She told a friend of mine who asked
what he could do for her , “Get up at four A.M., and go out onto the streets of
Phoenix, and find someone who is living there who believes he is alone,
and convince him that he is not.”
Those who live in squalor , and have lost their way , who are ravaged by
addictions and feelings of hopelessness, believe they are alone. They have
seemingly lost their soul and need to find a spiritual base. That base is love,
which is the only permanent power in the universe. It is the central
ingredient in healing and in all harmony . Recognize and realize the power
of love and its dominion over all things, and you and others will be restored
to a fearless place. Make a list of all your problems and see if you can find
one that is not rooted in fear that you are separate from spirit. The next time you feel yourself experiencing fear , think of yourself as a part
of this perfect love and watch what happens inside of you where the fear
was residing. The love will supplant that fear . This is the beginning of
bringing faith to the presence of doubt. The simple inner recognition of
your ability in any moment to move love in where you felt separated from
your source. I have used this technique when I have been in a space of strong
disagreement with my wife. Right in the midst of feeling exasperated while
defending my position, as she works equally hard at defending her own, I
have been able to stop and realize that the feeling of hurt comes from a kind
of fear that I am all alone in this dispute. In a brief second I can dispel that
fear and get my ego out of the way by inviting love onto the scene. I have a
knowing that I am never alone and that love will cast out fear and resolve
feelings of hurt. Saint Francis beckons us to know , where there is doubt let
there be faith to dissolve the doubt.HAVING THA T KNOWING
Rabindranath T agore, the brilliant Indian poet, once said, “Faith is the bird
that sings when the dawn is still dark.” It is a knowing within that in any
moment of darkness, light is on the way . No one can oblige you to have this
faith which, like love, cannot be forced. When you force love, you create
resistance and even hate. T rying to compel faith leads most often to doubt
and disbelief. If you are not ready , no amount of forcing will allow you to
see light in the midst of your darkness. But if you are ready , you will know
faith regardless of what may appear to you. I will relate to you how I came
to have this knowing which once and for all banished doubt from my mind. I heard a story once that just seemed to make sense to me. From that
moment on I have replaced all my doubts with faith. At one time I seriously
questioned the existence of God and a spiritual solution to problems. I was
more of an agnostic, pragmatic kind of person, who felt if I couldn’ t see it,
touch it, feel it, or smell it, then it didn’ t apply . This story seemed to clear it
all up for me. It was a simple story highlighting the absurdity of a perfectly
functioning universe without an underlying intelligence. In this story you are asked to imagine what it would be like to see a
junkyard filled with millions of pieces of random junk: wires strewn about,
bits of metal, tires, cushions, electrical machinery , screws and bolts, glass,
toilet seats, and everything else you can imagine, lying about haphazardly . Suddenly a gigantic wind blows through this messy junkyard and the pieces
of junk are thrown up into the air , colliding with each other , flying and
crashing here and there. Just as suddenly the force of the wind subsides, and
there in the junkyard where millions of pieces of trash had previously been,
is a jumbo jet, a Boeing 747, all ready to fly . By happenstance, luck, a
weird coincidence, all the parts were pieced together to make a perfect jet
aircraft out of several million pieces of debris. From random rubbish to
precise perfection by accident. As I contemplated the absurdity I thought about how I once proclaimed
such an explanation for the universe, with its zillions upon zillions of
component parts all arriving and interacting with each other in perfect
symmetry . All just working out coincidentally , by sheer chance andhappenstance. I revised my viewpoint to accommodate a newly arrived at
sense that there has to be a creative ener gy at work here. This is an intelligent system that we are all a part of. There is a force, a
power , a consciousness that created and supports this system. That force is
omnipresent and therefore it is in you. Y our body is a part of this system,
and is also a system of perfectly coordinated parts itself. While it may
appear random and unintelligent, it is the height of arrogance and naïveté to
assume it is accidental. It is just as unlikely for the wind to accidentally
blow together several million pieces of debris and create a 747 jumbo jet, as
it is for a force to accidentally arrange this intelligent system that we are all
a part of which has billions of moving parts. That simple little story opened
me to knowing that there is an intelligence called by many names, but
essentially comprised of cooperation, harmony , peace, flow , or love that is
the source of all. By staying in the ener gy of cooperation, harmony , peace and flow we are
always connected to this force that I am calling spirit or God. I know I can
turn my life over to this force at any moment. When I notice that I have
allowed my thoughts to stray from this one creative power , I invite love to
replace the illusion of a problem. Another way of saying it is, I bring faith
to doubt, and the doubt dissolves. The old Irish proverb says this so well,
“Fear knocked at the door , faith answered, and no one was there.”
CONTROLLING YOUR DESTINY THROUGH F AITH
Bringing faith to nullify doubt is a way of taking char ge of your life, not
only by eradicating fears, but also by knowing that you have access to a
higher creative force any time you feel you need assistance. When you
make conscious contact with this spiritual force you know something that
cannot be destroyed, that was never born, never dies, is always present in
the moment and has no form or boundaries. Y ou do not need the approval or
acceptance of anyone. It is not necessary for you to debate with others
about the presence of this universal spiritual source of all life. Y ou are not
in a contest of any kind. It is yours. According to Carl Jung the relationship
that a person has with the infinite is the telling question of a person’ s life.Spend some time discovering what kind of a relationship you have with the
infinite. I always feel as though my own faith is a very private matter . I also know
that any attempt to sway others or ar gue about the relative merits of my own
faith in a higher spiritual power is not only a waste of time, but it takes me
away from spirit and into the world of ego. The moment I feel a need to
defend my own faith or ar gue about it, I move into the territory of needing
to be right. Instantly I am transported into doubts and an inability to access
spiritual consciousness. A reminder here that “The spirit gives life. The
flesh counts for nothing.” By staying quietly and privately in a spiritual
energy of knowing I:
1. bring that same ener gy of love and peace to my current situation,
2. effect a spiritual solution; and
3. bring faith into the space where the doubt of ego consciousness
previously reigned. Faith is a way , then, of going within and creating a sense of control over
one’s life at any given moment. Once you make conscious contact and have
a direct experience of God, you can use this knowing at anytime. This is not
a belief bequeathed to you by virtue of your birth, it is a knowing that is
yours alone by virtue of your commitment to your higher spiritual ener gy. When you are faced with a problem you can return to this faith even as the
problems seem to deepen and approach the unbearable. As King David put
it, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear ,
thou art with me.”
It doesn’ t get much worse than the “valley of the shadow of death,” and yet
the spiritual message is evident. Have faith, and that faith will replace fear . Bringing faith to the presence of doubt will serve you well as you move
your ener gy field to a faster/higher vibration. Speaking personally , from my heart, I know that I am never alone. I know
that divine guidance is always available in this moment. My awareness of
this is the one thing that I can always rely on to take my pain away . Whatfollows are some suggestions that I think will be helpful to you in bringing
faith to the forefront in your moments of struggle or doubt. SUGGESTIONS FOR APPL YING F AITH TO DOUBT
I cannot str ess str ongly enough the importance of meditation. It is through
meditation that one can realize conscious contact with God and banish
doubt. Meditation is an exquisite practice for reducing stress, relieving fatigue,
nourishing the soul, and having a general feeling of well-being. However ,
the primary value of meditation is in allowing you to make conscious
contact with God, and thus establish an inner faith that this divine presence
is available at all times. This knowing within yourself that you have
conscious contact with God dissolves any doubts you may have yourself
and frees you from the doubts others may direct toward you. This is what
constitutes faith. I feel it is imperative to reiterate the role of meditation in establishing faith. God is indivisible, the one power , the source of all life. God is wherever
you are, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. God is not only all of
those things, but also always, only here in the present moment. The now ,
just like zero in mathematics, can never be divided. The equivalent of this
indivisible oneness in your personal life experience is silence. Y ou can
never divide silence in half because there is only one, indivisible silence. Meditating and practicing this silence on a daily basis allows you to come
to know God , rather than knowing about God . This direct experience,
attained by silencing the mind brings you a degree of faith that remains
unshaken and untouched by the doubts or fears of anyone, including
yourself. This is the value of meditation in creating faith that erases all
doubts. The truly enlightened and outstanding people of our world have a
constant spiritual partner , God, whose voice is the voice of silence. There are many outstanding training programs, books, and tapes available
to teach you the techniques of meditation. I have also discussed meditation
and given specific suggestions on how to meditate in several of my earlierbooks including Manifest Y our Destiny , Your Sacr ed Self, Real Magic , and
You’ll See It When Y ou Believe It . Practice developing a trust in the unknown. By the unknown I refer to that
which is impervious to our senses. As incarnated physical beings we tend to
rely on our senses to determine what is real. If we can’ t see, touch, taste,
feel, or smell it, then we tend to believe it must not exist. Faith involves
going beyond the senses to make spiritual consciousness the place that we
trust, even though it is a frequency that vibrates so fast that it transcends the
capacities of our five senses. When I first began writing books I had an absolute faith that I would be
able to have them published. My faith was always intact and firm even as I
heard doubts that a beginning author would be able to secure a major
publishing house, doubts from the experiences of others who told me of
their failed attempts, and doubts from experts who “knew” the business. As
a young college professor I announced to my classes that I would have my
book published and even what media outlets I would be visiting. I did this
and much more from a trust in the unknown that was a burning desire to
transform an idea into a physical reality . This kind of trust in the unknown
is like an invisible and invincible magnet that attracts to itself whatever it
fervently desires and expects. It is trusting in the unknown. Develop trust despite the absence of physical evidence as perceived by your
senses. No matter the circumstances or obstacles, once you draft the dream
the way can be cleared, and the universe responds and works with you to
manifest that idea into a physical reality . It has always worked for me. As a child I rehearsed how I would talk on television shows. As a college
student sitting in classrooms listening to bored professors regur gitating the
same old material I visualized myself being uplifting, fun, entertaining, and
informative to lar ge audiences around the world. I had nothing but a dream
to work with in foster homes, in the U.S. Navy , and in college. If you have
faith in your dreams and persistently stick to them, you will douse that
smoldering fire of doubt with faith in your idea. T rust that the unknown is
knowable and that it is vastly greater than the known. Or as the Buddhistproverb tells us, “If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do
is keep on walking.”
Develop a private prayer that brings you into communion with God. The
purpose of prayer , as I wrote earlier , is not to influence God to grant you
special favors, but rather to remind yourself that you are always connected
to God. As Søren Kierkegaard, the famed Danish theologian, once put it,
“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” The change
that happens in prayer is the removal of all doubt by your faith. I use prayer to remind myself to heed the silent dweller within, and to
commune with that highest/fastest frequency of spirit that is the source of
my existence. I never ask God for special favors, to grant me my wishes, to
solve my problems, to heal my friends. I never attempt to influence God in
any way . The presence of all problems and annoyances in life is due to
accepting the material world as a higher reality than the world of the spirit. When I pray I remind myself to make this infinite world of spirit the
centerpiece of the moment, to trust in this presence and let go of my petty
ego demands. Instantly , I am in a world of peace and tranquility . I aspire to
the advice of Saint Francis. “When we pray to God,” he said, “we must be
seeking nothing—nothing.”
