As I was staring at the tiny new buds on the lilac bush
outside my window , I saw the mailman drive up. And he was delivering my
third large check  from you!” she said triumphantly . “For doing what I love
doing! When I got back to my typewriter , it really hit me. Here I am,
reveling in the awareness that it is possible to feel this good about work,
when the money appears at my window! I didn’ t even have to go out and
pick up my check!”
I chuckl ed, as she explained, “It seemed to me exactly what you were
describing years  ago, and here it was happening to me. I realized,” she said
in a steady voice, “there is no question about my going back to work as a
flight attendant. Actually , the money only confirms the rightness of doing
what I enjoy .”
The words “You’ll see it when you believe it” drifted through my
thoughts as Joanna concluded, “I feel such an inner sense of joy at honoring
and enco uraging this part of me, rather than listening exclusively to the part
of myself that logically dictated all the advantages of working for the
airline. ‘You’ll see it when you believe it’ are mere words in comparison to
the feeling!”
 
PUTTING IT  INT O PRACTICE
 
It does not matter what your occupation is or even if you have one. It does
not relate exclusively to your employment. Whoever you are, wherever you
live, whatever your life circums tance, you are doing something every day. Those days can be experiences of abundance or scarcity . The ideas below
may help you to begin doing what you love. The actual implementation is,
of course, up to you. 1. Reexamine your resistance to doing what you love. I was going
to call this “Take the risk!”—but I truly do not believe it is
necessarily risky  to begin doing  what you love. If you label it a
risk, it means that you must somehow muster up the courage tomake a change. But as you beco me more awakened, you will see
that the risks are nothing more than thoughts—thoughts which
you have convinced yourself are impossible to implement. Instead
of thinking “risk,” which has scarcity built into it, think: “It will
be absolutely great to be doing what I love, and I know that
whatever I need to handle my life affairs will come into my life. I
know it!” Stop focusing on all that will be missing, unless that is
what you want to expand in your life. Your resistance to doing what you love is based not on the
world of abundance and unlimited opportunity , but on a belief
that work and play are separate parts of your humanity . The belief
is that work is painful and entails suffering and that play is fun. But it does not have to be that way. Imagine yourself doing
exactly what you love doing. Composing, drawing, engineering,
being a florist, being a beautician, having your days to be with
your children as a homemaker— the list is endless. Imagine what
gives you the most pleasure and makes you feel purposeful. What
is it that when you finish doing it, you feel immeasurably
fulfilled, and while you are doing it, time just seems to be
nonexistent? Invite that into your consciousness, and then proceed
to follow your bliss. Know that you are not stuck where you are unless you decide
to be. Know that if you use your mental energy to see yourse lf
spending your days doing what  you truly love, and if you keep
that thought uppermost in your mind, that is what will expand for
you. It has to. You were very likely taught that you choose your career in the
early part of your life, and then you live out your life doing what
you were trained to do. But is it sensible to continue doing
something that someone eighteen or twenty years old chose years
ago? Would you go to an eighteen-year -old today for vocational
counseling? Continuing to do regularly what you dislike is going
to expand scarcity in your life. You will never escape from the
trap unless you are willing to shift the internal focus of your
thoughts to what you love doing. Put that thought in your mind
and make it the central feature of your thoughts, even if yourefuse to make the move today . Stay with the thought. The more
you focus on it, the more it will expand. Virtually everyo ne I have ever met who has gone on to live the
kind of abundan t life I am discussing here has been willing to do
what it takes to make it happen. They all quit jobs that were not
personally fulfilling and pursued their dreams. There is no
scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love, there is
only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen . Whatever you love
doing more than anything else has built within it an opportunity to
make a living at it, even though you may not believe it. Your fears
of doing what you truly love are based on a belief that you are
going to go broke and be unable to pay your bills and meet your
family responsibilities. Not so! Those who love you will support
you in every way if you take the opportunity to pursue your
dreams. If you have always paid your bills, why would you
suddenly becom e the kind of person who does not? If your entire
history speaks to being respons ible, why would you ever consult
an imaginary fear-based history to make your real-life decisions? Moreover , you may find that many of your extraordinary
expenses are simply the result of a lifestyle in which you have
been doing what you loathe. Simplify your life and you may find that you reduce your
expenditures and obligations considerably . If you truly want to
live out in the wilderness, or travel across the country , or open up
a small business in another part of the world, you very likely can
make it happen. I have talked  with numerous executives who
made the decision to alter their stress-filled lives and begin to
slow down and “smell the roses” and still pursue a dream of
doing what they really loved. Interestingly , in many cases it took
a near brush with death to bring  this change about. Your fears of
doing what you love are mostly rooted in unenlightened
conditioning. All of those fears can be recognized as nothin g
more than fearful “thoughts” which you can change. 2. If you refuse to change what you do, practice loving it each
day. This little Zen proverb sums up my message in this section:Before enlightenment
chopping wood
carrying water
After enlightenment
chopping wood
carrying water . Enlightenment has very little to do with your daily activities and
quite a lot to do with how you view those activities. You are still
going to chop wood and carry water in some fashion, only the
awakened person is no longer going to curse the wood and the
water , or even his own lot in life. Whatever you are doing now
can beco me a labor of love if you are willing to make it that way. You do not have to hate your work or anything that you are doing. Hate is a choice that comes from having hateful thoughts. Hate is
not caused by having to change a dirty diaper twenty times a day,
or clean toilets, or live in a prison cell, or collect garbage, or sort
out accounting forms, or attend  committee meetings all day in
which nothing is accomplished. The circumstances are irrelevan t.
The loathing exists inside of you, not in the external world. If you decide to continue in your present activity , shift your
attitude toward that activity and allow abundance into your life. You can perform whatever tasks are required of you with an
entirely different perspective. Joanna, my editor and literary
specialist extraordinaire, previously a flight attendant, did
precisely that while she contin ued to fly. She worked on her
attitude while in that uniform, and brought a kind of love to a job
that many others find routine and unpleasant. She practiced
loving the passe ngers and going out of her way to serve them. It
was her dissatisfaction with not feeling personally authentic that
eventually won out. But for the years that she was flying she
preferred loving  what she chose to hating it. Thus she could “cho p
wood and carry water” in a radiant manner while on the job.It really boils down to a very simple choice that does not
require a genius  to figure out. You can either change and take all
of the attendant “risks” that go with doing what gives you the
greatest satisfac tion, or you can develop a new attitude towa rd
what you continue to do. This new attitude can convert a stiflin g
job situation to one of joy. It is entirely your doing. It may be
done by providing more servi ce to others, which will almost
always contrib ute to personal satisfaction. You can make
chopping and carrying a joyful enterprise or a spiteful one. It is
truly up to you. No matter how much you convince yourself that
your job or life situation is boring, routine, or hateful, the fact is
that those are thoughts that reside in you. Somewhere there is an
individual who will do what you are doing and bring joy and
fulfillment to it. The truth of this maxim is evident to me every week when a
beautiful woman who is originally from China comes to our home
to help with the cleaning. She laughs and smiles her way through
chores that others consider onerous. She stops to play with the
children, brings  them small gifts from her native country , and
genuinely contributes her own sense of joy to what she is doing in
our home. She is a treasure to have with us. She reminds me
every time I see her that cleaning house for someone else can be
loaded with either misery or joy. The job does not conta in
anything demoralizing within it, only people do. 3. Whatever you are currently against can be restated and
rethought so as to promote abundance in your life. Everything
that you are against blocks you from abundance. Everything! Decide to get your life work ing in a positive rather than a
negative style. If you are agains t terrorism and war, you become
part of the problem. You are one more soldier fighting for what
you believe in. And fighting always weakens you and brings more
scarcity into your life. Instead of being against terrorism and war,
try being for peace. Once you are for peace, you will start
directing your thoughts and consequently your actions in that
direction. You will become a peacemaker simply by not beingagainst anything. This may sound like semantic juggling, but it is
much more than that. Once you are focused on something that
you favor, you will expand that in your life. Whatever you tend to
be again st puts you right into a fighting mold, and consequent ly
expands dissension in your consciousness. This same principle applies to the work you are doing. If you
are against  your boss rather than for improvements,  you will
focus your energy on the things  about your boss that you dislike,
and those things will expand. If you focus on what you dislik e
about your work, that will become your center of thought and
those things will grow . This is a very powerful philosophy that I
am asking you to embrace. Everything that you are against works
against you. Everything that you are against can be restated in a
way that puts you in support of something. When you are able to
state what you are for rather than what you are against, you are
focusing on the potential for positive change. Once that is in
place, you will find whatever you are focusing on expanding. Instead of hating illiteracy , be for literacy and you will be
working to help improve literacy . Instead of being against drugs
by joining another war on drugs, be for helping children to
discover life-en hancing ways of having positive highs. With
enough of us working to help children make positive choic es
there will ultimately be fewer customers for the purveyors of
artificial highs. Instead of being  against your company policy , be
for an improved  policy . Instead of being against your spouse ’s
outbursts or alcoholism, be for your spouse’ s gentleness and
sobriety . You will help to expand  all that you are for or against, so
it is simple to know where you want to be aligned. Doing what
you love involves restating how you choose to align yourself each
day. On the side of personal order or disorder . On the side of
worldwide order or disorder . Tell me what you are for and I will
show you what is going to expand in a positive way. Tell me what
you are against and I can show you what is going to expand in a
destructive way . When you find yourself loving what you do, you will begin to
notice how effortlessly you do your work. Once you are at a place
where you use love as your guiding principle for your dailyactivities, you will see that abundance is really there just for the
tuning in to. WHY  YOU MA Y BE RESISTING THE PRINCIPLE OF
ABUNDANCE
 
