A Conversation with Dr. Wayne Dyer

A Conversation with Dr. Wayne Dyer
By Ana Hays, Maui Vision Magazine

OCTOBER 2007 | Life brings many opportunities and I’m grateful for the time I spent on Maui and the occasions I had to produce Wayne Dyers’ events for Unity Church of Maui while I lived there. An admirer of his for years, one might call me a groupie. Alas, what can I say! I’m a sucker for kindness of heart and generosity of spirit; two qualities Wayne has always bestowed on me; whether it was planning his events or taking time out from his day to speak with me about his latest book Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

An internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development, Dr. Wayne Dyer has penned over 30 books and on October 26-28, 2007, he will host an intensive on Maui where he will speak about living the Tao and how to apply the wisdom of the Tao in your everyday life.

Ana – Seeing you as someone who walks their talk, I found it interesting in the preface of Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life where you stated that you find yourself still needing to change your own thoughts to transform your life? How is this? Will this always be true for you?

Wayne – Absolutely! You can’t get away from the cyclical universe. What the Tao has taught me is that no storm lasts forever no matter what it is. Nature builds calmness within its storms. That’s true in our own lives as well. When you reach the zenith of where you are going in your life, or in a relationship; the only place you can go is down or up. That’s the nature of this universe; a cyclical thing. The seasons, the moon; everything has a cycle to it.

Ana – So you think that even when you’ve come to a place of peace in your life you still have to go up or down?

Wayne – Yes! Hidden in all good fortune is misfortune. And in all misfortune is good fortune. It’s never going to stay the same as long you are in the world or unless you die while you are alive and become an enlightened Zen Master. But those people don’t exist. When you study their lives, you find that they had the same struggles as the rest of us. It’s not so much about being able to always have calm. Calmness isn’t just the absence of noise or troubles. It’s being able to find calm within yourself when other stuff is going on.

For example, at Bikram Yoga Lahaina where I do yoga, we have these people that come outside with leaf blowers. They’re so noisy. It’s the ability to find calmness in yourself even when externally there is confusion and chaos going on.

I used to think that you could find peace and it would always be there. And there is a sense of that. But even in the worst moments, catch yourself and remember that within the storm of misfortune there is good fortune. Just get in practice with what they call in Taoism the Wu-wei; the non-action and becoming the observer of it. Just notice and stay at peace with it. I must have admit, that I still have those really disrupting moments.

Ana – In Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao it sounds like you experienced a major shift while reading and studying the Tao. What changed in your life? Can you compare a before and after?

Wayne – Just before I started on this book project, the most amazing thing happened. I’d thought about it before, but the day after I turned 65, I locked the door of my condo in Florida and walked away. I gave the key to my secretary and told her to get rid of everything. I just let it go.

Ana – You didn’t even look back?

Wayne – No, I didn’t. And within weeks I began to really become involved in the Tao. Reading a Million Little Pieces and how the Tao helped James Frye overcome his addictions intrigued me. If just reading this ancient and wise book can take someone off of crack cocaine and alcohol it must have something very, very powerful to it. I began to go through it and then I called my publisher and told them I was going to take a year and read the 81 verses and write a short essay on each one of them and live it everyday. It was that leading into it, that something; that motivated me to just turn the key and close the door on a whole life time of accumulations.

Ana – Have you become a perpetual purger now?

Wayne – I don’t know. I’m less attached to stuff, I know that. You asked me about specifics, and I just find that I see that nature offers us a solution to everything that we call a problem. If you can just find your own nature and live it as naturally as you possibly can and be in a state of awe over everything, it doesn’t matter where you are. It almost speaks to you and says, “There’s no reason to be upset about anything. It will pass.” If it’s really going to pass, why stay confused by it and depressed by it. Just watch it go. It’s on its way out. That’s what I began to do. There is a line in the Tao that says that the Tao does nothing but it leaves nothing undone. That is a very hard one to get a hold of.

Ana – I know there are 81 verses but is there any one of them that stuck out more than the other for you?

Wayne – The 76th Verse really intrigues me the most. A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff…I interpret this to mean, not just physical stiffness like rigor mortis, but stiffness in the way that we think rigidly. Flexibility, openness and softness are consorting with life. When you are rigid and you know the answer and don’t listen to other people’s point of view, you are consorting with death. Everything that is old and close to death is brittle and breaks apart including our thinking. So always stay flexible and soft and listen to others with caring. And truthfully, all of the verses hit me – especially when you think about them for days, and then write on them. This book [to me] is like a sacred channeling that has come to me. I’m so in love with this book. It’s thrilling to have the purpose of bringing this information to people.