Private prayer is a reconnection to spiritual consciousness; to God. Pray in
both the “good” and “bad” times, when you feel the presence of a problem,
or when you are feeling blessed and peaceful. Prayer reminds you to
commune in the faster spiritual vibrations where love, peace, kindness, and
forgiveness are the essence. Kahlil Gibran put it this way: “Y ou pray in
your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the
fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” This kind of
communing with God gives you an indestructible faith to present to all
doubt in your life. Affirm your faith not your doubt. Faith is the complete reliance on the
power and goodness of spirit and that you are always connected to this
goodness. When you af firm that things might not work out, that your
troubles continue to mount, that your problems are insoluble, that God has
not been listening, or that you are powerless in the face of so manystruggles, you are af firming doubt rather than faith. The ability to know
faith and af firm it allows it to manifest in your life. When Jesus spoke (John 14:27) he said, “My peace I give you.” This is an
affirmation of faith. He certainly wasn’ t suggesting that peace is very
difficult to have and you must struggle for it. Jesus brought peace to
everyone by af firming it. Likewise, in his healing work, he didn’ t imply that
we haven’ t been having a great deal of success lately with leprosy , but if
you listen to me you have a thirty percent chance of surviving over the next
five years. Instead, he declared, “Y ou are well,” af firming faith at the
highest spiritual level, and healing took place. You too must learn to af firm your faith in the face of doubt with thoughts
that things will work out, things will improve. Think, write, and say
affirmations like these. I intend to create prosperity , I’ll do what is
necessary to eradicate this problem, I know I am not alone and I have faith
that all is for good, I give no ener gy to “bad” or problems because I know
all is in divine order , I will consult with God and know that I will be guided
to do what is proper . These are all af firmations of faith, which, when
practiced, will give you an eventual spiritual solution to any problem. Refuse to dwell on thoughts about the pr oblems in your life. Make an ef fort
to refuse to keep any problem in your thoughts for more than a few
moments. Once you have become aware that you are languishing in a
problem, consider the various alternatives, and then silently go to God and
literally turn it over to this higher spiritual ener gy. By surrendering, you create an ener gy field of receptivity for the solution to
appear . When you continue to go back to the problem with your thoughts,
consider it, and then let go. It will be in just such a moment that the answer
will be abundantly clear . You will receive your solution along with the
knowledge of not only how to work it out, but the awareness that you have
the capacity to do so. Y ou may wonder why you hadn’ t seen it before, when
it is now so clear . That new clarity is the result of not cluttering your mind with thoughts of
your problem. Clarity is also the consequence of being willing to say toyourself, “I do not know what to do in this instance, but I am willing to let
go and turn this entire thing over in the knowledge that its solution rests in
the hands of the one, all-knowing power .”
As you read this, you may be thinking that this is easier to say than to do
because you believe you cannot turn of f your thoughts and stop dwelling on
something that is truly bothering you. I suggest that it is this kind of
thinking that you have very likely practiced for a lifetime that keeps you
rooted in a problem-plagued life. In fact, you can develop a new self-talk
regimen, which involves turning problems in your mind over to God. One
reason you may find it dif ficult is because you believe that you and your
little ego are all that is available for problem resolution, and that turning a
problem over to God is a cop-out. But remember , “As you think, so shall
you be,” and a mind that is focused exclusively on problems will act on
those problems, and continue to manifest more of them. By refusing to
dwell on a problem and turning it over to God, you are allowing the divine
consciousness of love and peace to flow into you. This spiritual awareness
brings the solution to the problems you are mulling over and over in your
mind. As you now know , the problems are illusions to begin with. When you
make up your mind that there is no use trying to solve any problem by
yourself, that you just aren’ t big enough, don’ t know enough, and can’ t
even comprehend the enormous forces at work in the universe over which
you do not have control, then you can cooperate with the universal source
to which you are always connected. Use the power of prayer to bring faith to a world of doubt for others who
may be suffering. What follows is a story I received in the mail concerning
one group of people’ s efforts to use collective prayer for the healing of a
woman diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer . It is reproduced here
precisely as I received it. I have only changed names to protect the privacy
of those involved. I was attending my weekly boy scout meeting with my son and while
the parents were in the background visiting, Sarah shared with us that
she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and that the doctors gave herless than a year to live. She was already at stage four which is very
bad. They suggested chemo only to give her more months to live. This
was March 1999. She started to cry and I tried to comfort her . I never
knew Sarah other than seeing her at the meetings. W e bonded that
evening and I thought to myself that I had to do something. After meditating many times, I decided that a “Healing of the
Hands” was a perfect gift to give. I had only heard of this but never
experienced it and was not sure where to start. I contacted her husband
and he gave me a list of her family and relatives along with a list of
friends’ names. I or ganized a meeting with some close friends, family ,
and three pastors at our church came forward to help. After several
meetings, we all agreed to a date, location, time, sent out mailings, etc. To make a long story short, we filled the church hall with many of her
friends, family , relatives, etc. and everyone pitched in with
refreshments, drinks, prayer , music, fellowship, etc. The evening went
perfectly . The power of prayer was obvious! After that evening, I
went home feeling very good about what we had done but I was not
hopeful. Her cancer was the worst. I visited with some of the doctors
that were treating her (they are friends of our family) and they told me
in so many words that most people die from this terrible type of cancer
and that they were doing their very best to help her be comfortable
during her treatments and time left. I did not talk to her much since
then. I received a holiday card from her and it sounded like she was
telling everyone good-bye. In January 2000, her chemo treatments
were finished and there was nothing else they could do. They did an
exploratory sur gery to determine the condition of her ovaries and to
find out how far the cancer had spread or if they were able to stop it
from growing. T o their amazement, all of the cancer was gone!! There
were no signs of cancer anywhere . . . this is a miracle! I am still in
shock. Is prayer powerful? What do you think?”
You know what I think. Prayer is ener gy. Spiritual ener gy. With God, all
things ar e possible . Just what does that leave out? As much as possible, keep your faith a private matter between you and God. The inclination to broadcast your views and convert others to your way of
thinking invites the ego into an area where only spirit is successful. Themoment that you attempt to persuade others of the rightness of your way of
thinking, you stop the process of faith and manifestation. Why? Because
you are now in a position of needing to explain and defend yourself. Y ou
have a need to be right and make others wrong. Y ou lower your ener gy
vibration to the frequencies of conflict, anger , resentment, fear and the like,
all of which crop up when you invite ego into your faith. It is “the spirit that
gives life, the flesh counts for nothing.” Stay in spirit and keep the flesh out
of it. By communing privately with God and sending love to those who have a
different point of view , you yourself are staying in faith. That ener gy alone
will keep you at peace, and simultaneously allow you to radiate that peace
outward as well. Keep your faith between you and God and you will do
more to remove doubt than is ever accomplished by ar guing and
proselytizing for converts to your way of being. Give God the cr edit. When people congratulate me about my books and
tapes and heap praise on me for my accomplishments I always give a polite
thank you, but in my heart, I know better . God writes all the books, creates
all the tapes, paints all the pictures, designs all the buildings, and builds all
the bridges. All things are done by this universal mind called here, God. I
am merely an instrument of this greater consciousness to which I am always
attached. When I let go of my vanity and mentally refuse to take the credit,
everything seems to flow . I tune into something that I cannot see or touch,
and my fingers move with pen in hand to create symbols on a pad of paper . On stage, my vocal chords move and words come out, but I know not where
they come from. I often say to my wife how time seems to have no meaning
at all when I am truly inspired (in-spirit) and writing or speaking. Hours fly
by as if there was no time. Everything simply flows and I know that I have
tapped into what were previously dormant forces. With God there is no
time. Just as the blood is circulated throughout my body by an invisible force that
keeps my heart beating and pumping, so too does that same invisible force
pump words through to my pen. I am in awe of it. I trust it. I know it will
never abandon me. I know I can never separate myself from it. I and it are
eternal, and my puny little ego takes no credit for any of myaccomplishments. It is faith that I bring to any doubt that my ego might
trigger , and when I do, time stands still and it is all perfect. Breathe in God. This may sound unusual in this context, but your breath is a
phenomenal tool for establishing faith in the face of doubt. When you
encounter doubt in your life become conscious of your breath. T ake a few
moments to inhale very deeply and hold onto that breath. Then notice as
you exhale and become aware of this awesome thing we call breathing. A
few moments of deep breath awareness returns me to my faith in the
invisible force that is always at work to keep life flowing. In and out, like a
heartbeat, like the waves of the ocean in front of my home, ceaselessly
moving in and out. Use the awareness of your breath as a connector to God,
particularly when you feel yourself disconnected by the illusion of a
problem you are experiencing in your mind. It is calming, soothing, and
nourishing to be aware of your breathing. It is a way I find useful to sow
faith in the presence of doubt or problems. Remind yourself that a placebo is a perfect example of faith at work. You
take a sugar pill believing that it contains the magical elixir to heal your
tumor , relieve your arthritis, lower your blood pressure, or stimulate you
sexually , and it is your faith, not the sugar pill that causes your body to
create the harmony you desire. This same kind of faith in God’ s ener gy can
and will bring peace and harmony to your life if you decide to make it your
inner conviction. William Blake once wrote this clever couplet, which summarizes this
chapter and this powerful request of Saint Francis to sow faith where there
is doubt: “If the sun and moon should ever doubt / they would immediately
go out.”
The sun and moon, like each and everyone of God’ s creations, survive and
shine on faith, and faith alone, that we can never go out. OceanofPDF .com11
WHERE THERE IS DESP AIR, 
HOPE
Compare the serene and simple splendor of a rose in bloom with the tensions and restlessness of
your life. The rose has a gift that you lack; It is perfectly content to be itself. It has not been
programmed from birth, as you have been, to be dissatisfied with itself, so it has not the slightest
urge to be anything other than it is. That is why it possesses the artless grace and absence of inner
conflict that among humans is only found in little children and mystics. —ANTHONY DEMELLO, THE WAY TO LOVE
What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will
improve, it won’ t always be bleak, there’ s a way to rise above the present
circumstances. Hope is an internal awareness that you do not have to suf fer
forever , and that somehow , somewhere there is a remedy for despair that
you will come upon if you can only maintain this expectancy in your heart. When we say this line in the Saint Francis’ s prayer we ask for the strength
to bring hope to all who are in despair as well as to ourselves. For it is in the
presence of a hopeful vision that despair and suf fering no longer hold our
attention. Despair is an attitude, experienced in the mind. It is a way of looking at a
life situation and feeling hopeless. There is no despair in the world. Y ou
cannot bring home a bucket full of despair , there are only people thinking
despairing thoughts. This is a crucial point to understand. There may bemany deplorable circumstances that exist in your life and in the lives of
others yet in and of themselves they are just plain circumstances, the facts
of a life. Despair itself is a mental process that sizes up and views a
situation as awful. When you just recognize  despair as being a mental
attitude you begin a process of bringing hope to the inner vision of despair
and dissolving it. It is impossible for hope and despair to exist simultaneously , one simply
cancels the other . Often it is despair that cancels out hope. In this line from
Saint Francis’ s prayer we ask for the strength to reverse this process and
cancel despair with a vision of hope. When you think about it, hope too is
nothing more than a thought or a vision. SHIFTING FROM PESSIMISM T O OPTIMISM
It is important here to remember that ener gy has a frequency . In the
frequency of despair the ener gy is low and you feel depressed or upset. “I’m
feeling down today ,” describes the despair you feel when your ener gy is in
these low frequencies. As long as you remain in that lowered frequency you
will continue to attract more of that kind of ener gy. People who live in a
constant state of mental despair never allow themselves to speed up and
experience the faster higher frequencies which lead all the way to spiritual
energy. Instead they fuel their low and slow ener gy by processing almost
every event from a pessimistic viewpoint. As soon as you identify with
“Life is dif ficult,” that is precisely what your experience has to be. As
always, the central law of the universe prevails: “As you think, so shall you
be.”