 
We are raised in a culture which emphasizes scarcity rather than
abundance, and it is difficult to overcome this background. We have
heard statements such as “I’m getting mine while the getting’ s good,”
or “If I don’t take it someone else will,” or “There’ s only so much out
there and you have to fight to get your share of the pickings.” We have
learned to believe in limits and scarcity . The haves and the have-nots
seem to be a reality in our culture. There are indeed a large group of
have-nots and fewer haves. We are not taught that abundance is truly
available for everyone, that there is plenty of everything to go around. Through our conditioning, we believe quite the opposite. We will
never activate this principle of abundance as long as we believe that
what is missing  is of primary importance, and focus our life energy
there. A mentality of “I never have enough” is a reason for living for
many people. They spend their lives striving, fearful of ever arriving. Focus on what you have, no matter how insignificant it seems. People do not want to take responsibility for the scarcity in their lives. It is much easier to blame circumstances, others, events, or even God
for the things that they have failed to acquire or achieve. They justify
their place in life and reject responsibility for those limit ed life
circumstances by believing that they have been assigned a life of
scarcity . Continu ing to believe this guarantees they will remain in this
experience. Releasing the binding restrictions of scarcity as a belief
system can create an opening to a new level of abundance
consciousness. Resistance may just be easier  for some. On one level, it is less
challenging to stay in a scarcity mode than to experience a lifetime ofabundance. This is because those who actually live the abundan t life I
have been describing know that they already have enough and that
they themselves  are all there is already . They no longer strive and
accumulate to feel positive about themselves and their life mission. Without such striving, many feel lost and directionless. People may prefer to elicit compassion and sympathy from others. Many people constantly elaborate on how they were cheated, or how
hard they worked without getting ahead of the game. Since there are
many other people out there willing to tell the same story , they can
milk this melodrama for all that it is worth. They will not have even a
smidgen of a chance to transcend the scarcity mentality as long as they
seek sympathy from others who feel victimized and short-changed. Still, it gives them a powerful reason to avoid abundance. The “I don’t deserve it” pattern keeps many people stuck in their
scarcity life-styl e. This is generally a strong indication of low self-
regard. They convince themse lves that they are unworthy of the
abundance that the universe provides. A “poor me” belief system gives
them a convenient rationalizatio n for focusing their life energy on what
is missing. They convince themselves they deserve no more. Some have grown so comforta ble with scarcity and fear that they
really would not know what to do with a life of bountiful abun dance. Those who are comfortable in a real or metaphorical prison cell find it
very difficult to go beyond their four walls. With bare necessities
provided, they do not have to worry . They withdraw from the
complications that they imagine would accompany abundance in their
lives. The longer one maintains a scarcity consciousness, the more one
finds reasons to avoid changing. SOME IDEAS FOR BRINGING ABUNDANCE INT O YOUR
LIFE
 Remember that I do not believe that abundance is about accumulating a lot
of stuff. I believe it is about looking at life and knowing that we have
everything that we need for complete happiness, and then being able to
celebrate each and every moment of life. It is about knowing that we do not
need anything else and that whatever we need will be there when we focus
on what we want to increase in our lives. It is about knowing that scarcity is
a set of beliefs and actions that emphasize what is missing rathe r than what
we have. Here are a few ideas to help you challenge any scarcity
consciousness in your life. They have worked for me in my life, and in the
life of almost every happy and successful person I have ever known. Be against  nothing! Make an effort to state everything that you stand
for in positive rather than negative terms. For example, instead of
trying to lose weight, try being for the image of yourself that you have
in your mind. Rather than attem pting to quit smoking, try being for
yourself as a tobacco-free person. I saw a sign outside a gift shop on
Maui which illustrates this point perfectly . It states: “Please enjoy your
cigarettes and soft drinks outsid e of the store.” Emphasize what you
want, rather than what you dislike or what is missing. Make an effort to be thankful for what you have and who you are each
day. Do this even if you want more and dislike who you are. Being
thankful upstages greediness, and focuses your thoughts on abundance. The universe seems to provide abundantly when we are in a state of
gratefulness. The less we need to have more, the more we seem to get! Take some daily time to observe the ways in which you are using your
mind. Assess how much of your mental energy is focused on what is
missing. How much of your time do you spend wishing that you had
more, or commiserating about your sorry state of affairs? Be
scrupulously honest with yourself. You may discover that a
surprisingly large chunk of your waking hours is spent thinking this
way. If so, make a concerted effort to shift that consciousness for a
specified amoun t of time each day. Shift your thought proce sses to
what you truly want to expand . This can eventually develop into a
lifetime habit. To make this shift of consciousness, you must firstbecome aware of how much of your thinking, your life, is spent on
feeding that which you really do not want to grow . Practice this in personal relationships too. Much of the time, problems
in a relationship  occur because each person is concentrating on what is
missing in the other person. If you are angry with someone you love,
shift your focus to something about that person that you truly love. Then allow that person to be what you love and also at times
something that you find difficult to accept. When you focus on what
you love about someone, that focus will grow in your relationship. This is also a phenomenal way of being with children. Catch  them
doing things right! Make a persona l commitment to do what you love and to love what
you do. Today! I cannot overstress how important this is as a strategy
for experiencing  abundance. If deep within you you would love to try
another occupation or to change locations or whatever , then you will
sooner or later do that. It is the only way for you to be authe ntic to
yourself. It is virtually impossible for abundance to replace scarcity
while you feel inauthentic. As you begin to do what you love and love
what you do, you will find life opening to you in ways you never
dreamed. And if you are not ready to change jobs, avoc ations,
locations, or whatever , then change your thoughts toward those
disliked daily activities. Search for the joyful part of what you do and
be thank ful for having the mind, body , and spirit to do something
productive. Abundance flows when we love what we are doing. Whatever you enjoy receiving in your life, remind yourself, “I deserve
this.” It is okay to feel deservin g. And you will if you believe the self
that is receiving  something is worthy and important. Abundance is
related to how you feel about yourself. If you feel that you are
important enough to ask, and divine enough to receive, receiving will
be your reward. If, on the other hand, you feel unworthy , it will be
almost impossible for abundance to flow into your life. Think of how a
tree unfolds to all of its magnificent potential, always reaching for the
sunshine and growing and flourishing. Would you ever suggest to a
tree, “You should be ashamed of yourself for having that disgustingmoss on your bark, and for letting your limbs grow crooke d”? Of
course not. A tree allows the life force to work through it. You have the
power within your thoughts to be as natural as that tree. I often remind
myself of this by recalling some thing Lao-tze said, thousands of years
ago: “The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white.” Neither
need you do anything but be yourself. Softly and kindly remind yourself, “I cannot own anything.” It is a
valuable thought to keep in mind as you struggle to improve your
financial picture, worry about investments, and plan how to acquire
more and more. It is a universal principle which you are a part of. You
must release everything when you truly awaken. Are you lettin g your
life go by in frustration and worry over not having enough? If so, relax
and remember that you only get what you have for a short period of
time. When you awaken you see the folly of being attached to
anything. Use affirmations as a regular part of your life. Use every technique that
you can to attrac t abundance. Walls, mirrors, the refrigerator , your car,
are all great spaces for displaying written affirmations. A positive
affirmation helps you to shape your thoughts around your wants. A
positive affirmation helps you to be authentically aligned with your
thoughts. Your beliefs need to be affirmed regularly in order for you to
see them in the world of form. Whenever you are tempted to give less, try giving a little extra instead. When you find yourself living out the old stingy habit, it helps to stop
yourself on the spot, “in your mind,” and then exhibit a completely
new way of being. You will be shocked at how much more begins
circulating back into YOUR  life; to say nothing of how much better you
will feel inside because of the special effort you extended to another
person. It truly feels good to give a little extra. As they say, “It is never
crowded along the extra mile .”Abundance is a universal principle that many of us do not experience
because we misinterpret it. We believe it means having things and striving
for more  of those things. But abundance really means unders tanding that
our eternity and our universe are endless. It is a different way of seeing. I
have always loved the following little fish story , which illustrates
beautifully the intent of this chapter . “Excuse me,” said one ocean fish to another , “you are older and
more experienced than I, and will probably be able to help me. Tell me: where can I find this thing they call the ocean? I’ve been
searching for it everywhere to no avail.”
“The ocean,” said the older fish, “is what you are swimming in
now.”
“Oh, this? But this is only water . What I’m searching for is the
ocean ,” said the young fish, feeling quite disappointed. We too, are alrea dy immersed in total abundance. We do not have to keep
trying to find it. No matter how far that little fish swims, he will never run
out of ocean. It is as universally abundant for him as our universe is for us. Decide how you are going to live each of your days. Abundance is yours
for the asking. It is not someth ing that is available only for a lucky few. Abundance is a part of your very humanity . It is there for you to tune in to
right now. What ever you are thinking right now is expanding for you. You
will ultimately take action on those thoughts. OceanofPDF .comDET ACHMENT
 
Detachment is the only vehicle available to take you from striving
to arriving. You would think that in a land where everything is bountiful, the people
would have an eternal lock on happiness and fulfillment. It seems only
logical that we here in the affluent West should indeed be the happiest
people on the planet. We consume a large percentage of the world’s natural
resources. We have the highest standard of living in the history of mankind. We have abundant supplies of refrigerators and television sets and
automobiles. These things, which we have come to think of as necessities,
are, in fact, luxury items for some 90 percent of the world’ s population. Relative to most other people on the planet, we are rich beyond their
dreams. Still, we are not blessed with contentment, happiness, and
joyousness. How can this be? It seems  to me that the more materialistic we become, the less trusting we
are as a people. The more we have, the less we are inclined to focus on
communicating basic human values. Instead we shift our emphasis to the
wallets and possessions of ourselves and others. When we have very few possessions we are compelled to deal with each
other and look directly into one another ’s eyes, there being nothing of a
material nature to distract our gaze. As we accumulate more and more, our
eyes shift to our possessions and away from one another ’s humanity . Consequently , in the most materialistic society in the history of humanity ,
we have very high levels of loneliness and despair . As we have  shifted our
emphasis away from human interaction, we have also produced one of the
most violent cultures in human history . Loneliness and violence seem to be
the natural of fspring of an excessively materialistic society . The most important questions you can ask regarding your place in this
culture are: How can I be a happy, loving, fulfilled human being and still
function within  the materialism that seems to define all of our social
structure? Is it possible for me to live my life with inner joy and harmony
within a larger context of greed and accumulation? How can I accomplish a
daily life of love and harmony , and, yes, success, when I seem to besurrounded by people who beget loneliness and violence in their perpetual
pursuit of more? I believe the answers can be found in detachment. Detachment is an unwritten fact of the universe which is always
operating. The question is whether or not you are willing to tune in to it,
make it operati ve in your daily life. In our highly materialistic society ,
detachment is a principle that is easily rejected by those who are still
chasing more and more success. It is something that many scoff at because
it challenges the very fabric of their lifelong traditions and beliefs. Please understand that I am not contending that the accumulation of
material wealth  and possessions is evil. Having attained wealth after
impoverished beginnings, I delight in the harvest that has come from having
made a great deal of money . It is satisfying and lovely . I am proud of my
accomplishments and do not feel apologetic for being able to purchase
whatever I choose as a result of my labors. Detachment is not about
denying the joy of achieving abundance. Paradoxically , it will bring more
abundance into your life, rather than require you to shed all of your material
goods. However , you will probably find it quite easy to divest yourself of
your possessions if that is your choice. UNDERST ANDING WHA T DET ACHMENT  MEANS
 
Throughout this book I have referred to the duality that we are, our form
and our formlessness. A large part of our being is formless, a part that
includes all of our thinking, spirituality , and higher consciousne ss. Thought
is one essential dimension in which we do literally all of our living, and
where our higher consciousn ess and spirituality reside. All of our
attachments are in form. I use the term “attachment” to describe holding on
to something, or defining our life purpose in terms of things or persons
external to ourselves. Thus an attachment is something in the world of form
to which we have applied so much meaning that we are emotionally
attached to it. We feel we must  have it or some of our essential humanity
will be lost. But keep in mind that our essence is in thought, where it is
literally impossible to have attachments. In the dreaming body it is possible
to have attachments in thought, but the moment you awaken you realize that
the things and people to which you were attached are illusions created for
the dream.When you truly  awaken  you will see the insigni ficance of any attachment
to any of your stuff. Imagine yourself after leaving this plane (dying),
looking back at all of your attac hments. You can see how unim portant they
will then be. Think of this princ iple of detachment in a like manner . Detach
yourself from the need  to hold on to things and people. In essence you can
never own anyone or anything. Every attachment is an impediment to living
at a higher level of consciousness. On another level, attachments are
responsible for reduced persona l happiness and success. The more you can
let go of people and things, the fewer obstacles you have for your life
journey . The ability to be detached from  all things and all people and yet still see
yourself as a part of the whole of humanity is one of the greatest paradoxes
of the spiritual journey . At this point in my own life I truly know that I am
connected to all other human beings in oneness, and at the same moment I
know that I no longer have to be attached to (that is, have to hold on to in
order to make me complete) anyone else, in this body called humanity , nor
is it necessary for me to accum ulate anything else in order to feel whole. What I have I value and celebrate. Thus, my detach ment from needing any thing or any person in order to
feel whole and complete allows me to flow and simply be in life, rather than
to fight life or demand anything  from anyone. Detachment is the absence of
a need to hold on to anyone or anything. It does not mean not having things. It is a way of thinking and being which gives us the freedom to flow with
life, as does everything that is given to us by God. Detachment is accomplished in the dimension of formlessness or
thought. It is a cleansing proce ss that ultimately leads to freed om from a
need to live so much in the world of form. It is not being a slave to the
attachment of all of those things that you are accumulating. It is arriving
rather than a life of striving. It is experiencing what it feels like to row your
boat gently down  the stream. To flow without impediments. It is a portrait
of the perfection of the universe. Flowing down the stream. FLOWING AS A MEANS TO DET ACHMENT
 
The more we are attached to people, things, ideas, and emotions, the less we
are able to experience these phenomena authentically . Try squeezing a
handful of water and see how quickly it disappears. But relax and let yourhand flow in the same water and you have the experience of the water as
long as you like. This is the principle of detachment and flowing. Allowing
things to flow naturally is the way of the universe. Everything in the
universe—yes, everything—is energy, and that includes you. Energy must
have a free flow in order for it to be most efficient. Allowing things to flow
naturally is the way of the universe. Air flows around the planet without
interruption. Water flows throughout the entire physical plane with the path
of least resistance. The earth itself flows perfectly without interruption on
its axis, as do all heavenly bodies in the universe. The entire unive rse may be said to be one large energy system, flowing
around any efforts to bridle the movement of that energy. It works in
harmony with all of its components without any demands, or attachments to
how things should be going. Keep in mind that human beings too are an energy system. We too are
part of the life force that is onesong. And since all energy wants to flow
unimpeded, it seems only natura l to conclude that in order for us to function
perfectly in our universe, we too need to be flowing uninterrupted by
attachments. The fewer impediments to the energy flow, the more
efficiently we fit into and harm onize with the entire energy system called
the universe. Attachments which cause us to believe we must have more
things, and more control of others, are impediments to higher consciousness
and living the awakened, transformed life. Detachment is one of life’s great
lessons for those on the path of enlightenment. HOW  YOUR FORM FUNCTIONS IN THE UNIVERSE
 
