There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Wayne W. Dyer

From Barnes & Noble

According to Wayne W. Dyer, any problem, whether it be ill health, financial difficulty, or relationship trauma, has a spiritual solution. Trusting his own advice, he responded to a heart attack by applying the principles of this book to his new situation.

From the Publisher

Taped on-location in Concord, Massachusetts, this DVD features internationally acclaimed author and lecturer Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who shows you how you can find a “spiritual solution to every problem.” Wayne breaks down the phrase into its three key words: problem, spiritual, and solution.

Publishers Weekly

The first half of this book is virtually interchangeable with any number of manuals by Deepak Chopra, John Bradshaw and Marianne Williamson. Self-help guru Dyer urges readers not to let their problems get them down; problems, he chirps, are just illusions anyway. Like many other pop spirituality writers in our multicultural age, Dyer draws on spiritual wisdom from the world over, peppering his pages with quotations from the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible. Dyer too often veers into the blatantly self-promotional, weaving in letters from readers who say their lives have been utterly transformed by following his advice. But the second half of the book an extended meditation on Francis of Assisi's well-known prayer "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace" distinguishes this offering from the rest of the self-help pack. Dyer urges readers to choose peace, to think about the sun's light and energy when they stumble into a place of darkness and to focus on hope when all they feel is despair. He advises acting loving in situations filled with anger and hate, letting go of fear and "shifting from pessimism to optimism." These aren't breathtakingly original suggestions, but Dyer, returning again and again to the words of St. Francis, presents such familiar lessons in a fresh and loving way. Dyer's large and loyal following will enjoy this book, but he would have done his readers a favor by lopping off the first 140 pages. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The best-selling author of over 20 books, Dyer (Your Erroneous Zones) offers a timeless message that draws wisdom from many spiritual traditions. Some readers may have difficulty digesting his blend of Eastern and Western concepts, but the practical examples will enable most readers to understand and apply the insights. Dyer completed this book after he experienced a heart attack and updated it with stories of his personal application of the ideas. This lends credibility to his claims that we cannot send problems out of our lives by attacking them or understanding them in more depth but by correcting the error in our thinking that produced the problem in the first place. Readers may have difficulty grasping his definitions of problem, solution, and spiritual, but the book is engaging and easily lends itself to rereading. An enticing and challenging work; recommended for all public library self-help, religion, psychology, or contemporary issues collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/01.] Leroy Hommerding, Ft. Meyers, FL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0060929707
  
• ISBN-13: 9780060929701
• Format: Paperback, 288pp
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Pub. Date: August 2003
• Edition Description: First Quill Edition
• Edition Number: 1
• Sales Rank: 19,242

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Spiritual Problem Solving

The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity within.

'- HazraT Inayat Khan

Can you make a flower grow? Probably your first response is, “Such a simple thing to do. Plant a seed in some dirt, provide sunlight and water and in time a flower will emerge. The proof isthat there are millions upon millions of flowers sprouting all over the world at this moment!”

That is certainly true. However, I am inviting you to reread the question and consider who or what generates the life that makes a flower grow, because the who or what is the source of solutions to all our problems.

Who or what causes the flower seed to blossom, and the tiny embryo to become a human being? Who or what grows our finger-nails and beats our heart even as we sleep? Who or what is behind the movement of the winds, which we feel but never see? What is this force that keeps the planets in place and hurls our world through the galaxy at a breathtaking speed? These questions have been asked for as long as humans have had the ability to contemplate their existence.

Spirit is what I have chosen to call the formless, invisible energy which is the source and sustenance of life on this planet. This force, no matter the name we give it, can solve every problem that we encounter. There is a spiritual solution to every problem, we only need to learn how to access it. In this book I will explain ways that I have found to access this force. I will begin by explaining thethree basic steps to finding your spiritual solutions to problems.

I first read about these steps when I immersed myself in How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, written sometime between the fourth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. Thesespiritual disciplines and techniques were written to enable a person to achieve the ultimate unitive knowledge of God. I will refer to this powerful collection of writings frequently, and share with you how this knowledge can be applied in your life.

I trust you will discover for yourself that these things you have come to label as problems have a ready solution available to you right now, in this moment, in that world we are calling spirit.

Recognizing the availability of an invisible force that can be put to use in solving a problem, requires overcoming a great deal of our early training and conditioning. Have you ever thought about the limitations we experience when we identify ourselves as only a physical body in material existence?

For instance, do you believe there is only one kind of power or knowledge, which relies on your sensory or intellectual faculties to solve problems? Most of us have been taught this is true and that all of the information that has been acquired is the total inventory of options available to us. This is a conditioned attitude of nonrecognition of our divine connection to spiritual problem solving.

In this state of nonrecognition we believe that medicines, herbs, surgery, and doctors are responsible for all healing, or that improving one's financial picture involves the exclusive application of working hard, studying, interviewing, and sending out résumés. In essence, nonrecognition leads us to believe that our knowledge is limited to those kinds of phenomena, which are explainable through our sensory functions.

Patanjali described a kind of knowledge or power that is not accessed solely through the material or sensory world. Recognition that this power exists and is always available is the first step in acti-vating it. However, it is not accessed solely through the teachings of others, or through ancient writings, just as we do not dream because someone teaches or writes about dreaming. Recognizing, like dreaming, is something we access by making an inner and outer commitment to our ability to recognize.

For example, in this first step when you are faced with a problem, I suggest you create a personal affirmation such as: “I may not know exactly how to access the spiritual solution here, but I fully recognize that a spiritual solution exists.” By recognition of its existence, we invite the power to be known by us.

As physical beings we can make a flower grow in the sense of the response to the question in the opening sentence of this book. But if we are thoughtful we realize that we cannot even begin to unravel the mystery of the invisible force that initiates life. Yet it is in this omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent spiritual world that we find the solutions to all our problems. This spiritual force is everywhere and in every thing and every one. When we incorporate the first step, recognition, we begin the process of accessing this all-knowingpower.

Realization: We discover that knowledge achieved by realization is of a much higher order than intellectual reasoning.

This is not an exercise in intellectual reasoning. In this step we go beyond recognition of a spiritual presence into the phase of realization where nothing but our own personal experience is trusted. We become an explorer in virgin territory where no one but ourselves can be. Here, only you can validate your experience.

Our desire to realize the presence is an integral part of the unexplainable dynamic that creates life. When we actively meditate on a chosen spiritual ideal or even a given personality we are expressing our desire by inviting the presence to be accessible.