If you had that experience of having a
winning lottery ticket that ensur ed you got a million dollars a year for the
next 20 years, w hat would it fe el like? Y ou might respond, “I would feelfree and secure. I would abandon all my fears and eliminate all the doubts I
have about my ability to get what I want for myself and my  life. I’d be
happy—ecstatic.”
W ell, it is a myth that you have to win the lottery in order to have those
things you’re describing. Y ou can feel like that anytime, includi ng this very
moment. Being authentically fre e—being unencumbered, secure, and joyful
—can easily be had with heighte ned spiritual awareness. Whate ver it is you
think you need t o be happy , you can have the feeling that goes along with it
at will. That’ s the real beauty . — Y ou stop looking to counterfeit fr eedom. Y ou don’ t try to find the
solution in anything external, such as alcohol or drugs. Y ou know that
whatever it is that you are looking for , you can discover it within. And it is
heaven. I h ad a T -shirt made up one time that said, Y OU’VE TRIED EVER YTHING
ELSE . N OW TR Y  G OD . What I meant was this: you may have tried addiction,
divorce, bankru ptcy , moving, and any number of jobs—it’ s time to try
something else. When y ou try the higher part of yourself, you find that wha tever the
problem is, the solution is to le t go and let God. No matter ho w tough the
problem may be, or if it’ s something silly like how to fix a wat er faucet or
find your keys, the answer is to just let go. Y ou’ll find the keys. The way to
get the drippy faucet fixed wi ll be there. Y ou will  find the solution to
whatever it is that seems to be the problem. — The experience of bliss is very common for you. The thing that you
used to want so desperately—that content, peaceful, loving, joyful, knowing
feeling t hat ever ything is all rig ht and your life is inspired—is  there much
more frequently than it was before. One of the great quotations from A Co urse in Mir acles  is: “If you knew
Who walks beside you on the path that you hav e chosen, fear would b e
impossible.” Th at’ s really what the experience of bliss is. There’ s a loving,
peaceful, deligh tful equanimity with life that comes from telli ng yourself,
“I’m going to allow my higher self to rule.”
— Y ou bec ome le ss judgmental and mor e forgiving. This is a very
important part of this business of heightened spiritual awareness. Y ouunderstand the simple truth that you do not define anybody with your
judgments; you only define you rself. If you judge someone else to be a jerk
or a fool or bad, it doesn’ t make them so. They are what they are,
independent of your judgments  about them. But your judgm ents do say
something about your need to judge. As you become  more for giving, you understand that in order  to really
live the higher spiritual life and gain the authentic freedom that you’re
looking for , you have to let go of all of the anguish, hatred, and bitterness
that you  carry around. This is th e venom from the bites you’ve received in
earlier p arts of your life, and the  venom is what’ s killing you, not the bites. Y ou can’ t be unbitten, but you can certainly remove the venom. Imagine you are holding a cup, which represents the anguish  and the
hatred a nd the bitterness that you feel. Let’ s say you hold the se emotions
toward somebody who abused or abandoned you when you w ere a child. Y ou are told to for give and let it go, and asked to pick up the cup again. Someone then asks you, “What do you do now if you want to let go of all
that stuf f that happened to you in the past?” Y ou say , “I’ll simply let go of
it.” Again, that is what you are told to do. Now , observe what is happening here. In order to let go of the cup, you
first hav e to pick it up. When yo u pick it up, you embrace it and  you own it. The proc ess of picking up the c up, owning it and embracing it, allows you
to then let it  go. If you w alked away without picking it up, you wouldn’ t be
letting i t go; you’d never have owned it in the first place. It wouldn’ t be
anything you had to for give. If you pick it up, you get to the place where
you have what we call the functional adult r esponse  to it. Y ou don’ t have
the wounded child r esponse , which is, “Is n’ t that awful? They never
should’ve done that and I’m still mad.” A functional adult picks it up, deals
with it, and then lets it go rather than going through life being wounded. As y ou become less judgmental,  you genuinely embrace those t hings and
then let them go rather than just trying to walk away from t hem. That’ s
what for giveness is really all about. Those are the most significant qualities or characteristics that you’ll have
when yo u embrace your heightened spiritual awareness, but there are many
more. The main thing you’ll notice, of course, is the joy of authenticfreedom. There is nothing to compare with the feeling of being in tune with
your higher self. CHAPTER 5
DISCOVER THE THREE KEYS
T O HIGHER A W ARENESS
Now I would lik e to explain in detail the keys to higher awarene ss, which
flow from challenging—or even abandoning—the ideas that we’ve been
handed by society . Once we hav e removed some of our early programming
and con ditioning, we can reach this heightened state of spiritual awareness
and feel authentically free. The thre e keys I describe in this  chapter all fit together , with one leading
to the next. I n each section, I’ll also of fer some suggestions for
implementing these keys in your own life. KEY 1: BANISH THE DOUBT
W e’ll begin with what I call “banish the doubt,” and it co mes first
because it is the most dif ficult to do. Over an d over again, the people I have worked with who have  achieved
higher a wareness have told me that it is not the memorization of a whole
series of  techniq ues and strategies that will lead someone to it. R ather , what
is necessary is a be lief that it is possible. The sa ying goes, “As you think, so
shall yo u be.” It’ s not, “As you be, so shall you think,” which is what so
many pe ople do. They allow the circumstances of their lives to determine
what th eir inner world is lik e, so they find themselves angry , hurt,
depressed, sad, or fearful because of external events. As we’ve learned, if what we th ink about is what creates our world, and
what we think about is laced with doubt, then doubt is what w e’ll act on.W e won’ t be abl e to act on anything else. Unfortunately , most of the things
that hav e been handed to us f rom the well-meaning people in our lives
come with doubt attached to them. This is crucial to understand: if what we
think about is that we can’ t do something, or there’ s even the slightest
amount of doubt that it’ s possible for us to do it, then that is what we will
act upon . As Ralph W aldo Emerson noted long ago, “W e know that the
ancestor of every action is a thought,” so if that thought is on e of doubt,
then that’ s what we will act upon. That doubt will keep us from  being able
to create heightened spiritual awareness, or whatever it is that we want to
create for ourselves. Banishment of doubt is critical. If you have a picture in your m ind that you can’ t do something, and if
what yo u think about is what ex pands, then you will act on that feeling of I
can’ t do it. I f you’re focus ed on what you don’ t like or what’ s wrong in a
relationship you have with someone, and then you wonder why your
relationship is a negative one, y ou must change what you’re focusing on. Instead, think about what you love and what is terrific, and watch that
expand. All it takes to ba nish the doubt i s to see the unfolding of God in everyone
and ever ything that you encounter . That’ s all it takes. If you st ruggle with
this notion, tell yourself, I do n’ t have to understand. All I have to do is
imagine that the judgments I have about people ar e r eally doubts. When you banish doubt, you can easily detect the ener gy that is trying to
get you  to go in a dif ferent direction, and you know that no one who
attempts to push you of f course will have any influence over you. Instead of
thinking Why is this person doing that? or Why is this dru g showing up
again in  my life? or Why is this temptation her e? you understand that you
are e ncountering  one of life’ s exams. Y ou decide to react with love, and the
moment you do, you have a new awareness. It can sometimes be challenging to remind yourself that you always know
what to do, und erstanding that, Y es, I am going to act upon this knowing
rather th an upon the doubt that  I’ve had handed to me. Everything that is
physical is finite, whereas every thing that is beyond the physica l is infinite. Thus, kn owings are infinite, and they are transferred to you—even though
you are in a dif ferent form now , you still have the knowin g, which is
eternal. The very basis of what it is that constitutes the ability to banish the
doubt is this: learning how to shift your beliefs into knowings. Now you can
shift from knowing about  your higher self  to knowing  your higher self. Y ouhave a direct relationship with and can access this loving presence that is
always with you. God is as invisible as air . Y ou cannot touch or see Him, yet you know
that He is there because you glimpse His wondrous works and goodness
everywhere. Y ou know  th at He is there . That knowing and faith go hand in
hand. Faith is a knowing, and it isn’ t about what other people h ave handed
you and  told you to worship or  practice. So when you shift to faith rather
than usi ng the context of I h ave to have physical pr oof , you’re literally
shifting away from a belief and into a knowing. Y ou must understand that faith  is a decision you make internally . The
sacred ener gy that flows through everything in the form of Divine
intelligence in the universe will come to be sensed by you as your decision
becomes a knowing. Faith then becomes an ener gy that resides  within you
at all times. Here are a few suggestions for banishing the doubt:
— T ry an af firmation, which is a positive statement that you repeat to
yourself to affirm  and  create wh at you want in your life. I suggest
something like: I rid  myself of my doubts by r e membering that ther e is a
valid r ea son for everything that happens. A simp le af firm ation may be a ll
you need to start ridding yourself of doubt. — Make a decision that you’re going to meet the invisible God within, so
that you  will come to know this  loving presence rather than kn ow about  it. When you shut down your inner  dialogue and go to that quiet, e mpty place
within you, it will be much easier for you to do this. (There will be more
about how to do this later in the book.) Y ou’ve got to learn to create the time and space for being quiet and
listening, while doing nothing else—and you must do so on a d aily basis if
you wan t to banish this doubt. Allow your moment of reflection to be free
from any inner c riticism. Remove all doubt that has been hande d to you by
so many well-meaning peop le. Open yourself up and pause your
skepticism, sayin g to yourself, “I’m going to willingly suspend m y disbelief
here for a few moments.”— Practice dreaming while awa ke. Remind yourself that you do  not have
to go to sleep i n order to drea m, and give yourself some tim e to do so. Dreaming while  awake can ma ke you feel limitless. Y ou did it when you
were a child—you might have been labeled a daydreamer , but that’ s what
you did. Y ou allowed yourself the free-floating excitement of being able to
fly , soar , swim, create, write po etry , or whatever it is that you w anted. Y ou
allowed yourself freedom from limitations, from doubt. There’ s a wonderful couplet fr om one of W illiam Blake’ s po ems that
goes: “If the Sun & Moon should doubt / They’d immediately go out.”
What yo u do when you dream is enter into a state where you leave all your
doubts behind. Y ou have to kno w that it isn’ t a separate being that goes to
sleep at night an d is dreaming; it is you. The same being that comes into
waking consciousness doubting that you can do something goes into
dreaming consciousness knowing that you can. So give yourself regular
opportunities fo r this practice, and you’ll become a power ful waking
dreamer before you know it. Keep in mind th at doubt is not a product of your higher self, and  you can
learn to observe  it rather than choose to own it. Y ou can become the witness
to it, which brings us to the next key . KEY 2: CUL TIVATE THE WITNESS
The seco nd key to higher awareness flows directly from the first. Once
you lear n to banish the doubt, th en you can cultivate the witness. Y ou can’ t
do it before. I love these words from Kahlil Gibran: “For in truth, it is life that gives
unto life—while you, who deem yourself a giver , are but a witness.” The
witness is a com passionate observer , the part of you that is not i n the world
of form but rathe r is watching yo ur form. Learning to cultivate i t means that
you get outside of yourself and  watch what is happening in your life, all
from the perspective of being the observer . If you want to be able to create a life of fulfillment, purpose, and freedom
through your heightened spiritual awareness, you must detach yourself from
the o utcome, as tough as that may seem to be. See yourself as the one who
is watching all this transpire, which means that you become the noticer: Y ounotice your mind and all the th oughts that are in it. Y ou notice the things
that are going on in your life today , as well as past events. Y ou notice
what’ s happenin g in the world. All of this, you see from the perspective of
being the dispassionate witness. Then as you take note of your w orlds, both inner and outer , ask yourself,
Who is this noticer behind tha t which is being noticed? If you do this
several times a day , you’ll see that you are much more than a body and
mind go ing through the programmed motions of your life. Y our realization
of your true self as the witness behind that which is being wi tnessed will
bring yo u to a n ew dimension of peace and creativity . Y ou’ll discover , as
you real ly begin to notice the noticer , that you are so much mor e than your
problems. Y ou are not that which disturbs you. Only your form is suf fering;
you  cannot suf fer . The witness is t hat part of us where we are placing our attentio n. Where
we place our at tention mandate s what we will see manifestin g from the
world o f the formless. That is, when we cultivate the witness, we’ll
understand the mechanics of creation. Quantum physics tells us that there
are p articles so small that no one has ever seen them—the only  reason we
know that they exist is that th ey leave traces in what are called particle
accelerators. When we observe  them, they’re there; when we take our
attention of f them, they disappea r . The very mechanics of creation state that
whatever we keep our attention and focus on will manifest. That wh ich we observe moves from the wave state, which is invisible,
into the particle state, which is the state of the physical wo rld. It’ s all
ener gy . W e used to think that there was the physical world, which was made
up of atoms and electrons and neutrons and protons, and then th ere was the
separate spiritua l world. It took a leap of faith to go from the physical to the
spiritual, because they were seen as two very dif ferent worlds. W e used to think that we had to pray to God, and that was based upon
this whole idea of an external deity only available to certain people at
certain times. Now we discover the truth of what metaphysician s have been
saying for centuries: God is within each of us. Quantum physics has shown
us th at what we think of as “rea lity” is nothing more than ener gy , and that
ener gy is everywhere and in everything, all the time. No m atter where you go, if you  want to learn about spiritual awareness,
you’re g oing to find the great thinkers asking you the same thin g: “Can you
learn to witness your life rather than identify with it?” Believe it or not,that’ s where bliss resides, where  higher awareness resides, where authentic
freedom resides . Y ou will get that freedom when you’ve learned to banish
the doubt and cultivate the witness. W itnessing is a beautiful experience. Y ou’ve learned by now how to
witness your body . Y ou know that you’re not your packaging, yet you still
play gam es with it: you perfume  it, decorate it, insure it, seek s helter for it,
and try to get th ings fixed on it. But you also know that there’ s someone
behind there doing all this. Y ou know that there is some invisible presence
within y ou. Y ou say things like,  “I was just saying to myself.” N ow there’ s
two people there: the I  and the self  who  is the recip ient of whatever it is that
you wer e saying. When you say , “I hurt my arm,” are you the arm? Or are
you that which is experiencing the hurt? If I say , “I’m go ing to wiggle my finger ,” and then I do it, you wouldn’ t
think that’ s a big deal. But what if I asked you where the command center is
that allowed me to wiggle my finger? Y ou’d say , “W ell, if we were to look
at y our brain, we could see the synapses and neurons that al low you to
wiggle your finger .” But you would never find anything like a command
center , with someone who’ s responsible for me wiggling my finger . So you can obse rve your body , but you don’ t sit around and wo rry about
it. Y ou’re not bu sy beating your heart right now , are you? Y ou’re not filling
and deflating your lungs. This is the same attitude you can learn to have
with your mind, as you watch your thoughts come and go. Whe n you grasp
this, you’ll realize that we think we are our thoughts. W e think the
dichotomy is between the body and the mind, but it’ s not; th e mind and
body are  the same. The dichotomy is between the body/mind and the soul:
the spirit, your higher awareness, the witness. Observation has been used ef fectively in the area of pain management,
especially for people who live with chronic pain. Instead of identifying with
the p ain, people are instructed to become the witness to the pai n. They are
asked to notice everything abo ut it: its color , shape, and size; when it
appears or doesn’ t; how it can be relieved. As folks become the  observer to
their pain, they see that where they place their attention is what they
manifest. They find that they can literally manifest an absence of pain by
becoming the witness rather than identifying with the pain. This bri ngs to mind something  that happened years ago, whe n I had a
practice on Long Island. One day , I asked a patient of mine, “Are you
depressed today?”She said, “Y ou know I’m always depressed.”