You are one exquisitely perfect energy system. Yes, you! You are not
working at making your body do what it must do in order to sustain life
within you. You are not attached to the actions that your body performs
every moment that you are in your form. You are not trying to make your
entire system function. It is working perfectly without any direction from
you. In fact, if you tried to direct your bodily functions you would become
an impe diment to its perfectly flowing energy and systematic working. As
an exam ple, imagine yourself eating a salad and swallowing the lettuce
after chewing it up. Look at all of the chores that you and the one piece of
lettuce must perform in order for it to do its job of nourishing you. Saliva
automatically enters your mouth to help with the chewing process. You arenot busy  salivat ing, it just happens. Then when you start to swallow the
chewed-up lettuce, you do not actively work the peristaltic muscles of your
throat in order to make the lettuce go down instead of up. It happens
without any help or interferenc e from you. You do not direct the lettuce
mulch to enter your bloodstream. The digestive process causes the lettuce to
do precisely what it is supposed to do and go exactly where it is supposed to
go, and transforms the lettuce into nutrients to provide the precise amounts
of lettuce nutrition wherever they are needed. The nutrients from  the lettuce
that are needed for your pancreas never mistakenly go to your big toe. Never have you had to do one thing within the system that is you in order to
make it all work perfectly . You have absolutely no attachments to anything
having to do with the lettuce once you have chewed it up. The journey of
the lettuce does not require your attention. You are never busy talking to
and working on your digestive, respiratory , or elimination system s. They all
simply work without any interference from you. On a similar note, your heart beats thousands of times each and every day
of your life. When did you ever spend time trying to beat your heart? It
works automatically and perfect ly, and the less attached you are to how it is
working, the less likely are you to have trouble from it. You see, there are
many many functions being performed at all moments of your life that you
have nothing to say about. They all work perfectly because they are in
harmony with higher universal principles. There is no need for you to
interfere. More likely , any interference on your part would inhibit the
natural flow of these functions. This, then, is how you as a system of systems function within the largest
system of all, our universe. The energy flows just as it is supposed to. The
food goes in, your perfection takes over, and everything works as it is
designed to do. Interference by you will only curb that natural flow, and
consequently do damage to the perfection that you are. Now I want you to shift your perspective away from the microscope that
has been  exami ning you and look through the telescope to see the bigger
picture. The universe is a system of systems similar to the perfect systems
that function in a human being . It too works on many principles that are
beyond our control, that work independent of our opinion about them—
work even if we do not understand them. And, most important, they work
best when we do not interfere and simply allow the energy to flow
unimpeded. I like to compare this process to the lettuce (which is nothingmore than energy) making its way throughout your system, dropping off the
precise amount of nutrients where it is supposed to. You, like the lettuce,
perform your functions perfectly . This is the intelligence that is behind all
form. This is the force, or the god, or the spirit, or whatever you choose to
call it, that is a part of all form. Working in harmony without any
interference or attachments. Now for the big leap! A momen t ago you were the system that was using
the lettuce. Now imagine yourse lf as a giant piece of lettuce. Shift outward
and beco me the metaphorical lettuce that is a part of the biggest picture of
all, your place in the universe. You too are a large chunk of energy flowing
perfectly within  a larger system  and within a larger system to infinity . You
too can do exact ly what you are designed for, as long as you do not interfere
with your role within this perfec t system. You do not have to try to do what
you think is your role, you have to be like the lettuce and let everything
work perfectly . You need to understand that every attachment you have to
how things are supposed  to be interferes in some way with your perfect
functioning within the larger system. You need to understand that every
possession that you become attached to has the same effect on this perfectly
functioning energy system, as if the lettuce in your intestines had picked up
some baggage that it had to take along with it on its journey . You know
what would happen to you if that lettuce somehow decided that it had to
have more in order to function properly . It would affect not only the lettuce,
and your stomach, and your respiration, but eventually your existence as
well. Obviously I realize that we are much more complex than a piece of
lettuce. But the analogy serves to remind us that the universal principles
work perfectly without any interference or assistance. When you apply the
principle of detachment to your daily life, you will discover that you are
functioning freely, and flowing with the energy system that is the universe. Even more significantly , you will discover you are allowing the energy of
the entire universe to flow uninterrupted through you. The more that you are able to flow without the attachments, the happier
and more contented you will feel. Moreover , the things that you previously
chased after endlessly , always ending up wanting more anyway , will now
arrive in your life in the precise  amounts necessary to take care of you and
your loved ones. Combine this with the practice of the principle of
abundance, and you will find more and more flowing into your life in analmost effortless fashion. You will eventually keep the energy flowing by
circulating and giving away all that you do not need. Then, miracle of
miracles, the more you give away , the more you have. It is a gloriously perfect system when you allow it to work without any
interference. Our interference is due to some kind of attachm ent that we
have grown to believe we cannot possibly live comfortably without. HOW  I LEARNED TO APPL Y THIS PRINCIPLE
 
