Customer Reviews

There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I happened to pick up this book by chance. I thought of how bold the title was and it piqued my curiousity. You mean- there is a spiritual solution to EVERY problem? This is how we've been conditioned and Dyer challenges us to unlearn or readjust some ways of thinking. I feel encouraged to take inventory of my life and reapproach my problems and their true source. However, the real solution is within the spiritual beliefs themselves. The St. Francis prayer is the book's skeleton and because it's not a rule book of how to avoid going to hell, some may brand it as new age. I think if you believe in prayer and it's powers, then you are open enough to take something from it. However it's branded, I'm happy to have chanced upon this read. I don't expect any one book to be the one answer to all of my problems. As complex beings with unlimited potential, how could there be a fast food solution to our problems?
I particularly like his down to earth approach. So many times I've pictured in my mind, expecting the unwanted to happen and when it would, I'd say to myself, "told you so." Dyer helps us to see our powers and asks us if that if such can happen, can't anything happen? It's certainly refreshing and I'd suggest this to anyone who is open to the possibilities.

I found this an excellent book, however before you read this positive review, I will say that this is somewhat unrealistic. It's easy to say that mental and psychic abilities and mantras and mental visualizations are the reasons and cures to illnesses when you are a successful 6 digit author. Yet this book is very helpful in personal transformation in dealing with our circumstances and training our thinking to achieve peace and strength.

Dwyer starts his book five of Pantanjali aphorisms or steps to access spiritual direction in recognition of higher vibrational frequencies, realization of higher infinite spiritual force where we surrender ourselves in an empty mind from conceptions, exhibiting generosity and gratefulness, appreciation for the simplicity of life in a cheerful disposition. The solution is a change in thinking realizing a connection we have to a higher energy source or God, which ever you which to call or perceive it.

Here we must cease to identify our selves with our bodies and minds but rather part of a teleology or higher existence of spirit as a spiritual being in a human experience, to learn detachment from the false identification of ourselves as separate beings, now seeing ourselves as part of an infinite. When we identify with this higher spiritual self we can find an inner calmness that removes itself from the disturbances of our illusionary egos that try to convince us of a separateness. Like the calm universe, the force and power that holds the planets in orbit, the sun burning, this is the force that we must identify with and trust. It is an inner calm, peaceful recognition. It is our union with God or the infinite, whereas sin is our disunity in illusionary obstacles of this life that overwhelm us. This new identification empowers us from our union with a higher universal force.

Its all matter of energy. Lower frequency relates to negativity, problems and disunity, as in fear, anxiety, stress, depression and ego centricity, while the higher frequencies relate to spirit and harmonious movement toward unity, health and wholeness. The idea is that we can choose to stay connected to the higher spirit rather than the lower when we recognize the differences and make the necessary changes, by removing energy obstacles as in letting go, forgiving, moving away from other people that try to bring us down to negativity and so forth. Its adjusting our selves to tune into the higher frequencies which in turn give us the ability to express ourselves through such in guidance and serving others. We change our agenda from "what's in it for me" to "how can I serve. " By giving ourselves away we connect to the higher spirit which reverberates back to us in receiving.

It's a matter of giving our energy to the higher sources of serving, giving, generosity. We have to avoid giving our energy to all those that attempt to pull us down into their anger, gossip, so-called problems which bring us down. Our failure to let go, to forgive, to believe in our potentialities in appreciation and gratitude of what we have at this present moment rather than what we don't have and wish to receive. Most of our ingrained habits cause us to send our energy to what we don't want or like in a situation. The idea is to send our energy to what we want - as you think, so shall you be - the glass half empty verses the half full - we perceive as empty we get more empty, we perceive as full and we receive more full. In this Dwyer recommends positive self visualizations, an ancient technique that has enormous benefits. Our greatest illusion is defining ourselves from our pasts. Instead we must cease to look at the trail behind the boat and recognize that is the engine that runs the boat not the trail. And this is the case with us, it is not our pasts and personal history that define us but our present moment connection to the higher energy, God, calm-detached universal power that guides us into peaceful unity and harmonious solutions of inner peace.

To keep our energy fields uncontaminated and connected to the higher source, God, or universal power is to take care of our physical health and diet, visualizations for healing, ceasing to let anger and hate bring us down recognizing that all our disputes with others are not between us and them but between us and God or us and the universe or higher universal force. We have to try our best to refrain from environments of fear, as in areas of conflict, turmoil and negativity and gravitate to environments of love, nature, peaceful surroundings - this is about the areas of collective energy. Its what we think about, talk about and perceive as. We do the choosing.