“W ell, is there any part of you that isn’ t depressed?”
“No, Dr . Dyer , there’ s no part of me that is not depressed.”
“Y ou mean every or gan?”
“Every or gan is depressed,” she said. “Are you depressed when you wake up?”
“I wake up depressed, I go to sl eep depressed, I’m even depressed in my
sleep. Like I said, I’m depressed all the time.”
Then I asked h er the key question: “Have you been notic ing your
depression more lately?”
She replied, “Y es, I have noticed it more, now that you mention it.”
“T ell me, is the noticer depressed? The noticer can’ t  be depressed; it’ s
back there watching it all,” I said. “Go there. That’ s God. When you
become the witness, you know God. Y ou literally can watch your thoughts
and your whole life. That’ s all you have to do. Everything will get handled
because you know you’re not alone. Y ou’ve got to learn that you are not
this thing. Y ou have been watching it.”
It to ok a while, but she was able to use this tool to ease her depression. As time went on, she felt much better . Like my patient, when you learn to
identify with the observer , what you’re really doing is putting your attention
on that which you want to manifest. Here are some suggestions for learning how to cultivate the witness:
— R epeat this af firmation to y ourself on a daily basis: In my world,
nothing ever goes wr ong. T o me, this is o ne of the greates t af firmations I’ve
ever heard. I personally repeat it every day . — Whe n you find yourself troubled by anything, say out loud, “I am
more than what bothers me. I am more than my troubles.” This simple
statement af firming yourself a s something more than a receptacle for
troubles will keep you from allowing those troubles to run rampant in your
life. Y ou’ll come to see that you ’re not those troubles; you’re th at which is
aware of them.— T ry this exercise:
Go to a quiet pl ace and close your eyes. Think of something th at has
been bothering you for a time. S ee it surfacing on the black scr een of
your consciousness. Notice all aspects of the pr oblem—what it looks
like, when it sho ws up, what you feel when it is on your mind, th e pain
and fear that yo u have when it is pr esent, how you have dealt with it
unsuccessfully in  the past. Thin k of everything you can that is r elated
to this pr oblem. Now detach yourself fr om the pr oblem. Just allow it to sit ther e on
the scr een of your mind. Look at it fr om the viewpoint of the
compassionate witness, who nonjudgmentally notices the scr een. W atch it  like a movie, allowing  it to change in whatever way i t does,
observing it while giving it lovi ng permission to do whatever it  wants
to do. Y ou will see it change and fade in and out of awar eness. W ith each change or movement on the scr een, r emain in the car ing-
witness mode of knowing the ener gy will do what it will. This act of
observation wil l often r esult in a feeling of the pr oblem having
dissipated. If that happens, obse rve that fr om the position of the caring
observer as well. I pra cticed this act of observatio n when I had an injury in my foot, near
the big toe, which made it very dif ficult to play tennis. I kept saying, “This
injury is keeping me from doin g what I want to do, and I’m really upset
about it.” When I took the witness stance, I no longer saw myself as having
an injury . I attributed the pain only to my body and not me. I shifted to
speaking as the witness, saying, “This is not me. It is not my pain; it is my
body’ s pain. I am not my body . My body owns that, I don’ t.”
I pla ced my atte ntion on that wh ich I wanted to manifest, the mechanics
of creation, which was having a healthy foot. The next ti me I went to play
tennis, t he injur y that had been  nagging me for several days,  which had
been causing me to limp and do all kinds of silly things, was gone. I can also remember using this witness technique when I was a young
man. W hen I was in high school and college, I worked at a Kroger grocery
store in  Detroit. These huge t rucks would come in, loaded with what
seemed like a thousand heavy boxes. I’d often be the only o ne there tounload the truck, put the boxes on a conveyor belt, and so on. The job was
hot and backbreaking. Then at some p oint, I taught myself to become the witness. I sort of
watched the whole truck and visualized it emptying onto the conveyor belt. Rather than identifying with my body , which had to go through all these
motions, I got myself into the position of watching myself  do it. The
process of observing myself and not identifying with the labor allowed it all
to flow smoothly and quickly , and it didn’ t seem to hurt as much. I created a
dif ferent kind of ener gy , a heightened-awareness kind of ener gy , which gave
me strength and the ability to pass time just by witnessing rather than
identifying with it. When yo u can witness and not identify with all aspects of your life, your
higher awareness will allow things that once seemed very dif ficult to
become almost meaningless to you. — If you find y ourself burdened with deadlines and a lot of th at type A
behavior that so many of us take on in the business world, you can detach
yourself from it. Y ou can become the witness to that as well, watching
yourself go through whatever motions you have to go through, and slow
yourself down. From this noticer perspective, you’ll see how absurd all the
stress th at you’v e always felt aro und deadline time is. That’ s jus t stuf f that’ s
going on in your body; you no longer need to have that stress. The placing
of your attention on the dissipation of the anxiety by witnessing it, and
nothing more, allows it to go away . — Whe n it comes to confrontations with other people, I’d also like for
you to practice being the witn ess. Rise above the temptation to make
someone else wrong, and instea d watch yourself and your opp onent from
the observer perspective. Y ou’ll soon see the folly of engaging in this sort
of anxiety-producing behavior , and you’ll shift to a more spiritual response. There’ s one sentence I’ve learned to keep in mind that I think has brought
me more peace than anything else I can of fer you: When you have the
choice to be ri ght or to be kind, always pick kind. In virt ually every
confrontation th at you ever find  yourself in, whether it’ s with your spouse
or co workers or even with strangers, you always have the choice to be right
or to be kind. W hen you make the choice to be right, what you’re really
doing is deciding to make som eone else wrong, and you’re i mmediatelycreating disharmony . When yo u make the choice to be kind, that’ s your
higher self, the witness, speaking. So rathe r than saying, “Y ou know , that’ s the fourth time this w eek that
you’ve said that. Y ou’re alway s trying to make me wrong—w ho do you
think you are?” you can choose to say , “Y ou know , you make a good point. I’ve nev er consi dered it that wa y .” The witness will have take n over , and
you’ll eliminate all the worry and stress that go with that altercation. So
when yo u have the choice to be right or to be kind, try picking kind. Y ou’ll
be able to watch those conflicts easily and peacefully resolve. — Keep  yourself in tune with your inner world. Notice your thoughts,
and then  become aware of the thinker of the thoughts, the invisible you who
is behind the actual thought. A lot of times we believe we are the thought
instead of the th inker of the tho ught. And the thinker of the thought is like
the noticer; it’ s that which is observing. The mec hanics of creation that w e are learning through quantum physics
says that where we place our att ention causes us to be able to manifest from
the wave state into the particle state. In other words, if w e keep our
attention on what it is we want  to manifest, we will shift it fr om a wave
state—that is, from a thought sta te—into a particle state, or form. It’ s a very
intriguing kind of notion, this whole quantum-physics thing, especially
when y ou reali ze how easily you can apply it in your own life. Just
remember that you are that which is observing rather than that which is
being observed. — T ake time t o appreciate the beauty in your life. T ake time to be
contemplative. T ake time to see that this is a magnificent universe. There is
an i ntelligence to this whole th ing, and everything you come across has
something that you can apprecia te in it. Rather than filling your inner world
with criticism, skepticism, dou bt, anguish, or pain, understand that you
always h ave a choice. All your thoughts are things that you co ntrol. Once
you take  to heart the idea that w hat you think about is what expands, you
can put your attention and ener gy on that which you appreciate rather than
that whi ch you think is not wor king well for you. Then you will see these
heightened-awareness things manifesting for yourself. It all starts with
going within.KEY 3: SHUT DOWN THE INNER DIALOGUE
The thir d key to higher awaren ess is “shut down the inner dialogue.”
Again, t his flows from a pattern : First you learn to banish the d oubt. Then,
as the doubt beg ins to dissipate, you have the opportu nity to cultivate the
witness, which can only be there with an absence of doubt. As you get good
at cultivating the witness, you f ind that the best way to be the witness is in
silence. Silence is what you have to learn as you shut dow n the inner
dialogue. The inne r dialog ue is nothing m ore than your inventory of beliefs, which
have bee n hand ed to you from well-meaning people all your l ife, and are
loaded with doubt. It is a const ant reiteration of all these thing s that have
been han ded to you that keep you from reaching a sense of purp ose or from
knowing your higher self. It is your ego at work. W e’ll discuss the ego at
length in the ne xt chapter , but for now , understand that in order to get to a
higher p lace, you need to come to know God, or this loving pres ence that is
with you at all times. Y ou cannot do it when you are constantly at the beck
and call of your inner dialogue. Again, you just observe the thoughts; you don’ t judge them. This
becomes easier to do when y ou learn to become the witness, because
nothing can get to you. I’m telling you, I know . Once you get to that silent,
empty , invisible place, you’ll know what they mean when they say it’ s the
space be tween the bars that ho lds the tiger . It’ s the silence between the
notes tha t makes  the music. Y ou need silence, so give yourself a s much of it
as you can. In the T ao T e Ching, Lao-tzu says:
Become totally empty . Let your heart be at peace. Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings,
observe how endings become beginnings. Things flourish, each by each,
only to r eturn to the Sour ce . . . to what is and what is to be. T o r eturn to the r oot is to find peace. T o find peace is to fulfill one’ s destiny .There ar e an awful lot of profo und thoughts about the inner di alogue in
this 16th  verse of the T ao, but t he main takeaway for our purp oses is how
important it is to learn how to shift away from that constant chatter . T ry thin king of the mind as a pond with dif ferent levels. The surface,
which is a small percentage of the pond, is where all the distu rbances are,
and the mind is very much like that as well. On the pond, the tu rbulence of
the w aves, the le aves, the dirt, t he wind, the constant freezing a nd thawing,
the rain hitting it, the snow pelting it, and so on are all disturbances. In the
mind, it’ s this constant chatter , this constant rumination. If you drop a pebble through the pond of the mind, and it goes down a
little bit below the surface, you’ll find what we call “analysis.” This picking
things a part is essentially intellectual violence. The mind just below the
surface i s constantly doing this: Why did he do that? Why did she do that? Why is this working that way? As you learn to be contemplativ e, you go a little deeper in the mind. The
pebble d rops be low the level o f analysis to what we call “synthesis.” In
synthesis, things  are held togeth er rather than torn apart. The mind sees the
connection between things, a nd the illusion of your separateness is
shattered. Y ou see how everything is connected. As the pebble drops a little farth er , it goes to the place where all  thoughts
are remo ved, w hat we call “em ptying the mind.” Y ou get very  quiet. Y ou
get into “the gap,” that space between your thoughts. Ultimately , the pebble comes to  rest in the Divine and perfect p lace that
has man y names , where God re sides. Here is that Divineness th at is within
you. As it says in the Bible, “W ith God, all things are possible ” (Matthew
19:26). Now , you tell me what t hat leaves out? It leaves out nothing. God’ s
one and only voice is silence, so  the greatest tribute you can give yourself is
the space to hear it. When y ou allow yourself to shut down your inner dialogue through the
process of cultivating the witne ss and banishing doubt, you a bandon the
belief systems you’ve been taug ht by well-meaning people. It is here that
your beliefs start to shift to knowings. Y ou banish all doubt about your
higher self and come to know . That’ s the third key to higher aw areness. It is about learning how to put
more silence, space, and contem plation into your life, accepting less of the
inner tumult that removes the peace and the harmony from it.Here are a few suggestions for shutting down your inner dialogue:
— I  recommend this af firmation , which I use quite frequently: The mor e
I listen, the mor e pr ofound the silence becomes. — T ry the following exercise, which uses the metaphor of the pebble
dropping throug h the various lev els of your mind. Note that you’ll be doing
it fr om the perspective of the witness, so you may want to reread that
section b efore do ing this visualization. Y ou need to be able to ob serve while
it’ s happening. V isualize your mind as a pond, and see the disturbances at the surface,
the chat ter . Then see the analy sis. See the pebble dr opping to wher e
you synthesize, and see the thoughts beginning to quiet. W itness the
emptying of the mind. Finally , witness the pebble coming to this
perfect, Divine field of all possibilities. When you get to that fi eld, all
you know  is bliss. Y ou will bring  back fr om that experience solut ions to
the t hings that a r e so tr oubling to you. The solutions become ve ry r eal
because they ar e  wher e the pr oblems ar e. Y ou d o not look for the
solution outside  anymor e. Y ou ar e now facing a differ ent way , inwar d,
wher e you can dir ectly tune in to the wisdom of your higher self. — Whe n you notice your mind becoming overly crowded with  thoughts
or g oing through inner turmoil, practice not focusing on anythin g for a few
moments. Bring some stillness into the inner chatter . T ell yourself, My mind
is full of the dist urbance of chatter and thoughts. I’m going to try to spend
five minutes without any thoughts bombar ding it. It’ s a lmost like y ou put a bubble  around your mind. When a thought tries
to pe netrate that bubble, which is really the doing of the ego, it says, Think
me. Then another one comes in and says, No, think me! I’m r eally
important. S o you give in . And your firs t thought is, This is r eally silly . Then an other thought comes in: Y ou’ve got work to do. Another one says,
Y ou’ve got to get some gr oceries  on the way home. Another one says, Y eah,
and you ’ve got to pay your bills . Eac h on e of them says, Think me. It’ s the
ego trying to convince you that this is what you have to do.So put a bubble around all that and let them bounce of f. Use your breath
as a means to keep your mind from chattering away ceaselessly . Y our breath
and you r thinking go hand in hand. T ake deep, long breaths in; and deep,
long bre aths ou t. As you conce ntrate on this, you’ll find a peace coming
over you. Y ou could also use your heart beat like this, as a focal point for the
witness. Or when you find your thoughts right below the surface in the
analyzing level,  think of a rose. As you replace the analyzing with the
beauty of a rose , think about w hat Rabindranath T agore, the great Indian
poet, sai d: “Do we not carry a rose to our beloved because in it is already
embodied a message, which unlike our language of words, cannot be
analyzed.” It just is. It needs no analyzing. Neither do you, and neither does
your life. — Ano ther suggestion is that when you’re at the synthesizing level,
when yo u’re fee ling the beauty and unity of life, you may d iscover that
you’re entertain ing thoughts of pleasure about enjoying the spiritual space. Let go of those thoughts too. Y ou want to shut down all  of this  inner
dialogue that muddies the way to  the field of possibility . See, the ego enjoys
convincing you that you’re better than others because you’re more spiritual. That’ s one of the big traps. As you feel yourself becoming more spiritual, as you feel yourself
becoming more awake, as you experience the authentic freedo m of higher
awareness, you might get the notion of I truly am a littl e bit mor e spiritual
than the other p eople I’m ar ound , or My partner doesn’ t r eally know  what
path I’m on , or the like. Th at’ s the ego trap ping you into thinking that you
are better or more special. Y ou are not. Everyone is on their own place on
life’ s path, and none of us are more special or better in the eyes of God. W e
are a ll e xtensions of that Divine, loving presence. W e are not “b etter than.”