In the fourth through the eighth grades I would sit in my seat in school
silently pining for Earlene Rentz , the love of my life. I thought that she was
beautiful, yet I could never seem  to muster the courage to tell her. We lived
in the same neighborhood, and I was friendly with her older brother , so I
would see her quite regularly . She always held a special place in my heart. Recently I received a letter from  her telling me that she had read some of
my books and that she had seen a story about me in the Wayne State
University alumni magazine. On a lark I decided to call her . Earlene and I talked for about forty minutes. I told her of my youthful
love for her, and she replied, “I knew that.” I couldn’ t believe that she knew
all those  years. During our conversation she said, “Wayne, the thing that
stands out the most about you in my mind is that you were never very
concerned with possessions, and you were the most generous person in our
class.” I was somewhat surprised that this was Earlene’ s most prominent
memory , and yet when I look back, I believe her assessment was correct. Somehow I knew that being attached to something was the surest way to be
certain that one never appeared to have enough of it. While many of the
other children my age would talk about wanting something, I was generally
quite content with what I had. In fact, I would help my friends figure out
ways to get the things they seemed to want so desperately . When I was a
teenager and a young man, my friends had souped-up drag racers and would
talk endlessly about wanting this or that fancy car, yet I was in love with my
1950 Plymouth with its profusion of rust spots and its deficiencies. It never
seemed to matter . As I look back, I see that I was comfo rtable with
detachment even then. I have very few of the items that seem to decorate the lives of wealthy
people. Fancy clothes play no part in my life, and hoarding a lot of
expensive possessions does not even enter my consciousness. Yet,paradoxically again, I seem to have acquired the ability to have all of the
things anyone could ever desire. It seems the less I concern myself with
acquisitions the more they arrive in my life for me to use and recirculate. There is something very profound in the seeming paradox “More is less.”
For me, having more means having to insure it, protect it, polish it, worry
about it, try to double it, brag about it, price it, maybe sell it for a profit, and
on and on. Of course, one can appreciate the beauty in any object and truly receive
enjoyment from  it, but that is not attachment. That is simply allowing the
energy of your appreciation and love to flow through the object and back
into you. If you wonder abou t the difference between attachment and
enjoyment, ask yourself how you would react if suddenly an object you
value was gone—stolen, broken, lost, or whatever . Would you be distorted
with anger and worry? Would you become immobilized and unable to
function effectively with yourself and your loved ones? That is attachment. The need that is attached to the object gives it some degree of control or
power over your emotions. I truly know in my heart, as does my wife, that
if any object that we have sudde nly disappeared, I would say something like
“It is now where it is suppose d to be. I hope that whoever is using or
observing it is receiving some kind of joy and happiness. It is just a thing
and I am not attached to it.”
This is not to suggest indifference to thieves and careless peop le. It is a
suggestion that you not allow your stuff to own you. Be able to detach
yourself and your humanity and life purpose from mere thing s that only
have the value we ascribe to them. If we can ascribe value to a thing simply
by a thought process, then of course we can detach ourselves from that
value-added process equally ef ficiently through a dif ferent process. A perfect example of this presented itself while I was writing this book. After a three-ho ur radio talk show in Miami, I made an impulsive choice
to accep t a long-standing invitation. Marie Provenzano, whose  business is
providing luxury facials, had written me numerous letters describing how
she had benefited from my tapes  and books. Over the years, she had invited
me to her studio for a comp limentary facial treatment as her way of
showing her appreciation. For whatever reason that was operating in the
universe, I decided to stop on my way home from Miami and have my very
first facial.As I settled in for this new expe rience, Marie told me she had had a mild
stroke several years earlier and she felt she had cured herself through
repeatedly listening to my tapes. It felt very good to hear that I had played a
role in helping someone overcome such an affliction. She showed
absolutely no signs of ever having had a stroke. Marie explaine d to me that
prior to the stroke, she had always been concerned with being a “perfect
person.” She described how she loved to entertain, yet made it a stressful
experience for herself because everything had to be exactly “right.” She
created evening s which were showcases of expensive gowns and jewelry ,
food of the finest gourmet quality , and table decor that displayed the
originality and taste for which  she wanted to be known. She loved the
compliments she received for these perfect evenings. Looking back, she
said she now realizes that much of her life was concerned with meaning
derived from attachments. One of these “perfect” evenings became a
turning point in her life. Instead of lavish compliments, a female guest said, “Marie, aren’ t you
tired of all this show , and having to do everything perfectly?” Marie told me
that she simply broke down crying. The woman walked with her over to the
couch, put her arm around her, and comforted her for two hours. They
talked about the real Marie, the person behind the baubles and the fancy
dinner tables. They talked about how easy it is to disguise oneself in
external “stuf f” and how lonely it is to end up caressing your jewels, rather
than looking into the eyes and heart of a fellow human being. They talked
about ways to rechannel energy to serve others and to get back  to the real
person inside the cage of posse ssion. It was the beginning of an authentic
friendship. Marie suffered her stroke shortly after that, and her new friend helped her
to transcend it. Together they studied the literature of love and harmony ,
and Marie began teaching a course on my materials at a community college
in the area. Today she has forty -five students enrolled in a life-enrichment
class that is growing faster than Marie can believe. She begins her classes
by describing how her attachmen t to things and possessions had blocked her
ability to see the beauty and joy available in human relationships. How an
evening which began as one more “perfectly attached” dinner party
changed her life and led to a discovery of how to live better and even how
to cure herself of the ef fects of a stroke.Marie is one of the happiest and most delightful people I have ever met. She was thrilled to share this transformational story with me, and blurted
out, “I just can’t believe that you are really here in my studio! You, my
guru, the man I’ve listened to for hundreds of hours, actually here with me.”
I reminded her that she had as much to teach me as I her . I said,
“The guru is you, not me.” Not only was my face tingling after an hour of
strange and wonderful gels, vapors, massages, and creams, but my heart
was tingling as well. Why am I writin g about Marie and how she came to know the meaning
of detac hment? In part because I believe Marie’ s story could be a catalyst to
help others to recognize the hollowness in attachments. But also because I
believe that I was flowing with an energy that directed me there, on that
day, to hear that story , so that I could share it with you. Attachments do not always take the form of possessions. Attac hment to
things is a common thread that winds its way throughout our materialistic
culture, tying people up in knots because they are focused on ownership. However , there are other signi ficant attachments, such as attachments to
other people’ s opinions and to how we are perceived by others. I feel that my writing is able to flow because I have become unattached
to what  anyone else says or thinks about it. I simply allow  it to flow,
knowing and trusting that it will all be just as it is supposed to be. I am open
to improvement , but I cannot think about that while I am writing. If I do,
my focus shifts to what I should be doing, instead of what I am allowing to
happen. Writing is ener gy, just like all human activity . Ralph Waldo Emerson expresse d it well: “The good writer seems to be
writing about himself, but has his eye on that thread of the universe which
runs through himself, and all things.” This is what I do even at this very
moment. I write about myself, but I know that I am a part of you as well,
even though we may not have met on the physical plane. These words flow
through me to you. I do not own them, nor do you, and the less attached I
am to the entire process, the easier and more pleasing it is. Do what you do
for yourself, unattached to the outcome in the sense of being emotionally
attached. Or as Carlos Castaneda says:
Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at
him he is just like any ordinary man, except that the folly of his
life is under control…. His controlled folly makes him say thatwhat he does matters and make s him act as if it did, and yet he
knows that it doesn’ t; so when he fulfills his acts he retreats in
peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or
didn’ t, is in no way any part of his concern. This is a tough one for many of us, because we have grown up believing
that what we do really matters. Most of us do not get the folly of our lives
under control. We worry about how it will be perceived. We focus on
external opinions, and consequently cannot simply just be. Castaneda and
others encourage us to cultivate an attitude of allowing the energy to flow
through us without any judgm ent about it, and yet at the same time
participating in it as if it really matters, and then being able to detach and
turn away in peace when it feels finished. If it sounds paradoxical and
inconsistent, it is because it is. Nevertheless, the detachment will help you
to appreciate and enjoy what you have, rather than worry about gathering
more. I experience the same feelings about speaking. I do not use notes when I
go before an audience, and I haven’ t for years. When I gave up my notes
and spok e entirely from my heart, my speaking improved signifi cantly . I am
not attached to having to please an audience, to saying it right, to anything
at all. I generally meditate for a thirty-minute period before speaking, and I
visualize everything going smoothly and my audience and myself enjoying
and appreciating  the entire experience. The absence of attachment allows
me to flow for hours onstage, often in front of several thousand people. While I am in this state of mind onstage, I find myself in an entirely new
sphere of living, a different dimension. Time ceases to exist. My memory
for recall is more phenomenal than at any other time in my life. The words
flow, without even a hitch or a pause, and it all fits together perfectly . When I gave up my attachment to perfection about speaking,
paradoxically , a kind of perfection seemed to enter into my performance
onstage. The internal excitement and nervousness before speaking is my
intense desire to be out there in that magical space where I am doing what I
love and allowing myself to just be, and experiencing the energy flowing
through me unimpeded by any attachments to the outcome. This free-
flowing ener gy is the highest place I know about in the physical plane. In these two areas of my life where I am doing what I love, writing and
speaking, I have come to understand that detachment from the outcome anddetachment from external opinions are the keys to allowing me to flow
freely and perfectly . No trying, no worry , no anxiety about it—I simply
allow myself to be, without interference from my mind about any part of it. I know somewhere deep down inside of me that I am making a difference,
but that it is not necessary for me to do so. I know that even making it
matter is a judgment of sorts, so that in the largest analysis, it really does
not matter , but I behave as if it truly did. Yet when I am finished with my
speech or a book, I never look back. I know that it is over, and that
regardless of anyone’ s opinion about it, it is still done just the way it is. So I
move on to the next challenge, unimpeded by attachment to what I have
already finished. I learn from the previous experience, and go on to the next
project. This new project does not truly matter , but I act as if it did. The
process involve s, as Castaneda said, having the folly of our lives under
control. The way to do that is simply to be, rather than having to be the way
others think we should be. Be detached and enjoy each moment of energy
that flows through you. My wife and children are the dearest people in the world to me, and I
have truly transf ormed my thinking toward them, and have altered many of
the attachments I previously held in my life. This is a major transformation
for me, and one which has brought us a new sense of love and serenity . I love my wife deeply , yet I know that I do not own her in any way. My
inner knowingness recognizes that she is on her own path and that being
married to me is a part of that journey she is on. I am most grateful that we
share a big part of each other ’s life. It has taken me quite some time and
some bitter disappointments in other relationships to enjoy the experience
of loving someone without having to control her in any way. I can allow
this person that I love simply to be, even though that may be diametrically
opposite to what I am, or to what I may prefer her to be. For me, this is the essence of the marriage relationship at a conscious
loving level. The ability to suspend judgment about how we feel our loved
one should be conducting his or her life, and to love that person as is, is a
valuable exercise in detachment. Suspending judgment means honoring her
need and right to be on her path according to her own inner directives
without my uninvited input. Suspending judgment also means honoring my
need and right to feel what I am feeling without judging my feeling as right
or wrong. This is uncondition al love for myself and my loved one. Unconditional love does not demand that one of us be “right” and one of us“wrong.” When  you are strong ly attached to judging anyone, you are not
defining him or her , you are defining yourself. My wife and I are very different from each other . In many respects I
would describe  us as opposites. Love often seems to work this way,
allowing us to have in our loved one some of the qualities that we have not
elected for ourselves. We do not seem to fall in love with those who have
identical qualities. Perhaps that is because we already live with those ways
of being  in all of our waking moments, and to choose them in another
would make for a redundant relationship. I have stopped judging and
fighting the differences, and instead remind myself to be grateful for the
new flavor that she brings so deliciously into my life every day. We
lovingly and playfully acknow ledge that we do not have to please each
other all the time, nor do we even have to understand each other . This is the
quality that detachment from ownership in a relationship brings. It allows
us to truly appreciate the opposite “strange” qualities in each other . When a
need to convert her appears, I remind myself that I fell in love with this
woman for what she was. As I was falling in love I was not saying, “If only
she had a different point of view I could love her more.” It was our
unconditional love that made our love flourish and grow . If the need to
change her in some way nags at me, I look inward for what it is saying
about me, I find relief from the need to change her when I discove r what it
is about that trait that I am disowning. On other occasi ons I admit to being
inwardly perplex ed by her view s and actions, but can also shift instantly to
loving her for that, rather than having an internal dialogue which tries to
make her wrong. I have found that by being this way in my marriage, more and more I
automatically behave in this same fashion toward all others. I know from
my own personal experienc e that any attachment to being right
automatically defines me and says absolutely nothing about other people. I
finally realized that other peopl e are going to be exactly the way they are,
independent of my opinion about them. This allows me simply to be in my
relationship toward all others. No judgment, no anger , no hostility—simply
to be. Since I have become less attached to making others wrong and
consequently making myself right, it is much easier to be with people who
view life differently from the way I do. When I do slip into judgment I find
that I am much gentler and easier on myself. I allow myself to have thatburst of inner anger for a fleetin g moment, and, again paradoxically , when I
allow the feeling of anger to be, it usually leaves. If it persists, I
nonjudgmentally consider the issue here. Ironically , I find I have much
greater impact on people who are mistreating another , or behaving in
prejudicial ways , since I am more detached. My detachment from needing
to be right almost catches them  off guard, and instantly they see that I am
not going to get myself all work ed up simply because they decide to act or
think in their own way. The peaceful person, unattached to converting
others or to making them wron g, is far more powerful in helping to bring
about constructive loving behavior than the person who judgmentally and
angrily demands change in others. Recently , at the club where I play tennis, several people were engaged in
an angry  discus sion. They were divided on a racial issue, with one side
criticizing an ethnic group, and the other side criticizing the first side for
their lack of compassion and love. One person stopped and said, “Wayne,
what do you think? I never see you upset about these things. You must have
an opinion.”
I responded, “I am sitting here sending all of you love. If you could do
that to each other right now, there wouldn’ t even need to be a discussion
about who should love whom.” They stopped and looked at me as if I were
a bit weird, but they also discontinued judging each other for those few
moments. This approach to loving everyone, even those who seem to be so
different, started in my marriage, and has extended outward. It becomes
easier and easier to be unattache d when you are at peace with yourself. That
kind of inner peace contributes more to the world than being one more
combatant in the endless feuds that arise out of a lack of respect for the
differences in others. I have found it is much easier to be an effective parent since I have truly
understood and adopted the words of Kahlil Gibran in The Pr ophet . Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’ s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.That is a powerful message of detachment for all of us. Nothing drives our
children farther  from us than the attitude that we somehow own them
simply because we are big and they are not. To be able to teach them to be
responsible and yet not be personally attached to that outcom e is a great
lesson. I love my children as much as it is possible to love anyo ne. I would
instantly lay down my life for any one of them. I am sure of this. Yet I am
not attached to their success or lack of it in life. Each of them knows that I
am not going to have a nervous breakdown or ruin any of the present
moments of my life because they fail to do their homework, or come home
late, or do any of the thousands of things that young people do or do not do. I teach them to be responsible both by my actions and my words. I teach
them to value themselves by presenting them with a father who does the
same, and encouraging them as much as possible. But I will not be
emotionally or spiritually attach ed to the decisions that they make as they
proceed along their life paths. They have to live their lives. I cannot do it
for them in any way. They are learning to assume responsibiliti es that quite
often are usurped by parental attachment. When we let our energy flow through our children and do not impede
them by imposing our will on them, they become more respo nsible. And
why not? They have no one to fight. They do not have to be obstinate to
prove that you cannot control them. My detachment does not mean that I am uncaring. I care immensely . In
fact, I care so much that I allow  them to make their own way along their
path, guiding them here and there, helping them to make respon sible loving
choices, catching them doing things right as much as possible,  and always
reminding myself that I do not own them, they own themselves. My personal growth on this road of detachment has led me to a place
where suffering has been eliminated from my life. I have learned in my
relationships to others, to myself, and to the accumulation of stuff that the
less I am attached to needing a certain outcome, the more I enable energy
simply to flow through me and outward wherever it goes. Detachment is a
big facto r in eliminating suffering and in nurturing a sense of inner peace. Having things in life is wonderf ul, but needing them is attachm ent. Having
loving people in life is phenomenal, and it is important to value and
celebrate them every day, but owning or controlling them is attachment. If
you are suffering in your life right now, I can guarantee you that it is tied up
with some kind of attachment to how things should be going.Detachment is the only way out of suffering, as a passage from the
Bhagavad Gita explains:
A person  who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—
that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but
is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who
strives to satisfy such desires. The ocean is always being filled, yet it is always still, with the exception
of a small amount of surface variation. We too can be continu ally open to
new growth and remain still, unless we choose to be disturbed by all of the
things that are perpetually entering our consciousness. The pertu rbations are
caused by our attachment to an idea that somehow , some way, things should
be different than they are. Our suffering, regardless of the form it may take,
is cause d by the mind—by a mind that insists on having prefe rences, and
will not allow others to be just as they are. OUR MOST  COMMON ATTACHMENTS
 
Suffering can take many form s and is always played out in form. Our
attachments to externals are unlimited. Here are seven of the most common
kinds of attachments and the reasons why you may be treading a path of
suffering. 1. Attachment to stuff. Most of us in the Western world identify
ourselves and our relative degree of success or failure by the
quality and quantity of stuff that we accumulate. When we make
such a connection we are attaching our very worth as human
beings to the acquisition of things. Consequently we set ourselv es
up for suffering when the stuff is not in our lives in sufficient
quantity . We become our stuf f.
When you adopt such a stance you set yourself up for perpetual
frustration. What you are really saying is that you are valueless,
incomplete, and worthless. You must continuously replenish your
supply of mater ial items in an effort to feel valued. The thesis “I
am lacking value without stuff” leads to an endless pursuit of
more. Striving for more things leads to the realization that youcannot ever fulfill yourself from the outside. This position
prevents you from knowing that you are already whole, that you
do not need anything else to be complete. It leads you to hoardin g
and ceaselessly  comparing yourself to what others are
accumulating. It takes your human gaze away from the eyes and
hearts of those that you encoun ter, to their wallets and material
possessions. The more you attach your value and humanity to
those things outside of yourself, the more you give those things
the power to control you. And when you are controlled by things
external to yourself you are a slave to those externals, makin g
suffering the only available course for you. Granted you may
suffer in comfort, but still the agony is within you as long as those
attachments remain. 2. Attac hment to other people . This is one of the stickies t
attachments, and it will create a great deal of suffering until you
learn to overcome it in your life. I am not saying that it is
inappropriate to love someone else, to value another person’ s
presence in your life, and to celebrate your connectedness. These
are all very positive results of creating unconditional love
relationships in your life. I mean wanting or needing to own
another and feeling useless, immobilized, and hurt if that person
is not a part of your life in the way you desire. Such feelings are
attachments. These are the relationships in which you give power
and control over your own being  to another , and they will always
lead to suf fering. All human relationships can be happier from a position of
detachment. This means loving people enough to allow them to
make their own choices withou t any flak from you, even though
those choices may not be consistent with what you think they
ought to be doing. It means having enough confidence in yourself
not to be threatened when others fail to live up to your
expectations. In lover/spouse relationships it means loving the
other so much that you forget about your own needs and simply
accept and love the other for what he or she is, which is, after all,
what you fell in love with in the first place.
_OceanofPDF.com_Youll_See_it_When_You_Believe_It_-_Wayne_Dyer.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        As I was staring at the tiny new buds on the lilac bush
outside my window, I saw the mailman drive up. And he was delivering my
third large check  from you. ” she said triumphantly. “For doing what I love
doing. When I got back to my typewriter, it really hit me. Here I am,
reveling in the awareness that it is possible to feel this good about work,
when the money appears at my window. I didn’ t even have to go out and
pick up my check. ”
I chuckl ed, as she explained, “It seemed to me exactly what you were
describing years  ago, and here it was happening to me. I realized,” she said
in a steady voice, “there is no question about my going back to work as a
flight attendant. Actually, the money only confirms the rightness of doing
what I enjoy. ”
The words “You’ll see it when you believe it” drifted through my
thoughts as Joanna concluded, “I feel such an inner sense of joy at honoring
and enco uraging this part of me, rather than listening exclusively to the part
of myself that logically dictated all the advantages of working for the
airline. ‘You’ll see it when you believe it’ are mere words in comparison to
the feeling. ”
 
