ers into fear. Fear
manufactur es a kind of parallel universe wher e the unr eal
seems r eal, and the r eal seems unr eal.
Love casts out sin or fear the way light casts out
darkness. The shif t from fear to love is a miracle. It doesn’t
ﬁx things on the earth plane; it addr esses the r eal sour ce of
our pr oblems, which is always on the level of consciousness.
The only r eal pr oblem is a lack of love. T o addr ess the
world’s pr oblems on any other level is a temporary palliative
—a ﬁx but not a healing, a tr eatment of the symptom but
not a cur e.
Thoughts ar e like data pr ogrammed into a computer,
register ed on the scr een of your life. If you don’t lik e what
you see on the scr een, ther e’s no point in going up to the
screen and trying to erase it. Thought is Cause; e xperience
is Eﬀect. If you don’t lik e the eﬀects in your life, you have to
change the natur e of your thinking.
Love in your mind pr oduces love in your life. This is the
meaning of Heaven.
Fear in your mind pr oduces fear in your life. This is the
meaning of hell.
A shif t in how we think about life pr oduces a shif t in how
we experience it. T o say, “ God, deliver me fr om hell,” means
“God, Deliver me fr om my fearful thinking.” The altar to God
is the human mind. T o “desecrate the altar ” is to ﬁll it with
non-loving thoughts.
Adam and Eve wer e happy until she “ate of the
knowledge of good and evil.” What that means is that
everything was perfect until they lear ned to close their
hearts, to say, “I love you if you do this, but not if you do
that,” or, “I accept this part of you, but not that part.”Closing our hearts destr oys our peace because it’s alien to
our natur e. It warps us and tur ns us into people we’r e not
meant to be.
Freud deﬁned neur osis as separation fr om self, and so it
is. Our r eal self is the love within us. It’s the “child of God.”
The fearful self is an impostor. The r eturn to love is the gr eat
cosmic drama, the personal jour ney fr om pr etense to self,
from pain to inner peace.
So then it might go lik e this, or at least it did for me. I’d
get myself into some ter rible mess, and I’d r emember that
all I needed was a miracle, ‘a shif t in per ception’. I’d pray,
“God, please help me. Heal my mind. Wher ever my
thoughts have strayed fr om love—if I’ve been contr olling,
manipulative, gr eedy, ambitious for myself—whatever it is,
I’m willing to see this diﬀer ently. Amen.”
So, the universe would hear that, and “ Ding!,” I’d get my
miracle. R elationship transfor med, situation healed. But
then I’d go back to the same kind of fearful thinking that
had gotten me down on my knees to begin with, and I’d
repeat the patter n. I’d get myself into some emotional car
crash, once again end up on my knees, once again ask God
to help me, and once again be r eturned to sanity and peace.
Finally, af ter a lot of r epetition of those embattled
scenarios, I said to myself, “Marianne. Ne xt time you’r e
down on your knees, why don’t you just stay there?” Why
don’t we stay in the r ealm of the answer, rather than always
returning to the r ealm of the pr oblem? Why not seek some
level of awar eness wher e we don’t create these pr oblems
for ourselves all the time? L et’s not just ask for a new job, a
new r elationship, or a new body. Let’s ask for a new world.
Let’s ask for a new life.When I was down on my knees completely, and I knew
what it meant to feel sincer ely humbled, I almost e xpected
to feel God’s anger or contempt. Instead, it was as though I
heard a gentle voice say, “ Can we start now?” Until that
point, I was hiding fr om my love, and so r esisting my own
life. The r eturn to love is not the end of life’s adventur e, but
the beginning. It’s the r eturn to who you r eally ar e.
OceanofPDF.comCHAPTER 3
You
“The Thought God holds of you is lik e a star,
unchangeable in an eter nal sk y.”

1. THE PERFECT Y OU
“Again—nothing you do or think or wish or mak e
is necessary to establish your worth.”
You ar e a child of God. Y ou wer e created in a blinding ﬂash
of creativity, a primal thought when God e xtended Himself
in love. Everything you’ve added on since is useless.
When Michelangelo was ask ed how he cr eated a piece of
sculptur e, he answer ed that the statue alr eady e xisted
within the marble. God Himself had cr eated the P ieta, David,
Moses. Michelangelo’s job, as he saw it, was to get rid of the
excess marble that sur rounded God’s cr eation.
So it is with you. The perfect you isn’t something you
need to cr eate, because God alr eady cr eated it. The perfect
you is the love within you. Y our job is to allow the Holy Spirit
to remove the fearful thinking that sur rounds your perfectself, just as e xcess marble sur rounded Michelangelo’s
perfect statue.
To remember that you ar e part of God, that you ar e loved
and lovable, is not ar rogant. It’s humble. T o think you ar e
anything else is ar rogant, because it implies you’r e
something other than a cr eation of God.
Love is changeless and ther efore so ar e you. Nothing that
you have ever done or will ever do can mar your perfection
in the eyes of God. Y ou’re deserving in His eyes because of
what you ar e, not because of what you do. What you do or
don’t do is not what deter mines your essential value—your
growth per haps, but not your value. That’s why God is
totally appr oving and accepting of you, e xactly as you ar e.
What’s not to lik e? You wer e not cr eated in sin; you wer e
created in love.
2. THE DIVINE MIND
“God has lit your mind Himself, and k eeps your
mind lit by His Light because His Light is what
your mind is.”
Psychologist Carl Jung posited the notion of the “collective
unconscious,” an innate mental structur e encompassing the
universal thought for ms of all humanity. His idea was that if
you went deeply enough into your mind, and deeply enough
into mine, ther e is a level we all shar e. The Course goes one
step further; if you go deeply enough into your mind, and
deeply enough into mine, we have the same mind. The
concept of a divine, or “ Christ” mind, is the idea that, at our
core, we ar e not just identical, but actually the same being.
“Ther e is only one begotten Son ” doesn’t mean thatsomeone else was it, and we’r e not. It means we’r e all it.
There’s only one of us her e.
We’re like the spok es on a wheel, all radiating out fr om
the same center. If you deﬁne us accor ding to our position
on the rim, we seem separate and distinct fr om one another.
But if you deﬁne us accor ding to our starting point, our
source—the center of the wheel—we’r e a shar ed identity. If
you dig deep enough into your mind, and deep enough into
mine, the pictur e is the same: at the bottom of it all, what
we ar e is love.
The wor d Christ is a psychological ter m. No r eligion has a
monopoly on the truth. Christ r efers to the common thr ead
of divine love that is the cor e and essence of every human
mind.
The love in one of us is the love in all of us. ‘Ther e’s
actually no place wher e God stops and you start,’ and no
place wher e you stop and I start. L ove is ener gy, an inﬁnite
continuum. Y our mind e xtends into mine and into everyone
else’s. It doesn’t stay enclosed within your body.
A Course in Miracles  likens us to ‘sunbeams’ thinking
we’re separate fr om the


 world
there are vast dif ferences, many dif ferent “sub-worlds,” depending on the
perceivers or creators of their respective worlds. Since all worlds are
interconnected, when collective human consciousness becomes
transformed, nature and the animal kingdom will reflect that
transformation. Hence the statem ent in the Bible that in the com ing age“The lion shall l ie down with the lamb.” This points to the poss ibility of
a completely dif ferent order of reality.
The world as it appears to us now is, as I said, lar gely a reflection of the
egoic mind. Fear being an unavoidable consequence of egoic delusion, it
is a wor ld dominated by fear. Just as the images in a dream are symbols
of in ner states an d feelings, so o ur collective reality is lar gely a symbolic
expression of fear and of the heavy layers of negativity t hat have
accumulated in the collective human psyche. W e are not separate from
our world, so when the majo rity of humans become free of egoic
delusion, this inner change will  af fect all of creation. Y ou will literally
inhabit a  new world. It is a shift in planetary consciousness. The strange
Buddhist saying  that every tree and every blade of grass will eventually
become enlightened points to the same truth. According to St. Paul, the
whole of creation is waiting for  humans to become enlightened. That is
how I interpret his saying that  “The created universe is wait ing with
eager ex pectation for God’ s sons to be revealed.” St. Paul goes on to say
that all of creation will becom e redeemed through this: “Up to the
present...the w hole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the
pangs of childbirth.”
What is being born is a new consciousness and, as its inevitable
reflection, a new world. This is also foretold in the New T estam ent Book
of Reve lation: “ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
But don ’ t confu se cause and e f fect. Y our primary task is no t to seek
salvation through creating a better world, but to awaken out of
identification wi th form. Y ou are  then no longer bound to this w orld, this
level of reality. Y ou can feel your roots in the Unmanifested an d so are
free of attachment to the manifested world. Y ou can still e njoy the
passing pleasure s of this world,  but there is no fear of loss anymore, so
you don’ t need to cling to th em. Although you can enjoy sensory
pleasures, the craving for senso ry experience is gone, as is the constant
search for fulfillment through psychological gratification, through
feeding the ego. Y ou are in touc h with something infinitely greater than
any pleasure, greater than any manifested thing.
In a way, you then don’ t need th e world anymore. Y ou don’ t even need it
to be dif ferent from the way it is.It is only at this  point that you begin to make a real contribution toward
bringing about a better world, toward creating a dif ferent order of reality.
It is only at this  point that you are able to feel true compassion and to
help oth ers at the level of caus e. Only those who have transce nded the
world can bring about a better world.
Y ou ma y remember that we talked about the dual nature of true
compassion, wh ich is awareness of a common bond of shared mortality
and immortality. At this deep level, compassion becomes healing in the
widest s ense. In that state, your healing influence is primarily based not
on doin g but on being. Everybody you come in contact with will be
touched by your presence and af fected by the peace that you emanate,
whether they are conscious of it or not. When you are fully present and
people around you manifest unconscious behavior, you won’ t feel the
need to react to it, so you don’ t give it any reality. Y our peace is so vast
and deep that anything that is not peace disappears into it as if it had
never ex isted. This breaks the karmic cycle of action and reaction.
Animals, trees, flowers will feel  your peace and respond to it. Y ou teach
through being, through demonst rating the peace of God. Y ou become the
“light of the wo rld,” an emanation of pure consciousness, an d so you
eliminate suf feri ng on the level of cause. Y ou eliminate unconsc iousness
from the world.
This do esn’ t me an that you m ay not also teach through doin g — for
example, by pointing out how to disidentify from the mind, recognize
unconscious patterns within on eself, and so on. But who you ar e  is
always a more vital teaching a nd a more powerful transformer of the
world than what you say, and more essential even than what you do.
Furthermore, to recognize the primacy of Being, and thus wor k on the
level of cause, does not exclude the possibility that your compassion may
simultaneously m anifest on the level of doing and of ef fect by alleviating
suf fering whenever you come across it. When a hungry person asks you
for b read and yo u have some, yo u will give it. But as you give the bread,
even though your interaction may only be very brief, wh at reall y matters
is this moment o f shared Being, of which the bread is only a symbol. Adeep healing takes place within  it. In that moment, there is no giver, no
receiver.