As you synthesize and see how all things are connected, don’ t let the ego
convince you that this somehow makes you superior . It’ s a trap that the ego
loves to get you in. — I n an y moment of stress, go w ithin and allow the pebble to drop, even
if it’ s only for a few seconds. Y ou can do this any time, any place. Y ou can
even do it in the  middle of a busy meeting: Excuse yourself for  a moment,
go outsi de, and get quiet. See the pebble drop down, and let th e calmnessand sere nity of your higher self take over . When you come back from that,
you’ll find yourself returning to the meeting with a clarity that you didn’ t
have before, because you’ve allo wed your higher self to run your life in that
moment rather than your ego. Y ou’re going to sever the conne ction between thoughts and outcomes by
quieting the mind, and that stilln ess will bring you great joy . When the ego
is sil ent, everything in the catalog of your personality that is asso ciated with
selfish d esire begins to disappear . Things like loneliness, despair , illness,
anger , fe ar , and worry are all part of that catalog of your persona lity and can
be very loud—e xcept when you get quiet and listen to your in ner , higher
voice. — Finally , I rec ommend that you sign up for a martial arts class of some
kind, so mething that teaches you about the ener gy of quieting  down and
allowing your body to function in its perfect, Divine order . It’ s vitally important that you sever the connection between negative
outcomes and the way you’re thinking, and the three keys detailed here will
indeed h elp you  do that. There is a fourth key , however , which we’ll take a
close look at in  the next chap ter . T aken together , these keys to higher
awareness will give you a power and freedom you never could have
imagined. CHAPTER 6
T AME THE EGO (THE FOURTH
KEY)
The fourth key to higher awareness is so important that it requires its own
chapter . It is “tame the ego,” and it flows directly from the first three keys. After you banish the doubt, you learn to have a knowing rather than a belief
about th ings. Th en you are abl e to attain the perspective of the witness,
noticing what’ s happening in a dispassionate way . In the proces s, you learn
that cultivating the witness is best done in silence. The ego works really hard at k eeping you from that Divine p lace of a
quiet mind, making you believ e that there is nothing of value to you in
silence. More than anything else, the ego is into self-preserva tion, and it
will say things t o you like, “I can’ t believe you’re now allowing  yourself to
fall for all of this nonsense.” “All of this nonsense” simply refers to your
understanding that it is time to listen to your higher awareness. As you
remove the doubt, cultivate the witness, and shut down the inner dialogue,
you are preventing the ego from  interfering in the daily decision-making of
your life. In this chapter , we’ll learn some more about the ego, so we can clearly
understand that which we need to tame. SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EGO
I h ave identified seven specific  characteristics of the ego, wh ich I will
touch on briefly here and expand on later in the book:1. T he e go is your false self. It is your idea of yourself , and  the refore n ot
your true self. Y our ego is not real; it is an illusion. It is something that you
have come to believe in. Y our ego tries to convince you that you’re something you’re not. It wants
you to believe t hat you are this body , so you have to make it better than
other people’ s bodies, and you have to have more wealth and so on. This is
false because your real self—which is eternal, changeless, and formless—
doesn’ t care about any of those things. 2. It teaches separateness ; that is, separate from God and from other
people. Y our ego says that you are distinct in all the world, and that
uniqueness and separateness m ust be nurtured and protected a t all times. Y ou’re constantly comparing yo urself to other people or defending yourself
from them. Y our real self, however , knows that we are all one. 3. It  con vinces you of your sp ecialness. T he ego says you are not only
separate from others, you are special too—you are better than others
because of who you are and your background. Y ou have to get rid of that
idea because if you are special, it means that others aren’ t. W e are all
special in the e yes of God, so then why do we even need a term like
special? It’ s just another fabrication of the ego. 4. I t’ s always r eady to be o ffended. Th e ego conv inces you that
anything that isn’ t the way you t hink it ought to be is a reason for you to be
of fended. It reinforces the belief that you are better than those people who
are d oing the of fending and that  God is doing work that you hav e to correct
somehow . When  you’re of fended, you get angry , and you fight and protect
your specialness and separateness. Y ou have to learn to treat others the same way you would treat a jaguar
who was trying to eat you. Y ou wouldn’ t be of fended by it. Y ou  would say ,
“I’d like to get out of its way , but I’m not of fended by what it is.” That’ s
how you have to learn to be with everyone and everything in the world. 5. It  is cowardly . I love this quote from Dr . Kenneth W apnick, who was
a wonderful teacher of A Course in Miracles :
The ego is nothing more than a belief, and it is a belief in the reality of
separation. The ego is the false self that seemingly came into beingwhen w e separated ourselves from God. Therefore, as long as we
believe that the separation is real, the ego is in business. On ce we
believe that there’ s no separation, then the ego is finished. And
cowardliness is a characteristic of the ego because the ego will do
everything in its power to keep you believing in your separation from
everyone else. The ego  operate s on fear and cowardice. It’ s terrified of your getting to
know the higher part of yourse lf, and it will do everything that it can to
keep you from facing directly inward and tuning in to that power within. The ego  is afraid of the celestial light that is within you, that inner knowing
of bliss and peace, because your  adherence to it will mean that the ego is no
longer necessary in your life. The cow ardice o f the ego is transformed by your inner light in the same
way tha t a fear of the dark is transformed by turning on an outer light. Put
another way , cowardly behavior is simply a symptom of great fear , and the
antidote to fear is courage. 6. It thrives on consumption. The false self continually bombards you
with the idea th at you must hav e more in order to be happy . It pushes you
toward compar ing yourself to other people, to looking at all your
acquisitions and  saying, “I am better than others and more special because I
have a newer car , a bigger house, nicer clothes, and a more attractive
partner .” It is always pushing you in the direction of consuming so that you
can rein force your separaten ess. As we’ve learned, such ideas are
counterfeit, as authentic freedom never requires more. 7. And finally , the ego is insane. O ne of the def initions of insanity  is
“when s omeone believes themse lves to be something they’re not.” W ell, the
ego alw ays wants you to beli eve that you are this false self, which is
separate and distinct in all ways, rather than something that is c onnected to
and a part of a Divinity that it fears more than anything. THERE IS NO SEP ARATIONDespite what your ego insists, you are not separate from anyone. Y ou do
not have to be better than anyone, nor are you more special t han anyone
else in the world . Y ou are that which is eternal and changeless . When you
know th at you are of spirit, tha t God is within you, you no lon ger have to
prove y ourself as someone who’ s better than others or gets of fended by
their actions. I’m not saying you’ll need to conquer  t he ego . There’ s no fighting he re;
this is not a war . Rather , you hav e to tame  it by understanding what you are
not. Y ou  are not your body , you are not your name, you are not your
occupation, you are not any of those things that you have come  to identify
as w ho y ou are. Y ou are in fact an eternal soul, a piece of Divi ne wisdom. When you come to know and believe in your true self rather than the idea of
yourself, you learn to trust in the very wisdom that created you. When you attain heightened spiritual awareness, what it does more than
anything else is shatter the illusion of your separateness. As you see the
horrible things that happen to p eople—all the struggles, all the poverty , all
the hung er , all the things that I’ ve spent much of my adult life working to
eradicate—you understand that not only is our joy Divine and universal, but
so too is our suf fering. Everything that happens to one of us in life happens
to all of us. Therefore, it’ s critically important to release any sense of “us versus
them.” Y ou can start by letting go of your ego’ s needs to be separate from
others. Begin to view yourself a s a member of the human family . The hand
that gives gathers, so share with your neighbors and even strangers as if
they were part of your own family—because they are. Every ti me I travel to another c ountry and go through customs, I think
about ho w silly all this is. Some body decided that this border b elongs here
and that border belongs there, and now here we are, hundreds or even
thousands of years later , having  to obtain passports and fill out forms in
order to pass from one piece of land to another . Someone centuries ago
decided it needed to be this wa y , and we’ve hung on to that mind-set. Of
course we need to follow external laws and regulations, but internally we
must know that we’re all connected. W e are all the same when it comes
down to it, all part of one tribe called humanity . Another way that you can c ontinue to release this us-versus-them
thinking is to no te how many tim es you use the pronoun I  in an hour . When
you stop  focusin g on yourself as  distinct from other people, you  have moreener gy to extend your awarene ss to everyone. When you see yourself in
terms of we , as part of the whole, then you open up space within y ou for the
loving ener gy that’ s going to create the freedom of heightened awareness. Because we are thought, and the  universe is thought, the fastest vibration
we have to either destroy or create is in our mind. Our mind is part of the
universal mind, so creating unity and oneness is not actually dif ficult for us. But the ego tries very hard to keep us from realizing that power . Y our eg o likes to keep you dist racted from the messages of yo ur higher
consciousness, which af firm you r ability to ef fect deep and lasting change. It keeps you absorbed in trivial m atters, like the cof fee you must  have in the
morning before you can function, the sweets that you need to munch on
before you go to bed at night, o r any number of daily diversio ns that you
put s o much ener gy into. Insigni ficant concerns, such as whether this report
is filled out correctly , that deadline is being met, those people are following
instructions, and so on, end up taking a great deal of your time. Once yo u can let all this go, yo u can focus on the messages from your
higher s elf. Y ou’ll discover that there is a profound, significant, and
powerful drive that is at the cor e of your being. Y ou have a de ep need for
your purpose, the reason you w ere put on this planet in the firs t place. Y ou
also know that purpose conc erns unity; it has nothing to do with
separateness or other shallow pursuits of the ego. YOUR REAL SELF
Y our ego tells y ou that you hav e to compete and consume. In order to
prove yourself, you must have more toys. Y ou need to accumulate more. Y ou must achieve more. Y our eg o tells you that how good your body looks
and how you sm ell and how mu ch jewelry you have is important. There is a
whole world of egos dealing  with egos out there, everyb ody telling
everybody how important they are. But you don’ t ha ve to give in to that! Y ou don ’ t have to say , “Y es, bu t you should have heard what I  did! Let me
tell you.”