PUTTING IT  INT O PRACTICE
 
It does not matter what your occupation is or even if you have one. It does
not relate exclusively to your employment. Whoever you are, wherever you
live, whatever your life circums tance, you are doing something every day. Those days can be experiences of abundance or scarcity. The ideas below
may help you to begin doing what you love. The actual implementation is,
of course, up to you. 1. Reexamine your resistance to doing what you love. I was going
to call this “Take the risk. ”—but I truly do not believe it is
necessarily risky  to begin doing  what you love. If you label it a
risk, it means that you must somehow muster up the courage tomake a change. But as you beco me more awakened, you will see
that the risks are nothing more than thoughts—thoughts which
you have convinced yourself are impossible to implement. Instead
of thinking “risk,” which has scarcity built into it, think: “It will
be absolutely great to be doing what I love, and I know that
whatever I need to handle my life affairs will come into my life. I
know it. ” Stop focusing on all that will be missing, unless that is
what you want to expand in your life. Your resistance to doing what you love is based not on the
world of abundance and unlimited opportunity, but on a belief
that work and play are separate parts of your humanity. The belief
is that work is painful and entails suffering and that play is fun. But it does not have to be that way. Imagine yourself doing
exactly what you love doing. Composing, drawing, engineering,
being a florist, being a beautician, having your days to be with
your children as a homemaker— the list is endless. Imagine what
gives you the most pleasure and makes you feel purposeful. What
is it that when you finish doing it, you feel immeasurably
fulfilled, and while you are doing it, time just seems to be
nonexistent. Invite that into your consciousness, and then proceed
to follow your bliss. Know that you are not stuck where you are unless you decide
to be. Know that if you use your mental energy to see yourse lf
spending your days doing what  you truly love, and if you keep
that thought uppermost in your mind, that is what will expand for
you. It has to. You were very likely taught that you choose your career in the
early part of your life, and then you live out your life doing what
you were trained to do. But is it sensible to continue doing
something that someone eighteen or twenty years old chose years
ago. Would you go to an eighteen-year -old today for vocational
counseling. Continuing to do regularly what you dislike is going
to expand scarcity in your life. You will never escape from the
trap unless you are willing to shift the internal focus of your
thoughts to what you love doing. Put that thought in your mind
and make it the central feature of your thoughts, even if yourefuse to make the move today. Stay with the thought. The more
you focus on it, the more it will expand. Virtually everyo ne I have ever met who has gone on to live the
kind of abundan t life I am discussing here has been willing to do
what it takes to make it happen. They all quit jobs that were not
personally fulfilling and pursued their dreams. There is no
scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love, there is
only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen. Whatever you love
doing more than anything else has built within it an opportunity to
make a living at it, even though you may not believe it. Your fears
of doing what you truly love are based on a belief that you are
going to go broke and be unable to pay your bills and meet your
family responsibilities. Not so. Those who love you will support
you in every way if you take the opportunity to pursue your
dreams. If you have always paid your bills, why would you
suddenly becom e the kind of person who does not. If your entire
history speaks to being respons ible, why would you ever consult
an imaginary fear-based history to make your real-life decisions. Moreover, you may find that many of your extraordinary
expenses are simply the result of a lifestyle in which you have
been doing what you loathe. Simplify your life and you may find that you reduce your
expenditures and obligations considerably. If you truly want to
live out in the wilderness, or travel across the country, or open up
a small business in another part of the world, you very likely can
make it happen. I have talked  with numerous executives who
made the decision to alter their stress-filled lives and begin to
slow down and “smell the roses” and still pursue a dream of
doing what they really loved. Interestingly, in many cases it took
a near brush with death to bring  this change about. Your fears of
doing what you love are mostly rooted in unenlightened
conditioning. All of those fears can be recognized as nothin g
more than fearful “thoughts” which you can change. 2. If you refuse to change what you do, practice loving it each
day. This little Zen proverb sums up my message in this section:Before enlightenment
chopping wood
carrying water
After enlightenment
chopping wood
carrying water. Enlightenment has very little to do with your daily activities and
quite a lot to do with how you view those activities. You are still
going to chop wood and carry water in some fashion, only the
awakened person is no longer going to curse the wood and the
water, or even his own lot in life. Whatever you are doing now
can beco me a labor of love if you are willing to make it that way. You do not have to hate your work or anything that you are doing. Hate is a choice that comes from having hateful thoughts. Hate is
not caused by having to change a dirty diaper twenty times a day,
or clean toilets, or live in a prison cell, or collect garbage, or sort
out accounting forms, or attend  committee meetings all day in
which nothing is accomplished. The circumstances are irrelevan t. The loathing exists inside of you, not in the external world. If you decide to continue in your present activity, shift your
attitude toward that activity and allow abundance into your life. You can perform whatever tasks are required of you with an
entirely different perspective. Joanna, my editor and literary
specialist extraordinaire, previously a flight attendant, did
precisely that while she contin ued to fly. She worked on her
attitude while in that uniform, and brought a kind of love to a job
that many others find routine and unpleasant. She practiced
loving the passe ngers and going out of her way to serve them. It
was her dissatisfaction with not feeling personally authentic that
eventually won out. But for the years that she was flying she
preferred loving  what she chose to hating it. Thus she could “cho p
wood and carry water” in a radiant manner while on the job. It really boils down to a very simple choice that does not
require a genius  to figure out. You can either change and take all
of the attendant “risks” that go with doing what gives you the
greatest satisfac tion, or you can develop a new attitude towa rd
what you continue to do. This new attitude can convert a stiflin g
job situation to one of joy. It is entirely your doing. It may be
done by providing more servi ce to others, which will almost
always contrib ute to personal satisfaction. You can make
chopping and carrying a joyful enterprise or a spiteful one. It is
truly up to you. No matter how much you convince yourself that
your job or life situation is boring, routine, or hateful, the fact is
that those are thoughts that reside in you. Somewhere there is an
individual who will do what you are doing and bring joy and
fulfillment to it. The truth of this maxim is evident to me every week when a
beautiful woman who is originally from China comes to our home
to help with the cleaning. She laughs and smiles her way through
chores that others consider onerous. She stops to play with the
children, brings  them small gifts from her native country, and
genuinely contributes her own sense of joy to what she is doing in
our home. She is a treasure to have with us. She reminds me
every time I see her that cleaning house for someone else can be
loaded with either misery or joy. The job does not conta in
anything demoralizing within it, only people do. 3. Whatever you are currently against can be restated and
rethought so as to promote abundance in your life. Everything
that you are against blocks you from abundance. Everything. Decide to get your life work ing in a positive rather than a
negative style. If you are agains t terrorism and war, you become
part of the problem. You are one more soldier fighting for what
you believe in. And fighting always weakens you and brings more
scarcity into your life. Instead of being against terrorism and war,
try being for peace. Once you are for peace, you will start
directing your thoughts and consequently your actions in that
direction. You will become a peacemaker simply by not beingagainst anything. This may sound like semantic juggling, but it is
much more than that. Once you are focused on something that
you favor, you will expand that in your life. Whatever you tend to
be again st puts you right into a fighting mold, and consequent ly
expands dissension in your consciousness. This same principle applies to the work you are doing. If you
are against  your boss rather than for improvements,  you will
focus your energy on the things  about your boss that you dislike,
and those things will expand. If you focus on what you dislik e
about your work, that will become your center of thought and
those things will grow. This is a very powerful philosophy that I
am asking you to embrace. Everything that you are against works
against you. Everything that you are against can be restated in a
way that puts you in support of something. When you are able to
state what you are for rather than what you are against, you are
focusing on the potential for positive change. Once that is in
place, you will find whatever you are focusing on expanding. Instead of hating illiteracy, be for literacy and you will be
working to help improve literacy. Instead of being against drugs
by joining another war on drugs, be for helping children to
discover life-en hancing ways of having positive highs. With
enough of us working to help children make positive choic es
there will ultimately be fewer customers for the purveyors of
artificial highs. Instead of being  against your company policy, be
for an improved  policy. Instead of being against your spouse ’s
outbursts or alcoholism, be for your spouse’ s gentleness and
sobriety. You will help to expand  all that you are for or against, so
it is simple to know where you want to be aligned. Doing what
you love involves restating how you choose to align yourself each
day. On the side of personal order or disorder. On the side of
worldwide order or disorder. Tell me what you are for and I will
show you what is going to expand in a positive way. Tell me what
you are against and I can show you what is going to expand in a
destructive way. When you find yourself loving what you do, you will begin to
notice how effortlessly you do your work. Once you are at a place
where you use love as your guiding principle for your dailyactivities, you will see that abundance is really there just for the
tuning in to. WHY  YOU MA Y BE RESISTING THE PRINCIPLE OF
ABUNDANCE
 
