Customer Reviews

Wisdom of the Ages

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Being an avid advocate of ancient wisdom, I immediately felt a connection with Wayne Dyer. I first saw his videos on Public Television. His relaxed manner and deep wise voice immediately had my attention. When I heard about his new book: Wisdom of the Ages, I knew this was a book I would want to own.

Ancient wisdom is fascinating to me. It can teach us as much as it taught our ancestors so long ago. When I find a quote or a poem I feel a connection to, I collect it like a treasure. You know that you are learning something wise, something which is lost in the hurried twenty-first century.

Wayne Dyer has captured the wisdom from sixty great teachers. They come from various backgrounds, cultures and religions, yet their writings hold truth. These are the writings of highly imaginative, productive and perceptive individuals. If you appreciate poetry, quotes, and prose selections which inspire; you will thrive for sixty days as your soul grows in a new garden of awareness.

The words from our ancestral scholars hold keys to our own spiritual advancement. Wayne takes each portion of writing and unfolds the cocoon for us. He sets the butterflies of truth free to circle in our minds as we gaze on their beauty. He puts each piece of wisdom in the context of our lives today and gives a practical application.

These short essays will speak to your heart. Each section begins with a selection and the explanation follows. Wayne Dyer is a natural teacher who so effortlessly draws on his own collected wisdom and the experiences in his life that most fully represent his new lesson. He challenges the reader to make his book a two-month project in which you read one section a day and try to apply the principles you have absorbed.

As you read this great work, you will feel as though you have entered a unity of consciousness with the writers. Their world suddenly becomes yours, their lessons become a gift of enlightenment. Can pain in our lives help us to accent to a higher plane of acceptance? Can someone really make you unhappy without your consent? Can we turn anger over a situation in life into a peaceful and fulfilling solution? What are the six mistakes we all make?

Here you will learn how to stop giving your precious energy to things you don't believe in, how to find a quite place, or how to become more aware of that feeling of peace you so desire. While I don't believe I am God, I do believe God can show his love through us and his son can live in us. The voices I heard through the words of the sixty writers did not conflict with my own beliefs. They reinforced some of the wisdom I knew to be truth and taught me more about who I want to be. I have just taken the first few steps in the long journey into eternity.

If enlightenment means an immersion in and a surrounding of peace, you might just find it by applying the principles in this book.

A Sample Poem included in Wisdom of the Ages:

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You will also find the works of Pythagoras and Blaise Pascal, Buddha, Lao-tzu, Confucius, Patanjali, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Jesus of Nazareth, Epictetus, Omar Khayyam, St. Francis of Assisi, Jalaluddin Rumi, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Sir Edward Dyer, William Shakespeare, John Donne, John Milton, Kahlil Gibran, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hentry David Thoreau, Chief Seattle, Oren Lyons, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, Mother Teresa, Lewis Carroll and many, many more wise teachers.

~The Rebecca Review

I attended a lecture last year given by Dr. Dyer; and, I have to say that I was impressed. I had read some of his early self-help books. While they were okay for what they were, I found them lacking depth. This was a clearly deeper and more spiritual man. So, I bought the book. It was likewise deeper and more spiritual than those early works. Dyer presents topics and relevant quotes from sages of the ages. He then presents his ideas, observations, and sometimes examples from his own life as they relate to a given topic.

The book is thoughtful and well written. It didn't change my life. I'd already done that. I did, however, find the book delightful and spirit confirming.

I have read and listened to Wayne Dyer for about 5 years now. This book for me is like a 'reference manual'for the different situations in my life. Rather than reading it from cover to cover, I go to it for guidance. If I'm experiencing a lack of patience or some type of grief has entered my life, I turn to the appropriate section and see if it pertains to my situation and perhaps I can get a perspective on it. It's like,"What does Wayne have to say about this." I have a great respect for Wayne Dyer. His teachings have helped me in some of the most tramatic times in my life. He seems to help me make sense of it all,the positive and the negative.

The person who titled their review "This Book Left Me Baffled" dated March 28, 2000, is being a bit unfair to Mr. Dyer. His exact statement from the introduction to this book reads as follows: "As I wrote each of these essays, I looked at a portrait or photograph of the teacher I was highlighting and I would literally ask the individual, 'What would you like those of us here today to know?'---and I would listen and surrender. I allowed myself to experience their guidance and my writing became almost automatic. It may sound strange, but I actually felt the presence of those writers and poets with me as I wrote each of these sixty pieces." I personally don't see anything at all occult about this approach. Mr. Dyer did thorough research for each article, as he explains in the text of the book, and, in my opinion is simply stating that he was seeking inspiration before writing each essay. I highly recommend this book. Mr. Dyer has done a remarkable job of extracting gems of wisdom from 60 of the really great minds who came before us and explaining usually in 3-4 pages what he thinks they were trying to tell us. Buy the book. It's easy to read and worth the investment in time and money. I don't agree with everything he says, but he has certainly made me rethink some of my opinions.