Know th at this self-importance has nothing to do with self-esteem. Self-
esteem is a given. Y ou don’ t have to question your esteem, your  value, your
confidence in who you are. Y ou are a creation of God; you are Divine. It’ sjust that God doesn’ t play favorites or make mistakes or think that anyone is
special. The less self-absorbed you are, t he more freedom you have. When you’re
so h ung up on everything having  to be a certain way , your freed om is taken
away fro m you. The ego promotes that sort of attachment, while the higher
self is unattached to it. It can be helpful to think of the ego like a shadow: When you go out into
the light , you cast a shadow . T he shadow , like your ego, is not real. Y ou
can’ t get hold of it. It’ s an illusion. Y our higher self, of course, is what is
real. It’ s  wonderful to know you r real self because then you don’ t live with
the illusory shadow , which is always changing. Similarly , you look at this packaging you’re in, and every gray hair and
wrinkle that appears is like a little notification that reminds you of your
death. The ego wants you to believe that your body is where you should
attach your primary identificatio n. For the ego, the most embarrassing event
in the world is death. But you know you are not this body; you are that
which is observing it. Y our real self is eternal and changeless. Another great way of saying this is from the Bhagavad Gita: “ Y ou were
never bo rn; how  can you die? Y ou have never suf fered chang e; how can
you be changed? Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial. Y ou do not die
when th e body dies.” What a freeing notion it is when you ident ify with the
part of you that is changeless an d eternal rather than the body identification
that the ego promotes so strongly . I want to reinforce this point: the higher self is the real self; the ego is the
shadow . That which is never changing, that which was neve r born, that
which is eternal is the part of you that is actually processing thi s right now . It is so important that you remember this. The more I get  into this area of higher consciousness and heightened
spiritual awaren ess, the more flabber gasted I become. It’ s just blowing me
away . K nowing the real self, the  God within, means that you’re never alone. Everything you ever need is right there for you in abundance—and it keeps
showing up. I lik e to test it now . It’ s like, “All right, God. If Y ou’re really there, try
this one on.” I’l l be in the process of writing something that is  very muchaligned with purpose, not being attached to whether people are going to like
it, or my publisher is going to b e happy with it, or it’ s going to be on the
bestseller list, or I’m going to make money . . . all those things have left my
life. Now adays, I am focused o n writing from my heart. I ask myself this
question over and over again: How may I get out of my own ego? How may
I serve? The answers unfailingly come to me. When I write a book, I think about it for about a year , tossing the ideas
around i n my mind. When I’m  ready to write, I leave my of f ice and my
home, but I stay close by . I’ll get a lar ge room and fill it with books: books
that people have sent me, some I’ve been reading, a few I’ve heard about,
those that publishers sent me for review , and all that. This process has
emphasized for me that there are no accidents. Even if I think a book has
nothing to do with me, it has part of consciousness in it. I can open up any
book and find ex actly what I’ve been looking for right there. So I surround
myself w ith all sorts of things, and then I’ll stop in the middle of writing
and walk over a nd pick something up at random. I can trust that whatever I
need will be right there for me. If you can also get to the point where whatever shows up in you r life can
be p rocessed by the higher part  of yourself, then you will no l onger be at
the mercy of yo ur ego—you’ll be listening to your real self. In this place,
amazing things will happen. When you let go and trust, miracles manifest. CHAPTER 7
KNOW THA T WE’RE ALL ONE
Let’ s talk about cells for a moment. When there is harmony within one
cell, the one next to it cooperates with that cell. It doesn’ t try to hurt it or
destroy it; it is at peace. In this way , harmony and cooperation are the
essence of life. When there is n o ease or serenity or peace within a cell—
when th ere is dis-ease , or dise ase—it gets aggressive and tries to harm the
cell next to it. That diseased cell has no reference to the wh ole. And if
something has no r efer ence  to the whole, it also has no r egar d  for the
whole. For inst ance, we have many l ife-forms that make their home on and
within us that m ight appear ugly if we looked at them under a microscope,
but they have a reference to the whole. Be it the bugs in the lining of the
stomach and in t he intestine, in the toenails, or inside the nose, t hey all have
a reference to the whole and work in conjunction or harmony . In fact, while e ach of us thinks  of ourselves as a singular unit, we are
made up of a lot of life, a lot of dif ferent bacteria and so on that work
together on and within us. W e walk around all day long and th ink, I’m an
individual; I’m an island. Y et without tho se millions of microscopic life-
forms working together , we couldn’ t make it! If something were to come
along inside our or ganisms that no longer had a reference to the whole,
we’d be  elimina ted along with it . Disharmony , then, would be th e thing that
destroyed us. Cancer can grow and influence other cells to become diseased when we
don’ t have harmony within; con sequently , it can destroy itself and the entire
body alo ng the way . A cancer in society operates in the same fa shion. That
is, when one ind ividual—one “c ell” who doesn’ t have ease with in itself and
has no reference to the whole of society—doesn’ t see itself as part of us, itcan influ ence all those around it until it reaches a state where  it destroys
itself. So the answer to a cancer , whether it’ s in a cell or in society , is to get
harmony within. If you have ha rmony within you, then you wi ll cooperate
with the  cell next to you, just like the cell in your body does—it’ s the same
thing. In both cases, it is the answer to peace and to health. This is all a mini-lesson in metaphysical philosophy . It’ s all relative—
that’ s what Einstein taught us . And Nietzsche said, “All th ings being
relative, what time does Munich stop at this train?” That’ ll give you
something to think about. But it is  all relat ive. Is a cell in the body smaller or bigger than the cell
that is you, this  totality that is  you? In an endless universe, a cell being
bigger or smaller than you are is  simply a question of context. Every part of
it is as necessary and important as any other . T o think of it another way , the bug that is down in my toenail, which
seems so distant from me, is still a part of me. W e are all one. As we
discussed in the last chapter ,  oneness and universalness is not mere
speculation—we connect to it all. If all of us have harmony wi thin us, and
we’re flowing with the universe, it can be the most powerful thing in the
world. EVER YONE IS CONNECTED AND NECESSAR Y
One day  when I was running, I was thinking about how we’re a ll one yet
we’re so stuck on our separateness. There was another runner about 30
yards ahead of me, and as I watched him, I thought , How could it be that I
am one with that person? I do n’ t know his name. I don’ t know anything
about him at all. How could ther e be any connection between us ? Suddenly ,
I h ad a really s tunning realizat ion that even though there was  a distance
between this runner and me, we  were absolutely connected. I w as reminded
that all of us are, but we tend to look at things from a v ery limited
perspective. Again, the ego loves to convince us of our separateness. Here’ s something to try the ne xt time you pull into a gas station and
somebody is ahead of you, block ing the lane or parked in a plac e where you
think yo u shoul d be. Instead o f getting upset, see them as being exactlywhere they need to be. Don’ t get angry; treat them with acceptance. Remember to always have an open heart. See your connection to this person
instead of their separateness from you; treat them as if they were part of
you, because they are! T ry to find o ther opportunities to practice this thought exercise,
remembering tha t everybody out there is somehow , in some way , connected
to you. Stop be ing antagonisti c toward others. Think about how things
would go if you got antagonistic toward the microbes that live inside your
lar ge intestine, telling them, “I’ m going to do everything I can to get you
guys out  of there.” That would kill you! Y ou literally need that life. This is
equally true, at a dif ferent level, for all of humanity . So start seeing
everybody as part of you, necessary for your existence. Before long, you’ll
be feeling a strong sense of connection, just as I did with my fellow runner . Y ou’ll u nderstand all this when you leave this form that you’re so
attached to and go into anothe r dimension—you’ll clearly see that all of
humanity is one. Imagine that you could see all of humanity rep resented as
a jigsaw  puzzle, but with a piece missing. Of course your eye would go
right to what’ s l acking, noting that the puzzle cannot be complete without
that piec e. W ell, you are one of the pieces of this puzzle calle d humanity ,
and if you are missing from it o r not in harmony , then you make the whole
incomplete. That’ s exactly how  important you are as a person: you make
humanity complete. Science is proving what metaphysics has been saying for centuries. When
you study life at the tiniest subatomic level, all the particles seem to be
interconnected i n some mysterious way . They’re all sort of co ntrolled by
some force outside, some my stical thing, and they’re all o n purpose. There’ s nothing random about any of it. There’ s no happenst ance in the
universe. I fin d th is conce pt so intriguing. If every subatomic particle is on  purpose
and we’ re mad e out of those, then why wouldn’ t this apply to us? I
remember being  in New Y ork City one day around 5:00 P .M. and seeing
countless people come out from underneath the ground. It looked like an
anthill. T hey had all just come of f the subway and were all going  someplace
at the same time. I look back no w and think they were all on purpose, like
those subatomic particles. Things l ike this appear random to us because our vision is so narrow; we
tend to view everything from the limited perspective of our form. When youknow th at every thing is on purp ose, it stops you. Y ou see everyone doing
exactly what they’re supposed  to be doing. They’re right where they
belong, and you feel a blessed wave of acceptance wash over you. ONLY LOVE T O GIVE
I almost always turn the things that used to upset me into love situations
these days. For example, I came back to my car one day and f ound that a
parking attenda nt was writing me a ticket for being approx imately 30
seconds over the allotted time. My reaction to that 10 years ag o would’ve
been one of anger: “How dare you? !” I have since developed a kind of
internal shield against the way o thers behave; it is on them, not me. I don’ t
let other  people ’ s behavior own me any longer , since it’ s not me they’re
talking to but my role of rent-a-W ayne-Dyer . This tim e, I walked over and st arted talking to the attendant. I  engaged
her in general, re latable chatter— for example, “Do you have any children?”
and all that. She was halfway through the ticket, determined that she was
going to keep writing it. I said, “If you have to write the ticket, it’ s all right. I don’ t have any  problem with you doing your job. Y ou’re a ve ry pleasant,
nice person.” W ith that, she tore up the ticket. Now , whether she would or
wouldn’ t have given me a ticket would’ve been okay . My choice was to
give love without being attached to any outcome. Similarly , I often talk to people in service professions—particularly
waitstaf f, flight attendants, cab drivers, and the like—and I’ve found that
the highest-functioning people in those professions are those who
understand this concept: People ar e not talking to me. They’r e talking to
this r ole. So they’r e tr eating the  r ole of server this way , and it has nothing
to do with me. The way you get harmony within you is through your thinking. So if
someone sends you hate, but y ou have only love inside, then love is all
you’ll have to g ive away . Furthermore, your giving will help  dif fuse the
hate. It’ s  really hard to hate somebody who sends you back love. It’ s hard to
fight with som ebody who doesn’ t want to fight. I don’ t know if you’v e ever
tried to ar gue wi th somebody who refuses to ar gue with you, wh o’ s just not
interested, who isn’ t going to pl ay your game. Y ou have to learn how to dothat with  children all the time, because they’re constantly tryin g to corner
you or get you trapped into their illogic. And once you buy into it, you’re
completely sucked in. So my server friends act at the highest levels toward others. That is, when
they’re sent anguish, hatred, and bitterness, they send back love because
that’ s al l they have inside to sen d away . They do the same thing with their
bosses. They have gotten to the  point where they understand, These people
ar e difficult, behaving in foolish and obnoxious ways, but that has nothing
to do with me. That’ s not mine in any way . I am going to send them back
love. As you become totally awake, w ith your heightened spiritual awareness,
you find yourself less and less consumed with how other people treat you. If it gets  too bad or dif ficult for  you, you move on without bitterness. Y ou
don’ t say , “He shouldn’ t be acting this way ,” or She’ s no good,” or
whatever . Y ou just move away , e ven if you can only do it in your mind. The
way that you process all this is really the key . Y ou can take almost the worst of situations, and if all you hav e to give
away is harmony because that’ s  all that you are, you can turn the situation
into something positive very qu ickly . Especially if you’re focused on the
big p icture, not attached to bein g upset or angry at the way that  this person
is treatin g you. Y ou understand, This is not r eally me that they’r e tr eating
this way . Because the r eal me, the very essence of who I am, is not this body
that they ’r e talk ing to. It’ s how I choose to think. It’ s my thoughts, and they
can never have that. What also happens is you beg in to avoid conflict and conf rontation
altogether . Y ou may have been taught that you hav e to prove that you can
“deal wi th” thos e who challenge you. W ell, the more awake and aware you
get, the more yo u realize that conflict is a violation of harmony . Y ou realize
that if you participate in it, you become part of the problem rath er than part
of the solution. It gets easier to avoid conflict and confrontation when you
don’ t have to be  right anymore, when you see other people for where they
are on life’ s path and you let them be there. If they want to be upset because
they’re s tuck in traf fic or their r emote control isn’ t working right now , then
that’ s absolutely fine. I do  this with my children all the  time. They get an emotional attachment
to wheth er this person calls, or whether they have to do the di shes, or any
number of things; I don’ t even talk about it anymore. They know  what theirresponsibilities are. I think, I’m not going to  join you. I’m simply not going
to get seduced into having this kind of discussion , and I move away from it. At f irst, it’ s like you’re acting—there is an aspect of “fake i t till you
make it.” But af ter a while, it becomes second nature. Discord isn’ t in your
life any longer; you don’ t even notice it. Y ou don’ t have to be a wimp or be
pushed around. Y ou don’ t need to have anybody victimizing you at all. Y ou
just refu se to participate in anything that’ s going to drag you down. Y ou
know yo u don’ t have to engag e in order to prove that you’re better than
somebody else. That wouldn’ t make you right, and it wouldn’ t  make them
wrong. When you understand where other people are, you don’ t need to be
drawn into conflict at all. Y ou can simply move on. If enough human beings shied away from disharmony—if we agreed that
it wasn’ t going to be a part of our lives anymore—imagine how much war
and conflict we could eliminate. LET GO OF JUDGMENT
Each and every one of us is part of the perfection of the univers e. W e are
all o n the same path, but each of us is on dif ferent places alon g that path. Once you understand this, it makes harmony that much easier . I heard an interview recently in which the hosts were putting down rock
music as being u ncivilized or barbaric. The fellow being intervi ewed was a
classical musici an who said, “W hen I was much younger , I loved rock. I
would play that stuf f real loud, and it would drive my family cr azy .