 
We are raised in a culture which emphasizes scarcity rather than
abundance, and it is difficult to overcome this background. We have
heard statements such as “I’m getting mine while the getting’ s good,”
or “If I don’t take it someone else will,” or “There’ s only so much out
there and you have to fight to get your share of the pickings. ” We have
learned to believe in limits and scarcity. The haves and the have-nots
seem to be a reality in our culture. There are indeed a large group of
have-nots and fewer haves. We are not taught that abundance is truly
available for everyone, that there is plenty of everything to go around. Through our conditioning, we believe quite the opposite. We will
never activate this principle of abundance as long as we believe that
what is missing  is of primary importance, and focus our life energy
there. A mentality of “I never have enough” is a reason for living for
many people. They spend their lives striving, fearful of ever arriving. Focus on what you have, no matter how insignificant it seems. People do not want to take responsibility for the scarcity in their lives. It is much easier to blame circumstances, others, events, or even God
for the things that they have failed to acquire or achieve. They justify
their place in life and reject responsibility for those limit ed life
circumstances by believing that they have been assigned a life of
scarcity. Continu ing to believe this guarantees they will remain in this
experience. Releasing the binding restrictions of scarcity as a belief
system can create an opening to a new level of abundance
consciousness. Resistance may just be easier  for some. On one level, it is less
challenging to stay in a scarcity mode than to experience a lifetime ofabundance. This is because those who actually live the abundan t life I
have been describing know that they already have enough and that
they themselves  are all there is already. They no longer strive and
accumulate to feel positive about themselves and their life mission. Without such striving, many feel lost and directionless. People may prefer to elicit compassion and sympathy from others. Many people constantly elaborate on how they were cheated, or how
hard they worked without getting ahead of the game. Since there are
many other people out there willing to tell the same story, they can
milk this melodrama for all that it is worth. They will not have even a
smidgen of a chance to transcend the scarcity mentality as long as they
seek sympathy from others who feel victimized and short-changed. Still, it gives them a powerful reason to avoid abundance. The “I don’t deserve it” pattern keeps many people stuck in their
scarcity life-styl e. This is generally a strong indication of low self-
regard. They convince themse lves that they are unworthy of the
abundance that the universe provides. A “poor me” belief system gives
them a convenient rationalizatio n for focusing their life energy on what
is missing. They convince themselves they deserve no more. Some have grown so comforta ble with scarcity and fear that they
really would not know what to do with a life of bountiful abun dance. Those who are comfortable in a real or metaphorical prison cell find it
very difficult to go beyond their four walls. With bare necessities
provided, they do not have to worry. They withdraw from the
complications that they imagine would accompany abundance in their
lives. The longer one maintains a scarcity consciousness, the more one
finds reasons to avoid changing. SOME IDEAS FOR BRINGING ABUNDANCE INT O YOUR
LIFE
 Remember that I do not believe that abundance is about accumulating a lot
of stuff. I believe it is about looking at life and knowing that we have
everything that we need for complete happiness, and then being able to
celebrate each and every moment of life. It is about knowing that we do not
need anything else and that whatever we need will be there when we focus
on what we want to increase in our lives. It is about knowing that scarcity is
a set of beliefs and actions that emphasize what is missing rathe r than what
we have. Here are a few ideas to help you challenge any scarcity
consciousness in your life. They have worked for me in my life, and in the
life of almost every happy and successful person I have ever known. Be against  nothing. Make an effort to state everything that you stand
for in positive rather than negative terms. For example, instead of
trying to lose weight, try being for the image of yourself that you have
in your mind. Rather than attem pting to quit smoking, try being for
yourself as a tobacco-free person. I saw a sign outside a gift shop on
Maui which illustrates this point perfectly. It states: “Please enjoy your
cigarettes and soft drinks outsid e of the store. ” Emphasize what you
want, rather than what you dislike or what is missing. Make an effort to be thankful for what you have and who you are each
day. Do this even if you want more and dislike who you are. Being
thankful upstages greediness, and focuses your thoughts on abundance. The universe seems to provide abundantly when we are in a state of
gratefulness. The less we need to have more, the more we seem to get. Take some daily time to observe the ways in which you are using your
mind. Assess how much of your mental energy is focused on what is
missing. How much of your time do you spend wishing that you had
more, or commiserating about your sorry state of affairs. Be
scrupulously honest with yourself. You may discover that a
surprisingly large chunk of your waking hours is spent thinking this
way. If so, make a concerted effort to shift that consciousness for a
specified amoun t of time each day. Shift your thought proce sses to
what you truly want to expand. This can eventually develop into a
lifetime habit. To make this shift of consciousness, you must firstbecome aware of how much of your thinking, your life, is spent on
feeding that which you really do not want to grow. Practice this in personal relationships too. Much of the time, problems
in a relationship  occur because each person is concentrating on what is
missing in the other person. If you are angry with someone you love,
shift your focus to something about that person that you truly love. Then allow that person to be what you love and also at times
something that you find difficult to accept. When you focus on what
you love about someone, that focus will grow in your relationship. This is also a phenomenal way of being with children. Catch  them
doing things right. Make a persona l commitment to do what you love and to love what
you do. Today. I cannot overstress how important this is as a strategy
for experiencing  abundance. If deep within you you would love to try
another occupation or to change locations or whatever, then you will
sooner or later do that. It is the only way for you to be authe ntic to
yourself. It is virtually impossible for abundance to replace scarcity
while you feel inauthentic. As you begin to do what you love and love
what you do, you will find life opening to you in ways you never
dreamed. And if you are not ready to change jobs, avoc ations,
locations, or whatever, then change your thoughts toward those
disliked daily activities. Search for the joyful part of what you do and
be thank ful for having the mind, body, and spirit to do something
productive. Abundance flows when we love what we are doing. Whatever you enjoy receiving in your life, remind yourself, “I deserve
this. ” It is okay to feel deservin g. And you will if you believe the self
that is receiving  something is worthy and important. Abundance is
related to how you feel about yourself. If you feel that you are
important enough to ask, and divine enough to receive, receiving will
be your reward. If, on the other hand, you feel unworthy, it will be
almost impossible for abundance to flow into your life. Think of how a
tree unfolds to all of its magnificent potential, always reaching for the
sunshine and growing and flourishing. Would you ever suggest to a
tree, “You should be ashamed of yourself for having that disgustingmoss on your bark, and for letting your limbs grow crooke d”. Of
course not. A tree allows the life force to work through it. You have the
power within your thoughts to be as natural as that tree. I often remind
myself of this by recalling some thing Lao-tze said, thousands of years
ago: “The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. ” Neither
need you do anything but be yourself. Softly and kindly remind yourself, “I cannot own anything. ” It is a
valuable thought to keep in mind as you struggle to improve your
financial picture, worry about investments, and plan how to acquire
more and more. It is a universal principle which you are a part of. You
must release everything when you truly awaken. Are you lettin g your
life go by in frustration and worry over not having enough. If so, relax
and remember that you only get what you have for a short period of
time. When you awaken you see the folly of being attached to
anything. Use affirmations as a regular part of your life. Use every technique that
you can to attrac t abundance. Walls, mirrors, the refrigerator, your car,
are all great spaces for displaying written affirmations. A positive
affirmation helps you to shape your thoughts around your wants. A
positive affirmation helps you to be authentically aligned with your
thoughts. Your beliefs need to be affirmed regularly in order for you to
see them in the world of form. Whenever you are tempted to give less, try giving a little extra instead. When you find yourself living out the old stingy habit, it helps to stop
yourself on the spot, “in your mind,” and then exhibit a completely
new way of being. You will be shocked at how much more begins
circulating back into YOUR  life; to say nothing of how much better you
will feel inside because of the special effort you extended to another
person. It truly feels good to give a little extra. As they say, “It is never
crowded along the extra mile. ”Abundance is a universal principle that many of us do not experience
because we misinterpret it. We believe it means having things and striving
for more  of those things. But abundance really means unders tanding that
our eternity and our universe are endless. It is a different way of seeing. I
have always loved the following little fish story, which illustrates
beautifully the intent of this chapter. “Excuse me,” said one ocean fish to another, “you are older and
more experienced than I, and will probably be able to help me. Tell me: where can I find this thing they call the ocean. I’ve been
searching for it everywhere to no avail. ”
“The ocean,” said the older fish, “is what you are swimming in
now. ”
“Oh, this. But this is only water. What I’m searching for is the
ocean,” said the young fish, feeling quite disappointed. We too, are alrea dy immersed in total abundance. We do not have to keep
trying to find it. No matter how far that little fish swims, he will never run
out of ocean. It is as universally abundant for him as our universe is for us. Decide how you are going to live each of your days. Abundance is yours
for the asking. It is not someth ing that is available only for a lucky few. Abundance is a part of your very humanity. It is there for you to tune in to
right now. What ever you are thinking right now is expanding for you. You
will ultimately take action on those thoughts. OceanofPDF. comDET ACHMENT
 
Detachment is the only vehicle available to take you from striving
to arriving. You would think that in a land where everything is bountiful, the people
would have an eternal lock on happiness and fulfillment. It seems only
logical that we here in the affluent West should indeed be the happiest
people on the planet. We consume a large percentage of the world’s natural
resources. We have the highest standard of living in the history of mankind. We have abundant supplies of refrigerators and television sets and
automobiles. These things, which we have come to think of as necessities,
are, in fact, luxury items for some 90 percent of the world’ s population. Relative to most other people on the planet, we are rich beyond their
dreams. Still, we are not blessed with contentment, happiness, and
joyousness. How can this be. It seems  to me that the more materialistic we become, the less trusting we
are as a people. The more we have, the less we are inclined to focus on
communicating basic human values. Instead we shift our emphasis to the
wallets and possessions of ourselves and others. When we have very few possessions we are compelled to deal with each
other and look directly into one another ’s eyes, there being nothing of a
material nature to distract our gaze. As we accumulate more and more, our
eyes shift to our possessions and away from one another ’s humanity. Consequently, in the most materialistic society in the history of humanity,
we have very high levels of loneliness and despair. As we have  shifted our
emphasis away from human interaction, we have also produced one of the
most violent cultures in human history. Loneliness and violence seem to be
the natural of fspring of an excessively materialistic society. The most important questions you can ask regarding your place in this
culture are: How can I be a happy, loving, fulfilled human being and still
function within  the materialism that seems to define all of our social
structure. Is it possible for me to live my life with inner joy and harmony
within a larger context of greed and accumulation. How can I accomplish a
daily life of love and harmony, and, yes, success, when I seem to besurrounded by people who beget loneliness and violence in their perpetual
pursuit of more. I believe the answers can be found in detachment. Detachment is an unwritten fact of the universe which is always
operating. The question is whether or not you are willing to tune in to it,
make it operati ve in your daily life. In our highly materialistic society,
detachment is a principle that is easily rejected by those who are still
chasing more and more success. It is something that many scoff at because
it challenges the very fabric of their lifelong traditions and beliefs. Please understand that I am not contending that the accumulation of
material wealth  and possessions is evil. Having attained wealth after
impoverished beginnings, I delight in the harvest that has come from having
made a great deal of money. It is satisfying and lovely. I am proud of my
accomplishments and do not feel apologetic for being able to purchase
whatever I choose as a result of my labors. Detachment is not about
denying the joy of achieving abundance. Paradoxically, it will bring more
abundance into your life, rather than require you to shed all of your material
goods. However, you will probably find it quite easy to divest yourself of
your possessions if that is your choice. UNDERST ANDING WHA T DET ACHMENT  MEANS
 
Throughout this book I have referred to the duality that we are, our form
and our formlessness. A large part of our being is formless, a part that
includes all of our thinking, spirituality, and higher consciousne ss. Thought
is one essential dimension in which we do literally all of our living, and
where our higher consciousn ess and spirituality reside. All of our
attachments are in form. I use the term “attachment” to describe holding on
to something, or defining our life purpose in terms of things or persons
external to ourselves. Thus an attachment is something in the world of form
to which we have applied so much meaning that we are emotionally
attached to it. We feel we must  have it or some of our essential humanity
will be lost. But keep in mind that our essence is in thought, where it is
literally impossible to have attachments. In the dreaming body it is possible
to have attachments in thought, but the moment you awaken you realize that
the things and people to which you were attached are illusions created for
the dream. When you truly  awaken  you will see the insigni ficance of any attachment
to any of your stuff. Imagine yourself after leaving this plane (dying),
looking back at all of your attac hments. You can see how unim portant they
will then be. Think of this princ iple of detachment in a like manner. Detach
yourself from the need  to hold on to things and people. In essence you can
never own anyone or anything. Every attachment is an impediment to living
at a higher level of consciousness. On another level, attachments are
responsible for reduced persona l happiness and success. The more you can
let go of people and things, the fewer obstacles you have for your life
journey. The ability to be detached from  all things and all people and yet still see
yourself as a part of the whole of humanity is one of the greatest paradoxes
of the spiritual journey. At this point in my own life I truly know that I am
connected to all other human beings in oneness, and at the same moment I
know that I no longer have to be attached to (that is, have to hold on to in
order to make me complete) anyone else, in this body called humanity, nor
is it necessary for me to accum ulate anything else in order to feel whole. What I have I value and celebrate. Thus, my detach ment from needing any thing or any person in order to
feel whole and complete allows me to flow and simply be in life, rather than
to fight life or demand anything  from anyone. Detachment is the absence of
a need to hold on to anyone or anything. It does not mean not having things. It is a way of thinking and being which gives us the freedom to flow with
life, as does everything that is given to us by God. Detachment is accomplished in the dimension of formlessness or
thought. It is a cleansing proce ss that ultimately leads to freed om from a
need to live so much in the world of form. It is not being a slave to the
attachment of all of those things that you are accumulating. It is arriving
rather than a life of striving. It is experiencing what it feels like to row your
boat gently down  the stream. To flow without impediments. It is a portrait
of the perfection of the universe. Flowing down the stream. FLOWING AS A MEANS TO DET ACHMENT
 