If you look back in chapter one, you will note that a basic ingredient of
spiritual ener gy is cheerfulness, a view of life in which one is hopeful and
optimistic. In this higher ener gy of optimism, you are likely to say , “I’m
really up today .” Up and higher are synonymous. Consequently , the
presence of an up vibration nullifies the illusion of pessimism. Again that
familiar reminder , all that God created is good, and God created everything,
therefore despair or pessimism are creations of your mind due to your belief
that you are separate from God. In many ways our sorrow is a falling away
from God. Bring optimism to the place where pessimism resides bybringing the ener gy of God consciousness to the scene of the pessimism,
which of course is in our mental realm. The spiritual solution to any and all despair is one, to move your ener gy up
by making conscious contact with God and trusting in that contact, thereby
dissolving the images of negativity and pessimism, and two, to radiate
outward this higher “up” ener gy toward others who are believing in and
therefore living, lives of quiet desperation. Just by being in the presence of
your faster/higher spiritual ener gy others can be impacted by your spirit of
hopefulness and cheerfulness. In ef fect, you become a beacon of hope,
showing the way to let go of attachments to gloom, and despair . By raising
your ener gy, you make it impossible for those around you to hang on to
those false ideas of being separate from all that is good, i.e., God. BREAKING THOSE A TTACHMENTS T O GLOOM AND DESP AIR
It sounds absurd to say that anyone would want to be attached to his or her
gloom, yet that is precisely the case. A long conditioning process of feeling
that life is unfair , that someone else is responsible for my sorrows, that no
one truly understands, leads inevitably to habitual thoughts of despair . Hanging on to these ideas keeps a person fixed in self-pity , which
eventually turns to self-loathing. The reason for staying attached is that the
individual who lives in despair never has to take the risk of accepting
responsibility for their gloom, or to change lifelong patterns. It is a safe
haven in that it allows you to suf fer in comfort. It is extremely common for people to build their lives on the mistaken
notion that without certain things or certain people, they cannot be happy or
free. It’ s almost as if they are programmed to be unhappy . So, their attitude
is, without my things, without a particular person, without money , without
friendship I am destined to be gloomy . Thus they become conditioned to
believe that scarcity is an excuse for despair . We have all swallowed these
beliefs to some extent, and consequently we have developed varying
degrees of attachments. These attachments are the source of despair because
we justify gloom on the basis of what or who is missing. In fact, we
experience ecstasy when we attain an object; anxiety over losing it; and
despair when it is lost!In order to transcend this cycle of attachment we must remind ourselves of
the dif ference between our ego and our higher self. Ego’ s voice is always
eager to dominate with thoughts like “I am what I have, what I do, and what
others think of me.” If you can remain quiet long enough, God’ s voice will
penetrate with messages such as “None of these things will bring you
happiness, they are only illusions, I am your only source of peace. This is
your highest self speaking, this is the spiritual solution to all problems
related to attachments.”
In order to be genuinely happy there is only one thing to do. That is to
deprogram yourself and permanently get rid of those low ener gy
attachments. Now remember , an attachment is not a fact, it is a fantasy in
your head which you have come to believe is real. It is genuinely possible
to live in bliss without those attachments. Practice not saying or thinking
that you must have a certain someone or something in order to be free of
despair . Replace those phrases with the attitude you take to a sunset, a bird
in flight, a glorious garden of flowers. Y ou love them for what they are, you
release them from any demands you might make on them and you enjoy
them without clinging to them. Do this, and despair that depends on
feelings of not having what you need will be undermined and disappear . To
rid yourself of attachments you simply have to drop them. Y ou do this by
reminding yourself over and over that you falsely believe that the cause of
your unhappiness is that some one or some things are missing from your
life. Unhappiness and despair are ideas. You can keep and love all the objects of your attachments without
renouncing any of them. Y ou can love in an underlying way and feel
peaceful and unthreatened. This is precisely how God loves you. Unconditionally . No attachments. In short, the way to eliminate despair is to
drop those attachments and relax in the knowing that your highest fastest
vibrating self does not need  any thing or any one in order to be fulfilled. Moving into God’ s ener gy field of nonattachment provides you with the
hope of transcending despair . This means loving everything, including your
suffering. Why love suf fering? Because it of fers you the opportunity to
witness, rather than receive, despair . OBSER VING YOUR DESP AIROne of the great teachers in my life, Nisar gadatta Maharaj, once said, “As
long as you identify yourself with the body-mind, you are vulnerable to
sorrow and suf fering.” My conclusion from this is that we must learn to be
a witness to our body-mind and to all its demands. When I stand back and notice myself I am no longer identifying myself
with the material world. Thus I am not vulnerable to the sorrow , suffering,
and despair that exist in the physical world. In this way I bring a sense of
hope and optimism to the illusion of despair . I observe my body-mind and
silently say something like this, “Just look at W ayne now , he is actually
believing that his despair is real. He acts as if this is really him going
through this, when in fact I am really him watching this entire plot emer ge. If he would only stop and reconnect to spirit, he would awaken from his
despair immediately .” As the witness you are not vulnerable because you
see yourself from a dif ferent place. It is also possible to bring this attitude of the observer to help others who
are locked in the torment of their despair . Tell someone to take a step back
in his or her mind and to just notice what he or she sees. In this way , you
help that person shift from despair to observation. I find it useful to
persistently remind myself that I am the noticer rather than what I notice. This allows me to bring the higher/faster ener gy of spiritual awareness to
any scene in which despair is present. CAN I REALL Y LOVE MY DESP AIR? Think about this. Suf fering ends when you stop thinking of it as suf fering. In the words of the Indian saint Sivanda: “If you train yourself to rejoice in
suffering, if you think that everything is done by God for one’ s own
betterment and uplift, if you welcome pain as a messenger of God to make
you remember Him . . . then pain will not be pain anymore. Suf fering will
not be suf fering anymore.”
As you ponder these words be sure to emphasize the conclusion. Pain and
suffering do not exist when viewed from the perspective of God. That is,
when you move into spiritual ener gy, the things you despair over dissolve. This thing you have called suf fering is really a wonderful blessing. Itteaches you to turn to God, or to raise your vibration up to the frequency of
spirit and to bring that loving spirit into the picture in the present moment. I can honestly say that most of the things that once caused me to despair
and suf fer in my own life were my greatest moments of growth and my
introduction to devotion. I had to learn that the purpose of what I then
called suf fering was to burn up my ego and become more purified in the
process. Those low points of my life provided me with the ener gy to propel
myself to a higher place. If we could know in the midst of our suf fering that
the experience was a necessary prelude leading to a spiritual advance, then
we could rejoice in that “suf fering” as Sivanda suggests. If you could stop right in the center of feeling despair and send love, you
would almost immediately know the reason for going through this despair . Even better , you would no longer think of it as despair . Voilà! You have
nullified the illusion of sorrow by bringing the frequency of love to bear on
the problem. In short, you are not here to moan and cry about the miseries
of the human condition, but to change them through love, strength, and the
vitality that is already present in you. This is bringing hope to despair . This
is actualizing a spiritual solution to the illusion of despair as a problem. For
many this sounds like a feasible cause of action. However , there are
millions of people who insist that this is impossible when one suf fers from
the ultimate despair , depression. ENDING DEPRESSION WITH HOPE
Relatively speaking, depression is a contemporary phenomenon. T oday ,
more than ever before, there is a lot of talk about depression. I have seen
estimates that as many as twenty percent of the population of developed
nations suf fers from depression. And there are degrees of this phenomenon. Clinical depression is reportedly the most serious, where people cannot
function in their daily lives and are on suicide watches. All due to this
monster called depression! Yet depression itself does not exist. Y ou cannot bring home a container of
depression to examine, clean up, and eliminate from your life. There is no
depression per se, there are only people thinking depressing thoughts.Certainly there are people who are convinced that they suf fer from
depression. There is an entire pharmaceutical industry devoted to mass-
producing drugs to combat this diagnosis. In many cases medication
appears to reduce the symptoms  of despair or hopelessness, such as poor
appetite, sleeplessness, a lack of self-esteem, and a general feeling of ennui. Some professionals say depression is psychological, others insist that it is a
chemical imbalance. But one thing is sure, in our industrialized western
world, we believe depression is a very real problem. In a classic book, From Medication to Meditation , Osho writes, “the
problem of depression is not in underdeveloped countries—in the poor
countries, people are still hopeful—it is only in the developed countries,
where they have everything that they had always longed for . . . . They have
achieved the goal—and this achievement of the goal is the cause of
depression. Now there is no hope: tomorrow is dark, and the day after
tomorrow will be even darker .”
If you have been trained to believe that your worth is in all this external
stuff, then when you begin to feel that you have nothing more to gain, that
the challenges of life are all met, and see that you can have any material
thing you want, then you lose your inner spark of life. Y ou may or may not
already have all the stuf f. The point is that you are in a time and a culture
that stimulates your desire to compete for more of it even when it is
meaningless. In a society that is taught to run after dollars, and everywhere
there is this frantic push for money and all that it can buy , you begin to
postpone even glancing at the beauty and grandeur of nature, other human
beings and all of life. A contemplative spiritual life of communing with
God and knowing your higher self is set aside in favor of attracting more
money , yet the money does not give the satisfaction. When your emphasis is the inner spiritual ener gy of love, peace, rejoicing,
cheerfulness, celebration, and kindness, you cannot know debilitating
depression. Putting spirit aside and pursuing dollars in the mistaken belief
that money can purchase anything and everything, leads you to the
discovery that you cannot purchase what you really crave the most. If your
entire life is devoted to that which you know in your heart is meaningless,then you give birth to the mental process we label depression. An illusion to
be sure, but something you will believe, nevertheless. Gradually , this mental condition will infect everyone close to you, including
your children. They will believe the illusion. All will react to the low
energy thoughts of depression and despair , tension, worry , and fear and the
health of their bodies begins to suf fer. In the low ener gy of depression, we identify or diagnose the chemical
imbalances that result and conclude that we need to restore that chemistry
to its natural harmonious level. W e pour chemicals into our bodies and we
see some changes. Less despair , more harmony , less tension, more
cheerfulness. W e conclude that depression is cured with drugs and
chemicals. Why the body-mind is out of balance should have been the first
question. Depression, like stress, is internally generated by one’ s attitudes. Could it be that the one crucial ingredient that represents a spiritual solution
to this massive problem of depression is hope? A WORD ABOUT HOPE
At the core of our being, rooted deep within our soul there is the knowing
that we are indestructible. W e have the hope of immortality , of life after
death, which is an incentive for moral perfection. This inner knowing is
hope and it is a stepping stone to the awakening of the soul. It is that still,
but restless, voice inside you that beckons you to a higher/faster ener gy. In a
sense, hope is the restoration of the appetite for life itself, and all the bliss
that accompanies a renunciation of the search for meaning and power in the
material world. The story of Buddha is well known. A prince who had everything and
realized it did not give him enlightenment. He renounced the pursuit of the
material in search of a dif ferent path, which led to a place where spirit
presided over the illusory world of the material. I do not suggest that it is
necessary for you to renounce all of your physical and material possessions
in order to find bliss, although I’m not discounting it either . I merely ask
you to consider the importance that losing one’ s appetite for life plays in
manifesting despair and depression in your life. And I encourage you toreplace the unrelenting pursuit of dollars, which can never purchase
happiness, with an intention of creating a deeper and a richer experience of
life. Hope then will literally be replacing despair . Depression, clinical or
otherwise, will be impossible. I view the presence of so much enculturated belief in depression in
contemporary western society as a moral crisis because it represents a
maladaptive search for the sacred within all of us. I also know that when we
give up our reliance on external indices of success and realize that they strip
us of our ability to live at a spiritual ener gy level, then we replace despair
with a renewed sense of hope, and depression is impossible. What follows are some suggestions for bringing this sense of hope and
spiritual consciousness to anything that smacks of despair , gloom, or
depression. SUGGESTIONS FOR TURNING DESP AIR T O HOPE
Begin to take delight in nonattachment. Through raising your own
awareness you can love without being attached. An attached love creates
despair because you are placing the source of your fulfillment and
happiness on someone else. If they refuse to cooperate in the way that you
feel they must, then you move into despair . Instead, have hope for yourself. Y ou can love anyone and appreciate him or
her for who they are, without telling yourself that you will be devastated if
they let you down. Anthony DeMello has two extremely powerful
affirmations in The W ay To Love  that will help you to experience love in a
nonattached way . 1. “I am not really attached to you at all. I am merely deluding myself
into the belief that without you I will not be happy .”