But ther e shouldn’ t be any hunger and starvation in the first place. How
can we cr eate a better world without tackling evils such as hunger and
violence first?

All evils are the effect  of unco nsciousness. Y ou can a lleviate the ef fects
of uncon sciousness, but you cannot eliminate them unless you eliminate
their cause. T rue change happens within, not without.
If yo u feel called upon to alleviate suf fering in the world, that is a very
noble th ing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on t he outer;
otherwise, you will encounter frustration and despair. W ithout a
profound change in human consciousness, the world’ s suf fering is a
bottomless pit. So don’ t let your compassion become one-sided.
Empathy with someone else’ s pa in or lack and a desire to help need to be
balanced with a deeper realizatio n of the eternal nature of all life and the
ultimate illusion  of all pain. Then let your peace flow into what ever you
do and you will be working on the levels of ef fect and cause
simultaneously.
This also applies if you are su pporting a movement designed to stop
deeply unconscious humans from destroying themselves, each other, and
the planet, or from continuing to inflict dreadful suf fering on other
sentient beings. Remember: Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you
cannot f ight unc onsciousness. If  you try to do so, the polar opposites will
become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. Y ou will become
identified with one of the polari ties, you will create an “enemy,” and so
be drawn into unconscious ness yourself. Raise aware ness by
disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance.
But ma ke sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no
negativity. “Lov e your enemies,” said Jesus, which, of course, means
“have no enemies.”Once you get in volved in working on the level of ef fect, it is all too easy
to lo se yourself in it. Stay alert and very, very present. The cau sal level
needs to  remain your primary fo cus, the teaching of enlightenment your
main purpose, and peace your most precious gift to the world.CHAPTER TEN
T H E  M E A N I N G  O F
 S U R R E N D E R
ACCEPT ANCE OF THE NOW
Y ou mentioned “surr ender” a few times. I don’ t like that idea. It sounds
somewhat fatali stic. If we alway s accept the way things ar e, we ar e not
going to  make any effort to imp r ove them. It seems to me what pr ogr ess
is al l about, bot h in our person al lives and collectively, is not to accept
the limitations of the pr esent bu t to strive to go beyond them and cr eate
something better. If we hadn’ t done this, we would still be living in caves.
How do you r ec oncile surr ender  with changing things and getting things
done?

T o some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying
defeat, g iving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, b ecoming
lethar gic, and so on. T rue surrender, however, is something entirely
dif ferent. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation
you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean  to cease
making plans or initiating positive action.
Surrender is


 Western physician, a vaidya does not
ask, “When was the last time this happened?” “Where exactly do you feel
it?” “How long has it been hurting?” and so on. Instead, a vaidya’ s
questions are geared toward confirming the preliminary findings. Therefore,
you can expect the vaidya to ask, “Have you been attending too many
parties lately?” “Have you been suffering from constipation?” “Are you
feeling overstressed these days?” Whereas a Western physician is likely to
ask, “How long have you had this problem?” a vaidya is likely to ask,
“Have you had this problem for the last two weeks?” The vaidya is able to
assess the duration and extent to which a person has been suffering based
on how much ama he senses in a person’ s system.
Fascinating, aren’t they, the vaidya’ s subtle methods? Each time I pick
up an Agatha Christie novel, ace sleuth Hercule Poirot reminds me of the
vaidyas I have met over the years. Poirot was able to piece together the
puzzle of a murdered woman using such seemingly meaningless clues as abroken mirror, a piece of blotti ng paper, and the remains of a fire in the
grate!
restoring the balance
Not only does the vaidya cull information about you as a whole,  but the line
of treatm ent is also designed toward treating you as a whole. This is why
the vaidya does not give you medicines that show results within twenty-four
hours or administer shots to take care of your flu or phlegm. What the
vaidya does is to offer you some simple, solid advice on how to live more
healthfully. A consultation with a vaidya usually consists of guidelines on
regulating your mealtimes, making changes in your diet, and getting a better
quality of sleep. In addition, you might be advised to explore the
tremendous healing powers of yoga, meditation, aromather apy, music
therapy, and home-architecture therapy (called Vastu — an older cousin of
feng shui). And,  yes, a vaidya will give you some gentle herbal medication
if that is appropriate.
Vaidyas like to start by talking about your diet. Their recommendations
on good  nutritio n are often so simple that you might wonder if they are
taking your disease seriously enough. But remember: the vaidya is trying to
correct an imbalance. And most imbalances, according to Ayurvedic theory,
originate when the digestion process is not functioning as it should.
We all know how it feels when work forces us to miss or delay a meal,
or after we give in to our taste buds and indulge in a big chunk of cream
pie. Those feelings — ranging from weakness to bloatedness — are our
body’ s signals that the metabolic system is under stress. A vaidya doesn’ t
even need to ask if you’re feeling any of those things, instead perceiving
your body’s signals through observation and touch. Based on the strength of
those signals, the vaidya will tell you which aspect of your food intake you
need to improve: the quality, quantity, timing, or all of these.
Yes, vaidyas do make specific recommendations about what to eat and
what to avoid. This can, unde rstandably, worry some people. As Mark
Twain said, “He had much experience of physicians, and said, ‘The only
way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’tlike, and do what you’d rather not.’” Relax. A vaidya will give you a
variety of ingredients to choo se from. If the vaidya asks you to eat
rutabagas and you don’ t relish them, just say so; there are other options.
Another word of advice: Don’ t take a vaidya’ s recommendations as
absolutes. In my early days of trying Ayurvedic therapy, I went berserk
trying to get exactly the amount of fennel and coriander in my diet that the
vaidya had suggested. I soon realized, however, that Ayurveda is not about
following lists. It is designe d to awaken your body’ s own healing
intelligence by giving it positive support. Therefore, as long as I was getting
coriander in my diet and eating a regular breakfast, I was on the right track.
During a consultation with a vaidya, questions are bound to occur to
you: “Why is cardamom good for me and not cloves? Why do I need to
avoid ketchup? I wonder why he asked me to cut down on my workout — I
thought working out was the best thing I could do for my health!” Don’ t be
afraid to ask questions and seek clarification. Some vaidya s are good
communicators; others might refrain from explaining the concepts of
Ayurveda becau se they don’t want to overwhelm you. But if you ask, they
will willingly explain. Sometim es language can be a barrier, too; though a
vaidya practicing in Europe or America will know basic Englis h, an accent
can be hard to understand at first.
This is where reading a good basic guide on Ayurveda will help you
tremendously (see the resource section at the end of this book). Armed with
some background knowledge, you’ll be able to understand the reasoning
behind much of what the vaidya says — and then you can ask more specific
questions.
A session with a vaidya, then, is no doubt an interesting experience. But
even more fascinating than the vaidya’ s methods are the principles on
which the diagn osis is based. Can you imagine, for instance, that a vaidya
taking your pulse is feeling the energies of fire, earth, water, air, and space
coursing through  your veins? Tantalizing, isn’t it? Wait until you hear more
— in the next chapter.
take your own pulseAlthough pulse diagnosis is a specialized art, it can be reward ing
to try to understand the rhythm of your own pulse from time to
time. You can take your pulse anytime during the day. Your pulse
will feel dif ferent at dif ferent times.
•  If you’re male, take the pulse on your right wrist.
•  If you’re a female, take the pulse on your left wrist.
•  Use three fingers — the index, middle, and ring fingers — to
press down on your pulse.
•  Feel your pulse. How would you describe it? Light, rapid, slow,
or jerky?
Your familiarity  with the rhythm of your pulse can help you
understand your current state of health, but a vaidya is the best person
to help guide you on how to interpret your pulse-signals. With practice
and guidance from your vaidya, you will be well equipped to regularly
monitor your current state of health and, in turn, you will grow to
know and understand the unique rhythms of your pulse-signals.
OceanofPDF.comBCHAPTER 4
“elementary” ayurveda
Who in the world am I?
Ah! That’ s the gr eat puzzle.
— Lewis Carroll
efore writing this chapter, I asked three people to answer a question:
What image does the word “fire” conjure up for you?
The answers I got were:
•  A burning forest.
•  A firefighter in action.
•  An erupting volcano.
While all of these are perfectly valid answers, my purpose in asking this
question was to show you how differently a vaidya looks at an element of
nature. To the vaidya, fire is the light in your eye, the heat that digests your
food, the freckle on your face, the creative ener gy of your brain.That is how the vaidya perceives each of the five elements of nature —
earth, fire, air, water, and ether — in the context of its relationship to you.
To the vaidya, these elements control every single activity within your
being, from breathing and circulation to waste elimination and thinking.
What’ s more, the vaidya believes that, just as our universe cannot exist
without these elements inside it, you too cannot live without them. Quite
simply, the person you call you is but a sum of the five elements of nature.
You might think that this is a fascinating, if somewhat overly romantic,
way to look at life — at least until you study the theory a bit more deeply
and realize how stunningly logical it is.
Throughout life, you have probably understood yourself through the
perspective of modern biology: digestion is chemicals breaking  down solid
food matter, the blush on your cheeks is actually a rush of blood, and the
sweat on your skin is the body ’s way of eliminating waste; hepatitis is a
disease of the liver, and nephritis is a kidney disorder; heart attacks happen
because cholesterol chokes the arteries.
Now, just for a while, look at yourself with a fresh pair of eyes. Forget
the voca bulary of cells, tissues, and organs. Imagine yourself as an intense,
bubbling cauldron of life — inside of which the five elements merge and
flow. Imagine your aches, pains, and other health problems as being the
result not of indisposed organs,  but of the up-and-down swings  of the five
restless