WISDOM OF THE AGES left me baffled. Dyer's assertion that this came from "automatic writing" is a tad unbelievable. I am a Dyer Fan. Honestly, I enjoyed the earlier books such as YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT better than the "new age" titles of the past several years; however I have gained from some of those as well. But this one? Those of you who remember Dyer claiming the "seashore" story and throwing the fish in as his own - like it happened to him - when, in fact, it is an ages old story, will have reason to question the "automatic writing." There are SOME good things in this book - no doubt. There is also no doubt though that Wayne Dyer has made a steady progression from self-help to motivational to new age to the occult.....automatic writing? Wayne Dyer is still worth reading, but much of it one must, if you listen to his latest claims, take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Better choices: The title I mentioned above or some of his great audio series ala HOW TO BE A NO LIMIT PERSON.

I was upset to see that the ratings could only go up to 5...1,000 words could never truly express to you how much this book has influenced my life. Dr. Dyer captures the lessons and messages that our great minds and hearts through history dedicated their lives to teaching. He unites our world's greatest teachers from all different cultures and time periods, making this book suitable for anybody, no matter their sex, colour, religion, age. Dyer presents the reader with truth, enlightenment, and hope. He does sugar coat the bad things in life, like many self help books do, but rather let's the reader know that while times may be tough, we can conquer our trials, but the conquership begins within ourselves...While reading this book you feel yourself becoming each individual person quoted, as Dyer expands on their teaching and relates it to our own lives...If you do infact buy this book don't expect it stay in mint condition...My copy is already highlightena dn dogeared beyond recognition...if you open your heart, this book will truly transform yourself as it has mine...

I picked up this book early last year for my friend and I to go through together and discuss our insights and lessons learned from the readings.

We have not been disappointed.

Some of the readings appear to have been written in a hurry, with less deep thought.... But for the most part the readings are high quality, thought evoking, and focus on fairly familiar passages from wise people from across belief systems and traveling through time.

It was my first time realizing there really WAS an "Omar the Tentmaker" (I thought my brothers made him up to taunt me!) and I enjoyed remembering and reading Dyer's perspectives on St. Francis of Assisi, Patanjali, William Blake, Rumi and many others we admire in common.

I also suggest reading this title with at least one friend if not more. It is a great conversation starter and can easily drive an intentional, spiritual growth oriented discussion.

When i read this book of Wayne, i really feel my soul touching the authors that he named. I usually read it slowly, a chapter per night. Most of the chapters i read them with my closest friend Adriana shareing my reading by phone. Oh Gosh! Those phone calls! I'll never forget them. You can literaly change your life if you change your thoughts (as i explain in my book: "The force of the thoughts"), and you can change your thoughts by changing the information you choose for your mind. This book is a GREAT INFORMATION FOR YOUR MIND, that shurely, without any doubt, is gonna change your thoughts and then your life. Consecuently. This book is one of a kind, a book that you can read an enjoy it with a wonderful cup of coffe and a friend. You will love it.

Wisdom of the Ages; 60 Days to Enlightenment, by Wayne Dyer

Day one starts out with quotes that I live by:

"Learn to be silent.
Let your
Quiet mind
Listen and absorb."

- Pythagoras (580 BC - 500 BC)

"All Man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone."
- Blaise Pascal

It just gets better day by day. I forced myself to just read one chapter a day. Each chapter is either a quote or poem from a great historical figure and then Wayne discusses it for a few pages. The book is like a book club / discussion group in and of itself.

You will go back to the book again and again for both the quotes and Wayne's comments. This book belongs in your library!

By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate


My Blog:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston

I have always considered Wayne Dyer to be among the wisest teachers of our age. In this remarkable book he has taken the wisdom of several of history's greatest thinkers and interpreted their thoughts into good, solid advice for living well in today's world. You can read through "Wisdom of the Ages" in a single sitting, or take it in over the course of a few weeks -- one lesson at a time. I got a wonderful sense of sanity and serenity from this book and recommend it to all who could use some simplicity and peace in their lives.