2. “I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your
tastes, follow your inclinations, behave in ways that you decide are to
your liking.”When you observe these two recommendations for detached love you will
notice that the person becomes important to you in the same way that a
rainbow or a concert are lovely in themselves. Y ou set yourself free in a
compelling way . The love actually intensifies, all despair is dissolved and
you have hope in your heart rather than the pain that attachments bring. Practice r einfor cing hope rather than despair . Don’ t be an enabler of
despair by commiserating with those who are feeling low . I once took a
vow as a counselor/therapist that I would always seek to have my clients
put the emphasis on their successes rather than the things that brought about
feelings of despair . For instance, I encouraged a client who was unable to get along with his
parents to examine the brief times when he felt he had successful
interactions with them. I pushed him to recount any moments of success. How he felt, what he thought, what were the results, how his day went at
the times of success, and so on. By looking for any signs of success, I
would make the counseling sessions experiences of hope rather than
reinforcers of despair . Similarly , clients with addictions and even chronic pain all had some
moments in their lives when they felt successful at handling their
“problems.” One week of not overeating, three days of not drinking, one
whole pain-free day . All these kinds of experiences provide an opportunity
to remember that the power to replace despair with hope, if only for a day
or so, is available. If it can be done for one day , then two days is not so
outrageous, and you have a hopeful idea. I found that reinforcing negatives, talking about causes, rehashing hurt
feelings and reliving painful emotions often served to reinforce a feeling of
hopelessness in the present moment. As a counselor/therapist I wanted to
bring hope to despair , and in the process help to nullify despair for good. This logic applies to despair in your life. Recall past moments when you
felt a degree of hope and success handling a problem and try to re-create the
thoughts and feelings that you were experiencing. By doing so, you giveyourself a road map out of your despair . By reinforcing hope, you will act
on those new thoughts and feelings. Remember to call in God and literally turn the despair over to God. You
can end an experience of despair by making a present moment decision to
let it go in a moment of silent prayer . “I cannot handle this situation alone, I
know that you are here with me as my silent senior partner . I am entrusting
this to you.” This quiet simple little prayer will give you immediate relief
from the feelings of despair . This is a way of letting go of the idea that all is
hopeless. In essence, what you are doing with the prayer is asking that love
guide your life. It is a way of emptying your agenda and utilizing the power
that revolves the planets around the sun, keeps that same sun in place, and
turns a seed into a flower or a baby . It is far superior to saying, “I’ll do this
all by myself.” By asking for divine intervention you can step back and
allow yourself to symbolically take God’ s hand. This advice is as ancient as the scriptures. Utilize it and release yourself
from the drama of your despair . In five short words, you can bring hope to
despair and ef fect a spiritual solution to any problem related to that despair:
“Ask and you shall receive.”
Act as if the hope you have for the r elief of despair is alr eady her e and in
place. Rather than your normal reaction to despair , of being inactive,
speaking in terms of hopelessness, complaining and fault-finding, feeling
self-pity and pessimism, create a picture of how you would like everything
to work out and firmly make a commitment to act as if what you want is
already here. If you want more abundance, get a picture of yourself as
having already received material blessings. Go and sit in the car of your
dreams in a showroom, visualize yourself driving it, then hold that picture
in your consciousness. The way will be shown to you. As I said in Manifest
Your Destiny , your job is not to say how; it is to say , “Yes!”
My wife and I do this instead of despairing over a particular trend or
behavior with our children. W e both try to visualize whatever the situation
may be working out for them. Then we treat them as if they have already
achieved what we thought was in their best interests. W e then practice
acting out in this way toward them because this is our mental image ofthem. Our pessimism dissolves and is replaced with positive reinforcement
to materialize the picture of success we already have in place. So, we can
say to them, “Y ou are doing great in school,” or “Y ou’ll be on time for
school tomorrow ,” or “Y ou are taking much better care of yourself,” or “It’ s
great to see you happy .” We reinforce hope by acting as if what we wanted
for them was already here. Despair is really just an image in our minds. In reality , we are whatever we
decide to think in the face of any circumstance, and choosing to see the
problem as dissolved is in fact the replacement of despair with hope. In the midst of suffering, make a conscious effort to see the blessing. This is
a powerful tool for eliminating despair . When you are feeling most
distressed and things seem to be going from bad to worse, try stopping for
an instant and asking yourself how you are going to grow from this
experience. Then listen to your inner voice and stay open to something
good appearing as the drama of despair continues to unfold. T uning into
your silence gives you the ener gy to get through the despair and grow in the
process. When you let go of the despairing thoughts you bring in the
higher/faster ener gy, which ultimately displaces the illusion of your despair . When it seems impossible to stop in the midst of turmoil and suf fering and
search for blessings, remember that all the times that seemed so traumatic in
the past now seem, in retrospect, to have been valuable growth experiences. The former alcoholic almost always blesses his drunkenness. The wealthy
person praises his earlier poverty . The recovered heart attack patient values
the experience of illness. The happy couple extols the pain of their
separation. Every despairing time has served to bring you to a higher ,
happier place in your life. Therefore, I ur ge you to stop considering any life
experience in terms of despair . Imagine yourself looking back at this particular moment and use the hope
of growing beneficially from the experience, to stop self-pity . Let despair
dissolve into gratitude for the opportunity it truly represents. The Saint
Francis prayer concludes with this line: “It is in dying that we are born to
eternal life.” I suggest that it is in the dying of a despairing moment that aspiritual birth takes place. By seeing the blessing in despair , as it is
occurring, you birth the elixir of hope. Don’ t let yourself be a sounding boar d for the sorr owful tales of others. Some people love to recite stories of despair and disaster . The more
despairing the details, the more they seem to take pleasure in retelling them. In many ways, this brings the despair that they are recounting into your life
as well. I find it helpful to simply let it be known that I do not choose to
wallow in any despair , my own or that of others. When I am bombarded by stories, such as the death reports, the illness
reports, the accident reports, the poor weather reports, the crime reports,
and so on, I nod politely and point out the potential blessing in what I am
hearing. “Uncle Harry’ s heart attack will probably get him to be more
conscious of what he eats and it very likely saved his life.” “Whenever
there is a bad storm it brings out the best in everyone and people all chip in
to help out their neighbors.” “Grandma is now in God’ s hands and will
never ever again experience any suf fering.” These kinds of calculated
responses politely tell the person who loves to dwell on despair and abuse
others with their disasterizing that you prefer to discuss what is good about
the situation. Bring hope to these kinds of bombardments and the
atmosphere immediately shifts away from despair . Practice the art of being an eternal optimist. People who are eternal
optimists are often called Pollyannas, as if this were a criticism. T o me,
being called a Pollyanna, which I have been on many occasions, is a
compliment. Here was a town in which everyone was depressed. The people were
gloomy , the economy was bad, everyone hated everything about their lives,
and their community . Pessimism reigned. Into this picture strolls a little girl
named Pollyanna. W ithin a few weeks everyone is cheerful, people are
being kind to each other , and the economy has picked up, because of
Pollyanna’ s attitude. The Secr et Gar den is another wonderful story of the
triumph of a young girl’ s optimism during the imagined illness of a young
spoiled boy . I also recommend you watch The Barr etts of W impole Str eet, a
movie that depicts how the famed poet Robert Browning helped transform asickly , pessimistic Elizabeth Barrett into a vibrant woman who later became
his wife. These kinds of stories promote the importance of optimism. When I am
criticized as a hopeless Pollyanna I always say thank you. What better role
model than someone whose presence inspires hope where despair played a
dominant role previously? Be persistent in acting as if it is impossible to fail. I love this quotation from
Louis Pasteur: “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My
strength lies solely in my tenacity .” I suggest that you become like a pit bull
holding on to a bone called hope. Keep a death grip on that bone called
hope regardless of what comes along, and regardless of the obstacles and
so-called failures that have previously induced despair . When you feel the
despairing thoughts returning, shift your thoughts to an intention of making
things work out. I remind myself of the old maxim, “This too shall pass,”
and I reaf firm my unwillingness to give up on myself. This inner tenacity is
infectious. Saint Francis, whose famous prayer is the basis for a good part
of this book, refused to give up on what he knew was a calling from God. His parents and family tried everything to dissuade him from his obsession
with Jesus and devotion to spirit, yet he persisted like that pit bull’ s grip on
the bone. He simply knew that he couldn’ t fail because his faith was so
great, and obstacles became opportunities for hope rather than contributing
to an attitude of despair . Who knows, perhaps one day you’ll have a lovely
city like San Francisco named after you. I am sure you have heard W inston Churchill’ s stirring words as he rallied
his countrymen to stand up for the honor of freedom in the face of an
immense cloud of despair . “Never give in. Never , never , never , never . In
nothing great or small, lar ge or petty—never give in except to convictions
of honor and good sense.”
Endure and persist. The pain will ultimately turn to your good. This is the
value of persistence in bringing hope to the illusion of despair . Wherever ,
whenever you encounter despair , be it in yourself or in others, remind
yourself on the spot to shift to that higher/faster ener gy of spirit. Radiate
that ener gy directly to what you believe to be the source of the despair .Surround the imagined source with light and the unconditional love of God. Eventually , but most assuredly , you will bring hope to that imagined
despair , and by doing so you will have taken another step toward knowing
that there truly is a spiritual solution to every problem. OceanofPDF .com12
WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS,  
LIGHT
There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON
This line from the Saint Francis prayer asks for the strength and ability to
bring light to all who feel ugly , or perceive the world as a shallow , evil, or
dark place. As Emerson suggests in the above display quote, the intensity of
your light can make anything beautiful. When you live in darkness you are
immersed in a world that does not allow you to see the beauty that
surrounds you. One of the highest qualities of self-actualized people is their
ability to see beauty everywhere, and to source life from the presence of
beauty . “Let me bring light,” is another way of saying let me illustrate by
my presence and my attitude that there is beauty everywhere. In many ways bringing light to the presence of darkness is a way to bring a
spiritual solution to a problem. Darkness symbolizes the inability to
experience the true nature of our world. As John Keats describes it in his
famous poetic lines, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty . / That is all ye know on
earth, and all ye need to know .” In darkness one remains ignorant of both
beauty and truth, since they are synonymous. The decision to bring light todarkness opens up a whole new world of beauty appreciation and sets you
free of any misperception you might have about life being a dark
experience. You may recall from my earlier descriptions that everything is ener gy, and
that light represents the faster/higher ener gy of spirit, which nullifies
experiences of darkness. The ability to have light just “show up” eradicates
experiences of darkness from your life and the lives of those you touch as
well. LIGHT IS ENERGY
Everything is vibrating even if your senses tell you that some things are
solid. Light itself is an ener gy, a very fast frequency that conforms to the
spiritual laws I have been citing throughout this book. When you bring the
higher/faster frequencies to the presence of the lower/slower vibrations,
those “problems” are instantly dissolved because darkness is merely the
absence of light. When you introduce light into a dark area, the darkness
simply disappears. If you enter a dark place with a lamp, the light falls on
everyone who is near you. Y ou don’ t have to announce, “Here I come with
the light.” Everyone is automatically aware of the presence of the light, and
darkness is dissolved. Once again, a problem is no longer a problem when
we bring the faster/higher vibrations of spirit to bear on the illusions,
including the illusion of darkness. Think about the sun as a source of light. It is always shining. Clouds come
along to obscure the sun, yet the sun is still shining. The sun appears to go
down at night but that is an illusion, it continues to shine at all times. The
sun appears to be the source of light, but it is really a reflection of the true
light, which is God or spirit. The highest ener gy is spirit, which gives light
to the material world including the sun. Remember that this true light is
always shining just as the sun shines perpetually , even when you don’ t see
it. Then you can open yourself to accessing the divine light in what appears
to be darkness, which can never truly exist. The nullifier of that darkness is
always shining and available to you whenever you choose. It’ s as simple as
remembering that light and dark cannot coexist. The power of light is that
darkness must absolutely vanish when you bring in light.BRINGING IN LIGHT
I suggest that you view yourself as a being of light, a fast moving ener gy
system that has the capacity to make darkness disappear . You are the carrier
of this light. Y ou radiate this light wherever you go and you are able to help
yourself and others triumph over darkness. In addition to thinking of light as a fast moving ener gy vibration, I would
like you to consider light as an attitude. That is, you can choose to either
think light or think dark. When you are thinking light you bring to any set
of problems an uncontaminated clarity that can dissolve dif ficulties. Perhaps you have heard someone talk of surrounding a friend or loved one
with white light in times of perceived potential darkness. These comments
reflect an awareness that light is protective and pure, and that it can protect
someone from dangerous or harmful ener gies. Putting white light around a
loved one is another way of sending loving thoughts and trusting in the
energetic thoughts to assist in keeping the person safe. These are thoughts
of light, wherein you choose to think of a loving light, visualizing it being
sent by you to do the work of spirit. Intuitively we know that thoughts of
light will dispel darkness just as surely as turning on a light switch will
illuminate a dark room. This line from the Saint Francis prayer signifies for me the four components
of light that you can bring to any situation where darkness is the problem. These four ingredients are:
1. Purity . Light implies purity . When you are able to bring purity to that
which is impure you are fulfilling the wish of Saint Francis along with
bringing a spiritual solution to the problem. Purity as applied to the physical
realm means a clean, clear , unpolluted, unadulterated presence as in pure
water , pure air , pure blood, or pure food. The process of purification
eliminates the problems of disease, foul air or bacteria. This is also true
with our thoughts and behaviors in the presence of impurities. Problems exist for us when we allow ourselves to have debased thoughts. When our thoughts become impure they create contamination in our livesand in the lives of those around us. Conflicts arise when we move into the
lower frequencies of drunkenness, lust, unclean living, violence, substance
abuse, profanity , and the like. A purified presence is just like light, where
all adulterants are removed and what is left is the purity of the light, or the
absence of the dark. By bringing this sense of purification into the areas
where impurities reside, you are able to af fect a spiritual solution to the
problems of an unclean or muddied mind. Recently I happened to be in a park at night where a lar ge collection of
young people was gathered for a high school graduation celebration. It
became apparent that drinking and drug use were taking their toll on the
young adults. Soon the profanity and threats of physical fighting won out
and the young people were squaring of f to do battle. I thought of this line
from the Saint Francis prayer . I saw darkness in the form of impurity
everywhere running rampant. So, I began to walk into the center of this bur geoning melee, consciously
radiating thoughts of light, saying nothing but just surrounding the entire
commotion with light. In a matter of moments the young people began to
disperse and the violent threats subsided. It was clear to me that it was
possible to send pure loving light into this low ener gy and that it impacted
the young people without them even being aware of what I was doing. Y ou
can access the purity of your soul, bringing your senior partner ’s
unconditional loving pure light to the presence of any impurity . By
radiating that kind of pure light outward you can af fect those around you. When you enter the space of those who live, breathe, and practice thinking
light thoughts, you can feel the lighter ener gy in the room. As Patanjali
suggested, all living creatures cease to feel enmity in the presence of those
who are steadfast in their abstention from having harmful, impure thoughts. This is bringing light to the presence of darkness, and the more you decide
to practice it, the more you will be an emissary of light. Impure thinking
and behavior cannot stand up to the power of your pure light, any more than
darkness can stand up to the presence of light. 2. Morality . The light represents treating ourselves and others from a
perspective of the golden rule. Let me do the right thing and in so doing Ibring light to bear on darkness. When someone feels mistreated, hurt, lost,
or just plain alone in their misery it is as if they have a black cloud hovering
above their head.