ents employed in perfuming Chinese teas.
Among ritual perfumes incense sticks were prom inent. In
Taoist temples incense burning is a central rite and tracesof its ancien t alchemical connections can be seen in the
name of those who attend the burners or the altar
—‘furnace masters.’ Incense also has magic qualities in
that it dispels evil spirits and other undesirable entities
such as wandering ghosts and prevents them from
interfering in either religious or social rites or in
alchemical experiments. Incense sticks are an essential
part of divination, especially when consulting the I Ching.
Other uses were as timing devices for alchemical
experiments and for fumigation. Incense has always been
employed in puriﬁcation and as a homage to divinities; it
suggests the ‘subtle body’ rising as a spiritual substance
and a ‘perfume that deiﬁes.’ It is also ch'i and symbolically
the principle of change. The smoke rising upwards forms
an axis mundi  betw een the two worlds and carries
messages and prayer heavenwards; it is a combination of
ﬁre and air, symbolizing the power of both, but especially
the former in alchemy.
Books can also work magic. The Chinese have always
had a great reverence for books and printed matter. (As a
child one's amahs would  never allow a book to lie on the
ﬂoor or be dropped. They could not read the books or
know their trivial nature, but they were printed and
therefore to be revered.) Classics must be wrapped in silk
and stored in a ‘puriﬁed place’ and ‘whenever anything is
done about them one must ﬁrst announce it to them, as
though you were serving a sovereign father.’ If certain
classics are kept in a house they will ‘banish evil and
hateful ghos ts, soften the eﬀects of epidemics, block
calamities and rout misfortunes.’ It also helps to give a
sick person, or a woma n in labour, a certain classic to
hold. In building a new house or preparing a tomb, copies
of the ‘Earth August Text’ should be taken to the site; the
household will then become rich and prosperous, the
grave protected from robbers and ghosts. Some scrollsenable people to change sex, age or character, to produce
miraculous food, change into birds or animals, or raise
wind, rain or snow.
Talismans and amulets are universally employed to ward
oﬀ evil spirits. Peach stones, as the kernel of the fruit of
immortality, are particularly eﬀicacious and are frequently
carved into apotropaic forms, such as a ﬁgure of a hsien  or
of a Buddha, while peac h wood is used for the pen in
automatic writing. Swords made of cash linked together by
red thread work magic in cutting oﬀ demons and the cash
sword is used in rites of exorcism. The red thread is in
itself eﬀectiv e and red and yellow are used to bring luck
and ward oﬀ evil on all occasions. Yellow and red paper is
employed for charms, as being also the colours of gold and
cinnabar. Bells, too, are used in magic and eﬀectively
scare oﬀ evil spirits; for this purpose they were often hung
from the points of temples or pagodas.
The seal of Lao Tzu, an all-powerful talisman and
bringer of good fortune, worn by mediums.
Mirror magic is widespread. Mirrors can be used for
summoning gods and genii, but in this case it is important
to know the names and the types of clothes worn by each,
otherwise one might fail to recognize him or her on arrival
and so cause considerable umbrage, with potentially
disastrous results. Mirrors enable the shaman andmagician to see things far oﬀ and to ﬁnd things which are
lost; they also reveal the true nature of the person; for
example, if, when one is approached by a supernatural
person, one looks into a mirror, a fox or a tiger may be
reﬂected masquerading as a human. The ‘burning mirror’
could create ﬁre and was yang;  the ‘dew mirror’ collected
dew at night called ‘moon water’ and was yin. Mirror
magic was also used in the West to hold over herbs
collected for alchemical purposes; the plants had to be
picked before sunrise, under a waning moon, and the
process required the person to be ‘barefoot,  chaste,
ungirded and wear no ring.’ One can also divine from sun
or moon rays reﬂected in a mirror or water.
As can be seen from this, herbs are subject to both
astrological and magical inﬂuences and gathering them
demanded an exact knowledge of times and seasons; this,
again, obtained in eastern and western alchemy. In the
West instructions were given for ﬁnding one's guiding star,
which involved the herb being gathered at the right time,
in a state of purity, kept in linen, with a whole grain of
wheat from a loaf of bread, then placed under the pillow.
After prayers  are said to the seven planets, repeated seven
times, one's guiding star will be revealed in sleep. Magic
also enters when one is instructed to make a circle round
the herb, using gold, silver or ivory, the tooth of a wild
boar or the horn of a bull.A cash sword
Messages and instructions could be received from the
spirit world and from hsien  through automatic writing,
which was known to have been used in early Sung times. It
was said that the Immortal Tung Pin, after invocation,
communicated through a willow stick held by a blindfolded
person over a tray of sand. This method of commu nication
is of considerable interest since it is still in use today. Thewillow or peach stick, or pencil, can be held by one
blindfolded, or it is supported on the upturned palms of
the medium's hand, a position in which no muscular
control can be exerted. The pencil appears to assume a life
of its own, characters are formed in the sand and
interpreted either as messages or alchemical instructions.
Even books could be so transmitted: the Secret of the
Golden Flower  was reputed to have been written in this
way.
As in all things Chinese, absolute courtesy must be
observed. A spirit summoned to give aid is oﬀered a chair
to sit on and asked to give his honourable name and to
identify himself by enumerating his august titles and the
period of history he honoured with his presence. The spirit
is bowed to and ritually thanked for help given; in return
he depreciates his eﬀorts and thanks the company for
their invitation.
There were endless schools of magicians, soothsayers,
horoscopists, geomancer s and those who watched the
heavens for portents. There was a huge trade in talismans
and charms and, on the less magical side, there also
existed a science of physiognomy which studied physical
features and characteris tics, but also drew from them
conclusions as to the fate of the individual.
Associated with both ch'i and magic was the practice of
geomancy, known as feng-shui, literally wind-and-water. It
was the scien ce of favourable conditions, climatic, physical
and of the spirit world and was used in locating the right
situations for temples, houses, graves, or the best places
for business transactions. The abodes of both the living
and the dead had to be in harmony with the cosmic
currents and the breath of Nature, the ch'i of the earth. It
required the oﬀices of diviners, known as ‘professors of
divination,’ the geomancers, to determine favourable
situations which must also be governed by the yin-yangfeatures of the scene. For this the geomantic compass was
used. At the centre of the instrument there is a mariners'
compass, an early Chinese invention, the ‘South pointing
needle,’ also called the Tai Chi. The sixteen successive
circles round the compass depict, ﬁrst, the pa kua, then
the twenty-four celestial constellations and after that the
various numerical and occult calculations based  on the
sexagenary cycle, the constellations and the Twelve
Terrestrial Branches. Naturally, favourable sites, times and
seasons also aﬀected the times and places for alchemical
experiments.Talisman of one hundred forms of the character shou:
Longevity.
The ability to work magic is not, according to K o Hung, a
special endowment but is acquired through learning from
Masters and taking elixirs. These individuals were not
born with the knowledge of these things: ‘It is thought that
the divine process canno t be acquired through study so I
would remind you of bodily metamorphoses, sword
swallowing, ﬁre eating, disappearing at will, raisin g cloudsand vapours, snake charming, walking on knife blades
without being cut.’ In another passage he wrote: ‘Narrow