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Power_of_Awakening_-_Dr_Wayne_W_Dyer.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        If you had that experience of having a
winning lottery ticket that ensur ed you got a million dollars a year for the
next 20 years, w hat would it fe el like. Y ou might respond, “I would feelfree and secure. I would abandon all my fears and eliminate all the doubts I
have about my ability to get what I want for myself and my  life. I’d be
happy—ecstatic. ”
W ell, it is a myth that you have to win the lottery in order to have those
things you’re describing. Y ou can feel like that anytime, includi ng this very
moment. Being authentically fre e—being unencumbered, secure, and joyful
—can easily be had with heighte ned spiritual awareness. Whate ver it is you
think you need t o be happy, you can have the feeling that goes along with it
at will. That’ s the real beauty. — Y ou stop looking to counterfeit fr eedom. Y ou don’ t try to find the
solution in anything external, such as alcohol or drugs. Y ou know that
whatever it is that you are looking for, you can discover it within. And it is
heaven. I h ad a T -shirt made up one time that said, Y OU’VE TRIED EVER YTHING
ELSE. N OW TR Y  G OD. What I meant was this: you may have tried addiction,
divorce, bankru ptcy, moving, and any number of jobs—it’ s time to try
something else. When y ou try the higher part of yourself, you find that wha tever the
problem is, the solution is to le t go and let God. No matter ho w tough the
problem may be, or if it’ s something silly like how to fix a wat er faucet or
find your keys, the answer is to just let go. Y ou’ll find the keys. The way to
get the drippy faucet fixed wi ll be there. Y ou will  find the solution to
whatever it is that seems to be the problem. — The experience of bliss is very common for you. The thing that you
used to want so desperately—that content, peaceful, loving, joyful, knowing
feeling t hat ever ything is all rig ht and your life is inspired—is  there much
more frequently than it was before. One of the great quotations from A Co urse in Mir acles  is: “If you knew
Who walks beside you on the path that you hav e chosen, fear would b e
impossible. ” Th at’ s really what the experience of bliss is. There’ s a loving,
peaceful, deligh tful equanimity with life that comes from telli ng yourself,
“I’m going to allow my higher self to rule. ”
— Y ou bec ome le ss judgmental and mor e forgiving. This is a very
important part of this business of heightened spiritual awareness. Y ouunderstand the simple truth that you do not define anybody with your
judgments; you only define you rself. If you judge someone else to be a jerk
or a fool or bad, it doesn’ t make them so. They are what they are,
independent of your judgments  about them. But your judgm ents do say
something about your need to judge. As you become  more for giving, you understand that in order  to really
live the higher spiritual life and gain the authentic freedom that you’re
looking for, you have to let go of all of the anguish, hatred, and bitterness
that you  carry around. This is th e venom from the bites you’ve received in
earlier p arts of your life, and the  venom is what’ s killing you, not the bites. Y ou can’ t be unbitten, but you can certainly remove the venom. Imagine you are holding a cup, which represents the anguish  and the
hatred a nd the bitterness that you feel. Let’ s say you hold the se emotions
toward somebody who abused or abandoned you when you w ere a child. Y ou are told to for give and let it go, and asked to pick up the cup again. Someone then asks you, “What do you do now if you want to let go of all
that stuf f that happened to you in the past. ” Y ou say, “I’ll simply let go of
it. ” Again, that is what you are told to do. Now, observe what is happening here. In order to let go of the cup, you
first hav e to pick it up. When yo u pick it up, you embrace it and  you own it. The proc ess of picking up the c up, owning it and embracing it, allows you
to then let it  go. If you w alked away without picking it up, you wouldn’ t be
letting i t go; you’d never have owned it in the first place. It wouldn’ t be
anything you had to for give. If you pick it up, you get to the place where
you have what we call the functional adult r esponse  to it. Y ou don’ t have
the wounded child r esponse, which is, “Is n’ t that awful. They never
should’ve done that and I’m still mad. ” A functional adult picks it up, deals
with it, and then lets it go rather than going through life being wounded. As y ou become less judgmental,  you genuinely embrace those t hings and
then let them go rather than just trying to walk away from t hem. That’ s
what for giveness is really all about. Those are the most significant qualities or characteristics that you’ll have
when yo u embrace your heightened spiritual awareness, but there are many
more. The main thing you’ll notice, of course, is the joy of authenticfreedom. There is nothing to compare with the feeling of being in tune with
your higher self. CHAPTER 5
DISCOVER THE THREE KEYS
T O HIGHER A W ARENESS
Now I would lik e to explain in detail the keys to higher awarene ss, which
flow from challenging—or even abandoning—the ideas that we’ve been
handed by society. Once we hav e removed some of our early programming
and con ditioning, we can reach this heightened state of spiritual awareness
and feel authentically free. The thre e keys I describe in this  chapter all fit together, with one leading
to the next. I n each section, I’ll also of fer some suggestions for
implementing these keys in your own life. KEY 1: BANISH THE DOUBT
W e’ll begin with what I call “banish the doubt,” and it co mes first
because it is the most dif ficult to do. Over an d over again, the people I have worked with who have  achieved
higher a wareness have told me that it is not the memorization of a whole
series of  techniq ues and strategies that will lead someone to it. R ather, what
is necessary is a be lief that it is possible. The sa ying goes, “As you think, so
shall yo u be. ” It’ s not, “As you be, so shall you think,” which is what so
many pe ople do. They allow the circumstances of their lives to determine
what th eir inner world is lik e, so they find themselves angry, hurt,
depressed, sad, or fearful because of external events. As we’ve learned, if what we th ink about is what creates our world, and
what we think about is laced with doubt, then doubt is what w e’ll act on. W e won’ t be abl e to act on anything else. Unfortunately, most of the things
that hav e been handed to us f rom the well-meaning people in our lives
come with doubt attached to them. This is crucial to understand: if what we
think about is that we can’ t do something, or there’ s even the slightest
amount of doubt that it’ s possible for us to do it, then that is what we will
act upon. As Ralph W aldo Emerson noted long ago, “W e know that the
ancestor of every action is a thought,” so if that thought is on e of doubt,
then that’ s what we will act upon. That doubt will keep us from  being able
to create heightened spiritual awareness, or whatever it is that we want to
create for ourselves. Banishment of doubt is critical. If you have a picture in your m ind that you can’ t do something, and if
what yo u think about is what ex pands, then you will act on that feeling of I
can’ t do it. I f you’re focus ed on what you don’ t like or what’ s wrong in a
relationship you have with someone, and then you wonder why your
relationship is a negative one, y ou must change what you’re focusing on. Instead, think about what you love and what is terrific, and watch that
expand. All it takes to ba nish the doubt i s to see the unfolding of God in everyone
and ever ything that you encounter. That’ s all it takes. If you st ruggle with
this notion, tell yourself, I do n’ t have to understand. All I have to do is
imagine that the judgments I have about people ar e r eally doubts. When you banish doubt, you can easily detect the ener gy that is trying to
get you  to go in a dif ferent direction, and you know that no one who
attempts to push you of f course will have any influence over you. Instead of
thinking Why is this person doing that. or Why is this dru g showing up
again in  my life. or Why is this temptation her e. you understand that you
are e ncountering  one of life’ s exams. Y ou decide to react with love, and the
moment you do, you have a new awareness. It can sometimes be challenging to remind yourself that you always know
what to do, und erstanding that, Y es, I am going to act upon this knowing
rather th an upon the doubt that  I’ve had handed to me. Everything that is
physical is finite, whereas every thing that is beyond the physica l is infinite. Thus, kn owings are infinite, and they are transferred to you—even though
you are in a dif ferent form now, you still have the knowin g, which is
eternal. The very basis of what it is that constitutes the ability to banish the
doubt is this: learning how to shift your beliefs into knowings. Now you can
shift from knowing about  your higher self  to knowing  your higher self. Y ouhave a direct relationship with and can access this loving presence that is
always with you. God is as invisible as air. Y ou cannot touch or see Him, yet you know
that He is there because you glimpse His wondrous works and goodness
everywhere. Y ou know  th at He is there. That knowing and faith go hand in
hand. Faith is a knowing, and it isn’ t about what other people h ave handed
you and  told you to worship or  practice. So when you shift to faith rather
than usi ng the context of I h ave to have physical pr oof, you’re literally
shifting away from a belief and into a knowing. Y ou must understand that faith  is a decision you make internally. The
sacred ener gy that flows through everything in the form of Divine
intelligence in the universe will come to be sensed by you as your decision
becomes a knowing. Faith then becomes an ener gy that resides  within you
at all times. Here are a few suggestions for banishing the doubt:
— T ry an af firmation, which is a positive statement that you repeat to
yourself to affirm  and  create wh at you want in your life. I suggest
something like: I rid  myself of my doubts by r e membering that ther e is a
valid r ea son for everything that happens. A simp le af firm ation may be a ll
you need to start ridding yourself of doubt. — Make a decision that you’re going to meet the invisible God within, so
that you  will come to know this  loving presence rather than kn ow about  it. When you shut down your inner  dialogue and go to that quiet, e mpty place
within you, it will be much easier for you to do this. (There will be more
about how to do this later in the book. ) Y ou’ve got to learn to create the time and space for being quiet and
listening, while doing nothing else—and you must do so on a d aily basis if
you wan t to banish this doubt. Allow your moment of reflection to be free
from any inner c riticism. Remove all doubt that has been hande d to you by
so many well-meaning peop le. Open yourself up and pause your
skepticism, sayin g to yourself, “I’m going to willingly suspend m y disbelief
here for a few moments. ”— Practice dreaming while awa ke. Remind yourself that you do  not have
to go to sleep i n order to drea m, and give yourself some tim e to do so. Dreaming while  awake can ma ke you feel limitless. Y ou did it when you
were a child—you might have been labeled a daydreamer, but that’ s what
you did. Y ou allowed yourself the free-floating excitement of being able to
fly, soar, swim, create, write po etry, or whatever it is that you w anted. Y ou
allowed yourself freedom from limitations, from doubt. There’ s a wonderful couplet fr om one of W illiam Blake’ s po ems that
goes: “If the Sun & Moon should doubt / They’d immediately go out. ”
What yo u do when you dream is enter into a state where you leave all your
doubts behind. Y ou have to kno w that it isn’ t a separate being that goes to
sleep at night an d is dreaming; it is you. The same being that comes into
waking consciousness doubting that you can do something goes into
dreaming consciousness knowing that you can. So give yourself regular
opportunities fo r this practice, and you’ll become a power ful waking
dreamer before you know it. Keep in mind th at doubt is not a product of your higher self, and  you can
learn to observe  it rather than choose to own it. Y ou can become the witness
to it, which brings us to the next key. KEY 2: CUL TIVATE THE WITNESS
The seco nd key to higher awareness flows directly from the first. Once
you lear n to banish the doubt, th en you can cultivate the witness. Y ou can’ t
do it before. I love these words from Kahlil Gibran: “For in truth, it is life that gives
unto life—while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness. ” The
witness is a com passionate observer, the part of you that is not i n the world
of form but rathe r is watching yo ur form. Learning to cultivate i t means that
you get outside of yourself and  watch what is happening in your life, all
from the perspective of being the observer. If you want to be able to create a life of fulfillment, purpose, and freedom
through your heightened spiritual awareness, you must detach yourself from
the o utcome, as tough as that may seem to be. See yourself as the one who
is watching all this transpire, which means that you become the noticer: Y ounotice your mind and all the th oughts that are in it. Y ou notice the things
that are going on in your life today, as well as past events. Y ou notice
what’ s happenin g in the world. All of this, you see from the perspective of
being the dispassionate witness. Then as you take note of your w orlds, both inner and outer, ask yourself,
Who is this noticer behind tha t which is being noticed. If you do this
several times a day, you’ll see that you are much more than a body and
mind go ing through the programmed motions of your life. Y our realization
of your true self as the witness behind that which is being wi tnessed will
bring yo u to a n ew dimension of peace and creativity. Y ou’ll discover, as
you real ly begin to notice the noticer, that you are so much mor e than your
problems. Y ou are not that which disturbs you. Only your form is suf fering;
you  cannot suf fer. The witness is t hat part of us where we are placing our attentio n. Where
we place our at tention mandate s what we will see manifestin g from the
world o f the formless. That is, when we cultivate the witness, we’ll
understand the mechanics of creation. Quantum physics tells us that there
are p articles so small that no one has ever seen them—the only  reason we
know that they exist is that th ey leave traces in what are called particle
accelerators. When we observe  them, they’re there; when we take our
attention of f them, they disappea r. The very mechanics of creation state that
whatever we keep our attention and focus on will manifest. That wh ich we observe moves from the wave state, which is invisible,
into the particle state, which is the state of the physical wo rld. It’ s all
ener gy. W e used to think that there was the physical world, which was made
up of atoms and electrons and neutrons and protons, and then th ere was the
separate spiritua l world. It took a leap of faith to go from the physical to the
spiritual, because they were seen as two very dif ferent worlds. W e used to think that we had to pray to God, and that was based upon
this whole idea of an external deity only available to certain people at
certain times. Now we discover the truth of what metaphysician s have been
saying for centuries: God is within each of us. Quantum physics has shown
us th at what we think of as “rea lity” is nothing more than ener gy, and that
ener gy is everywhere and in everything, all the time. No m atter where you go, if you  want to learn about spiritual awareness,
you’re g oing to find the great thinkers asking you the same thin g: “Can you
learn to witness your life rather than identify with it. ” Believe it or not,that’ s where bliss resides, where  higher awareness resides, where authentic
freedom resides. Y ou will get that freedom when you’ve learned to banish
the doubt and cultivate the witness. W itnessing is a beautiful experience. Y ou’ve learned by now how to
witness your body. Y ou know that you’re not your packaging, yet you still
play gam es with it: you perfume  it, decorate it, insure it, seek s helter for it,
and try to get th ings fixed on it. But you also know that there’ s someone
behind there doing all this. Y ou know that there is some invisible presence