_OceanofPDF.com_Theres_a_Spiritual_Solution_to_Every_Problem_-_Wayne_W_Dyer.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        She told a friend of mine who asked
what he could do for her, “Get up at four A. M. , and go out onto the streets of
Phoenix, and find someone who is living there who believes he is alone,
and convince him that he is not. ”
Those who live in squalor, and have lost their way, who are ravaged by
addictions and feelings of hopelessness, believe they are alone. They have
seemingly lost their soul and need to find a spiritual base. That base is love,
which is the only permanent power in the universe. It is the central
ingredient in healing and in all harmony. Recognize and realize the power
of love and its dominion over all things, and you and others will be restored
to a fearless place. Make a list of all your problems and see if you can find
one that is not rooted in fear that you are separate from spirit. The next time you feel yourself experiencing fear, think of yourself as a part
of this perfect love and watch what happens inside of you where the fear
was residing. The love will supplant that fear. This is the beginning of
bringing faith to the presence of doubt. The simple inner recognition of
your ability in any moment to move love in where you felt separated from
your source. I have used this technique when I have been in a space of strong
disagreement with my wife. Right in the midst of feeling exasperated while
defending my position, as she works equally hard at defending her own, I
have been able to stop and realize that the feeling of hurt comes from a kind
of fear that I am all alone in this dispute. In a brief second I can dispel that
fear and get my ego out of the way by inviting love onto the scene. I have a
knowing that I am never alone and that love will cast out fear and resolve
feelings of hurt. Saint Francis beckons us to know, where there is doubt let
there be faith to dissolve the doubt. HAVING THA T KNOWING
Rabindranath T agore, the brilliant Indian poet, once said, “Faith is the bird
that sings when the dawn is still dark. ” It is a knowing within that in any
moment of darkness, light is on the way. No one can oblige you to have this
faith which, like love, cannot be forced. When you force love, you create
resistance and even hate. T rying to compel faith leads most often to doubt
and disbelief. If you are not ready, no amount of forcing will allow you to
see light in the midst of your darkness. But if you are ready, you will know
faith regardless of what may appear to you. I will relate to you how I came
to have this knowing which once and for all banished doubt from my mind. I heard a story once that just seemed to make sense to me. From that
moment on I have replaced all my doubts with faith. At one time I seriously
questioned the existence of God and a spiritual solution to problems. I was
more of an agnostic, pragmatic kind of person, who felt if I couldn’ t see it,
touch it, feel it, or smell it, then it didn’ t apply. This story seemed to clear it
all up for me. It was a simple story highlighting the absurdity of a perfectly
functioning universe without an underlying intelligence. In this story you are asked to imagine what it would be like to see a
junkyard filled with millions of pieces of random junk: wires strewn about,
bits of metal, tires, cushions, electrical machinery, screws and bolts, glass,
toilet seats, and everything else you can imagine, lying about haphazardly. Suddenly a gigantic wind blows through this messy junkyard and the pieces
of junk are thrown up into the air, colliding with each other, flying and
crashing here and there. Just as suddenly the force of the wind subsides, and
there in the junkyard where millions of pieces of trash had previously been,
is a jumbo jet, a Boeing 747, all ready to fly. By happenstance, luck, a
weird coincidence, all the parts were pieced together to make a perfect jet
aircraft out of several million pieces of debris. From random rubbish to
precise perfection by accident. As I contemplated the absurdity I thought about how I once proclaimed
such an explanation for the universe, with its zillions upon zillions of
component parts all arriving and interacting with each other in perfect
symmetry. All just working out coincidentally, by sheer chance andhappenstance. I revised my viewpoint to accommodate a newly arrived at
sense that there has to be a creative ener gy at work here. This is an intelligent system that we are all a part of. There is a force, a
power, a consciousness that created and supports this system. That force is
omnipresent and therefore it is in you. Y our body is a part of this system,
and is also a system of perfectly coordinated parts itself. While it may
appear random and unintelligent, it is the height of arrogance and naïveté to
assume it is accidental. It is just as unlikely for the wind to accidentally
blow together several million pieces of debris and create a 747 jumbo jet, as
it is for a force to accidentally arrange this intelligent system that we are all
a part of which has billions of moving parts. That simple little story opened
me to knowing that there is an intelligence called by many names, but
essentially comprised of cooperation, harmony, peace, flow, or love that is
the source of all. By staying in the ener gy of cooperation, harmony, peace and flow we are
always connected to this force that I am calling spirit or God. I know I can
turn my life over to this force at any moment. When I notice that I have
allowed my thoughts to stray from this one creative power, I invite love to
replace the illusion of a problem. Another way of saying it is, I bring faith
to doubt, and the doubt dissolves. The old Irish proverb says this so well,
“Fear knocked at the door, faith answered, and no one was there. ”
CONTROLLING YOUR DESTINY THROUGH F AITH
Bringing faith to nullify doubt is a way of taking char ge of your life, not
only by eradicating fears, but also by knowing that you have access to a
higher creative force any time you feel you need assistance. When you
make conscious contact with this spiritual force you know something that
cannot be destroyed, that was never born, never dies, is always present in
the moment and has no form or boundaries. Y ou do not need the approval or
acceptance of anyone. It is not necessary for you to debate with others
about the presence of this universal spiritual source of all life. Y ou are not
in a contest of any kind. It is yours. According to Carl Jung the relationship
that a person has with the infinite is the telling question of a person’ s life. Spend some time discovering what kind of a relationship you have with the
infinite. I always feel as though my own faith is a very private matter. I also know
that any attempt to sway others or ar gue about the relative merits of my own
faith in a higher spiritual power is not only a waste of time, but it takes me
away from spirit and into the world of ego. The moment I feel a need to
defend my own faith or ar gue about it, I move into the territory of needing
to be right. Instantly I am transported into doubts and an inability to access
spiritual consciousness. A reminder here that “The spirit gives life. The
flesh counts for nothing. ” By staying quietly and privately in a spiritual
energy of knowing I:
1. bring that same ener gy of love and peace to my current situation,
2. effect a spiritual solution; and
3. bring faith into the space where the doubt of ego consciousness
previously reigned. Faith is a way, then, of going within and creating a sense of control over
one’s life at any given moment. Once you make conscious contact and have
a direct experience of God, you can use this knowing at anytime. This is not
a belief bequeathed to you by virtue of your birth, it is a knowing that is
yours alone by virtue of your commitment to your higher spiritual ener gy. When you are faced with a problem you can return to this faith even as the
problems seem to deepen and approach the unbearable. As King David put
it, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear,
thou art with me. ”
It doesn’ t get much worse than the “valley of the shadow of death,” and yet
the spiritual message is evident. Have faith, and that faith will replace fear. Bringing faith to the presence of doubt will serve you well as you move
your ener gy field to a faster/higher vibration. Speaking personally, from my heart, I know that I am never alone. I know
that divine guidance is always available in this moment. My awareness of
this is the one thing that I can always rely on to take my pain away. Whatfollows are some suggestions that I think will be helpful to you in bringing
faith to the forefront in your moments of struggle or doubt. SUGGESTIONS FOR APPL YING F AITH TO DOUBT
I cannot str ess str ongly enough the importance of meditation. It is through
meditation that one can realize conscious contact with God and banish
doubt. Meditation is an exquisite practice for reducing stress, relieving fatigue,
nourishing the soul, and having a general feeling of well-being. However,
the primary value of meditation is in allowing you to make conscious
contact with God, and thus establish an inner faith that this divine presence
is available at all times. This knowing within yourself that you have
conscious contact with God dissolves any doubts you may have yourself
and frees you from the doubts others may direct toward you. This is what
constitutes faith. I feel it is imperative to reiterate the role of meditation in establishing faith. God is indivisible, the one power, the source of all life. God is wherever
you are, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. God is not only all of
those things, but also always, only here in the present moment. The now,
just like zero in mathematics, can never be divided. The equivalent of this
indivisible oneness in your personal life experience is silence. Y ou can
never divide silence in half because there is only one, indivisible silence. Meditating and practicing this silence on a daily basis allows you to come
to know God, rather than knowing about God. This direct experience,
attained by silencing the mind brings you a degree of faith that remains
unshaken and untouched by the doubts or fears of anyone, including
yourself. This is the value of meditation in creating faith that erases all
doubts. The truly enlightened and outstanding people of our world have a
constant spiritual partner, God, whose voice is the voice of silence. There are many outstanding training programs, books, and tapes available
to teach you the techniques of meditation. I have also discussed meditation
and given specific suggestions on how to meditate in several of my earlierbooks including Manifest Y our Destiny, Your Sacr ed Self, Real Magic, and
You’ll See It When Y ou Believe It. Practice developing a trust in the unknown. By the unknown I refer to that
which is impervious to our senses. As incarnated physical beings we tend to
rely on our senses to determine what is real. If we can’ t see, touch, taste,
feel, or smell it, then we tend to believe it must not exist. Faith involves
going beyond the senses to make spiritual consciousness the place that we
trust, even though it is a frequency that vibrates so fast that it transcends the
capacities of our five senses. When I first began writing books I had an absolute faith that I would be
able to have them published. My faith was always intact and firm even as I
heard doubts that a beginning author would be able to secure a major
publishing house, doubts from the experiences of others who told me of
their failed attempts, and doubts from experts who “knew” the business. As
a young college professor I announced to my classes that I would have my
book published and even what media outlets I would be visiting. I did this
and much more from a trust in the unknown that was a burning desire to
transform an idea into a physical reality. This kind of trust in the unknown
is like an invisible and invincible magnet that attracts to itself whatever it
fervently desires and expects. It is trusting in the unknown. Develop trust despite the absence of physical evidence as perceived by your
senses. No matter the circumstances or obstacles, once you draft the dream
the way can be cleared, and the universe responds and works with you to
manifest that idea into a physical reality. It has always worked for me. As a child I rehearsed how I would talk on television shows. As a college
student sitting in classrooms listening to bored professors regur gitating the
same old material I visualized myself being uplifting, fun, entertaining, and
informative to lar ge audiences around the world. I had nothing but a dream
to work with in foster homes, in the U. S. Navy, and in college. If you have
faith in your dreams and persistently stick to them, you will douse that
smoldering fire of doubt with faith in your idea. T rust that the unknown is
knowable and that it is vastly greater than the known. Or as the Buddhistproverb tells us, “If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do
is keep on walking. ”
Develop a private prayer that brings you into communion with God. The
purpose of prayer, as I wrote earlier, is not to influence God to grant you
special favors, but rather to remind yourself that you are always connected
to God. As Søren Kierkegaard, the famed Danish theologian, once put it,
“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. ” The change
that happens in prayer is the removal of all doubt by your faith. I use prayer to remind myself to heed the silent dweller within, and to
commune with that highest/fastest frequency of spirit that is the source of
my existence. I never ask God for special favors, to grant me my wishes, to
solve my problems, to heal my friends. I never attempt to influence God in
any way. The presence of all problems and annoyances in life is due to
accepting the material world as a higher reality than the world of the spirit. When I pray I remind myself to make this infinite world of spirit the
centerpiece of the moment, to trust in this presence and let go of my petty
ego demands. Instantly, I am in a world of peace and tranquility. I aspire to
the advice of Saint Francis. “When we pray to God,” he said, “we must be
seeking nothing—nothing. ”
Private prayer is a reconnection to spiritual consciousness; to God. Pray in