While she edits Maui Vision Magazine long distance, Ana Hays lives in Palo Alto, California. A freelance writer, she also leads creative writing workshops. Visit her at writeonwriters.net.



http://www.drwaynedyer.com/articles/conversation.php

Flowering teas from Mountain Rose Herbs

Flowering Teas
Wonderful, captivating and engaging; flowering teas transform the simple act of drinking tea by producing an aesthetically rich experience full of color and vibrancy.
Hand-sewn flowering teas are produced in remote tea gardens in southwestern Yunnan province in China near the borders of Laos and Vietnam. White, green and black teas are picked in the early mornings. While damp, the tea leaves are flattened and sewn with cotton thread into the various shapes and bundles. (Tea leaves may also be scented with jasmine blossoms before sewing begins for a more floral flavor.) Some shapes take about one minute to sew while other more elaborate designs may take up to 10 minutes. While still moist, the leaves are shaped into balls, mushrooms, cones, etc, and finally, the teas go through the usual drying, oxidation and firing process which closes the process and provides the finished product.
The line of flowering teas and our tea sampler come beautifully packaged in a recycled content canister, making them ideal and convenient gifts.



Steeping Instructions: Place one Flowering Tea in a teapot (a clear glass teapot is recommended so you may watch it unfurl). Bring water to a low boil and pour over tea. The tea leaves will unfurl and the tea flower will slowly open. Allow to steep 2-3 minutes, or to desired strength.
After enjoying the first pot, a Flowering Tea may be re-steeped 2-3 more times. The tea you make should be decanted into teacups within a short period of time so that leaves do not remain in hot water, which would adversely affect the fine taste of this tea. Please note that above estimations are based upon a teapot which holds 18-20 ounces.

Gratitude

Let’s spend as many moments as we can every day being grateful for all the good that’s in our lives. If you have little in your life now, it will increase. If you have an abundant life now, it will increase. This is a win-win situation. You’re happy, and the Universe is happy. Gratitude increases your abundance in all areas of your life. Let’s make this a world of grateful, thankful giving and receiving for everyone!

Imprisoned by your thoughts?

Yosemite National Park photo courtesy of http://www.pdphoto.org/


Imprisoned by your thoughts?

“Problems exist only in the human mind.”

-- Anthony de Mello

For most of us, there’s always a long ‘to do’ list. That’s a fact.

And it’s easy to feel victimized. ‘Poor me!’ That’s not a fact – that’s a choice.

Experiment with your life to explore how much your mind is your jailer. Simply let go of the ‘oh woe’ kinds of thoughts. Silence your mind. Be right here, right now. Decide what you will do now and do it, without buying in to the mind’s sob story. When one task is done, you can then choose another.

Allowing the mind to agonize about the size of the ‘to do’ list just makes us tired before we even get started. It doesn’t have to be this way.

“Don't water your weeds.”

-- Harvey Mackay

http://www.higherawareness.com

Remove the Filters

Remove the filters

“You got to look at things with the eye in your heart, not with the eye in your head.”

-- Lame Deer, Medicine Man of the Oglala people

Whenever we’re thinking, our experience is being filtered through our minds. For example, when I say to myself, “What a beautiful sunset!” I am not fully experiencing the sunset because I am involved with the words in my mind.

Explore letting go of the thoughts, the words, and connecting directly with your experiences. Tune in to the silence and the sensations in your body. Be aware of the spaciousness this brings because this is truly living in the present moment.

Being present doesn’t mean that we have to abandon thinking entirely. That’s not feasible, of course. But we can experiment with what it’s like to stop thinking once in a while!

“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.”

-- Hans Margolius

Awareness is the key to all change. Take our 30 day Journey of Self Awareness email series to uncover new dimensions of who you are. Open to your own inner wisdom.
http://www.higherawareness.com

Introduction

Since I've named my blog "Zero 8," I may as well explain the name. Zeroing can be defined as "a mathematical value intermediate between positive and negative values." The number zero is rather symbolic of balance between negative and positive or yin and yang. Zero is also a circle, symbolic of the life cycle and wholeness, and unity. The numeral eight is symbolic of eternity. It is also my birthday 08/08.