within y ou. Y ou say things like,  “I was just saying to myself. ” N ow there’ s
two people there: the I  and the self  who  is the recip ient of whatever it is that
you wer e saying. When you say, “I hurt my arm,” are you the arm. Or are
you that which is experiencing the hurt. If I say, “I’m go ing to wiggle my finger,” and then I do it, you wouldn’ t
think that’ s a big deal. But what if I asked you where the command center is
that allowed me to wiggle my finger. Y ou’d say, “W ell, if we were to look
at y our brain, we could see the synapses and neurons that al low you to
wiggle your finger. ” But you would never find anything like a command
center, with someone who’ s responsible for me wiggling my finger. So you can obse rve your body, but you don’ t sit around and wo rry about
it. Y ou’re not bu sy beating your heart right now, are you. Y ou’re not filling
and deflating your lungs. This is the same attitude you can learn to have
with your mind, as you watch your thoughts come and go. Whe n you grasp
this, you’ll realize that we think we are our thoughts. W e think the
dichotomy is between the body and the mind, but it’ s not; th e mind and
body are  the same. The dichotomy is between the body/mind and the soul:
the spirit, your higher awareness, the witness. Observation has been used ef fectively in the area of pain management,
especially for people who live with chronic pain. Instead of identifying with
the p ain, people are instructed to become the witness to the pai n. They are
asked to notice everything abo ut it: its color, shape, and size; when it
appears or doesn’ t; how it can be relieved. As folks become the  observer to
their pain, they see that where they place their attention is what they
manifest. They find that they can literally manifest an absence of pain by
becoming the witness rather than identifying with the pain. This bri ngs to mind something  that happened years ago, whe n I had a
practice on Long Island. One day, I asked a patient of mine, “Are you
depressed today. ”She said, “Y ou know I’m always depressed. ”
“W ell, is there any part of you that isn’ t depressed. ”
“No, Dr. Dyer, there’ s no part of me that is not depressed. ”
“Y ou mean every or gan. ”
“Every or gan is depressed,” she said. “Are you depressed when you wake up. ”
“I wake up depressed, I go to sl eep depressed, I’m even depressed in my
sleep. Like I said, I’m depressed all the time. ”
Then I asked h er the key question: “Have you been notic ing your
depression more lately. ”
She replied, “Y es, I have noticed it more, now that you mention it. ”
“T ell me, is the noticer depressed. The noticer can’ t  be depressed; it’ s
back there watching it all,” I said. “Go there. That’ s God. When you
become the witness, you know God. Y ou literally can watch your thoughts
and your whole life. That’ s all you have to do. Everything will get handled
because you know you’re not alone. Y ou’ve got to learn that you are not
this thing. Y ou have been watching it. ”
It to ok a while, but she was able to use this tool to ease her depression. As time went on, she felt much better. Like my patient, when you learn to
identify with the observer, what you’re really doing is putting your attention
on that which you want to manifest. Here are some suggestions for learning how to cultivate the witness:
— R epeat this af firmation to y ourself on a daily basis: In my world,
nothing ever goes wr ong. T o me, this is o ne of the greates t af firmations I’ve
ever heard. I personally repeat it every day. — Whe n you find yourself troubled by anything, say out loud, “I am
more than what bothers me. I am more than my troubles. ” This simple
statement af firming yourself a s something more than a receptacle for
troubles will keep you from allowing those troubles to run rampant in your
life. Y ou’ll come to see that you ’re not those troubles; you’re th at which is
aware of them. — T ry this exercise:
Go to a quiet pl ace and close your eyes. Think of something th at has
been bothering you for a time. S ee it surfacing on the black scr een of
your consciousness. Notice all aspects of the pr oblem—what it looks
like, when it sho ws up, what you feel when it is on your mind, th e pain
and fear that yo u have when it is pr esent, how you have dealt with it
unsuccessfully in  the past. Thin k of everything you can that is r elated
to this pr oblem. Now detach yourself fr om the pr oblem. Just allow it to sit ther e on
the scr een of your mind. Look at it fr om the viewpoint of the
compassionate witness, who nonjudgmentally notices the scr een. W atch it  like a movie, allowing  it to change in whatever way i t does,
observing it while giving it lovi ng permission to do whatever it  wants
to do. Y ou will see it change and fade in and out of awar eness. W ith each change or movement on the scr een, r emain in the car ing-
witness mode of knowing the ener gy will do what it will. This act of
observation wil l often r esult in a feeling of the pr oblem having
dissipated. If that happens, obse rve that fr om the position of the caring
observer as well. I pra cticed this act of observatio n when I had an injury in my foot, near
the big toe, which made it very dif ficult to play tennis. I kept saying, “This
injury is keeping me from doin g what I want to do, and I’m really upset
about it. ” When I took the witness stance, I no longer saw myself as having
an injury. I attributed the pain only to my body and not me. I shifted to
speaking as the witness, saying, “This is not me. It is not my pain; it is my
body’ s pain. I am not my body. My body owns that, I don’ t. ”
I pla ced my atte ntion on that wh ich I wanted to manifest, the mechanics
of creation, which was having a healthy foot. The next ti me I went to play
tennis, t he injur y that had been  nagging me for several days,  which had
been causing me to limp and do all kinds of silly things, was gone. I can also remember using this witness technique when I was a young
man. W hen I was in high school and college, I worked at a Kroger grocery
store in  Detroit. These huge t rucks would come in, loaded with what
seemed like a thousand heavy boxes. I’d often be the only o ne there tounload the truck, put the boxes on a conveyor belt, and so on. The job was
hot and backbreaking. Then at some p oint, I taught myself to become the witness. I sort of
watched the whole truck and visualized it emptying onto the conveyor belt. Rather than identifying with my body, which had to go through all these
motions, I got myself into the position of watching myself  do it. The
process of observing myself and not identifying with the labor allowed it all
to flow smoothly and quickly, and it didn’ t seem to hurt as much. I created a
dif ferent kind of ener gy, a heightened-awareness kind of ener gy, which gave
me strength and the ability to pass time just by witnessing rather than
identifying with it. When yo u can witness and not identify with all aspects of your life, your
higher awareness will allow things that once seemed very dif ficult to
become almost meaningless to you. — If you find y ourself burdened with deadlines and a lot of th at type A
behavior that so many of us take on in the business world, you can detach
yourself from it. Y ou can become the witness to that as well, watching
yourself go through whatever motions you have to go through, and slow
yourself down. From this noticer perspective, you’ll see how absurd all the
stress th at you’v e always felt aro und deadline time is. That’ s jus t stuf f that’ s
going on in your body; you no longer need to have that stress. The placing
of your attention on the dissipation of the anxiety by witnessing it, and
nothing more, allows it to go away. — Whe n it comes to confrontations with other people, I’d also like for
you to practice being the witn ess. Rise above the temptation to make
someone else wrong, and instea d watch yourself and your opp onent from
the observer perspective. Y ou’ll soon see the folly of engaging in this sort
of anxiety-producing behavior, and you’ll shift to a more spiritual response. There’ s one sentence I’ve learned to keep in mind that I think has brought
me more peace than anything else I can of fer you: When you have the
choice to be ri ght or to be kind, always pick kind. In virt ually every
confrontation th at you ever find  yourself in, whether it’ s with your spouse
or co workers or even with strangers, you always have the choice to be right
or to be kind. W hen you make the choice to be right, what you’re really
doing is deciding to make som eone else wrong, and you’re i mmediatelycreating disharmony. When yo u make the choice to be kind, that’ s your
higher self, the witness, speaking. So rathe r than saying, “Y ou know, that’ s the fourth time this w eek that
you’ve said that. Y ou’re alway s trying to make me wrong—w ho do you
think you are. ” you can choose to say, “Y ou know, you make a good point. I’ve nev er consi dered it that wa y. ” The witness will have take n over, and
you’ll eliminate all the worry and stress that go with that altercation. So
when yo u have the choice to be right or to be kind, try picking kind. Y ou’ll
be able to watch those conflicts easily and peacefully resolve. — Keep  yourself in tune with your inner world. Notice your thoughts,
and then  become aware of the thinker of the thoughts, the invisible you who
is behind the actual thought. A lot of times we believe we are the thought
instead of the th inker of the tho ught. And the thinker of the thought is like
the noticer; it’ s that which is observing. The mec hanics of creation that w e are learning through quantum physics
says that where we place our att ention causes us to be able to manifest from
the wave state into the particle state. In other words, if w e keep our
attention on what it is we want  to manifest, we will shift it fr om a wave
state—that is, from a thought sta te—into a particle state, or form. It’ s a very
intriguing kind of notion, this whole quantum-physics thing, especially
when y ou reali ze how easily you can apply it in your own life. Just
remember that you are that which is observing rather than that which is
being observed. — T ake time t o appreciate the beauty in your life. T ake time to be
contemplative. T ake time to see that this is a magnificent universe. There is
an i ntelligence to this whole th ing, and everything you come across has
something that you can apprecia te in it. Rather than filling your inner world
with criticism, skepticism, dou bt, anguish, or pain, understand that you
always h ave a choice. All your thoughts are things that you co ntrol. Once
you take  to heart the idea that w hat you think about is what expands, you
can put your attention and ener gy on that which you appreciate rather than
that whi ch you think is not wor king well for you. Then you will see these
heightened-awareness things manifesting for yourself. It all starts with
going within. KEY 3: SHUT DOWN THE INNER DIALOGUE
The thir d key to higher awaren ess is “shut down the inner dialogue. ”
Again, t his flows from a pattern : First you learn to banish the d oubt. Then,
as the doubt beg ins to dissipate, you have the opportu nity to cultivate the
witness, which can only be there with an absence of doubt. As you get good
at cultivating the witness, you f ind that the best way to be the witness is in
silence. Silence is what you have to learn as you shut dow n the inner
dialogue. The inne r dialog ue is nothing m ore than your inventory of beliefs, which
have bee n hand ed to you from well-meaning people all your l ife, and are
loaded with doubt. It is a const ant reiteration of all these thing s that have
been han ded to you that keep you from reaching a sense of purp ose or from
knowing your higher self. It is your ego at work. W e’ll discuss the ego at
length in the ne xt chapter, but for now, understand that in order to get to a
higher p lace, you need to come to know God, or this loving pres ence that is
with you at all times. Y ou cannot do it when you are constantly at the beck
and call of your inner dialogue. Again, you just observe the thoughts; you don’ t judge them. This
becomes easier to do when y ou learn to become the witness, because
nothing can get to you. I’m telling you, I know. Once you get to that silent,
empty, invisible place, you’ll know what they mean when they say it’ s the
space be tween the bars that ho lds the tiger. It’ s the silence between the
notes tha t makes  the music. Y ou need silence, so give yourself a s much of it
as you can. In the T ao T e Ching, Lao-tzu says:
Become totally empty. Let your heart be at peace. Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings,
observe how endings become beginnings. Things flourish, each by each,
only to r eturn to the Sour ce. to what is and what is to be. T o r eturn to the r oot is to find peace. T o find peace is to fulfill one’ s destiny. There ar e an awful lot of profo und thoughts about the inner di alogue in
this 16th  verse of the T ao, but t he main takeaway for our purp oses is how
important it is to learn how to shift away from that constant chatter. T ry thin king of the mind as a pond with dif ferent levels. The surface,
which is a small percentage of the pond, is where all the distu rbances are,
and the mind is very much like that as well. On the pond, the tu rbulence of
the w aves, the le aves, the dirt, t he wind, the constant freezing a nd thawing,
the rain hitting it, the snow pelting it, and so on are all disturbances. In the
mind, it’ s this constant chatter, this constant rumination. If you drop a pebble through the pond of the mind, and it goes down a
little bit below the surface, you’ll find what we call “analysis. ” This picking
things a part is essentially intellectual violence. The mind just below the
surface i s constantly doing this: Why did he do that. Why did she do that. Why is this working that way. As you learn to be contemplativ e, you go a little deeper in the mind. The
pebble d rops be low the level o f analysis to what we call “synthesis. ” In
synthesis, things  are held togeth er rather than torn apart. The mind sees the
connection between things, a nd the illusion of your separateness is
shattered. Y ou see how everything is connected. As the pebble drops a little farth er, it goes to the place where all  thoughts
are remo ved, w hat we call “em ptying the mind. ” Y ou get very  quiet. Y ou
get into “the gap,” that space between your thoughts. Ultimately, the pebble comes to  rest in the Divine and perfect p lace that
has man y names, where God re sides. Here is that Divineness th at is within
you. As it says in the Bible, “W ith God, all things are possible ” (Matthew
19:26). Now, you tell me what t hat leaves out. It leaves out nothing. God’ s
one and only voice is silence, so  the greatest tribute you can give yourself is
the space to hear it. When y ou allow yourself to shut down your inner dialogue through the
process of cultivating the witne ss and banishing doubt, you a bandon the
belief systems you’ve been taug ht by well-meaning people. It is here that
your beliefs start to shift to knowings. Y ou banish all doubt about your
higher self and come to know. That’ s the third key to higher aw areness. It is about learning how to put
more silence, space, and contem plation into your life, accepting less of the
inner tumult that removes the peace and the harmony from it. Here are a few suggestions for shutting down your inner dialogue:
— I  recommend this af firmation, which I use quite frequently: The mor e
I listen, the mor e pr ofound the silence becomes. — T ry the following exercise, which uses the metaphor of the pebble
dropping throug h the various lev els of your mind. Note that you’ll be doing
it fr om the perspective of the witness, so you may want to reread that
section b efore do ing this visualization. Y ou need to be able to ob serve while
it’ s happening. V isualize your mind as a pond, and see the disturbances at the surface,
the chat ter. Then see the analy sis. See the pebble dr opping to wher e
you synthesize, and see the thoughts beginning to quiet. W itness the
emptying of the mind. Finally, witness the pebble coming to this
perfect, Divine field of all possibilities. When you get to that fi eld, all
you know  is bliss. Y ou will bring  back fr om that experience solut ions to
the t hings that a r e so tr oubling to you. The solutions become ve ry r eal
because they ar e  wher e the pr oblems ar e. Y ou d o not look for the
solution outside  anymor e. Y ou ar e now facing a differ ent way, inwar d,
wher e you can dir ectly tune in to the wisdom of your higher self. — Whe n you notice your mind becoming overly crowded with  thoughts