Practicing awareness, recognizing the place you are in as holy, seeing the hidden beauty throughout the day in the scenery, the people, places and things you encounter. Letting go of the need to convince others of our ideas and opinions, silently content with our connection to a higher source. Our prayer is not asking for favors or changes in our circumstances, but rather changes from our attachments and energy deposits in lower frequencies of negativity to higher in service in our ability to forgive, to let go, to give over grasping and aversion, to recognize that prayer is our detachment from lower frequencies to higher calm, silent love that casts all fear aside. Fear is replaced with love and quiet harmonious peace, to the natural state of being.

We give up fighting our problems of disunity. When we fight against anything we join forces with that which created the problem in a counterforce. So we give our attention, our energy to what we positively believe in towards unity and peace. Stop fighting the negative and give our energy to working towards the positive. That is the way to achieve it. Let go, stop judging others, improving yourself from your former self. We slow down our minds from the chatter in our fight in analyzing and conquering over negativity and open our minds up with space from the higher frequencies or natural state of mind to take place.

Dwyer then applies the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi in our direction into instruments of peace to ourselves and others - how can I serve? Into choosing peace, refraining from negative challenges that our egos use to expend our energies, to meditate, to slow our mental chatter, practice thinking peace - we are what we think. To recognize the peacefulness of nature. Not to fight hate with hate, which remains at lower energy levels, but to sow love, cease revenge and retaliation. To recognize that hate from others are their very perceptions that bring them to this state. Love defuses this both in them, but mostly in us. We have to apply this both to ourselves and others, in letting the incident go, to direct our thinking away, to practice visualizations that portray love energy. If we are detached from our false ego identities then we can remove our selves personally from hate insults and remain as observers.

This book is based upon using the Prayer of St. Francis of Assissi as a road map to inner peace and enlightenment. Wayne Dyer is a talented writer and this is a worthy subject, but the principles that he discusses can't be put into practice overnight unless you already have the spiritual strengths of the Dalai Lama. However, if you focus on taking the small steps that are outlined first (such as developing a daily meditation practice), I think that this book can be quite helpful. There are also good chapters addressing issues such as Forgiveness and Dealing with Anger. The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars, was the fact that the book isn't a real page-turner and it was difficult to keep my interest high enough to keep reading. As such, it took me a couple of weeks of night-time reading to complete.

Albert Einstein once wrote that "Nothing Happens Until Something
Moves". Energy is defined as the speed of an individual energy
field. The greater the frequency-the faster the vibrations.
According to the author, vibration tensions get closest to the
spiritual domain. The book self directs us to stop giving energy
to things we don't really support. The author suggests that we
should create our own world in accordance with directed energies
toward worthy goals. A worthy goal is one where each of us has
a strong goal congruency. The author directs his attention to
our inner spiritual health and outer physical health.
Accordingly, he advises us to avoid toxins, outside irritants and things that detract substantially from our quality of life.
He identifies false identity with ignorance of facts.
Ultimately, the author seeks peacemakers who are at inner peace
with themselves and the world. According to the author, suffering
ends when we stop calling it suffering. The book has many important lessons directed toward the spiritual side. All of us
could benefit from some of the important precepts taught by
the author.

Having read several of Dr. Dyer's books in the past including 'Erroneous Zones' 'Pulling Your Own Strings' and others, I found this newest book by Dr. Dyer a real treat.In There's A Spiritual Solution to Ever Problem, Dr. Dyer draws from many spiritual traditions and especially from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Dr. Dyer helps us unplug from the material world and awaken to the divine within.I highly recommend this book. Another would be The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

At first glance, the title of Dyer's book suggests an overly simplistic work, a pabulum of new age nostrums to be dismissed before moving on to more serious scholarship. However, although at times Dyers overreaches and exaggerates, to the point of being a Pollyanna - a term he cheerfully embraces - his book is inspiring and filled with wisdom from saints and sages of many religions.

His astonishing, and no doubt commercially astute, title is based on two claims:

1. When one is thoroughly knowledgeable of the spiritual world, one will understand that all problems are concocted by the ego mind, based on the belief that it is separate from God (xvi)

2. "Spiritual" does not mean something separate and distinct from the physical world, but is inclusive of the physical world. Nor is "spiritual" synonymous with "religious." In contrast to religions' emphasis on orthodoxy, rules and historical scriptures, spirituality is "a way of making life work at a higher level of receiving guidance for solving problems." (10)

A spiritual solution to a problem, then, doesn't necessarily mean a non-physical solution, or an attempt to wish the problem away. Rather, the point of the b ok seems to be that our problems arise from our false identification of our "self" (ego) as separate from God; as a result of this mis-identification, we live in a near constant state of vexation.