Dear God,
I feel that I have failed.
I feel that all my efforts have come to naught.
I feel shame at the way my life has turned out.
I do not know what to do or wher e to go.
Please, dear God, r epair my heart,
Heal my mind, and change my life.
Pave a way for me out of darkness into light.
I atone for my err ors, and I pray for for giveness.
Please do for me what I cannot do.
Thank you, God.
Amen.DA Y 362
I  s u r r e n d e r  t o  G o d  m y  w o r k  i n  t h e  w o r l d.
T o the ego mind, surrender means giving up. T o the spiritual mind,
surrender means  giving in and receiving. Once I’m there, inside the holy
place where all is inner riches, the outer gold of worldly prosperity
appears in a miraculous way. It comes inviting me to use my wealth
responsibly and to share it generously, as the universe so shared it with
me.
As G od so clothes the lilies in th e field, He will surely clothe me. He
asks that I extend to others the blessing and protection He has poured
upon me, that His love might flow forth in an endless stream of miracles.
Dear God,
I surr ender to Y ou who I am, what I have, and what I do.
May my life and talents be used in whatever way serves Y ou best.
I surr ender to Y ou my failur es and any pain still in my heart.
I surr ender to Y ou my successes and the hopes that they contain.
May the light of Y our love shine deep within my heart
And extend thr ough me to bless the world.
Amen.DA Y 363
I  d e d i c a t e  m y  t a l e n t s  t o  G o d.
T hat w hich is pro actively placed in the service of love is protected  from
the grips  of fear. That which is proactively placed in the service of deep
sanity is protected from the grip s of neurosis. That which is pr oactively
placed i n the service of what i s good, holy, and beautiful is protected
from the forces of destruction.
T oday, I take myself, my work, and the God within me seriously—
dedicate myself  daily, hourly, even moment by moment t o love’ s
purposes—and t he ego won’ t ha ve a chance. It knows a holy m ind when
it sees one.
Dear God,
I dedicate to Y ou my talents and abilities.
May they be used in a way that serves Y our purposes.
I surr ender to Y ou my business and finances.
May my work be lifted to its highest possibility,
As a blessing on all the world.
Amen.DA Y 364
FOR REFLECTION
O n  t h e  M i r a c l e  o f  F o r g i v e n e s s
I t’ s fairly easy to stay loving and serene when others always act t he way
you wan t them to, but that’ s n ot a realistic picture of life. Everyone’ s
imperfect, everyone’ s wounded, and most of us have been s omewhat
scathed at one time or another by the casual cruelty of others.
For giveness involves faith in a love that’ s greater than hatred, and a
willingness to see the light in someone’ s soul even when their
personality harbors darkness. For giveness doesn’ t mean that someone
didn’ t act horribly; it simply me ans that we choose not to focus on their
guilt. In focusing on it, we make  it real to us, and in making it real to us,
we make it real for  us. The only way to deliver ourselves from
vulnerability to other people’ s b ehavior is by identifying with th e part of
them that lies be yond their bodies. W e can look beyond others’ behavior
to th e in nocence in their souls. In doing so, we not only free them from
the weight of our condemnation, but we free ourselves as well.
That is the miracle of for giveness.DA Y 365
T h e  p o w e r  t o  w o r k  m i r a c l e s  i s  m y  n a t u r a l
i n h e r i t a n c e.
A s a child  of God, I am entitled to the riches my Father bestows o n me:
the miracles that occur when my mind is attuned to love.
In remembering who He is, and who I am, I remember the power
within me. This is not a power  to merely fix things. It is the power to
transform the world. May I use my power with magnanimity and grace,
to work miracles wherever I am.
Dear God,
I r eceive the gift Y ou have bestowed on me
T o work miracles on Y our behalf.
May my mind so serve Y our purposes
That in time we come to co-cr eate
A heaven her e on earth.
And so it is.
Amen.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T hanks to all the marvelous pe ople who helped me put this  book
together. It was a sweet, meaningful experience bringing all our hearts
and creative talents to the ef fort.
My abiding thanks to...
Mickey Maudlin, for steering my literary ship with calm and
creativity. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to deliver my w ords into
such capable hands.
Ellis Levine, for literary cou nsel, constant back-and-forths, and
always-sage advice.
T ammy V ogslan d, for keeping my material world in right order. And
that is no joke.
Kathryn Renz, Lisa Zuniga, T erri Leonard, and Michele W etherbee,
for all their exce llence in taking a manuscript and turning it into a book;
and Claudia Boutote, Laina Adler, Amy V anLangen, and Melinda
Mullin, for letting the world know about it. Also, Jeremy Cowart and
David Kaufman, for the beauty they brought to the process.
Mark T auber, for publishing my work. Thank you for the honor.
Lesley Silverman, for generous and impeccable assistance with the
manuscript. It’ s a better book because you were at my side.
Frances Fisher, W endy Zahler, and David Kessler, for the bles sings
of friendship. I cannot thank you enough.
India W illiamson, for being the daughter of my dreams.
T o all of you, my abiding gratitude. This book carries your love, as
well as mine, out into the world.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON  is an internationally acclaime d author
and lect urer. Six of her ten published books have been New Y ork T imes
bestsellers. Her books include A R eturn to Love, The Law of Divine
Compensation, T he Age of Miracles, A Course in W eight Loss, Everyday
Grace, A W oman’ s W orth, Illuminata, and The Gift of Change. Marianne
has been  a popular guest on television programs such as The Oprah
W infr ey Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Charlie
Rose. V isit her online at www.marianne.com.
Reading these daily morsels of wisdom will help you stay focused,
hopeful, and centered—and open your eyes to all the ways God  wants to
help and bless you. Expect a miracle every day!
V isit www.AuthorT racker.com  for exclusive information on your
favorite HarperCollins authors.BACK AD
Books by Marianne W illiamson
A Return to Love
The Gift of Change
The Law of Divine Compensation
A Y ear of MiraclesCREDITS
Front cover design: Barb LeV an Fisher
Photography: Jeremy CowartCOPYRIGHT
A YEAR OF MIRACLES : Daily Devo tions and  Reflections. C opyrigh t © 2013 by Marianne
W illiamson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright C onventions.
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FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
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;
the mind and its messen ger molecules are automatically
and perfectly matched. But this process can break down,
and then the resulting confusion is like running twoprograms on the same computer—when the input is
scrambled, it is no wonder that the printout, your body,
becomes garbled. For example, one of the most ambiguous
drugs ever devised is V alium.
Valium belongs to a class of chemicals called
benzodiazepines, which are used as both tranquilizers and
sleeping pills. These substances were greeted in their day
as revolutionary. Their predecessors, the barbiturates, had
many notorious drawbacks: they were highly addictive;
they induced  poor-quality  sleep because they blocked REM,
or dream sleep; and overdoses could prove fatal. Valium
and its relatives, on the other hand, produced better sleep
with less hangover, were  much harder to overdose on, and
at ﬁrst seemed nonaddictive. At the height of its imme nse
popularity, Valium was said to account for one-quarter of all
new prescriptions written in America.
Now it is known that Valium is itself addictive, that it
produces sleep irregular ities of its own (interfering with
the third and fourth stages of deep, dreamless sleep), and
that serious withdrawal symptoms occur after prolonged
use. If you look at the level of the receptors on the cell wall,
none of this is surprising, because Valium acts by
outcompeting the body’s own neurochemicals and taking
over their receptor sites. This kind of interference would
perhaps be advantageous if Valium competed only with the
neuropeptides responsib le for causing the feelings of
anxiety (called octadeca neuropeptides). But the calming
eﬀect of the drug does not come by itself; Valium confuses
the nervous system as a whole. Moreover, it was recently
discovered that the monocytes of the immune system also
are attracted to Valium. So when a doctor gives what he
thinks is a sleeping pill or a tranquilizer, he is aﬀecting the
immune system at the same time, adding more confusion at
the level of the receptors.No one knows if this has caused any harm, largely
because the ﬁnding about  the immune system is too new. In
all likelihood, we will discover that nature has already
provided our bodies with an exact internal analogue to
Valium, which means that we are clumsily reproducing
something that already exists in nearly perfect form. If I
ask myself whether I like the idea of plugging the same
chemical into my immune cells every day, in the
indiscriminate fashion that Valium was doled out to millions
of patients, primarily women, for thirty years, the answer is
obvious.
The immune cells have a reason for each receptor; they
use them to think, act, perceive, and respond in precise
ways. A person uses the same two eyes to view the whole
world; a cell, however, has a diﬀerent eye for each thing it
needs to see. In other words, a constantly ﬁlled receptor
renders the cell blind to one speciﬁc thing. At a time when
the incidence of many cancers, such as breast cancer, is
still rising, sending unkn own messages into the immune
system seems very risky.
—
Currently there is a “chem ical revolution” under way in the
treatment of mental disease, and it seems as miraculous as
Valium did thirty years ago. Doctors now widely give their
mental patients mind-altering, or psychotropic, drugs to
clear up the overt symptoms of their sickness, mainly
depression, mania, and hallucinations. The symptoms are
often relieved, sometimes quite dramatically and suddenly,
although many patients cannot tolerate the mental
numbness and fatigue that are common side eﬀects (not
that the side eﬀects are simple: certain antidepressants can
make the patient’s depression worse for the ﬁrst few
weeks, or swing it in the opposite direction until it turns
into wild mania).Critics of drug therapies call them “chemical lobotomies”
and charge that they strip the patient of his huma n dignity.
Doubtless there are many abuses, particularly in large,
understaﬀed public hospitals for the insane. It takes very
careful ﬁne-tuning to stabilize the correct dosage of any
psychotropic drug, and horror stories abound of depressed
patients who reacted so badly to their medication that they
committed suicide rather than endure the cure. Still, the
success in this ﬁeld impli es that drugs will be used to cure
schizophrenia and depression altogether, if not today, then
in the future.
A “cured” schizophreni c does not yet exist through
chemical means. This is because there is more to being
normal than not having hallucinations. Once you suppress a
schizophrenic’s bizarre visions or the strange voices he
hears in his head, you do not ﬁnd a normal person facing
you, but a shell. Altering the chemical level of dopamine,
even if it could be done a hundred times better than it is
done today, will not lead to a cure. The reason is contained
in the lesson learned from the neurotransmitters
themselves: for every chemical breakthrough, there is also
a chemical barrier.
The good news about neurotransmitters is that they are
material. A thought, whether sane or mad, is hard to grasp
because it is so intangi ble; it is not something you can
touch or feel. The neurotransmitters, however, are certainly
tangible, although they are extremely tiny and often short-
lived. It is the neurotransmitter’s role to match up with a
thought. To do that, its molecules must be just as ﬂexible as
thoughts, just as ﬂeeting, elusive, changeable, and faint.
Such ﬂexibility is a kind of miracle but also a curse, in
that it throws  up a barrier that is almost impossibl e to pass.
No man-made drug can duplicate this ﬂexibility, either now
or in the foreseeable future. No drug actually pairs up with
a thought. This is apparent just by looking at the structureof the receptor. Receptors are not ﬁxed: they have been
accurately described as looking like lily pads that have
ﬂoated up from the depth of the cell. Like lily pads, their
roots sink downward, reaching the cell’s nucleu s, where
the DNA sits. DNA deals in many, many  kinds of messages,
potentially an inﬁnite number. Therefore, it makes new
receptors and ﬂoats them up to the cell wall constantly.
There is no ﬁxed number of receptors, no ﬁxed
arrangement on the cell wall, and probably no limit to what
they are tuned in to. A cell wall can be as barren of lily
pads as a pond in winter, or as crammed as one in full
ﬂower in June.
The only thing constant about a receptor is its
unpredictability. Researchers recently discovered, for
example, that a neurotransmitter called imipramine is
produced abnormally in the brains of depressed people.
While looking for the distribution of imipramine receptors,
they were startled to ﬁnd them not just on the brain cells
but on skin cells. Why should the skin create receptors for
a “mental molecule”? What did these skin receptors have to
do with depression?
One plausible answer is that a depressed person is
depressed everywhere—he has a sad brain, sad skin, sad
liver, and so on. (Likewise, researchers have examined
patients who complain of feeling jittery all the time and
discovered abnormally high levels of two chemicals,
epinephrine and norepinephrine, in their brains and
adrenal glands. However, high concentrations were then
found in their blood platelets, meaning that they had
“jittery blood cells,” too.)
It has been frustrating for doctors to realize how complex
the whole business is becoming. Hopes for a quick cure of
schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and
other disorde rs were dashed in the mid-1970s, just a few
years after the original endorphins had been isolated in1973. Now the chemical barrier is stronger than ever, as
the true ﬂexibility of the messenger molecules is being
divined.
—
Thinking about this probl em, I have to ask myself a deeper
question: Can a drug really exorcise the ghost of memory?
My medical experience says no—I have seen too many
depressed patients who were “cured” by drugs and yet who
still radiate a feeling of hollow sickness. Instead of trusting
drugs, one needs to ﬁnd out how the patient’s sick memory
got into his chemical system to begin with. For it is
absolutely clear that the nonmaterial memory is there. It
may be taking a ride on a molecule, but its life does not
depend on that. The following case serves as an example.
Walter grew up on the streets of south Boston in the late
1960s; he felt the edge of hatred that greeted black people
who moved into that neighborhood. To escape this and the
poverty that had dogged  him all his life, Walter joined the
Army at 18. Within six months he