or g oing through inner turmoil, practice not focusing on anythin g for a few
moments. Bring some stillness into the inner chatter. T ell yourself, My mind
is full of the dist urbance of chatter and thoughts. I’m going to try to spend
five minutes without any thoughts bombar ding it. It’ s a lmost like y ou put a bubble  around your mind. When a thought tries
to pe netrate that bubble, which is really the doing of the ego, it says, Think
me. Then another one comes in and says, No, think me. I’m r eally
important. S o you give in. And your firs t thought is, This is r eally silly. Then an other thought comes in: Y ou’ve got work to do. Another one says,
Y ou’ve got to get some gr oceries  on the way home. Another one says, Y eah,
and you ’ve got to pay your bills. Eac h on e of them says, Think me. It’ s the
ego trying to convince you that this is what you have to do. So put a bubble around all that and let them bounce of f. Use your breath
as a means to keep your mind from chattering away ceaselessly. Y our breath
and you r thinking go hand in hand. T ake deep, long breaths in; and deep,
long bre aths ou t. As you conce ntrate on this, you’ll find a peace coming
over you. Y ou could also use your heart beat like this, as a focal point for the
witness. Or when you find your thoughts right below the surface in the
analyzing level,  think of a rose. As you replace the analyzing with the
beauty of a rose, think about w hat Rabindranath T agore, the great Indian
poet, sai d: “Do we not carry a rose to our beloved because in it is already
embodied a message, which unlike our language of words, cannot be
analyzed. ” It just is. It needs no analyzing. Neither do you, and neither does
your life. — Ano ther suggestion is that when you’re at the synthesizing level,
when yo u’re fee ling the beauty and unity of life, you may d iscover that
you’re entertain ing thoughts of pleasure about enjoying the spiritual space. Let go of those thoughts too. Y ou want to shut down all  of this  inner
dialogue that muddies the way to  the field of possibility. See, the ego enjoys
convincing you that you’re better than others because you’re more spiritual. That’ s one of the big traps. As you feel yourself becoming more spiritual, as you feel yourself
becoming more awake, as you experience the authentic freedo m of higher
awareness, you might get the notion of I truly am a littl e bit mor e spiritual
than the other p eople I’m ar ound, or My partner doesn’ t r eally know  what
path I’m on, or the like. Th at’ s the ego trap ping you into thinking that you
are better or more special. Y ou are not. Everyone is on their own place on
life’ s path, and none of us are more special or better in the eyes of God. W e
are a ll e xtensions of that Divine, loving presence. W e are not “b etter than. ”
As you synthesize and see how all things are connected, don’ t let the ego
convince you that this somehow makes you superior. It’ s a trap that the ego
loves to get you in. — I n an y moment of stress, go w ithin and allow the pebble to drop, even
if it’ s only for a few seconds. Y ou can do this any time, any place. Y ou can
even do it in the  middle of a busy meeting: Excuse yourself for  a moment,
go outsi de, and get quiet. See the pebble drop down, and let th e calmnessand sere nity of your higher self take over. When you come back from that,
you’ll find yourself returning to the meeting with a clarity that you didn’ t
have before, because you’ve allo wed your higher self to run your life in that
moment rather than your ego. Y ou’re going to sever the conne ction between thoughts and outcomes by
quieting the mind, and that stilln ess will bring you great joy. When the ego
is sil ent, everything in the catalog of your personality that is asso ciated with
selfish d esire begins to disappear. Things like loneliness, despair, illness,
anger, fe ar, and worry are all part of that catalog of your persona lity and can
be very loud—e xcept when you get quiet and listen to your in ner, higher
voice. — Finally, I rec ommend that you sign up for a martial arts class of some
kind, so mething that teaches you about the ener gy of quieting  down and
allowing your body to function in its perfect, Divine order. It’ s vitally important that you sever the connection between negative
outcomes and the way you’re thinking, and the three keys detailed here will
indeed h elp you  do that. There is a fourth key, however, which we’ll take a
close look at in  the next chap ter. T aken together, these keys to higher
awareness will give you a power and freedom you never could have
imagined. CHAPTER 6
T AME THE EGO (THE FOURTH
KEY)
The fourth key to higher awareness is so important that it requires its own
chapter. It is “tame the ego,” and it flows directly from the first three keys. After you banish the doubt, you learn to have a knowing rather than a belief
about th ings. Th en you are abl e to attain the perspective of the witness,
noticing what’ s happening in a dispassionate way. In the proces s, you learn
that cultivating the witness is best done in silence. The ego works really hard at k eeping you from that Divine p lace of a
quiet mind, making you believ e that there is nothing of value to you in
silence. More than anything else, the ego is into self-preserva tion, and it
will say things t o you like, “I can’ t believe you’re now allowing  yourself to
fall for all of this nonsense. ” “All of this nonsense” simply refers to your
understanding that it is time to listen to your higher awareness. As you
remove the doubt, cultivate the witness, and shut down the inner dialogue,
you are preventing the ego from  interfering in the daily decision-making of
your life. In this chapter, we’ll learn some more about the ego, so we can clearly
understand that which we need to tame. SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EGO
I h ave identified seven specific  characteristics of the ego, wh ich I will
touch on briefly here and expand on later in the book:1. T he e go is your false self. It is your idea of yourself, and  the refore n ot
your true self. Y our ego is not real; it is an illusion. It is something that you
have come to believe in. Y our ego tries to convince you that you’re something you’re not. It wants
you to believe t hat you are this body, so you have to make it better than
other people’ s bodies, and you have to have more wealth and so on. This is
false because your real self—which is eternal, changeless, and formless—
doesn’ t care about any of those things. 2. It teaches separateness ; that is, separate from God and from other
people. Y our ego says that you are distinct in all the world, and that
uniqueness and separateness m ust be nurtured and protected a t all times. Y ou’re constantly comparing yo urself to other people or defending yourself
from them. Y our real self, however, knows that we are all one. 3. It  con vinces you of your sp ecialness. T he ego says you are not only
separate from others, you are special too—you are better than others
because of who you are and your background. Y ou have to get rid of that
idea because if you are special, it means that others aren’ t. W e are all
special in the e yes of God, so then why do we even need a term like
special. It’ s just another fabrication of the ego. 4. I t’ s always r eady to be o ffended. Th e ego conv inces you that
anything that isn’ t the way you t hink it ought to be is a reason for you to be
of fended. It reinforces the belief that you are better than those people who
are d oing the of fending and that  God is doing work that you hav e to correct
somehow. When  you’re of fended, you get angry, and you fight and protect
your specialness and separateness. Y ou have to learn to treat others the same way you would treat a jaguar
who was trying to eat you. Y ou wouldn’ t be of fended by it. Y ou  would say,
“I’d like to get out of its way, but I’m not of fended by what it is. ” That’ s
how you have to learn to be with everyone and everything in the world. 5. It  is cowardly. I love this quote from Dr. Kenneth W apnick, who was
a wonderful teacher of A Course in Miracles :
The ego is nothing more than a belief, and it is a belief in the reality of
separation. The ego is the false self that seemingly came into beingwhen w e separated ourselves from God. Therefore, as long as we
believe that the separation is real, the ego is in business. On ce we
believe that there’ s no separation, then the ego is finished. And
cowardliness is a characteristic of the ego because the ego will do
everything in its power to keep you believing in your separation from
everyone else. The ego  operate s on fear and cowardice. It’ s terrified of your getting to
know the higher part of yourse lf, and it will do everything that it can to
keep you from facing directly inward and tuning in to that power within. The ego  is afraid of the celestial light that is within you, that inner knowing
of bliss and peace, because your  adherence to it will mean that the ego is no
longer necessary in your life. The cow ardice o f the ego is transformed by your inner light in the same
way tha t a fear of the dark is transformed by turning on an outer light. Put
another way, cowardly behavior is simply a symptom of great fear, and the
antidote to fear is courage. 6. It thrives on consumption. The false self continually bombards you
with the idea th at you must hav e more in order to be happy. It pushes you
toward compar ing yourself to other people, to looking at all your
acquisitions and  saying, “I am better than others and more special because I
have a newer car, a bigger house, nicer clothes, and a more attractive
partner. ” It is always pushing you in the direction of consuming so that you
can rein force your separaten ess. As we’ve learned, such ideas are
counterfeit, as authentic freedom never requires more. 7. And finally, the ego is insane. O ne of the def initions of insanity  is
“when s omeone believes themse lves to be something they’re not. ” W ell, the
ego alw ays wants you to beli eve that you are this false self, which is
separate and distinct in all ways, rather than something that is c onnected to
and a part of a Divinity that it fears more than anything. THERE IS NO SEP ARATIONDespite what your ego insists, you are not separate from anyone. Y ou do
not have to be better than anyone, nor are you more special t han anyone
else in the world. Y ou are that which is eternal and changeless. When you
know th at you are of spirit, tha t God is within you, you no lon ger have to
prove y ourself as someone who’ s better than others or gets of fended by
their actions. I’m not saying you’ll need to conquer  t he ego. There’ s no fighting he re;
this is not a war. Rather, you hav e to tame  it by understanding what you are
not. Y ou  are not your body, you are not your name, you are not your
occupation, you are not any of those things that you have come  to identify
as w ho y ou are. Y ou are in fact an eternal soul, a piece of Divi ne wisdom. When you come to know and believe in your true self rather than the idea of
yourself, you learn to trust in the very wisdom that created you. When you attain heightened spiritual awareness, what it does more than
anything else is shatter the illusion of your separateness. As you see the
horrible things that happen to p eople—all the struggles, all the poverty, all
the hung er, all the things that I’ ve spent much of my adult life working to
eradicate—you understand that not only is our joy Divine and universal, but
so too is our suf fering. Everything that happens to one of us in life happens
to all of us. Therefore, it’ s critically important to release any sense of “us versus
them. ” Y ou can start by letting go of your ego’ s needs to be separate from
others. Begin to view yourself a s a member of the human family. The hand
that gives gathers, so share with your neighbors and even strangers as if
they were part of your own family—because they are. Every ti me I travel to another c ountry and go through customs, I think
about ho w silly all this is. Some body decided that this border b elongs here
and that border belongs there, and now here we are, hundreds or even
thousands of years later, having  to obtain passports and fill out forms in
order to pass from one piece of land to another. Someone centuries ago
decided it needed to be this wa y, and we’ve hung on to that mind-set. Of
course we need to follow external laws and regulations, but internally we
must know that we’re all connected. W e are all the same when it comes
down to it, all part of one tribe called humanity. Another way that you can c ontinue to release this us-versus-them
thinking is to no te how many tim es you use the pronoun I  in an hour. When
you stop  focusin g on yourself as  distinct from other people, you  have moreener gy to extend your awarene ss to everyone. When you see yourself in
terms of we, as part of the whole, then you open up space within y ou for the
loving ener gy that’ s going to create the freedom of heightened awareness. Because we are thought, and the  universe is thought, the fastest vibration
we have to either destroy or create is in our mind. Our mind is part of the
universal mind, so creating unity and oneness is not actually dif ficult for us. But the ego tries very hard to keep us from realizing that power. Y our eg o likes to keep you dist racted from the messages of yo ur higher
consciousness, which af firm you r ability to ef fect deep and lasting change. It keeps you absorbed in trivial m atters, like the cof fee you must  have in the
morning before you can function, the sweets that you need to munch on
before you go to bed at night, o r any number of daily diversio ns that you
put s o much ener gy into. Insigni ficant concerns, such as whether this report
is filled out correctly, that deadline is being met, those people are following
instructions, and so on, end up taking a great deal of your time. Once yo u can let all this go, yo u can focus on the messages from your
higher s elf. Y ou’ll discover that there is a profound, significant, and
powerful drive that is at the cor e of your being. Y ou have a de ep need for
your purpose, the reason you w ere put on this planet in the firs t place. Y ou
also know that purpose conc erns unity; it has nothing to do with
separateness or other shallow pursuits of the ego. YOUR REAL SELF
Y our ego tells y ou that you hav e to compete and consume. In order to
prove yourself, you must have more toys. Y ou need to accumulate more. Y ou must achieve more. Y our eg o tells you that how good your body looks
and how you sm ell and how mu ch jewelry you have is important. There is a
whole world of egos dealing  with egos out there, everyb ody telling
everybody how important they are. But you don’ t ha ve to give in to that. Y ou don ’ t have to say, “Y es, bu t you should have heard what I  did. Let me
tell you. ”
Know th at this self-importance has nothing to do with self-esteem. Self-
esteem is a given. Y ou don’ t have to question your esteem, your  value, your
confidence in who you are. Y ou are a creation of God; you are Divine. It’ sjust that God doesn’ t play favorites or make mistakes or think that anyone is
special. The less self-absorbed you are, t he more freedom you have. When you’re
so h ung up on everything having  to be a certain way, your freed om is taken
away fro m you. The ego promotes that sort of attachment, while the higher
self is unattached to it. It can be helpful to think of the ego like a shadow: When you go out into
the light, you cast a shadow. T he shadow, like your ego, is not real. Y ou
can’ t get hold of it. It’ s an illusion. Y our higher self, of course, is what is
real. It’ s  wonderful to know you r real self because then you don’ t live with
the illusory shadow, which is always changing. Similarly, you look at this packaging you’re in, and every gray hair and
wrinkle that appears is like a little notification that reminds you of your
death. The ego wants you to believe that your body is where you should
attach your primary identificatio n. For the ego, the most embarrassing event
in the world is death. But you know you are not this body; you are that
which is observing it. Y our real self is eternal and changeless. Another great way of saying this is from the Bhagavad Gita: “ Y ou were
never bo rn; how  can you die. Y ou have never suf fered chang e; how can
you be changed. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial. Y ou do not die
when th e body dies. ” What a freeing notion it is when you ident ify with the
part of you that is changeless an d eternal rather than the body identification