both the “good” and “bad” times, when you feel the presence of a problem,
or when you are feeling blessed and peaceful. Prayer reminds you to
commune in the faster spiritual vibrations where love, peace, kindness, and
forgiveness are the essence. Kahlil Gibran put it this way: “Y ou pray in
your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the
fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. ” This kind of
communing with God gives you an indestructible faith to present to all
doubt in your life. Affirm your faith not your doubt. Faith is the complete reliance on the
power and goodness of spirit and that you are always connected to this
goodness. When you af firm that things might not work out, that your
troubles continue to mount, that your problems are insoluble, that God has
not been listening, or that you are powerless in the face of so manystruggles, you are af firming doubt rather than faith. The ability to know
faith and af firm it allows it to manifest in your life. When Jesus spoke (John 14:27) he said, “My peace I give you. ” This is an
affirmation of faith. He certainly wasn’ t suggesting that peace is very
difficult to have and you must struggle for it. Jesus brought peace to
everyone by af firming it. Likewise, in his healing work, he didn’ t imply that
we haven’ t been having a great deal of success lately with leprosy, but if
you listen to me you have a thirty percent chance of surviving over the next
five years. Instead, he declared, “Y ou are well,” af firming faith at the
highest spiritual level, and healing took place. You too must learn to af firm your faith in the face of doubt with thoughts
that things will work out, things will improve. Think, write, and say
affirmations like these. I intend to create prosperity, I’ll do what is
necessary to eradicate this problem, I know I am not alone and I have faith
that all is for good, I give no ener gy to “bad” or problems because I know
all is in divine order, I will consult with God and know that I will be guided
to do what is proper. These are all af firmations of faith, which, when
practiced, will give you an eventual spiritual solution to any problem. Refuse to dwell on thoughts about the pr oblems in your life. Make an ef fort
to refuse to keep any problem in your thoughts for more than a few
moments. Once you have become aware that you are languishing in a
problem, consider the various alternatives, and then silently go to God and
literally turn it over to this higher spiritual ener gy. By surrendering, you create an ener gy field of receptivity for the solution to
appear. When you continue to go back to the problem with your thoughts,
consider it, and then let go. It will be in just such a moment that the answer
will be abundantly clear. You will receive your solution along with the
knowledge of not only how to work it out, but the awareness that you have
the capacity to do so. Y ou may wonder why you hadn’ t seen it before, when
it is now so clear. That new clarity is the result of not cluttering your mind with thoughts of
your problem. Clarity is also the consequence of being willing to say toyourself, “I do not know what to do in this instance, but I am willing to let
go and turn this entire thing over in the knowledge that its solution rests in
the hands of the one, all-knowing power. ”
As you read this, you may be thinking that this is easier to say than to do
because you believe you cannot turn of f your thoughts and stop dwelling on
something that is truly bothering you. I suggest that it is this kind of
thinking that you have very likely practiced for a lifetime that keeps you
rooted in a problem-plagued life. In fact, you can develop a new self-talk
regimen, which involves turning problems in your mind over to God. One
reason you may find it dif ficult is because you believe that you and your
little ego are all that is available for problem resolution, and that turning a
problem over to God is a cop-out. But remember, “As you think, so shall
you be,” and a mind that is focused exclusively on problems will act on
those problems, and continue to manifest more of them. By refusing to
dwell on a problem and turning it over to God, you are allowing the divine
consciousness of love and peace to flow into you. This spiritual awareness
brings the solution to the problems you are mulling over and over in your
mind. As you now know, the problems are illusions to begin with. When you
make up your mind that there is no use trying to solve any problem by
yourself, that you just aren’ t big enough, don’ t know enough, and can’ t
even comprehend the enormous forces at work in the universe over which
you do not have control, then you can cooperate with the universal source
to which you are always connected. Use the power of prayer to bring faith to a world of doubt for others who
may be suffering. What follows is a story I received in the mail concerning
one group of people’ s efforts to use collective prayer for the healing of a
woman diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. It is reproduced here
precisely as I received it. I have only changed names to protect the privacy
of those involved. I was attending my weekly boy scout meeting with my son and while
the parents were in the background visiting, Sarah shared with us that
she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and that the doctors gave herless than a year to live. She was already at stage four which is very
bad. They suggested chemo only to give her more months to live. This
was March 1999. She started to cry and I tried to comfort her. I never
knew Sarah other than seeing her at the meetings. W e bonded that
evening and I thought to myself that I had to do something. After meditating many times, I decided that a “Healing of the
Hands” was a perfect gift to give. I had only heard of this but never
experienced it and was not sure where to start. I contacted her husband
and he gave me a list of her family and relatives along with a list of
friends’ names. I or ganized a meeting with some close friends, family,
and three pastors at our church came forward to help. After several
meetings, we all agreed to a date, location, time, sent out mailings, etc. To make a long story short, we filled the church hall with many of her
friends, family, relatives, etc. and everyone pitched in with
refreshments, drinks, prayer, music, fellowship, etc. The evening went
perfectly. The power of prayer was obvious. After that evening, I
went home feeling very good about what we had done but I was not
hopeful. Her cancer was the worst. I visited with some of the doctors
that were treating her (they are friends of our family) and they told me
in so many words that most people die from this terrible type of cancer
and that they were doing their very best to help her be comfortable
during her treatments and time left. I did not talk to her much since
then. I received a holiday card from her and it sounded like she was
telling everyone good-bye. In January 2000, her chemo treatments
were finished and there was nothing else they could do. They did an
exploratory sur gery to determine the condition of her ovaries and to
find out how far the cancer had spread or if they were able to stop it
from growing. T o their amazement, all of the cancer was gone. There
were no signs of cancer anywhere. this is a miracle. I am still in
shock. Is prayer powerful. What do you think. ”
You know what I think. Prayer is ener gy. Spiritual ener gy. With God, all
things ar e possible. Just what does that leave out. As much as possible, keep your faith a private matter between you and God. The inclination to broadcast your views and convert others to your way of
thinking invites the ego into an area where only spirit is successful. Themoment that you attempt to persuade others of the rightness of your way of
thinking, you stop the process of faith and manifestation. Why. Because
you are now in a position of needing to explain and defend yourself. Y ou
have a need to be right and make others wrong. Y ou lower your ener gy
vibration to the frequencies of conflict, anger, resentment, fear and the like,
all of which crop up when you invite ego into your faith. It is “the spirit that
gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. ” Stay in spirit and keep the flesh out
of it. By communing privately with God and sending love to those who have a
different point of view, you yourself are staying in faith. That ener gy alone
will keep you at peace, and simultaneously allow you to radiate that peace
outward as well. Keep your faith between you and God and you will do
more to remove doubt than is ever accomplished by ar guing and
proselytizing for converts to your way of being. Give God the cr edit. When people congratulate me about my books and
tapes and heap praise on me for my accomplishments I always give a polite
thank you, but in my heart, I know better. God writes all the books, creates
all the tapes, paints all the pictures, designs all the buildings, and builds all
the bridges. All things are done by this universal mind called here, God. I
am merely an instrument of this greater consciousness to which I am always
attached. When I let go of my vanity and mentally refuse to take the credit,
everything seems to flow. I tune into something that I cannot see or touch,
and my fingers move with pen in hand to create symbols on a pad of paper. On stage, my vocal chords move and words come out, but I know not where
they come from. I often say to my wife how time seems to have no meaning
at all when I am truly inspired (in-spirit) and writing or speaking. Hours fly
by as if there was no time. Everything simply flows and I know that I have
tapped into what were previously dormant forces. With God there is no
time. Just as the blood is circulated throughout my body by an invisible force that
keeps my heart beating and pumping, so too does that same invisible force
pump words through to my pen. I am in awe of it. I trust it. I know it will
never abandon me. I know I can never separate myself from it. I and it are
eternal, and my puny little ego takes no credit for any of myaccomplishments. It is faith that I bring to any doubt that my ego might
trigger, and when I do, time stands still and it is all perfect. Breathe in God. This may sound unusual in this context, but your breath is a
phenomenal tool for establishing faith in the face of doubt. When you
encounter doubt in your life become conscious of your breath. T ake a few
moments to inhale very deeply and hold onto that breath. Then notice as
you exhale and become aware of this awesome thing we call breathing. A
few moments of deep breath awareness returns me to my faith in the
invisible force that is always at work to keep life flowing. In and out, like a
heartbeat, like the waves of the ocean in front of my home, ceaselessly
moving in and out. Use the awareness of your breath as a connector to God,
particularly when you feel yourself disconnected by the illusion of a
problem you are experiencing in your mind. It is calming, soothing, and
nourishing to be aware of your breathing. It is a way I find useful to sow
faith in the presence of doubt or problems. Remind yourself that a placebo is a perfect example of faith at work. You
take a sugar pill believing that it contains the magical elixir to heal your
tumor, relieve your arthritis, lower your blood pressure, or stimulate you
sexually, and it is your faith, not the sugar pill that causes your body to
create the harmony you desire. This same kind of faith in God’ s ener gy can
and will bring peace and harmony to your life if you decide to make it your
inner conviction. William Blake once wrote this clever couplet, which summarizes this
chapter and this powerful request of Saint Francis to sow faith where there
is doubt: “If the sun and moon should ever doubt / they would immediately
go out. ”
The sun and moon, like each and everyone of God’ s creations, survive and
shine on faith, and faith alone, that we can never go out. OceanofPDF. com11
WHERE THERE IS DESP AIR, 
HOPE
Compare the serene and simple splendor of a rose in bloom with the tensions and restlessness of
your life. The rose has a gift that you lack; It is perfectly content to be itself. It has not been
programmed from birth, as you have been, to be dissatisfied with itself, so it has not the slightest
urge to be anything other than it is. That is why it possesses the artless grace and absence of inner
conflict that among humans is only found in little children and mystics. —ANTHONY DEMELLO, THE WAY TO LOVE
What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will
improve, it won’ t always be bleak, there’ s a way to rise above the present
circumstances. Hope is an internal awareness that you do not have to suf fer
forever, and that somehow, somewhere there is a remedy for despair that
you will come upon if you can only maintain this expectancy in your heart. When we say this line in the Saint Francis’ s prayer we ask for the strength
to bring hope to all who are in despair as well as to ourselves. For it is in the
presence of a hopeful vision that despair and suf fering no longer hold our
attention. Despair is an attitude, experienced in the mind. It is a way of looking at a
life situation and feeling hopeless. There is no despair in the world. Y ou
cannot bring home a bucket full of despair, there are only people thinking
despairing thoughts. This is a crucial point to understand. There may bemany deplorable circumstances that exist in your life and in the lives of
others yet in and of themselves they are just plain circumstances, the facts
of a life. Despair itself is a mental process that sizes up and views a
situation as awful. When you just recognize  despair as being a mental
attitude you begin a process of bringing hope to the inner vision of despair
and dissolving it. It is impossible for hope and despair to exist simultaneously, one simply
cancels the other. Often it is despair that cancels out hope. In this line from
Saint Francis’ s prayer we ask for the strength to reverse this process and
cancel despair with a vision of hope. When you think about it, hope too is
nothing more than a thought or a vision. SHIFTING FROM PESSIMISM T O OPTIMISM
It is important here to remember that ener gy has a frequency. In the
frequency of despair the ener gy is low and you feel depressed or upset. “I’m
feeling down today,” describes the despair you feel when your ener gy is in