 your
health provider to make certain there are no contraindications to  starting anunsupervised exercise program, such as heart disease, severe obesity, or
limiting arthritis.
At the beginnin g of your progr am, aim to reach a tar get exercise heart
rate between 50 and 60 percent of your MHR. Choose 60 percent if you are
in reasonably good shape and 50 percent if you are not or if it’ s been a long
time since you’ve performed any cardiovascular activity.
At a ge fifty, this  is calculated to be 85 to 102 beats per minute (50% of
170 = 85; 60% of 170 = 102).
T ake your pulse before you sta rt and then begin exercising u ntil your
heart rate hits the tar get num ber. There are many high-quality heart
monitors availab le for under $1 00 in the marketplace, with som e as low as
$50. If you do not have a monit oring device, you can still check your pulse
every five to ten  minutes while exercising, but it is easier to determine your
exercise level if you can just glance at a wrist monitor.
Optimal benefit is gained when you exercise between twenty and thirty
minutes, but if y ou are out of shape, begin with just ten or fifteen minutes.
A wide range of  activities can p rovide an ef fective cardiovascular workout,
including joggi ng, bicycling, dancing, cycling, kickboxing, spinning,
treadmill, stair -climbing, rowing, hiking, and swimming. Find  something
you like to do that is easily acc essible to you. There is also proven benefit
to cross- training. This means finding a few dif ferent strength-training and
aerobic a ctivities that you can ro tate through on dif ferent days. O ne day you
might us e a treadmill for twenty  minutes, the next day you may ride a bike,
and anot her you may go to an aerobics dance class. Each activit y will work
a dif fere nt set of muscles while improving your cardiovascular fitness.
Establish a regular time for your daily routine to maintain consistency.
Once you are comfortable at yo ur current level of activity, try gradually
increasing your tar get heart rate from 65 to 75 percent of your MHR. At agefifty, this would mean a tar get heart between 110 and 128 beats per minute
(65% of 170 = 110; 75% of 170 = 128). For the first coupl e of weeks,
remain at 60 p ercent and then gradually increase your tar ge t rate by 5
percent every few weeks until you are at 70 to 75 percent of your MHR.
Do not increase your tar get rate  if you are straining at your current level.
Y ou should be a ble to speak wh ile you are exercising, although if you can
easily carry on a conversation, you are probably ready to increase your
intensity. For the most part, you should be able to breathe through your
nose. T ry thinking the “So Hum” mantra while you are exercising to keep
your atte ntion fu lly in your bod y, using “So” on inhalations and  “Hum” on
exhalations.
A th in l ayer of perspiration tell s you that your body is burning calories,
but you should not be sweating profusely. If at any time y ou become
acutely short of breath or develop chest discomfort, stop your activity and
immediately contact your health care provider. Although you will feel that
you have definitely expended e ner gy during a good workout, you should
not feel complet ely exhausted or depleted. Some mild soreness is common
at first or when you increase your intensity, but you should not have severe
discomfort. Use  common sense and aim for the long-term balan ced benefits
of a regular exercise program.
It will not tak e long to see improvements in both strength and
cardiovascular fitness with a consistent fitness program. In addition to an
improvement in your general sense of well-being, you will not ice that you
are losing accumulated weight, sleeping better, and experiencing better
digestion and elimination. Mos t important, you will look an d feel your
healthy Biostat age. No one can take this step toward improved physical
capacity but you. Start today a nd you will quickly see yours elf growing
younger.
Exer cise on the RoadIf your life invol ves a good deal  of travel it will take some extra attention to
stay on your exercise routine. Most hotels have a workout room with basic
equipment. Ask  about the exercise facilities when you are making a
reservation. Eve n if equipment is not available, you can perform the basic
seven ex ercises in your hotel room using two-liter water bott les for your
weights. The other strength-training drills simply use your body.
If a  treadmill is unavailable,  you can get in your cardiovascular
conditioning by doing Sun Salutations rapidly for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Use the stairs in stead of the hote l elevator to get to your room floor. If your
business meeting  is within walk ing distance, leave enough time to get there
with a brisk stroll rather than taking a taxi. It is always easier to continue
exercising regul arly than it is to stop for a week or two and then restart.
Make your fitness program a h igh priority. (For more information on the
Grow Y ounger, Live Longer F itness Program, see the appendix on page
271.)
Staying Active
Seek ou t opport unities during the day to be physically active.  If you live
half a mile from your fitness club, put on your running shoes and jog there
instead of driving and spending ten minutes looking for a parking place. If
you work on the twentieth story of a high-rise of fice building, take the
elevator to the sixteenth floor and walk up the remaining flights of stairs. If
you need to pick up a few items at the grocery store, ride your bike and save
some fossil fuel. Park your car a  few blocks from work and walk the rest of
the way to and from your of fice.
Consciously make the choices to stay physically active. Y our body and
mind will respond with greater ener gy and vitality. Staying active will help
you grow younger and live longer.
Every day in every way,
I am incr easing my mental and physical capacity.My Biostat is set at a healthy ____ years of age.
I look and feel a healthy ____ years old.

I am r eversing my biological age:
By changing my per ception of my body, its aging and time;
Thr ough two kinds of deep r est—r estful awar eness and  r estful sleep;
By nurturing my body thr ough healthy foods;
By using nutritional complements wisely;
By enhancing mind/body integration; and
Thr ough exer cise.
8
Y ou Can Reverse Y our
Biological Age by Eliminating
T oxins from Y our Life

ACTION STEP # 7
I a m r eversing my biological age by eliminating toxins fr om my  physical
and emotional bodies.
I put this into practice by:
Eliminating all toxicity fr om my diet and drinking two to  thr ee liters of
water every day.
Learning to handle emotional turbulence.
Healing or eliminating toxic r elationships.
The accumulation of toxins
in the body/mind system
accelerates aging.
The elimination of toxinsawakens the capacity for r enewal.
T oxins must be identified and
eliminated fr om your
body, mind, and soul.

Y ou can  reverse your biological age by eliminating toxins from your life.
Every impulse of life can be considered in terms of whether it brings
nourishment or toxicity. A nourishing experience brings you happiness,
expands your awareness, and helps you grow younger. A toxic experience
brings m isery, makes you feel stuck, and accelerates aging. This is true
whether you are talking about toxic substances, toxic food, toxic
relationships, or toxic emotions. An essential step to reverse the aging
process is to identify and release toxins from every level of your life.
Aging and illness result from  the accumulation of toxic reactions.
Scientists now understand that toxic damage to cells and tissues is the
consequence of free radicals that are formed whenever oxygen is
metabolized. A free radical mol ecule is an oxygen molecule that is missing
an e lectron. Also known as re active oxygen species (ROS), they go by
names such as h ydroxy radical, singlet oxygen, superoxide, an d hydrogen
peroxide. These hungry chemicals are indiscriminate about how they
replace their missing electron, a nd will strip one from any nearby source,including proteins, fats, or DNA molecules. Under controlled situations,
free rad icals are useful in met abolizing food and mounting an immune
response against invading bacte ria. However, the collateral damage of free
radical formation is responsible  for illness and aging. Many of the most
common illnesses of our society linked to free radical damage are:
Cancer
Heart disease
Stroke
Diabetes
Arthritis
Osteoporosis
Inflammatory bowel disease
Glaucoma
Retinal degeneration
Alzheimer ’ s disease
W rinkling skin, graying hair, and stif fening joints are also the  result of
free rad icals. There are things you can do that increase free radical
production and other things