that the ego promotes so strongly. I want to reinforce this point: the higher self is the real self; the ego is the
shadow. That which is never changing, that which was neve r born, that
which is eternal is the part of you that is actually processing thi s right now. It is so important that you remember this. The more I get  into this area of higher consciousness and heightened
spiritual awaren ess, the more flabber gasted I become. It’ s just blowing me
away. K nowing the real self, the  God within, means that you’re never alone. Everything you ever need is right there for you in abundance—and it keeps
showing up. I lik e to test it now. It’ s like, “All right, God. If Y ou’re really there, try
this one on. ” I’l l be in the process of writing something that is  very muchaligned with purpose, not being attached to whether people are going to like
it, or my publisher is going to b e happy with it, or it’ s going to be on the
bestseller list, or I’m going to make money. all those things have left my
life. Now adays, I am focused o n writing from my heart. I ask myself this
question over and over again: How may I get out of my own ego. How may
I serve. The answers unfailingly come to me. When I write a book, I think about it for about a year, tossing the ideas
around i n my mind. When I’m  ready to write, I leave my of f ice and my
home, but I stay close by. I’ll get a lar ge room and fill it with books: books
that people have sent me, some I’ve been reading, a few I’ve heard about,
those that publishers sent me for review, and all that. This process has
emphasized for me that there are no accidents. Even if I think a book has
nothing to do with me, it has part of consciousness in it. I can open up any
book and find ex actly what I’ve been looking for right there. So I surround
myself w ith all sorts of things, and then I’ll stop in the middle of writing
and walk over a nd pick something up at random. I can trust that whatever I
need will be right there for me. If you can also get to the point where whatever shows up in you r life can
be p rocessed by the higher part  of yourself, then you will no l onger be at
the mercy of yo ur ego—you’ll be listening to your real self. In this place,
amazing things will happen. When you let go and trust, miracles manifest. CHAPTER 7
KNOW THA T WE’RE ALL ONE
Let’ s talk about cells for a moment. When there is harmony within one
cell, the one next to it cooperates with that cell. It doesn’ t try to hurt it or
destroy it; it is at peace. In this way, harmony and cooperation are the
essence of life. When there is n o ease or serenity or peace within a cell—
when th ere is dis-ease, or dise ase—it gets aggressive and tries to harm the
cell next to it. That diseased cell has no reference to the wh ole. And if
something has no r efer ence  to the whole, it also has no r egar d  for the
whole. For inst ance, we have many l ife-forms that make their home on and
within us that m ight appear ugly if we looked at them under a microscope,
but they have a reference to the whole. Be it the bugs in the lining of the
stomach and in t he intestine, in the toenails, or inside the nose, t hey all have
a reference to the whole and work in conjunction or harmony. In fact, while e ach of us thinks  of ourselves as a singular unit, we are
made up of a lot of life, a lot of dif ferent bacteria and so on that work
together on and within us. W e walk around all day long and th ink, I’m an
individual; I’m an island. Y et without tho se millions of microscopic life-
forms working together, we couldn’ t make it. If something were to come
along inside our or ganisms that no longer had a reference to the whole,
we’d be  elimina ted along with it. Disharmony, then, would be th e thing that
destroyed us. Cancer can grow and influence other cells to become diseased when we
don’ t have harmony within; con sequently, it can destroy itself and the entire
body alo ng the way. A cancer in society operates in the same fa shion. That
is, when one ind ividual—one “c ell” who doesn’ t have ease with in itself and
has no reference to the whole of society—doesn’ t see itself as part of us, itcan influ ence all those around it until it reaches a state where  it destroys
itself. So the answer to a cancer, whether it’ s in a cell or in society, is to get
harmony within. If you have ha rmony within you, then you wi ll cooperate
with the  cell next to you, just like the cell in your body does—it’ s the same
thing. In both cases, it is the answer to peace and to health. This is all a mini-lesson in metaphysical philosophy. It’ s all relative—
that’ s what Einstein taught us. And Nietzsche said, “All th ings being
relative, what time does Munich stop at this train. ” That’ ll give you
something to think about. But it is  all relat ive. Is a cell in the body smaller or bigger than the cell
that is you, this  totality that is  you. In an endless universe, a cell being
bigger or smaller than you are is  simply a question of context. Every part of
it is as necessary and important as any other. T o think of it another way, the bug that is down in my toenail, which
seems so distant from me, is still a part of me. W e are all one. As we
discussed in the last chapter,  oneness and universalness is not mere
speculation—we connect to it all. If all of us have harmony wi thin us, and
we’re flowing with the universe, it can be the most powerful thing in the
world. EVER YONE IS CONNECTED AND NECESSAR Y
One day  when I was running, I was thinking about how we’re a ll one yet
we’re so stuck on our separateness. There was another runner about 30
yards ahead of me, and as I watched him, I thought, How could it be that I
am one with that person. I do n’ t know his name. I don’ t know anything
about him at all. How could ther e be any connection between us. Suddenly,
I h ad a really s tunning realizat ion that even though there was  a distance
between this runner and me, we  were absolutely connected. I w as reminded
that all of us are, but we tend to look at things from a v ery limited
perspective. Again, the ego loves to convince us of our separateness. Here’ s something to try the ne xt time you pull into a gas station and
somebody is ahead of you, block ing the lane or parked in a plac e where you
think yo u shoul d be. Instead o f getting upset, see them as being exactlywhere they need to be. Don’ t get angry; treat them with acceptance. Remember to always have an open heart. See your connection to this person
instead of their separateness from you; treat them as if they were part of
you, because they are. T ry to find o ther opportunities to practice this thought exercise,
remembering tha t everybody out there is somehow, in some way, connected
to you. Stop be ing antagonisti c toward others. Think about how things
would go if you got antagonistic toward the microbes that live inside your
lar ge intestine, telling them, “I’ m going to do everything I can to get you
guys out  of there. ” That would kill you. Y ou literally need that life. This is
equally true, at a dif ferent level, for all of humanity. So start seeing
everybody as part of you, necessary for your existence. Before long, you’ll
be feeling a strong sense of connection, just as I did with my fellow runner. Y ou’ll u nderstand all this when you leave this form that you’re so
attached to and go into anothe r dimension—you’ll clearly see that all of
humanity is one. Imagine that you could see all of humanity rep resented as
a jigsaw  puzzle, but with a piece missing. Of course your eye would go
right to what’ s l acking, noting that the puzzle cannot be complete without
that piec e. W ell, you are one of the pieces of this puzzle calle d humanity,
and if you are missing from it o r not in harmony, then you make the whole
incomplete. That’ s exactly how  important you are as a person: you make
humanity complete. Science is proving what metaphysics has been saying for centuries. When
you study life at the tiniest subatomic level, all the particles seem to be
interconnected i n some mysterious way. They’re all sort of co ntrolled by
some force outside, some my stical thing, and they’re all o n purpose. There’ s nothing random about any of it. There’ s no happenst ance in the
universe. I fin d th is conce pt so intriguing. If every subatomic particle is on  purpose
and we’ re mad e out of those, then why wouldn’ t this apply to us. I
remember being  in New Y ork City one day around 5:00 P. M. and seeing
countless people come out from underneath the ground. It looked like an
anthill. T hey had all just come of f the subway and were all going  someplace
at the same time. I look back no w and think they were all on purpose, like
those subatomic particles. Things l ike this appear random to us because our vision is so narrow; we
tend to view everything from the limited perspective of our form. When youknow th at every thing is on purp ose, it stops you. Y ou see everyone doing
exactly what they’re supposed  to be doing. They’re right where they
belong, and you feel a blessed wave of acceptance wash over you. ONLY LOVE T O GIVE
I almost always turn the things that used to upset me into love situations
these days. For example, I came back to my car one day and f ound that a
parking attenda nt was writing me a ticket for being approx imately 30
seconds over the allotted time. My reaction to that 10 years ag o would’ve
been one of anger: “How dare you. ” I have since developed a kind of
internal shield against the way o thers behave; it is on them, not me. I don’ t
let other  people ’ s behavior own me any longer, since it’ s not me they’re
talking to but my role of rent-a-W ayne-Dyer. This tim e, I walked over and st arted talking to the attendant. I  engaged
her in general, re latable chatter— for example, “Do you have any children. ”
and all that. She was halfway through the ticket, determined that she was
going to keep writing it. I said, “If you have to write the ticket, it’ s all right. I don’ t have any  problem with you doing your job. Y ou’re a ve ry pleasant,
nice person. ” W ith that, she tore up the ticket. Now, whether she would or
wouldn’ t have given me a ticket would’ve been okay. My choice was to
give love without being attached to any outcome. Similarly, I often talk to people in service professions—particularly
waitstaf f, flight attendants, cab drivers, and the like—and I’ve found that
the highest-functioning people in those professions are those who
understand this concept: People ar e not talking to me. They’r e talking to
this r ole. So they’r e tr eating the  r ole of server this way, and it has nothing
to do with me. The way you get harmony within you is through your thinking. So if
someone sends you hate, but y ou have only love inside, then love is all
you’ll have to g ive away. Furthermore, your giving will help  dif fuse the
hate. It’ s  really hard to hate somebody who sends you back love. It’ s hard to
fight with som ebody who doesn’ t want to fight. I don’ t know if you’v e ever
tried to ar gue wi th somebody who refuses to ar gue with you, wh o’ s just not
interested, who isn’ t going to pl ay your game. Y ou have to learn how to dothat with  children all the time, because they’re constantly tryin g to corner
you or get you trapped into their illogic. And once you buy into it, you’re
completely sucked in. So my server friends act at the highest levels toward others. That is, when
they’re sent anguish, hatred, and bitterness, they send back love because
that’ s al l they have inside to sen d away. They do the same thing with their
bosses. They have gotten to the  point where they understand, These people
ar e difficult, behaving in foolish and obnoxious ways, but that has nothing
to do with me. That’ s not mine in any way. I am going to send them back
love. As you become totally awake, w ith your heightened spiritual awareness,
you find yourself less and less consumed with how other people treat you. If it gets  too bad or dif ficult for  you, you move on without bitterness. Y ou
don’ t say, “He shouldn’ t be acting this way,” or She’ s no good,” or
whatever. Y ou just move away, e ven if you can only do it in your mind. The
way that you process all this is really the key. Y ou can take almost the worst of situations, and if all you hav e to give
away is harmony because that’ s  all that you are, you can turn the situation
into something positive very qu ickly. Especially if you’re focused on the
big p icture, not attached to bein g upset or angry at the way that  this person
is treatin g you. Y ou understand, This is not r eally me that they’r e tr eating
this way. Because the r eal me, the very essence of who I am, is not this body
that they ’r e talk ing to. It’ s how I choose to think. It’ s my thoughts, and they
can never have that. What also happens is you beg in to avoid conflict and conf rontation
altogether. Y ou may have been taught that you hav e to prove that you can
“deal wi th” thos e who challenge you. W ell, the more awake and aware you
get, the more yo u realize that conflict is a violation of harmony. Y ou realize
that if you participate in it, you become part of the problem rath er than part
of the solution. It gets easier to avoid conflict and confrontation when you
don’ t have to be  right anymore, when you see other people for where they
are on life’ s path and you let them be there. If they want to be upset because
they’re s tuck in traf fic or their r emote control isn’ t working right now, then
that’ s absolutely fine. I do  this with my children all the  time. They get an emotional attachment
to wheth er this person calls, or whether they have to do the di shes, or any
number of things; I don’ t even talk about it anymore. They know  what theirresponsibilities are. I think, I’m not going to  join you. I’m simply not going
to get seduced into having this kind of discussion, and I move away from it. At f irst, it’ s like you’re acting—there is an aspect of “fake i t till you
make it. ” But af ter a while, it becomes second nature. Discord isn’ t in your
life any longer; you don’ t even notice it. Y ou don’ t have to be a wimp or be
pushed around. Y ou don’ t need to have anybody victimizing you at all. Y ou
just refu se to participate in anything that’ s going to drag you down. Y ou
know yo u don’ t have to engag e in order to prove that you’re better than
somebody else. That wouldn’ t make you right, and it wouldn’ t  make them
wrong. When you understand where other people are, you don’ t need to be
drawn into conflict at all. Y ou can simply move on. If enough human beings shied away from disharmony—if we agreed that
it wasn’ t going to be a part of our lives anymore—imagine how much war
and conflict we could eliminate. LET GO OF JUDGMENT
Each and every one of us is part of the perfection of the univers e. W e are
all o n the same path, but each of us is on dif ferent places alon g that path. Once you understand this, it makes harmony that much easier. I heard an interview recently in which the hosts were putting down rock
music as being u ncivilized or barbaric. The fellow being intervi ewed was a
classical musici an who said, “W hen I was much younger, I loved rock. I
would play that stuf f real loud, and it would drive my family cr azy. Section summary: 

Please provide accurate summaries related to "Banisher", followed closely. **Section Summary:** You Can Experience Bliss Right Away

* We've misinterpreted winning $1000K per annum. True liberation lies elsewhere. Higher spirituality enables genuine happiness. Two essential truths emerge throughout history's teachings:
    * Thoughts govern realities ("You Are"). * Nothing defines individuals except oneself' ('no labels')

In terms of resolving issues effectively handle obstacles successfully :

     + Release internal mental states associated with negativity  
       • 'Release the sting': Recognise & acknowledge personal growth journey  

References [links] | Added date – Please add references properly formatted according citations].
Banishing doubt.
What is the first key to achieving heightened spiritual awareness, according to the author?
Practice cultivating the witness and focusing on the beauty in your life.
What is the author's recommendation for overcoming depression and anxiety?
To keep you believing in separation and separateness.
What is the ego's primary goal, according to the author?
To recognize that they are not a part of your true self and let them go.
What is the author's advice for dealing with negative thoughts and emotions?
That everything is connected and we are all one, and by recognizing this, we can eliminate conflict and live in harmony.
What is the author's message about the nature of the universe and human connection?