The more we are attached to people, things, ideas, and emotions, the less we
are able to experience these phenomena authentically. Try squeezing a
handful of water and see how quickly it disappears. But relax and let yourhand flow in the same water and you have the experience of the water as
long as you like. This is the principle of detachment and flowing. Allowing
things to flow naturally is the way of the universe. Everything in the
universe—yes, everything—is energy, and that includes you. Energy must
have a free flow in order for it to be most efficient. Allowing things to flow
naturally is the way of the universe. Air flows around the planet without
interruption. Water flows throughout the entire physical plane with the path
of least resistance. The earth itself flows perfectly without interruption on
its axis, as do all heavenly bodies in the universe. The entire unive rse may be said to be one large energy system, flowing
around any efforts to bridle the movement of that energy. It works in
harmony with all of its components without any demands, or attachments to
how things should be going. Keep in mind that human beings too are an energy system. We too are
part of the life force that is onesong. And since all energy wants to flow
unimpeded, it seems only natura l to conclude that in order for us to function
perfectly in our universe, we too need to be flowing uninterrupted by
attachments. The fewer impediments to the energy flow, the more
efficiently we fit into and harm onize with the entire energy system called
the universe. Attachments which cause us to believe we must have more
things, and more control of others, are impediments to higher consciousness
and living the awakened, transformed life. Detachment is one of life’s great
lessons for those on the path of enlightenment. HOW  YOUR FORM FUNCTIONS IN THE UNIVERSE
 
You are one exquisitely perfect energy system. Yes, you. You are not
working at making your body do what it must do in order to sustain life
within you. You are not attached to the actions that your body performs
every moment that you are in your form. You are not trying to make your
entire system function. It is working perfectly without any direction from
you. In fact, if you tried to direct your bodily functions you would become
an impe diment to its perfectly flowing energy and systematic working. As
an exam ple, imagine yourself eating a salad and swallowing the lettuce
after chewing it up. Look at all of the chores that you and the one piece of
lettuce must perform in order for it to do its job of nourishing you. Saliva
automatically enters your mouth to help with the chewing process. You arenot busy  salivat ing, it just happens. Then when you start to swallow the
chewed-up lettuce, you do not actively work the peristaltic muscles of your
throat in order to make the lettuce go down instead of up. It happens
without any help or interferenc e from you. You do not direct the lettuce
mulch to enter your bloodstream. The digestive process causes the lettuce to
do precisely what it is supposed to do and go exactly where it is supposed to
go, and transforms the lettuce into nutrients to provide the precise amounts
of lettuce nutrition wherever they are needed. The nutrients from  the lettuce
that are needed for your pancreas never mistakenly go to your big toe. Never have you had to do one thing within the system that is you in order to
make it all work perfectly. You have absolutely no attachments to anything
having to do with the lettuce once you have chewed it up. The journey of
the lettuce does not require your attention. You are never busy talking to
and working on your digestive, respiratory, or elimination system s. They all
simply work without any interference from you. On a similar note, your heart beats thousands of times each and every day
of your life. When did you ever spend time trying to beat your heart. It
works automatically and perfect ly, and the less attached you are to how it is
working, the less likely are you to have trouble from it. You see, there are
many many functions being performed at all moments of your life that you
have nothing to say about. They all work perfectly because they are in
harmony with higher universal principles. There is no need for you to
interfere. More likely, any interference on your part would inhibit the
natural flow of these functions. This, then, is how you as a system of systems function within the largest
system of all, our universe. The energy flows just as it is supposed to. The
food goes in, your perfection takes over, and everything works as it is
designed to do. Interference by you will only curb that natural flow, and
consequently do damage to the perfection that you are. Now I want you to shift your perspective away from the microscope that
has been  exami ning you and look through the telescope to see the bigger
picture. The universe is a system of systems similar to the perfect systems
that function in a human being. It too works on many principles that are
beyond our control, that work independent of our opinion about them—
work even if we do not understand them. And, most important, they work
best when we do not interfere and simply allow the energy to flow
unimpeded. I like to compare this process to the lettuce (which is nothingmore than energy) making its way throughout your system, dropping off the
precise amount of nutrients where it is supposed to. You, like the lettuce,
perform your functions perfectly. This is the intelligence that is behind all
form. This is the force, or the god, or the spirit, or whatever you choose to
call it, that is a part of all form. Working in harmony without any
interference or attachments. Now for the big leap. A momen t ago you were the system that was using
the lettuce. Now imagine yourse lf as a giant piece of lettuce. Shift outward
and beco me the metaphorical lettuce that is a part of the biggest picture of
all, your place in the universe. You too are a large chunk of energy flowing
perfectly within  a larger system  and within a larger system to infinity. You
too can do exact ly what you are designed for, as long as you do not interfere
with your role within this perfec t system. You do not have to try to do what
you think is your role, you have to be like the lettuce and let everything
work perfectly. You need to understand that every attachment you have to
how things are supposed  to be interferes in some way with your perfect
functioning within the larger system. You need to understand that every
possession that you become attached to has the same effect on this perfectly
functioning energy system, as if the lettuce in your intestines had picked up
some baggage that it had to take along with it on its journey. You know
what would happen to you if that lettuce somehow decided that it had to
have more in order to function properly. It would affect not only the lettuce,
and your stomach, and your respiration, but eventually your existence as
well. Obviously I realize that we are much more complex than a piece of
lettuce. But the analogy serves to remind us that the universal principles
work perfectly without any interference or assistance. When you apply the
principle of detachment to your daily life, you will discover that you are
functioning freely, and flowing with the energy system that is the universe. Even more significantly, you will discover you are allowing the energy of
the entire universe to flow uninterrupted through you. The more that you are able to flow without the attachments, the happier
and more contented you will feel. Moreover, the things that you previously
chased after endlessly, always ending up wanting more anyway, will now
arrive in your life in the precise  amounts necessary to take care of you and
your loved ones. Combine this with the practice of the principle of
abundance, and you will find more and more flowing into your life in analmost effortless fashion. You will eventually keep the energy flowing by
circulating and giving away all that you do not need. Then, miracle of
miracles, the more you give away, the more you have. It is a gloriously perfect system when you allow it to work without any
interference. Our interference is due to some kind of attachm ent that we
have grown to believe we cannot possibly live comfortably without. HOW  I LEARNED TO APPL Y THIS PRINCIPLE
 