Dyer uses the famous prayer of St. Francis to structure the second half of the book. In the first half he describes how the physical world is really all energy; the importance of ceasing to give energy to the things you don't believe in; how to keep y our energy field uncontaminated; and raising and maintaining your spiritual energy.

I found the book chalk full of inspiring wisdom, drawn from Dyer's experience and those of people he has known, as well as from traditional sources like The Bible, Bhagavad-Gita, and Ramana Maharshi. The book is refreshingly eclectic and ecumenical.

At times, as noted before, Dyers overreaches; like a revivalist preacher, he seems to want to paste a smiley face over all of life's suffering. His thinking becomes too pat, too neat, in a word, simplistic. For example, he says you will feel sad at times in life, and you should not deny those feelings. Yet in the same paragraph, he says since sadness is only a thought created by the mind that feels separate from God, it is an illusion. He has a formula: if it is not of God it is not real, and everything is of God, and all that is of God is good. "We can all agree that sadness, despair, disease, and hatred are not good." (250) I don't agree that sadness, per se, is not good. In fact many times sadness purifies the heart. I also don't buy his claim that sadness is "not part of the repertoire" of saints and sages. Even when their loved one's die? Did not even Jesus weep?

Since some sadness is part of every human life, and since it is normal to feel sad when we lose loved ones, it will not do to simply categorize it as "not good," and not of God. Sadness can purify us, if we let it. We don't want to become fixated or stuck in sadness, but neither should we want to pretend it away, and calling it an illusion is tantamount to just that. A few pages later (253), Dyer even admits that every experience of sadness provides "valuable lessons to learn and doors to open to higher spiritual awareness." So how can sadness be dismissed as "not good" then?

The world is real. Our egos are indeed illusory, which is another way of saying our sense of separation from God is illusory. But our emotions are real on their own level and should be accepted as such. Calling them illusions amounts to a form of denial. Better to accept them as they are and work to dissolve and/or transcend them via spiritual practice. Notwithstanding these caveats, this is an excellent, rousing book, packed with knowledge and written in plain, easily understood English.

All of these spiritual self help books can be helpful to some and not, to others. I have always regarded Wayne Dyer as a populizer. I have not heard much that is original from him but he has a good nose for digging out gems of wisdom from other sources and bringing them to the general public in a way that most people can relate to. This is a true service.
I admit, here, that I have not read many of his later books, read some of the early ones and have seen him many times on public tv.

I picked this up in the library and found a lot that was genuinely useful to me. Much of it was a rehash of what I'd heard elsewhere but put in a new way that stuck me differently. I like all of the illustrations of how he and others have put these principles to work.

At times, though, I felt he was just grinding out another book, cuz that's what he does. Maybe he just needs a better editor or maybe he's so popular now that they let him write whatever he wants to. I thought that he made some of the statements too blithely--like making things seem too easy. Like "affirm your faith over your doubt" "give up fighting your problems" "you cannot have God and have faith too." As one who has tried for a lifetime to live by such principles, I don't find it always that easy.

I will have to say that I do not believe that problems are illusions or can be treated as such, for that is treating the symptoms and not the cause. I think what Dr. Dyer is trying to say here is that we do tend to make too much ado about nothing. Dyer presents love, peace and hope in many different ways to reach many different people. He is sincere and his empathy with the human condition is real. I agree that God is from infinity a part of us, rather than trying to connect with him.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope and South State Street Journal.

Some times our plate is so full that it seems humanly impossible to keep going. So, if there's no way out,it's time to look for a spiritual solution. This writer is full of spiritual ideas that help pull one up by their own boot straps and keep going with a smile on their face, recognizing there's another way to tackle the issue! Love it!

In my search for more info on the law of attraction, I discovered the works of Wayne Dyer early last year. I've read many of his books, listened to his CDs and watched his movie "The Shift", all of which were very impressive. This 2001 book, "There's A Spiritual Solution To Every Problem," appears to be what I've needed to break new ground in moving into a newer level of awareness. Every book by Wayne Dyer that I read I exclaim is my favorite, but this one was much different in an astounding way. Don't neglect this one.