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What Are You Reading?

Posted on September 7, 2012 | 22 comments

“Progress is impossible without change
and those who cannot change their minds
cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw.

I have long been a follower of Dr Wayne Dyer from way back in the 1970s when I first read “Your Erroneous Zones”, “Pulling Your Own Strings” and “The Sky’s the Limit”. Over the years I have read many of the books he has written, bought videos and CDs and in fact think he is great.

On his behalf, I was upset to learn that his 20-year-old marriage had ended in divorce following closely some major health problems he had suffered.

In 2007 Dr Dyer published the book “Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life“ after taking himself off on “a year long journey of research, contemplation and application of the Tao Te Ching book of wisdom.” I have had the book since it was first published when I tried to read it, but up until now haven’t read it all. So about this book..

Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ a Chinese man named Lao-tzu put together 81 verses that many regard as the “ultimate commentary on the nature of our existence.” The text and the 81 verses offer advice and guidance on achieving a balanced, moral and spiritual life.

Dr Dyer reviewed many translations of the work and has now written an essay for each of the verses showing how we can apply this ancient wisdom to today’s modern world. Each chapter is devoted to living the Tao and concludes with a section entitled “Doing the Tao Now”. The titles of some of the chapters are:

Living Without Resentment; Living By Being Here Now; Living By Letting Go; Living By Contentment; Living Naturally etc, etc.

This is not a book to sit down and read as a novel. It is a whole work to be read slowly, one essay at a time. As Wayne Dyer says, “This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you’ll live in a new world aligned with nature. Writing this book changed me forever, too. I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I’ve ever experienced. I’m so proud to present this interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and offer the same opportunity for change that it has brought me.”

So I am starting from the beginning again and this time intend to read all 81 chapters and take time to understand them. Verse No 1 is “Living The Mystery” and here we learn that “The Tao is both named and nameless. As nameless it is the origin of all things; as named it is the Mother of 10,000 things” As I said, not a book to be read to fill in an odd half hour while you are waiting for the dentist.

And because the water in the waterfall keeps moving onwards, day after day, I shall keep this in mind as I work my way through this book.