the Meaning Phase
"You begin to recognise that there’s a powerful, organising intelligence that’s in all things and it’s working with you and for you, almost as if you’re making it happen by just being connected to your source.
The destiny that appeared to be imposed on you by something outside of yourself is no longer the relevant driving force in your life.
You’re connected to the source and it’s as if this divine, organising intelligence - God, the Tao, whatever you want call it - is saying to you: "You play the music that you came here to play and I’ll be there to help you overcome any struggle or obstacle that comes along." And it’s not going to be a struggle because Source is supporting you.
As we move into the meaning phase of life, it’s not as if you no longer are ambitious, it’s that you have ambition with meaning. Now your ambition is transformed into purpose and you have to learn to become the observer and step back.
You begin to live in process, trusting where your Source is taking you. You begin to detach from the outcome and that detachment allows you to no longer be fighting, it allows things to just come to you and you’re no longer being the person who’s making things happen. You’re allowing them to show up. The fight is gone.
You begin to realise that you’re not here to push life, to make it a struggle all the time. You’re here to enjoy and to be living in peace. That’s what happens when you’re in the afternoon of your life."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Are you the type of person who makes things happen in your life? Or have you usually taken a back seat? There is another way, which doesn't require you to push through life, nor to go through it as one who feels powerless and defeated.
What would it take for you to start trusting life? Do you really believe you can do a better job by trying to control the uncontrollable?
Would you rather continue fighting to make things happen the way you want them to, or would you rather things naturally aligned and came to you?
"You begin to realise that you’re not here to push life, to make it a struggle all the time. You’re here to enjoy and to be living in peace." What is your response to these words of wisdom? What if your only job is to remain connected to the Source of life?
6. How Can I Serve?
"To touch someone’s life is more valuable than any amount of money.
My friend, Byron Katie, says: "To believe that you need what you don’t have is the definition of insanity." That you can’t be fulfilled until you get all these things, that’s an illusion. Really, you don’t need anything more.
It doesn’t matter what it is you do. You could be a cab driver, a teacher, a factory worker, a manager... What matters is that you put your attention on: How may I serve?
You can run an entire business this way, not being attached to the outcome, and putting attention on service. Your life becomes about living those virtues.
How can I serve? How can I be gentle? How can I be reverent?
The messages of the morning are about what you can and can’t do, about how society defines you. But in the afternoon, after the shift, it’s about connecting to an energy that’s taking care of everything.
The truth is, I feel something else is in charge of all of this, so it’s really about surrendering to it, surrendering to something that’s bigger than you, that you’re connected to, and is really in control of everything.
The place deep within us that wants to feel fulfilled, that wants to know that my life has made a difference, that I’ve left this place, this planet that I’ve lived on, better than when I arrived, that someone’s life has been profoundly touched because of my existence - we all want that.
It’s not about age or about finding yourself. Whoever you are, at whatever age, you’re only a thought away from changing your life."
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
"To touch someone’s life is more valuable than any amount of money." Do you believe this to be true?
Byron Katie says, "To believe that you need what you don’t have is the definition of insanity." What have you been believing you need in order to be happy and satisfied? Who would you be without that thought?
Ask yourself, "How can I serve?" It may feel like a strange question at first, or perhaps your answer comes very quickly according to your logical concepts. Either way, slow down and wait for life to reveal the answer to you in its own, sweet and surprising way.
To have someone's life profoundly touched by your existence, and in doing so, to leave this world a more beautiful place, is the ultimate purpose. Whose life have you touched in a meaningful way? Consider your parents, your partner, your children, your friends, and all those who you don't know of, who have been touched as a result of the ripple effect. Is this something you have done on your own or has it been an expression of love flowing through you?