these low frequencies. As long as you remain in that lowered frequency you
will continue to attract more of that kind of ener gy. People who live in a
constant state of mental despair never allow themselves to speed up and
experience the faster higher frequencies which lead all the way to spiritual
energy. Instead they fuel their low and slow ener gy by processing almost
every event from a pessimistic viewpoint. As soon as you identify with
“Life is dif ficult,” that is precisely what your experience has to be. As
always, the central law of the universe prevails: “As you think, so shall you
be. ”
If you look back in chapter one, you will note that a basic ingredient of
spiritual ener gy is cheerfulness, a view of life in which one is hopeful and
optimistic. In this higher ener gy of optimism, you are likely to say, “I’m
really up today. ” Up and higher are synonymous. Consequently, the
presence of an up vibration nullifies the illusion of pessimism. Again that
familiar reminder, all that God created is good, and God created everything,
therefore despair or pessimism are creations of your mind due to your belief
that you are separate from God. In many ways our sorrow is a falling away
from God. Bring optimism to the place where pessimism resides bybringing the ener gy of God consciousness to the scene of the pessimism,
which of course is in our mental realm. The spiritual solution to any and all despair is one, to move your ener gy up
by making conscious contact with God and trusting in that contact, thereby
dissolving the images of negativity and pessimism, and two, to radiate
outward this higher “up” ener gy toward others who are believing in and
therefore living, lives of quiet desperation. Just by being in the presence of
your faster/higher spiritual ener gy others can be impacted by your spirit of
hopefulness and cheerfulness. In ef fect, you become a beacon of hope,
showing the way to let go of attachments to gloom, and despair. By raising
your ener gy, you make it impossible for those around you to hang on to
those false ideas of being separate from all that is good, i. e. , God. BREAKING THOSE A TTACHMENTS T O GLOOM AND DESP AIR
It sounds absurd to say that anyone would want to be attached to his or her
gloom, yet that is precisely the case. A long conditioning process of feeling
that life is unfair, that someone else is responsible for my sorrows, that no
one truly understands, leads inevitably to habitual thoughts of despair. Hanging on to these ideas keeps a person fixed in self-pity, which
eventually turns to self-loathing. The reason for staying attached is that the
individual who lives in despair never has to take the risk of accepting
responsibility for their gloom, or to change lifelong patterns. It is a safe
haven in that it allows you to suf fer in comfort. It is extremely common for people to build their lives on the mistaken
notion that without certain things or certain people, they cannot be happy or
free. It’ s almost as if they are programmed to be unhappy. So, their attitude
is, without my things, without a particular person, without money, without
friendship I am destined to be gloomy. Thus they become conditioned to
believe that scarcity is an excuse for despair. We have all swallowed these
beliefs to some extent, and consequently we have developed varying
degrees of attachments. These attachments are the source of despair because
we justify gloom on the basis of what or who is missing. In fact, we
experience ecstasy when we attain an object; anxiety over losing it; and
despair when it is lost. In order to transcend this cycle of attachment we must remind ourselves of
the dif ference between our ego and our higher self. Ego’ s voice is always
eager to dominate with thoughts like “I am what I have, what I do, and what
others think of me. ” If you can remain quiet long enough, God’ s voice will
penetrate with messages such as “None of these things will bring you
happiness, they are only illusions, I am your only source of peace. This is
your highest self speaking, this is the spiritual solution to all problems
related to attachments. ”
In order to be genuinely happy there is only one thing to do. That is to
deprogram yourself and permanently get rid of those low ener gy
attachments. Now remember, an attachment is not a fact, it is a fantasy in
your head which you have come to believe is real. It is genuinely possible
to live in bliss without those attachments. Practice not saying or thinking
that you must have a certain someone or something in order to be free of
despair. Replace those phrases with the attitude you take to a sunset, a bird
in flight, a glorious garden of flowers. Y ou love them for what they are, you
release them from any demands you might make on them and you enjoy
them without clinging to them. Do this, and despair that depends on
feelings of not having what you need will be undermined and disappear. To
rid yourself of attachments you simply have to drop them. Y ou do this by
reminding yourself over and over that you falsely believe that the cause of
your unhappiness is that some one or some things are missing from your
life. Unhappiness and despair are ideas. You can keep and love all the objects of your attachments without
renouncing any of them. Y ou can love in an underlying way and feel
peaceful and unthreatened. This is precisely how God loves you. Unconditionally. No attachments. In short, the way to eliminate despair is to
drop those attachments and relax in the knowing that your highest fastest
vibrating self does not need  any thing or any one in order to be fulfilled. Moving into God’ s ener gy field of nonattachment provides you with the
hope of transcending despair. This means loving everything, including your
suffering. Why love suf fering. Because it of fers you the opportunity to
witness, rather than receive, despair. OBSER VING YOUR DESP AIROne of the great teachers in my life, Nisar gadatta Maharaj, once said, “As
long as you identify yourself with the body-mind, you are vulnerable to
sorrow and suf fering. ” My conclusion from this is that we must learn to be
a witness to our body-mind and to all its demands. When I stand back and notice myself I am no longer identifying myself
with the material world. Thus I am not vulnerable to the sorrow, suffering,
and despair that exist in the physical world. In this way I bring a sense of
hope and optimism to the illusion of despair. I observe my body-mind and
silently say something like this, “Just look at W ayne now, he is actually
believing that his despair is real. He acts as if this is really him going
through this, when in fact I am really him watching this entire plot emer ge. If he would only stop and reconnect to spirit, he would awaken from his
despair immediately. ” As the witness you are not vulnerable because you
see yourself from a dif ferent place. It is also possible to bring this attitude of the observer to help others who
are locked in the torment of their despair. Tell someone to take a step back
in his or her mind and to just notice what he or she sees. In this way, you
help that person shift from despair to observation. I find it useful to
persistently remind myself that I am the noticer rather than what I notice. This allows me to bring the higher/faster ener gy of spiritual awareness to
any scene in which despair is present. CAN I REALL Y LOVE MY DESP AIR. Think about this. Suf fering ends when you stop thinking of it as suf fering. In the words of the Indian saint Sivanda: “If you train yourself to rejoice in
suffering, if you think that everything is done by God for one’ s own
betterment and uplift, if you welcome pain as a messenger of God to make
you remember Him. then pain will not be pain anymore. Suf fering will
not be suf fering anymore. ”
As you ponder these words be sure to emphasize the conclusion. Pain and
suffering do not exist when viewed from the perspective of God. That is,
when you move into spiritual ener gy, the things you despair over dissolve. This thing you have called suf fering is really a wonderful blessing. Itteaches you to turn to God, or to raise your vibration up to the frequency of
spirit and to bring that loving spirit into the picture in the present moment. I can honestly say that most of the things that once caused me to despair
and suf fer in my own life were my greatest moments of growth and my
introduction to devotion. I had to learn that the purpose of what I then
called suf fering was to burn up my ego and become more purified in the
process. Those low points of my life provided me with the ener gy to propel
myself to a higher place. If we could know in the midst of our suf fering that
the experience was a necessary prelude leading to a spiritual advance, then
we could rejoice in that “suf fering” as Sivanda suggests. If you could stop right in the center of feeling despair and send love, you
would almost immediately know the reason for going through this despair. Even better, you would no longer think of it as despair. Voilà. You have
nullified the illusion of sorrow by bringing the frequency of love to bear on
the problem. In short, you are not here to moan and cry about the miseries
of the human condition, but to change them through love, strength, and the
vitality that is already present in you. This is bringing hope to despair. This
is actualizing a spiritual solution to the illusion of despair as a problem. For
many this sounds like a feasible cause of action. However, there are
millions of people who insist that this is impossible when one suf fers from
the ultimate despair, depression. ENDING DEPRESSION WITH HOPE
Relatively speaking, depression is a contemporary phenomenon. T oday,
more than ever before, there is a lot of talk about depression. I have seen
estimates that as many as twenty percent of the population of developed
nations suf fers from depression. And there are degrees of this phenomenon. Clinical depression is reportedly the most serious, where people cannot
function in their daily lives and are on suicide watches. All due to this
monster called depression. Yet depression itself does not exist. Y ou cannot bring home a container of
depression to examine, clean up, and eliminate from your life. There is no
depression per se, there are only people thinking depressing thoughts. Certainly there are people who are convinced that they suf fer from
depression. There is an entire pharmaceutical industry devoted to mass-
producing drugs to combat this diagnosis. In many cases medication
appears to reduce the symptoms  of despair or hopelessness, such as poor
appetite, sleeplessness, a lack of self-esteem, and a general feeling of ennui. Some professionals say depression is psychological, others insist that it is a
chemical imbalance. But one thing is sure, in our industrialized western
world, we believe depression is a very real problem. In a classic book, From Medication to Meditation, Osho writes, “the
problem of depression is not in underdeveloped countries—in the poor
countries, people are still hopeful—it is only in the developed countries,
where they have everything that they had always longed for. They have
achieved the goal—and this achievement of the goal is the cause of
depression. Now there is no hope: tomorrow is dark, and the day after
tomorrow will be even darker. ”
If you have been trained to believe that your worth is in all this external
stuff, then when you begin to feel that you have nothing more to gain, that
the challenges of life are all met, and see that you can have any material
thing you want, then you lose your inner spark of life. Y ou may or may not
already have all the stuf f. The point is that you are in a time and a culture
that stimulates your desire to compete for more of it even when it is
meaningless. In a society that is taught to run after dollars, and everywhere
there is this frantic push for money and all that it can buy, you begin to
postpone even glancing at the beauty and grandeur of nature, other human
beings and all of life. A contemplative spiritual life of communing with
God and knowing your higher self is set aside in favor of attracting more
money, yet the money does not give the satisfaction. When your emphasis is the inner spiritual ener gy of love, peace, rejoicing,
cheerfulness, celebration, and kindness, you cannot know debilitating
depression. Putting spirit aside and pursuing dollars in the mistaken belief
that money can purchase anything and everything, leads you to the
discovery that you cannot purchase what you really crave the most. If your
entire life is devoted to that which you know in your heart is meaningless,then you give birth to the mental process we label depression. An illusion to
be sure, but something you will believe, nevertheless. Gradually, this mental condition will infect everyone close to you, including
your children. They will believe the illusion. All will react to the low
energy thoughts of depression and despair, tension, worry, and fear and the
health of their bodies begins to suf fer. In the low ener gy of depression, we identify or diagnose the chemical
imbalances that result and conclude that we need to restore that chemistry
to its natural harmonious level. W e pour chemicals into our bodies and we
see some changes. Less despair, more harmony, less tension, more
cheerfulness. W e conclude that depression is cured with drugs and
chemicals. Why the body-mind is out of balance should have been the first
question. Depression, like stress, is internally generated by one’ s attitudes. Could it be that the one crucial ingredient that represents a spiritual solution
to this massive problem of depression is hope. A WORD ABOUT HOPE
At the core of our being, rooted deep within our soul there is the knowing
that we are indestructible. W e have the hope of immortality, of life after
death, which is an incentive for moral perfection. This inner knowing is
hope and it is a stepping stone to the awakening of the soul. It is that still,
but restless, voice inside you that beckons you to a higher/faster ener gy. In a
sense, hope is the restoration of the appetite for life itself, and all the bliss
that accompanies a renunciation of the search for meaning and power in the
material world. The story of Buddha is well known. A prince who had everything and
realized it did not give him enlightenment. He renounced the pursuit of the
material in search of a dif ferent path, which led to a place where spirit