 world of duality, and therefore in illusion, conict, andconfusion. The more you ght in this way, the greater the confusion
becomes.
Human beings are habitually trained by upbringing, and
everything they learn from their surroundings agrees that one must
ght for one and against the other of any number of opposites. This
applies not only to material issues but even more to conce pts. Every
truth can thus be divided into two opposites, one being adhered to
as the “right” and the opposite aspect being declared the “wrong”
idea. In reality, however, the two complement one another. On the
unied plane, neither aspect  is thinkable without the other. There
the complements are not “enemies” or negations of each other; only
on the dualisti c plane of consciousness are they so opposed. There
every conict multiplies into intricate subdivisions of the primary
dualistic split. Since all this is a product of illusion, the longer the
conict continues, the less it can be solved and the more hopelessly
enmeshed you become in it.
Let us now return to our exam ple and demonstrate how this is so.
The more you prove your friend wrong, the more friction exists and
the less you obtain what you thought you would by provin g yourself
right and your friend wrong. You believe that by proving yourself
right and your friend wrong, your friend will nally accep t and love
you again and all will be well. When you do not succeed, you
misinterpret that and try harder, for you think you have not
suciently proven that you are right and the other is wrong. The
rift widens, your anxiety increases, and the more weapons you use
to win the ght, the deeper your diculties, until you actually
damage yourself and the other and act against your own best
interest. You are then faced with a further conict, which  arises out
of the rst dualistic split. In order to avoid a total rift, with all its
real and imagined threats— for real damage has begun to be
wrought—you are now faced  with the alternatives of having to give
in, in order to appease your friend and avoid further damage to
yourself, or to continue ghting. Since you are still convinced that
there is a right versus a wrong, such appeasement robs you of self-
respect and you ght agains t that. Whether you use this “solution”or not, you will be torn between ghting or submitting. Both create
tension, anxiety, and inner and outer disadvantages.
Thus, a second  duality develops out of the rst. The rst is: “Who
is right and who is wrong?  Only I can be right. Otherwise all is
bad.” The second is either giving in to a wrong that you cannot
admit, for it is a total wrong, or continuing the ght. Admitting a
wrong means death, in a sense. So you are faced  with the
alternatives of either admitting a wrong, which means death in the
deep psyche, in order to avoid dreaded consequence s and the
possibility of a real risk, putting your life at a grave disadvantage,
again death, in the deepest sense, or insisting on your total
rightness. Any way you turn you nd death, loss, annihi lation. The
harder you ght for and against, the less there is to ght for and the
more all alternatives turn against you. The illusion that one side was
good and the other was bad has brought you to the inevitable next
step on this road of illusion, which is that all alternatives are bad.
All dualistic struggle is fated to lead you into further traps, which
are all products of illusion.
When the road to the unie d principle is chosen, soon what at
rst appeared as one certain good and one obvious bad ceases to be
so, and you inevitably encounter good and bad on both ends. When
this road is pursued still further, no longer is there any bad, but only
good. The road leads deep inside the real self, into truth  that goes
way beyond the fearful little ego’s interests. When this truth is
sought deep inside the self, one approaches the unied state of
consciousness. Our example is a banal one and can be translated
into many everyday issues, big or small. It can take shape as a small
squabble betwe en mates or as a conict between countries at war. It
exists in all diculties humanity encounters, individually and
collectively. As long as you nd yourself in this illusory dualistic
conict, you will experience hopelessness, for there is no way out on
the dualistic plane of thinking. As long as your very existence is
identied with the ego-self and therefore with the dualistic
approach to life, you cannot help but despair, no matter how much
this despair is covered up or momentarily alleviated by occasional
success with the desirable alternative of the two opposites. Thehelplessness and hopelessness, the wasted energy of the dualistic
struggle, rob you of your birthright. You can nd your birthright only
on the plane of unication.
Since everything you learn from your education and environment
is geared to dualistic standards, it is not surprising that you are
totally attached  and adapted to this state of consciousness. And even
when you learn about the other possibility, you are fright ened of it.
You cannot believe in it and you cling to what you know. This
creates a vicious circle, in that the dualistic rules and precepts,
which condition you to this way of life, are themselves a result of
your fear of giving up the egotistical state that alone  seems to
guarantee life. It appears that giving up this ego state means
annihilation of your individuality, which, of course, is utterly
erroneous. So, you have these dualistic rules becaus e of your
erroneous fears, and you cling to the false fears becau se of your
indoctrination.
Before we discuss in greater detail why you cling to the painful
dualistic state, despite the immediate accessibility of the unied
plane of consciousness, I would like to say more about how to realize
unication within yourself. The real self, the divine principle, the
innite intelligence, or what ever you wish to call that deep inner
center existing  in every human being, contains all wisdom and truth
you can possibly envisage. The truth is so far-reaching and so
directly access ible that no further conict exists when this truth is
allowed to take eect. The ifs and buts of the dualistic state cease to
exist. The knowledge of this inborn intelligence far surpasses the
ego intelligence. It is completely objective; it disregards the small,
vain self-intere st—and this is one of the reasons you fear and avoid
contact with it. The truth that ows out of it equalizes the self with
others. Far from being the annihilation that the ego fears, that truth
opens up the storehouse of vibrant life force and energ y that you
usually use to only a minor degree and that you misuse in directing
your attention and hopes to the dualistic plane, with its tightly held
opinions, false ideas, vanity, pride, self-will, and fear. When this live
center activates you, you begin your limitless unfoldment, a process
whose accomp lishments become possible precisely because the littleego no longer wants to misuse them in order to nd life, as it did,
on the dualistic plane.
The unied real self can always be contacted. Let us again return to
our example in order to see how. The hardest act to perform, which,
in reality, is the easiest act possible, is to ask, “What is the truth of
the matter?” The moment you are more intent on the truth than on
proving that you are right, you contact the divine principle of
transcendent, unied truth. If the desire to be in truth is genuine,
the inspiration must come forth. No matter how strongly
circumstances seem to point in one direction, you must be willing to
relinquish and to question whether what you see is all there is to the
issue. This generous act of integrity  opens the way to the real self.
It will be easier to follow through when you consider that it is not
necessarily a question of either/or, but that there may be aspects of
right in the other person’s view and of wrong in yours, aspects that,
so far, you have not seen because your attention was not even
directed to this eventuality. This approach to a problem
immediately opens the way to rise to the unied plane of existence
and to be moved by the real self. It immediately releases an energy
that is distinctly felt when this act is done with a deep and sincere
commitment. It brings release from tension.
What you then nd out is always totally dierent both from what
you hoped for and feared on the dualistic plane. You nd that you
are not as right and innocen t as you thought, nor as wrong as you
feared. Neither is your opponent. You soon discover aspects of the
matter you


 may  prevent them
from developing  far more serious ailments. Those who attempt to
suppress it by unnatural  means may  have to face  serious consciences.
Its cause is to be found in the habitual co isumption  of too much bread,
especially  white, of buns, scones, polished rice puddings,  porridge,
biscuits, especially  made of white flour, and  other  starch foods. Where
these aliments  preponderate  in a dietary it also involves a deficiency  in
those foods  rich in the essential  mineral salts. To say that sugars and
starch give energy  is one of those pernicious  half‐ truths  which  are
nearly as misleading  as a 100 per cent error. An excess of starch cannot
give energy, because it merely  clogs the system and  inhibits its normal
functioning.  The proof is that people who live mostly on the aliments I
have enumerated,  have constantly  to resort to alcoholic beverages  or
cups  of tea to "buck themselves  up."
As I always like to substantiate  my contentions  with scientific reasons
for the benefit of those who like the i‐s dotted  in this  manner, I may
add  that apart from  an excess of starch being the cause of catarrh,
there  is in the tissues a deficiency  of chloride of potash, phosphate  of
lime and sulphate of lime, and if the throat is infected, of phosphate  of
iron.  (See  Biochemic  Pocket Book, by E. F. W. Powell, D.Sc.) In recent
times researchers  have occupied themselves  with the analysis  of
various, foods  in order to ascertain their mineral‐ salts  content As a
result of this, we find that  some foods are richer in one or other  salt 100
 than other  foods. Thus the aliments have been tabulated  under  such
headings  as Carbon Foods, Calcium Foods, Chlorine Foods, Flourine
foods,  Sodium  foods, Potassium  Foods, Phophorus  Foods, Sulphur
Foods, etc.,  etc. As all these  salts have now been found to be essential
to the proper functioning  of the body, such research only serves again
to show  how necessary  it is to live on a varied and well‐ balanced  diet. It
is significant  that until recently, the Medical Profession  ignored
Potassium  (potash) as a salt of any importance  to the human  body.  And
yet it has since been discovered  by exponents  of the Biochemic  System
that a deficiency  of one or other  forms of potash is a contribut,ng  cause
in most diseases ‐especially  in cancer and  growths. Nevertheless,  this
was already discovered  by Dr. Schuessler,  of Oldenburg,  Germany,  in
the latter  half  of last century. Yet it was only brought  into greater
prominence  in 1912 by Dr. Forbes‐Ross (already mentioned)  who had
probably never even heard  of Dr. Schuessler  or of his momentous  but
largely  ignored  discovery.  In his General Sketch of The Biochemic
System of Medicine  G. W. Carey, M.D., significantly  points out that a
lack of any of the inorganic  cell salts  will set up certain symptoms  which
are merely  Nature's method  of indicating  that one or more  of the vital
workers of the body are absent  and  must be supplied. "Each mineral
salt has a special  work to do. Each  has an affinity for certain organic
materials  used in building up the human frame. Thus, Kali mur (chloride
of potash) molecules  work with fibrin. If a deficiency  occurs in this salt,
a portion of the fibrin not having inorganic  salt to unite with becomes a
disturbing  element and  may  be thrown out of the  vital  circulation
through  the nasal passages or lungs... producing  conditions  called
catarrhs, colds, coughs, etc.”  101
 Here,  then, we have the biochemic  explanation  of colds a kindred
ailments such as leucorrhoea  (the whites) which  when the discharge  is
milky white,  indicates a deficiency  of chloride of potash in the female
organism.  (Carey.) I think I have now produced  sufficient  evidence  to
show  that the common  cold together with all catarrhal conditions,
whether acute or chronic, is primarily the result of wrong  feeding, on
which  I shall  enlarge  in a later  chapter.
 102
 CHAPTER  XVI,
URINE‐THERAPY  ON ANIMALS

When certain  people want  to disparage  a given treatment  they ascribe
its efficacy to Faith. For instance some opponents  of homoeopathy
have glibly dismissed  it as a "faith‐cure." Yet the homoeopath  has an
argument  to hand which  soon  squashes that assumption;  he contends
that homoeopathy  cures animals when in the nature of things they
cannot know  they  are being treated. Cures of hundreds  of animals  are
mentioned  in homoeopathic  literature.  One is of a cat which  had
paralysis  of its hind legs. After various treatments  had been tried, its
owner gave it mag.  phos in a colossally  high attenuation,  and  cured it
completely  in a very short  time.  The sceptic will say "coincidence."  To
which  one can only retort: "How  astonishing  is the credulity of the
sceptic!"  This allusion to homoeopathy  on animals  is so far relevant in that one
or two "credulous  sceptics" have even said that urine‐therapy must  be
a "faith‐cure." I can