In the fourth through the eighth grades I would sit in my seat in school
silently pining for Earlene Rentz, the love of my life. I thought that she was
beautiful, yet I could never seem  to muster the courage to tell her. We lived
in the same neighborhood, and I was friendly with her older brother, so I
would see her quite regularly. She always held a special place in my heart. Recently I received a letter from  her telling me that she had read some of
my books and that she had seen a story about me in the Wayne State
University alumni magazine. On a lark I decided to call her. Earlene and I talked for about forty minutes. I told her of my youthful
love for her, and she replied, “I knew that. ” I couldn’ t believe that she knew
all those  years. During our conversation she said, “Wayne, the thing that
stands out the most about you in my mind is that you were never very
concerned with possessions, and you were the most generous person in our
class. ” I was somewhat surprised that this was Earlene’ s most prominent
memory, and yet when I look back, I believe her assessment was correct. Somehow I knew that being attached to something was the surest way to be
certain that one never appeared to have enough of it. While many of the
other children my age would talk about wanting something, I was generally
quite content with what I had. In fact, I would help my friends figure out
ways to get the things they seemed to want so desperately. When I was a
teenager and a young man, my friends had souped-up drag racers and would
talk endlessly about wanting this or that fancy car, yet I was in love with my
1950 Plymouth with its profusion of rust spots and its deficiencies. It never
seemed to matter. As I look back, I see that I was comfo rtable with
detachment even then. I have very few of the items that seem to decorate the lives of wealthy
people. Fancy clothes play no part in my life, and hoarding a lot of
expensive possessions does not even enter my consciousness. Yet,paradoxically again, I seem to have acquired the ability to have all of the
things anyone could ever desire. It seems the less I concern myself with
acquisitions the more they arrive in my life for me to use and recirculate. There is something very profound in the seeming paradox “More is less. ”
For me, having more means having to insure it, protect it, polish it, worry
about it, try to double it, brag about it, price it, maybe sell it for a profit, and
on and on. Of course, one can appreciate the beauty in any object and truly receive
enjoyment from  it, but that is not attachment. That is simply allowing the
energy of your appreciation and love to flow through the object and back
into you. If you wonder abou t the difference between attachment and
enjoyment, ask yourself how you would react if suddenly an object you
value was gone—stolen, broken, lost, or whatever. Would you be distorted
with anger and worry. Would you become immobilized and unable to
function effectively with yourself and your loved ones. That is attachment. The need that is attached to the object gives it some degree of control or
power over your emotions. I truly know in my heart, as does my wife, that
if any object that we have sudde nly disappeared, I would say something like
“It is now where it is suppose d to be. I hope that whoever is using or
observing it is receiving some kind of joy and happiness. It is just a thing
and I am not attached to it. ”
This is not to suggest indifference to thieves and careless peop le. It is a
suggestion that you not allow your stuff to own you. Be able to detach
yourself and your humanity and life purpose from mere thing s that only
have the value we ascribe to them. If we can ascribe value to a thing simply
by a thought process, then of course we can detach ourselves from that
value-added process equally ef ficiently through a dif ferent process. A perfect example of this presented itself while I was writing this book. After a three-ho ur radio talk show in Miami, I made an impulsive choice
to accep t a long-standing invitation. Marie Provenzano, whose  business is
providing luxury facials, had written me numerous letters describing how
she had benefited from my tapes  and books. Over the years, she had invited
me to her studio for a comp limentary facial treatment as her way of
showing her appreciation. For whatever reason that was operating in the
universe, I decided to stop on my way home from Miami and have my very
first facial. As I settled in for this new expe rience, Marie told me she had had a mild
stroke several years earlier and she felt she had cured herself through
repeatedly listening to my tapes. It felt very good to hear that I had played a
role in helping someone overcome such an affliction. She showed
absolutely no signs of ever having had a stroke. Marie explaine d to me that
prior to the stroke, she had always been concerned with being a “perfect
person. ” She described how she loved to entertain, yet made it a stressful
experience for herself because everything had to be exactly “right. ” She
created evening s which were showcases of expensive gowns and jewelry,
food of the finest gourmet quality, and table decor that displayed the
originality and taste for which  she wanted to be known. She loved the
compliments she received for these perfect evenings. Looking back, she
said she now realizes that much of her life was concerned with meaning
derived from attachments. One of these “perfect” evenings became a
turning point in her life. Instead of lavish compliments, a female guest said, “Marie, aren’ t you
tired of all this show, and having to do everything perfectly. ” Marie told me
that she simply broke down crying. The woman walked with her over to the
couch, put her arm around her, and comforted her for two hours. They
talked about the real Marie, the person behind the baubles and the fancy
dinner tables. They talked about how easy it is to disguise oneself in
external “stuf f” and how lonely it is to end up caressing your jewels, rather
than looking into the eyes and heart of a fellow human being. They talked
about ways to rechannel energy to serve others and to get back  to the real
person inside the cage of posse ssion. It was the beginning of an authentic
friendship. Marie suffered her stroke shortly after that, and her new friend helped her
to transcend it. Together they studied the literature of love and harmony,
and Marie began teaching a course on my materials at a community college
in the area. Today she has forty -five students enrolled in a life-enrichment
class that is growing faster than Marie can believe. She begins her classes
by describing how her attachmen t to things and possessions had blocked her
ability to see the beauty and joy available in human relationships. How an
evening which began as one more “perfectly attached” dinner party
changed her life and led to a discovery of how to live better and even how
to cure herself of the ef fects of a stroke. Marie is one of the happiest and most delightful people I have ever met. She was thrilled to share this transformational story with me, and blurted
out, “I just can’t believe that you are really here in my studio. You, my
guru, the man I’ve listened to for hundreds of hours, actually here with me. ”
I reminded her that she had as much to teach me as I her. I said,
“The guru is you, not me. ” Not only was my face tingling after an hour of
strange and wonderful gels, vapors, massages, and creams, but my heart
was tingling as well. Why am I writin g about Marie and how she came to know the meaning
of detac hment. In part because I believe Marie’ s story could be a catalyst to
help others to recognize the hollowness in attachments. But also because I
believe that I was flowing with an energy that directed me there, on that
day, to hear that story, so that I could share it with you. Attachments do not always take the form of possessions. Attac hment to
things is a common thread that winds its way throughout our materialistic
culture, tying people up in knots because they are focused on ownership. However, there are other signi ficant attachments, such as attachments to
other people’ s opinions and to how we are perceived by others. I feel that my writing is able to flow because I have become unattached
to what  anyone else says or thinks about it. I simply allow  it to flow,
knowing and trusting that it will all be just as it is supposed to be. I am open
to improvement, but I cannot think about that while I am writing. If I do,
my focus shifts to what I should be doing, instead of what I am allowing to
happen. Writing is ener gy, just like all human activity. Ralph Waldo Emerson expresse d it well: “The good writer seems to be
writing about himself, but has his eye on that thread of the universe which
runs through himself, and all things. ” This is what I do even at this very
moment. I write about myself, but I know that I am a part of you as well,
even though we may not have met on the physical plane. These words flow
through me to you. I do not own them, nor do you, and the less attached I
am to the entire process, the easier and more pleasing it is. Do what you do
for yourself, unattached to the outcome in the sense of being emotionally
attached. Or as Carlos Castaneda says:
Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at
him he is just like any ordinary man, except that the folly of his
life is under control…. His controlled folly makes him say thatwhat he does matters and make s him act as if it did, and yet he
knows that it doesn’ t; so when he fulfills his acts he retreats in
peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or
didn’ t, is in no way any part of his concern. This is a tough one for many of us, because we have grown up believing
that what we do really matters. Most of us do not get the folly of our lives
under control. We worry about how it will be perceived. We focus on
external opinions, and consequently cannot simply just be. Castaneda and
others encourage us to cultivate an attitude of allowing the energy to flow
through us without any judgm ent about it, and yet at the same time
participating in it as if it really matters, and then being able to detach and
turn away in peace when it feels finished. If it sounds paradoxical and
inconsistent, it is because it is. Nevertheless, the detachment will help you
to appreciate and enjoy what you have, rather than worry about gathering
more. I experience the same feelings about speaking. I do not use notes when I
go before an audience, and I haven’ t for years. When I gave up my notes
and spok e entirely from my heart, my speaking improved signifi cantly. I am
not attached to having to please an audience, to saying it right, to anything
at all. I generally meditate for a thirty-minute period before speaking, and I
visualize everything going smoothly and my audience and myself enjoying
and appreciating  the entire experience. The absence of attachment allows
me to flow for hours onstage, often in front of several thousand people. While I am in this state of mind onstage, I find myself in an entirely new
sphere of living, a different dimension. Time ceases to exist. My memory
for recall is more phenomenal than at any other time in my life. The words
flow, without even a hitch or a pause, and it all fits together perfectly. When I gave up my attachment to perfection about speaking,
paradoxically, a kind of perfection seemed to enter into my performance
onstage. The internal excitement and nervousness before speaking is my
intense desire to be out there in that magical space where I am doing what I
love and allowing myself to just be, and experiencing the energy flowing
through me unimpeded by any attachments to the outcome. This free-
flowing ener gy is the highest place I know about in the physical plane. In these two areas of my life where I am doing what I love, writing and
speaking, I have come to understand that detachment from the outcome anddetachment from external opinions are the keys to allowing me to flow
freely and perfectly. No trying, no worry, no anxiety about it—I simply
allow myself to be, without interference from my mind about any part of it. I know somewhere deep down inside of me that I am making a difference,
but that it is not necessary for me to do so. I know that even making it
matter is a judgment of sorts, so that in the largest analysis, it really does
not matter, but I behave as if it truly did. Yet when I am finished with my
speech or a book, I never look back. I know that it is over, and that
regardless of anyone’ s opinion about it, it is still done just the way it is. So I
move on to the next challenge, unimpeded by attachment to what I have
already finished. I learn from the previous experience, and go on to the next
project. This new project does not truly matter, but I act as if it did. The
process involve s, as Castaneda said, having the folly of our lives under
control. The way to do that is simply to be, rather than having to be the way
others think we should be. Be detached and enjoy each moment of energy
that flows through you. My wife and children are the dearest people in the world to me, and I
have truly transf ormed my thinking toward them, and have altered many of
the attachments I previously held in my life. This is a major transformation
for me, and one which has brought us a new sense of love and serenity. I love my wife deeply, yet I know that I do not own her in any way. My
inner knowingness recognizes that she is on her own path and that being
married to me is a part of that journey she is on. I am most grateful that we
share a big part of each other ’s life. It has taken me quite some time and
some bitter disappointments in other relationships to enjoy the experience
of loving someone without having to control her in any way. I can allow
this person that I love simply to be, even though that may be diametrically
opposite to what I am, or to what I may prefer her to be. For me, this is the essence of the marriage relationship at a conscious
loving level. The ability to suspend judgment about how we feel our loved
one should be conducting his or her life, and to love that person as is, is a
valuable exercise in detachment. Suspending judgment means honoring her
need and right to be on her path according to her own inner directives
without my uninvited input. Suspending judgment also means honoring my
need and right to feel what I am feeling without judging my feeling as right
or wrong. This is uncondition al love for myself and my loved one. Unconditional love does not demand that one of us be “right” and one of us“wrong. ” When  you are strong ly attached to judging anyone, you are not
defining him or her, you are defining yourself. My wife and I are very different from each other. In many respects I
would describe  us as opposites. Love often seems to work this way,
allowing us to have in our loved one some of the qualities that we have not
elected for ourselves. We do not seem to fall in love with those who have
identical qualities. Perhaps that is because we already live with those ways
of being  in all of our waking moments, and to choose them in another
would make for a redundant relationship. I have stopped judging and
fighting the differences, and instead remind myself to be grateful for the
new flavor that she brings so deliciously into my life every day. We
lovingly and playfully acknow ledge that we do not have to please each
other all the time, nor do we even have to understand each other. This is the
quality that detachment from ownership in a relationship brings. It allows
us to truly appreciate the opposite “strange” qualities in each other. When a
need to convert her appears, I remind myself that I fell in love with this
woman for what she was. As I was falling in love I was not saying, “If only
she had a different point of view I could love her more. ” It was our
unconditional love that made our love flourish and grow. If the need to
change her in some way nags at me, I look inward for what it is saying
about me, I find relief from the need to change her when I discove r what it
is about that trait that I am disowning. On other occasi ons I admit to being
inwardly perplex ed by her view s and actions, but can also shift instantly to
loving her for that, rather than having an internal dialogue which tries to
make her wrong. I have found that by being this way in my marriage, more and more I
automatically behave in this same fashion toward all others. I know from
my own personal experienc e that any attachment to being right
automatically defines me and says absolutely nothing about other people. I
finally realized that other peopl e are going to be exactly the way they are,
independent of my opinion about them. This allows me simply to be in my
relationship toward all others. No judgment, no anger, no hostility—simply
to be. Since I have become less attached to making others wrong and
consequently making myself right, it is much easier to be with people who
view life differently from the way I do. When I do slip into judgment I find
that I am much gentler and easier on myself. I allow myself to have thatburst of inner anger for a fleetin g moment, and, again paradoxically, when I
allow the feeling of anger to be, it usually leaves. If it persists, I
nonjudgmentally consider the issue here. Ironically, I find I have much
greater impact on people who are mistreating another, or behaving in
prejudicial ways, since I am more detached. My detachment from needing
to be right almost catches them  off guard, and instantly they see that I am
not going to get myself all work ed up simply because they decide to act or
think in their own way. The peaceful person, unattached to converting
others or to making them wron g, is far more powerful in helping to bring
about constructive loving behavior than the person who judgmentally and
angrily demands change in others. Recently, at the club where I play tennis, several people were engaged in
an angry  discus sion. They were divided on a racial issue, with one side
criticizing an ethnic group, and the other side criticizing the first side for
their lack of compassion and love. One person stopped and said, “Wayne,
what do you think. I never see you upset about these things. You must have
an opinion. ”
I responded, “I am sitting here sending all of you love. If you could do
that to each other right now, there wouldn’ t even need to be a discussion
about who should love whom. ” They stopped and looked at me as if I were
a bit weird, but they also discontinued judging each other for those few
moments. This approach to loving everyone, even those who seem to be so
different, started in my marriage, and has extended outward. It becomes
easier and easier to be unattache d when you are at peace with yourself. That
kind of inner peace contributes more to the world than being one more
combatant in the endless feuds that arise out of a lack of respect for the
differences in others. I have found it is much easier to be an effective parent since I have truly
understood and adopted the words of Kahlil Gibran in The Pr ophet. Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’ s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. That is a powerful message of detachment for all of us. Nothing drives our
children farther  from us than the attitude that we somehow own them
simply because we are big and they are not. To be able to teach them to be
responsible and yet not be personally attached to that outcom e is a great
lesson. I love my children as much as it is possible to love anyo ne. I would
instantly lay down my life for any one of them. I am sure of this. Yet I am
not attached to their success or lack of it in life. Each of them knows that I
am not going to have a nervous breakdown or ruin any of the present
moments of my life because they fail to do their homework, or come home
late, or do any of the thousands of things that young people do or do not do. I teach them to be responsible both by my actions and my words. I teach
them to value themselves by presenting them with a father who does the
same, and encouraging them as much as possible. But I will not be
emotionally or spiritually attach ed to the decisions that they make as they
proceed along their life paths. They have to live their lives. I cannot do it
for them in any way. They are learning to assume responsibiliti es that quite
often are usurped by parental attachment. When we let our energy flow through our children and do not impede
them by imposing our will on them, they become more respo nsible. And
why not. They have no one to fight. They do not have to be obstinate to
prove that you cannot control them. My detachment does not mean that I am uncaring. I care immensely. In
fact, I care so much that I allow  them to make their own way along their
path, guiding them here and there, helping them to make respon sible loving
choices, catching them doing things right as much as possible,  and always
reminding myself that I do not own them, they own themselves. My personal growth on this road of detachment has led me to a place
where suffering has been eliminated from my life. I have learned in my
relationships to others, to myself, and to the accumulation of stuff that the
less I am attached to needing a certain outcome, the more I enable energy
simply to flow through me and outward wherever it goes. Detachment is a
big facto r in eliminating suffering and in nurturing a sense of inner peace. Having things in life is wonderf ul, but needing them is attachm ent. Having
loving people in life is phenomenal, and it is important to value and
celebrate them every day, but owning or controlling them is attachment. If
you are suffering in your life right now, I can guarantee you that it is tied up
with some kind of attachment to how things should be going. Detachment is the only way out of suffering, as a passage from the
Bhagavad Gita explains:
A person  who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—
that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but
is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who
strives to satisfy such desires. The ocean is always being filled, yet it is always still, with the exception
of a small amount of surface variation. We too can be continu ally open to
new growth and remain still, unless we choose to be disturbed by all of the
things that are perpetually entering our consciousness. The pertu rbations are
caused by our attachment to an idea that somehow, some way, things should
be different than they are. Our suffering, regardless of the form it may take,
is cause d by the mind—by a mind that insists on having prefe rences, and
will not allow others to be just as they are. OUR MOST  COMMON ATTACHMENTS
 
Suffering can take many form s and is always played out in form. Our
attachments to externals are unlimited. Here are seven of the most common
kinds of attachments and the reasons why you may be treading a path of
suffering.
The book is about understanding and applying the principle of detachment in order to achieve abundance and fulfillment in life.
What is the main idea of the book?
The author believes that abundance is not about accumulating material possessions, but rather about aligning with the universe and letting go of attachments to external things.
What is the author's perspective on the concept of abundance?
The author advises that even if you are not willing to change your job or career, you can still focus on what you love about your current situation and find a way to make it joyful.
What is the author's suggestion for those who are not ready to change their jobs or careers?
The author believes that detachment is a key principle for living a life of abundance and fulfillment, as it allows one to flow with the energy of the universe and not be controlled by external factors.
What is the author's view on the concept of detachment?
The author suggests that one should not be attached to external possessions, but rather focus on what they have and find joy in what they do, and that one should not try to control others or their choices, but rather accept and love them for who they are.
What is the author's advice for overcoming attachment to external things?