presided over the illusory world of the material. I do not suggest that it is
necessary for you to renounce all of your physical and material possessions
in order to find bliss, although I’m not discounting it either. I merely ask
you to consider the importance that losing one’ s appetite for life plays in
manifesting despair and depression in your life. And I encourage you toreplace the unrelenting pursuit of dollars, which can never purchase
happiness, with an intention of creating a deeper and a richer experience of
life. Hope then will literally be replacing despair. Depression, clinical or
otherwise, will be impossible. I view the presence of so much enculturated belief in depression in
contemporary western society as a moral crisis because it represents a
maladaptive search for the sacred within all of us. I also know that when we
give up our reliance on external indices of success and realize that they strip
us of our ability to live at a spiritual ener gy level, then we replace despair
with a renewed sense of hope, and depression is impossible. What follows are some suggestions for bringing this sense of hope and
spiritual consciousness to anything that smacks of despair, gloom, or
depression. SUGGESTIONS FOR TURNING DESP AIR T O HOPE
Begin to take delight in nonattachment. Through raising your own
awareness you can love without being attached. An attached love creates
despair because you are placing the source of your fulfillment and
happiness on someone else. If they refuse to cooperate in the way that you
feel they must, then you move into despair. Instead, have hope for yourself. Y ou can love anyone and appreciate him or
her for who they are, without telling yourself that you will be devastated if
they let you down. Anthony DeMello has two extremely powerful
affirmations in The W ay To Love  that will help you to experience love in a
nonattached way. 1. “I am not really attached to you at all. I am merely deluding myself
into the belief that without you I will not be happy. ”
2. “I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your
tastes, follow your inclinations, behave in ways that you decide are to
your liking. ”When you observe these two recommendations for detached love you will
notice that the person becomes important to you in the same way that a
rainbow or a concert are lovely in themselves. Y ou set yourself free in a
compelling way. The love actually intensifies, all despair is dissolved and
you have hope in your heart rather than the pain that attachments bring. Practice r einfor cing hope rather than despair. Don’ t be an enabler of
despair by commiserating with those who are feeling low. I once took a
vow as a counselor/therapist that I would always seek to have my clients
put the emphasis on their successes rather than the things that brought about
feelings of despair. For instance, I encouraged a client who was unable to get along with his
parents to examine the brief times when he felt he had successful
interactions with them. I pushed him to recount any moments of success. How he felt, what he thought, what were the results, how his day went at
the times of success, and so on. By looking for any signs of success, I
would make the counseling sessions experiences of hope rather than
reinforcers of despair. Similarly, clients with addictions and even chronic pain all had some
moments in their lives when they felt successful at handling their
“problems. ” One week of not overeating, three days of not drinking, one
whole pain-free day. All these kinds of experiences provide an opportunity
to remember that the power to replace despair with hope, if only for a day
or so, is available. If it can be done for one day, then two days is not so
outrageous, and you have a hopeful idea. I found that reinforcing negatives, talking about causes, rehashing hurt
feelings and reliving painful emotions often served to reinforce a feeling of
hopelessness in the present moment. As a counselor/therapist I wanted to
bring hope to despair, and in the process help to nullify despair for good. This logic applies to despair in your life. Recall past moments when you
felt a degree of hope and success handling a problem and try to re-create the
thoughts and feelings that you were experiencing. By doing so, you giveyourself a road map out of your despair. By reinforcing hope, you will act
on those new thoughts and feelings. Remember to call in God and literally turn the despair over to God. You
can end an experience of despair by making a present moment decision to
let it go in a moment of silent prayer. “I cannot handle this situation alone, I
know that you are here with me as my silent senior partner. I am entrusting
this to you. ” This quiet simple little prayer will give you immediate relief
from the feelings of despair. This is a way of letting go of the idea that all is
hopeless. In essence, what you are doing with the prayer is asking that love
guide your life. It is a way of emptying your agenda and utilizing the power
that revolves the planets around the sun, keeps that same sun in place, and
turns a seed into a flower or a baby. It is far superior to saying, “I’ll do this
all by myself. ” By asking for divine intervention you can step back and
allow yourself to symbolically take God’ s hand. This advice is as ancient as the scriptures. Utilize it and release yourself
from the drama of your despair. In five short words, you can bring hope to
despair and ef fect a spiritual solution to any problem related to that despair:
“Ask and you shall receive. ”
Act as if the hope you have for the r elief of despair is alr eady her e and in
place. Rather than your normal reaction to despair, of being inactive,
speaking in terms of hopelessness, complaining and fault-finding, feeling
self-pity and pessimism, create a picture of how you would like everything
to work out and firmly make a commitment to act as if what you want is
already here. If you want more abundance, get a picture of yourself as
having already received material blessings. Go and sit in the car of your
dreams in a showroom, visualize yourself driving it, then hold that picture
in your consciousness. The way will be shown to you. As I said in Manifest
Your Destiny, your job is not to say how; it is to say, “Yes. ”
My wife and I do this instead of despairing over a particular trend or
behavior with our children. W e both try to visualize whatever the situation
may be working out for them. Then we treat them as if they have already
achieved what we thought was in their best interests. W e then practice
acting out in this way toward them because this is our mental image ofthem. Our pessimism dissolves and is replaced with positive reinforcement
to materialize the picture of success we already have in place. So, we can
say to them, “Y ou are doing great in school,” or “Y ou’ll be on time for
school tomorrow,” or “Y ou are taking much better care of yourself,” or “It’ s
great to see you happy. ” We reinforce hope by acting as if what we wanted
for them was already here. Despair is really just an image in our minds. In reality, we are whatever we
decide to think in the face of any circumstance, and choosing to see the
problem as dissolved is in fact the replacement of despair with hope. In the midst of suffering, make a conscious effort to see the blessing. This is
a powerful tool for eliminating despair. When you are feeling most
distressed and things seem to be going from bad to worse, try stopping for
an instant and asking yourself how you are going to grow from this
experience. Then listen to your inner voice and stay open to something
good appearing as the drama of despair continues to unfold. T uning into
your silence gives you the ener gy to get through the despair and grow in the
process. When you let go of the despairing thoughts you bring in the
higher/faster ener gy, which ultimately displaces the illusion of your despair. When it seems impossible to stop in the midst of turmoil and suf fering and
search for blessings, remember that all the times that seemed so traumatic in
the past now seem, in retrospect, to have been valuable growth experiences. The former alcoholic almost always blesses his drunkenness. The wealthy
person praises his earlier poverty. The recovered heart attack patient values
the experience of illness. The happy couple extols the pain of their
separation. Every despairing time has served to bring you to a higher,
happier place in your life. Therefore, I ur ge you to stop considering any life
experience in terms of despair. Imagine yourself looking back at this particular moment and use the hope
of growing beneficially from the experience, to stop self-pity. Let despair
dissolve into gratitude for the opportunity it truly represents. The Saint
Francis prayer concludes with this line: “It is in dying that we are born to
eternal life. ” I suggest that it is in the dying of a despairing moment that aspiritual birth takes place. By seeing the blessing in despair, as it is
occurring, you birth the elixir of hope. Don’ t let yourself be a sounding boar d for the sorr owful tales of others. Some people love to recite stories of despair and disaster. The more
despairing the details, the more they seem to take pleasure in retelling them. In many ways, this brings the despair that they are recounting into your life
as well. I find it helpful to simply let it be known that I do not choose to
wallow in any despair, my own or that of others. When I am bombarded by stories, such as the death reports, the illness
reports, the accident reports, the poor weather reports, the crime reports,
and so on, I nod politely and point out the potential blessing in what I am
hearing. “Uncle Harry’ s heart attack will probably get him to be more
conscious of what he eats and it very likely saved his life. ” “Whenever
there is a bad storm it brings out the best in everyone and people all chip in
to help out their neighbors. ” “Grandma is now in God’ s hands and will
never ever again experience any suf fering. ” These kinds of calculated
responses politely tell the person who loves to dwell on despair and abuse
others with their disasterizing that you prefer to discuss what is good about
the situation. Bring hope to these kinds of bombardments and the
atmosphere immediately shifts away from despair. Practice the art of being an eternal optimist. People who are eternal
optimists are often called Pollyannas, as if this were a criticism. T o me,
being called a Pollyanna, which I have been on many occasions, is a
compliment. Here was a town in which everyone was depressed. The people were
gloomy, the economy was bad, everyone hated everything about their lives,
and their community. Pessimism reigned. Into this picture strolls a little girl
named Pollyanna. W ithin a few weeks everyone is cheerful, people are
being kind to each other, and the economy has picked up, because of
Pollyanna’ s attitude. The Secr et Gar den is another wonderful story of the
triumph of a young girl’ s optimism during the imagined illness of a young
spoiled boy. I also recommend you watch The Barr etts of W impole Str eet, a
movie that depicts how the famed poet Robert Browning helped transform asickly, pessimistic Elizabeth Barrett into a vibrant woman who later became
his wife. These kinds of stories promote the importance of optimism. When I am
criticized as a hopeless Pollyanna I always say thank you. What better role
model than someone whose presence inspires hope where despair played a
dominant role previously. Be persistent in acting as if it is impossible to fail. I love this quotation from
Louis Pasteur: “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My
strength lies solely in my tenacity. ” I suggest that you become like a pit bull
holding on to a bone called hope. Keep a death grip on that bone called
hope regardless of what comes along, and regardless of the obstacles and
so-called failures that have previously induced despair. When you feel the
despairing thoughts returning, shift your thoughts to an intention of making
things work out. I remind myself of the old maxim, “This too shall pass,”
and I reaf firm my unwillingness to give up on myself. This inner tenacity is
infectious. Saint Francis, whose famous prayer is the basis for a good part
of this book, refused to give up on what he knew was a calling from God. His parents and family tried everything to dissuade him from his obsession
with Jesus and devotion to spirit, yet he persisted like that pit bull’ s grip on
the bone. He simply knew that he couldn’ t fail because his faith was so
great, and obstacles became opportunities for hope rather than contributing
to an attitude of despair. Who knows, perhaps one day you’ll have a lovely
city like San Francisco named after you. I am sure you have heard W inston Churchill’ s stirring words as he rallied
his countrymen to stand up for the honor of freedom in the face of an
immense cloud of despair. “Never give in. Never, never, never, never. In
nothing great or small, lar ge or petty—never give in except to convictions
of honor and good sense. ”
Endure and persist. The pain will ultimately turn to your good. This is the
value of persistence in bringing hope to the illusion of despair. Wherever,
whenever you encounter despair, be it in yourself or in others, remind
yourself on the spot to shift to that higher/faster ener gy of spirit. Radiate
that ener gy directly to what you believe to be the source of the despair. Surround the imagined source with light and the unconditional love of God. Eventually, but most assuredly, you will bring hope to that imagined
despair, and by doing so you will have taken another step toward knowing
that there truly is a spiritual solution to every problem.
Love
What is the central ingredient in healing and harmony?
Not to influence God to grant special favors, but to remind oneself of their connection to God
What is the purpose of prayer, according to the author?
By recognizing that one is never alone and that love will cast out fear
What is the key to eliminating despair and depression?
By recognizing that one is never alone and that love will cast out fear
What is the author's approach to dealing with negative thoughts and behaviors?
It is an illusion, and it can be overcome by recognizing that one is never alone and that love will cast out fear
What is the author's view on the concept of depression?