 back to your seat of awareness. While you stand there, notice
what else you’re aware of. Notice your surroundings coming  in through
your senses, your thoughts passing through your mind, and any emotions
that arise in your heart creating feelings of comfort or discom fort within.
These three inner experiences are the arena in which your consciousness
plays the game of life on planet Earth.
Bottom line, you don’t stand a chance in there. The constant barrage of
these three expe riences is like a three-ring circus going on inside all the
time. The effect is so overwhelm ing it’s like a conspiracy again st you. The
outside world has a major influence on your thoughts, and your thoughts
and emotions will generally line up. It’s very rare that your mind will be
saying, “I don’t like this,” and your heart will be feeling treme ndous love.
Let’s say Fred passes by and your mind says, “I don’t want to see Fred. I’m
not comfortable seeing him after the argument we had last time.” You will
start to feel fear. You were doing fine until an event came in from the
outside, took over your thoughts, and generated difficult emotions. You get
sucked into that overwhelming experience. Now if you’re asked, “What’ s it
like living in there?” you would probably say, “It’s pretty intense. I get lost a
lot and struggle to be okay.” It’s not all that much fun, is it?
Buddha said all of life is suffering. He wasn’ t being negative. All of
life is suffering. If you’re rich, poor, sick, healthy, young, or old—it doesn’ t
matter. There certainly are times when you’re not suffering, but the vast
majority of what’ s going on is you’re just trying to be okay. That’s what it
boils down to. You will at some point realize that’s all you’v e done yourentire life—try to be okay. That’ s why you cried when you were little; you
weren’ t okay in there. That’ s why you wanted a certain toy; you thought it
would make you okay. That’ s why you wanted to marry this special person.
That’ s why you wanted to go to Europe or Hawaii for a vacation. You get to
the point where you realize all you’re ever doing in there is trying to be
okay. First you think about what will make you okay, then you go out and
try to make it happen.
What does it even mean to try to be okay? For one thing, it means
trying to make your thoughts and emotions easier to live with. There are
nice ones, and there are not-so-nice ones. You like the nice ones. That’ s
what you’re struggling with. You want your thoughts to be positive,
uplifting, and beautiful. The problem is there’ s an outside world of reality
that can come in and cause your thoughts and emotions to be very difficult.
This is why life can be overwhelming.
This interaction with the world, your thoughts, and your emotions
raises some very interesting questions. What are these three things, and
where do they come from? How  much control do you have over them? Why
do they sometimes make you feel good and other times make you feel bad?
We’re going to explore these questions in great detail. When we’re through,
you’ll realize that what really matters is not the thoughts, the emotions, nor
the outside world. What really matters is You in there, who is experiencing
these things. How are you doing? What we’ll see is that you in there are
higher than any experience you’ve ever had. The one who is seeing all this
is the most beautiful thing in the whole universe. If you ever find your way
back to the seat of Self, that’s what you’re going to discover. This is what
Christ taught you, what Buddha taught you, what all the great spiritual
masters of every tradition have taught: The Kingdom is within you. You in
there are a very great being made in the image of God, but to know that, you
have to free yourself from all the inner commotion.Chapter 5.
Exploring the Nature of Things
Your entire life is composed of consciously experiencing the three objects of
consciousness (the outer world,  the thoughts, and the emotions). Now we
are ready to explore the origin and nature of these expe riences. By
understanding where they come from, they will lose some of the distractive
power they have  over you. You will then better understand your tendency to
accept or reject them. We study these objects of consciousness not solely for
the knowledge we gain, but also for the freedom we attain.
Let’s discuss the nature of the world passing before you. Every
moment that passes before you comes and goes like the frames of a motion
picture. The moments never stop; they just keep flowing through time and
space. Where did all these mom ents come from? Why do you experience
them the way that you do? What is your true relationship to what passes
before you?
Perhaps even more interesting than the outer world, we’re going to
explore the nature of the mind and the emotions, including how and why
they keep changing the way they do. Though all three of these objects of
consciousness are constantly changing, you are the persistent being that is
always there experiencing them. What is your nature? What is it like to sit
back and be conscious of being conscious? That is what all spirituality is
about. When you are no longer distracted by any of the three great
distractors, your consciousness will no longer be pulled into those objects.
The focus of consciousness will very naturally remain in the source of
consciousness. It’s like a flashlight shining on various objects. Instead of
looking at the objects being illum ined, if you look at the light itself, you will
realize it is the same light shining on all the different objects. Likewise, it is
the same consci ousness that is aware of all the objects passing before it,both outside and in. You are that consciousness. When you pull back to that
source of awareness, it is the most beautiful thing you will ever experience.
That is the journ ey before us—to free ourselves from the distractions
that keep  drawin g us away from  our greatness and leave us struggling with
life. As you come to understand the nature of these objects you are
struggling with, you will very naturally be able to release the hold they have
on you. This act of letting go is what is meant by “acceptance” and
“surrender.” There is a state of great peace within you that cannot be
disturbed by the world, your thoughts, or even your emotions. These objects
can continue to freely exist, but they will no longer dominate your life. You
will be free to fully interact in life, but you will do so out of a sense of love
and service, rather than fear or desire.
Now you understand the underlying purpose of this book: for you to
learn how to let go of the three great distractors and return to the source of
your being. As you will see, this is the only way you can fully enjoy your
time here on Earth. This is what  it means to be Living Untether ed. It doesn’ t
take forceful practices to return to your core. The highest path is learning
through your daily life to gradually let go of what is distracting your
consciousness. By accepting instead of resisting, you will eventually attain a
permanent seat of clarity—it’ s called becoming established in the seat of
Self. You will be living in the most beautiful energy you’ve ever
experienced, and it will never stop. During every moment of your life, there
will be a beautiful flow of ener gy that keeps rising within you.
We are going to approach this process of freeing yourself in a very
scientific, analy tical manner. By doing so, you will become so comfortable
with the three objects of consciousness passing before you that you will no
longer have to devote your life to controlling the experience. You will see
that these passing objects repre sent the lower aspect of your being: body,
mind, and emot ions. In drastic contrast, you can learn to establish yourself
in the higher aspect of your being: the seat of conscious awaren ess. You can
live your life in a state of complete freedom and happiness. Are you ready?
Let’s embark on our journey into the exploration of our outer world, inner
world of mind and emotions, and the consciousness that exper iences it all.
Let’s learn more about this path of acceptance of what passes before us.PART II:
The Outside WorldChapter 6.
The Moment in Front of You
Keeping perspe ctive is essential  at every stage on our path toward inner
freedom. The solid ground we keep coming back to is that you are in there;
you know you’re in there; and you’ve always known you are in there. But
you don’t focus on the fact that you are in there because you are too
absorbed in what is going on both inside and outside you. You get lost in the
objects of consciousness, instead of focusing on the source of
consciousness. Spiritual awaken ing is about untangling consciousness from
the objects of consciousness. To do this, it will help tremendously to
understand the nature of the objects of consciousness you deal with each
day.
We begin our exploration with the outside world. What you receive in
through your five senses is a significant part of your daily expe


string, which is a high dose of estradiol (one of the threetypes of estrogen) inserted vaginally. So now she had estrogensitting right next to her uterus. Keep in mind that estrogen isthe only known cause of cancer of the uterus.
/Dswashoctors have to go back to listening to patients.
/Tswashhere is no substitute for it.
This woman’s sister had had cancer of the uterus, which
indicates that the woman was genetically predisposed tocontracting uterine cancer. Sitting there in my office with herhusband right next to her, she told me that she was due to haveanother Estring put in, as she has to have a new one insertedevery two months. She was arguing with me about how shewanted to have that Estring put back in. I asked, “Why wouldyou want to do that?” She replied that two gynecologists hadtold her that it’s safe.
I was dumbfounded. “You’ve already donated both breasts;
you want to give them your uterus as well?” Her husbandcouldn’t believe her, either. But women have been brainwashedregarding the purported benefits of estrogen.
Provera is just as harmful as estrogen. It is a synthetic prog-
estin, and although its chemical name is medroxyprogesterone, ithas no relationship to natural bio-identical progesterone. Many188 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  doctors unfortunately think Provera is the same as progesterone.
Provera is damaging to blood vessels (like estrogen), is lipogenic(it creates fat just like estrogen), and also increases a woman’schance of getting breast cancer (just like estrogen). However, inmost cases it does prevent uterine cancer, which is why it is givento women taking Premarin who still have a uterus.
HORMONE RECEPTOR SITES
Hormones travel through the bloodstream in minute quantities.
When they reach a receptor site that fits them, they attach to itand are able to influence the cell they have attached to. Onewoman who is estrogen dominant (i.e., has high estrogen andlow progesterone) may have completely different symptoms fromanother woman who is also estrogen dominant because theirreceptor sites differ.
Shirley developed asthma in her teenage years, a common
problem induced by estrogen not only in women but in menas well. Her asthma got worse as she got older, for severalreasons. Her progesterone levels were falling, and very likelyher estrogen levels were going up as she got fatter. Fat cellsproduce estrogen. As we have already seen, this may explain, atleast in part, why obese women are more prone to breastcancer than women of normal weight.
Shirley apparently also has estrogen receptor sites in her
temporal arteries, which explains her migraine headaches. Manywomen have excess receptor sites in the uterus and breasts,prompting severe menstrual cramps and breast tendernessduring their periods. Later on, this intense stimulation leads touterine fibroids or endometriosis, fibrocystic disease of thebreasts or ovaries, and can result in uterine, ovarian, or breastcancer. None of these conditions occur when the body has189 DOCT ORS DON’T ALWAYS LISTEN enough natural progesterone to protect these organs.
Shirley describes herself as having a pear-shaped figure.
This is the case when the body is producing an over-abundance of two different hormones—insulin and estrogen.Insulin puts fat on around the waist, and estrogen puts fat onaround the hips, buttocks, and thighs. This is true for bothmen and women. People with excesses of insulin and estrogenoften have gallbladder problems as well.
TAKING THE TIME TO LISTEN
T o this day Shirley remains angry about how she was treated by
the medical establishment. This is not unusual. Many patientstell me horror stories about being treated in a patronizingmanner and not listened to. Until there is a change in doctors’attitudes, patients will continue to be misdiagnosed, with theirsymptoms being addressed instead of the underlying cause.Doctors have to go back to listening to patients. There is nosubstitute for it.
Shirley was obviously hormonally challenged. A basic
familiarity with natural bio-identical hormones on the part ofher earlier doctors would have allowed her to eliminate herasthma, which would have delighted her, to eliminate herheadaches, which would have amazed her, and to get rid of herfat, which would have pleased her.
Needless to say, for Shirley, using bio-identical hormones
was nothing short of miraculous.190 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  BATTLING THE MEDICAL
ESTABLISHMENT —
MARGARET O.’S STORY
chapter TWENTY–THREE
Margaret O. is a well-educated woman, an accomplished musi-
cian and a teacher. She came to me at the age of 67, havingspent the previous 37 years seeking the solution to a seriousweight problem. She had been a size 22 for most of her adultlife, even though she was physically active and ate healthy foodsin reasonable quantities. But she had a hormonal profile thatmade her body store fat.
I want you to hear her story because I see so many women
like her: well-educated, inquisitive, avid readers who studyhealth and medicine in an attempt to understand their ownbodies. Their weight problem isn’t their fault, but the medicalestablishment thwarts their honest efforts to break throughtheir difficulties.
When I started gaining weight in my 30s I wanted to find out
why. I wasn’t eating any more than I had been before the weightgain, and my level of physical activity was the same. InstinctivelyI knew some other variable was at work here. At first I went to thedoctors at Kaiser Hospital, where I have my medical plan. Ithought they could help me.
191They did a series of tests on me and declared that I had an
under-active thyroid. That made sense to me and I was hopefulthat with thyroid medication my metabolism could be ratchetedup and my weight would start to go down. They prescribed thethyroid hormone Synthroid. I took it, but nothing happened.
So I went back to Kaiser and told them I was still gaining
weight. They gave me the same tests over again, and they gave meanother prescription for Synthroid. It seems this was the only thingthey knew. When I went back a third time and told them Iwasn’t getting any results, they just looked at me strangely and toldme to eat less.
From this experience I learned to harbor a healthy skepticism
about the medical profession. T oday I seek my own conclusions andI don’t take things at face value any more. Being an educatedperson, I began reading everything I could about how the bodymetabolizes food. Meanwhile, I tried every diet that came downthe pike. I tried Optifast, Shaklee, and many other diets. I wouldlose weight on each of these, but I never lost fat—always muscle.I would look at myself in the mirror after each of these diets andsee flesh just hanging on me. The diets were hard to stay on, andthey made me weak. I remember one time about six years ago: I wason a vacation in Hawaii after completing a diet that consisted ofeating nothing but protein drinks four times a day. There I was,hiking along this trail, and when our group came to a smallfissure on the trail everyone leaped across it. But I couldn’t get mybody to do it. I was that weak. Every time I came off one of thosediets, I gained back more than I had weighed before. This went onfor my entire adulthood. I got up to 240 pounds, and I am only5’1” tall. It became hard to move around and hard to go shopping.Clothes were a problem, so I either sewed or bought them from theNordstrom catalog. I was a size 22. One doesn’t find beautifulclothing in those sizes. The simple act of getting up from a chair192 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  or a sofa was hard for me. So was going to a restaurant and
sitting in a booth. I never knew whether I could fit into the booth.
I went on like this for 37 years, seeking answers, talking to
people, trying diets, and joining support groups. Many times I gottired of searching and just let myself go. But even when I’d givenup and gotten sloppy again, there was always part of my mind sortof passively available, listening, waiting to find out aboutsomething that might make permanent weight loss possible.
My first break came during menopause, when I read Dr. John
R. Lee’s
What Your Doctor May Not T ell You about Menopause.
This book had a lot of inside-track information about hormone
replacement therapy. It gave me information about hormones thatI had been seeking all my life. Dr. Lee was the first doctor to comeout saying that Premarin and all the synthetic estrogen hormonesbeing given to women at menopause were actually hurting them.He talked about how estrogen made the body store fat. I thought:At last! A clue! I began to believe that I had a hormone problem,one that went beyond my under-active thyroid.
But I needed more specific information, and I needed a
doctor who could help me balance my hormones. I went to theendocrinologists at Kaiser, but that was a lost cause. They wantedto get me on Premarin as fast as they could! They are part of thatmedical


that doesn’t flow is no love at all; it is just yearning and longing. The
renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell pointed the way for expressing
love when he said, “Follow your bliss.” Bliss is the tingling rush of love in
action, the flow of Being as it reaches out to meet itself and curl back with
delight in contact. Love wants to find itself, and when the circuit is
complete, bliss flows. Ask yourself, “Where do I find bliss?” then write
down the steps you can take to increase this experience in your life.
Do not confuse pleasure with love. There are many things that give
pleasure, such as watching television, with very little love in them. Love
certainly brings pleasure but in a more profound way. Carrying  a meal to a
shut-in is an act of love that is far more pleasurable than watching
television, for example, and there is much more to learn from such an action
in terms of sharing, compassion, and understanding.
So don’t be distracted by superficial pleasures. The deep joy and delight
that exist at the core of life must be diligently uncovered. When you make
your list, you’ll  find that many  of your most cherished mome nts of bliss
have gone forever. For example, you cannot duplicate the first new feeling
of fallin g in love with the perso n to whom you are now married. But love
has depth after depth. As you make your list, you will remember how you
felt the day your children were born, and in that reminder is a clue: Your
children can still be a source of bliss, if you resolve to reach deeper into
your relationship with them. Nothing is more important than reconnecting
with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real.
Exercise 2: Being Love versus Being in LoveI’d like to explore the state of love further, because it is the surest road
back to Being. The ancient sages declared that ultimately everything is
made of consciousness, and when we experience consciousness purely, with
no extra neous images or assumptions, that is love. The great Bengali poet
Rabindranath Tagore declared, “Love is not a mere impulse; it must contain
truth, which is law.” The merging of love, truth, and reality is the great
revelation of unity consciousness, the moment when a person can truthfully
say, “I am the All,” and, “I am love,” in the same breath. Seen from this
perspective, love is the feeling-s tate that is always present when  a person is
perfectly aligned with dharma, the flow of evolution.
Being in love is not the same state as this. When you fall in love, an
opening is created for repressed feelings to rush forth and attach themselves
to another person. If the love is deep enough, the other person seems ideal
and perfect (this has nothing to do with his or her actual state, which could
be quite imperfect and even destructive). But the force of love changes
reality by changing the perce iver. Why and how does this happen?
Physiologists have measured the increase in certain key neurotransmitters
such as serotonin in the brains of people who are in love, but chemicals are
only crude markers. Clearly, serotonin does not cause people to fall in love;
it is only the biochemical basis for the pleasant sensations triggered by
being in love.
In a series of revealing exper iments, Harvard psychologist David C.
McClelland probed the physiology of love. He had a group of subjects view
a short film of Mother Teresa in her daily work of caring for sick and
abandoned child ren in Calcutta. The film displayed a profound  outpouring
of love.  As the audience watched the film, McClelland discov ered that a
marker in their immune systems increased—this was SIgA, or salivary
immunoglobulin antigen. High levels of SIgA, as measured in people’ s
saliva, indicates a high immune response; as it happens, an elevated
immune response is also characteristic of people who have recently fallen in
love. (The popular saying “If you don’t want to catch a cold, fall in love”
recognizes this connection between emotions and physiology.)
Curiously, when  the film was over and the audience was asked their
opinion of Mother Teresa, not everyone found her work laudable. Some had
objections of one kind or another, centering on differences in religiousbelief, while others reported feeling disturbed by the sight of children who
were starving or suffering from  leprosy. Yet all the audienc e members
experienced an increase in SIgA levels; their physical response to love
appeared to be more powerful than their rational attitudes. This led
McClelland to question one of the most popular definitions of love in
modern psychol ogy, which holds that love is a reflexive response that arises
when two people meet to fill each other ’s needs. According to that
definition, love would depend on a person’ s conscious evalua tion of the
benefits he or she was getting in a relationship. But here were people whose
bodies were responding at a much deeper level, deeper even than pleasure.
McClelland also found that the positive effect on the viewers’ immune
response decline d and disappeared an hour or two after they had viewed the
film. It remained highest among  those subjects who reported a strong sense
of being loved in their own lives and having strong ties to family and
friends. This implied that some  people are already in a state conducive to
love. Instead of experiencing it as a passing state, they had incorporated it
as a trait. In other words, the statement of the enlightened sage, “I am love,”
was present in these people, if to a smaller degree.
What is love as a trait rather than as a passing phase? Even the most
passionate exper ience of being in love eventually cools off, leaving people
dismayed to find that little real love, in a lasting sense, remains. Pondering
this problem, McClelland wondered what had become of the experiences
described in the poetry of love. These experiences did not refer to the
selfish advantages of being in love but to altruistic, undying devotion. Was
Shakespeare simply wrong when he declared, “Love is not love which
alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh no!
It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken.”
McClelland also knew of instances cited in the psychological literature
where people were in loving relationships that made no sense in terms of
gaining any objective benefits.  Such people felt deep love and devotion
despite the fact that they had no rational reason for feeling that way.
What all this implied to McClelland was that love is a state that
transcends reason and whose purpose is simply to allow the experience of a
larger shared reality. One critical matter in this regard was a person’ s
reaction to the death of a loved one. If two people were in love just for whatthey could get, their interdependence would form the basis for loving and
being loved. Thus, the death of the loved one would cause great  pain as the
bond was ripped apart. Certainly this could be observed in real-life
relationships, but McClelland felt from personal experience that something
very dif ferent was possible:
The death of a loved partner should cause intense suffering and
grief, according to this theory. Yet when my wife died of cancer a few
years ago, I did not react in this way. We had been very much in love,
happily married for 42 years, had raised five children to well-ad justed
maturity…yet when she died I did not feel the amount of pain that the
theory would require that I should feel.…What the experience felt
like was much closer to the poet’s view of love. We had felt that we
were part of something that was much bigger than ourselves—w hich
had nurtured and supported us throughout our long life together and
which continued to support me after her death.
This describes a step into the realm of timeless love. When two people
use their love for each other as a doorway into this realm, the death of the
loved one does not close the door or deprive the other of the flow of love.
Ultimately, all love comes from within. We are deluding ourselv es when we
believe that another person is who we love; the other person is a pretext by
which we give ourselves permission to feel love. Only you can open and
close your heart. The power of love to nurture and sustain us depends on
our commitment to it “in here.”
It is important to talk about love, to think about it, to seek it out, and to
encourage it. To put this in the form of an exercise, make a commitment to
yourself to do the following:
1. Think  about love. Take time to recall the love you shared with your
parents, the times you expressed love to your siblings and friends.
Dwell upon what is most lovable  about the person who is most loving
in your life today. Read deeply the poetry of love, such as is found in
Shakespeare’ s sonnets, and the scriptures of love, such as that
contained in the New Testament or in the devotional hymns of the
Rig V eda.2. Talk about love. Express your feelings directly to someone you
love. If you cannot do it verball y,