Living an Inspired Life

by Wayne W. Dyer

  To me, Ram Dass was and is the finest speaker I have ever heard, period! He was my role model onstage; always gentle and kind; always speaking (without notes) from his heart, sharing his inspiring stories; and always with great humor. I tell you this from my own heart: I could listen to his lectures for hours and always felt saddened when they would end. He was the voice for Applied Spirituality—his life was the model. When he was threatened by having his own private sexual preference exposed, in a time when a closet was the only place that was even mildly safe, Ram Dass called a press conference and proudly announced his preference to the world. He paved the way for tolerance and love when no one else would dare to do so.

  Most of us could only dream of defying the conventional life and living out our inner callings to promote a cause that was bigger than our own lives—to leave the security of a guaranteed career and a country where comfort was ensured—all to live in a foreign land with few conveniences, traveling and meditating for a more peaceful world. It is what Saint Francis did in the 13th century, and what Ram Dass did in our lifetime.

  When Ram Dass’s father, who had largely criticized his son’s unconventional lifestyle, was close to death, Ram Dass devoted himself to 100 percent service in those final years. He fed his father, he bathed his father, he placed him on and off the toilet until the day he died. Why? Because he felt this was his mandate. He wanted to experience true service on a 24/7 basis and know firsthand the joy that comes from giving one’s own life away in the service of others. Always, for over 30 years, Ram Dass was in the service of others.

  In 1997 Ram Dass was struck by a semiparalyzing stroke and became wheelchair bound. Still he wrote of his adventure in a powerful book titled Still Here. He continued to travel, although he could no longer walk, and continued to speak to audiences, although he spoke from a slowed-down body—but still, he did it to serve others.

  Now it is our turn. . . . Ram Dass’s body can no longer endure the rigors of travel. He has come to Maui, where I live and write. I speak with him frequently and am often humbled by the tears in his beautiful eyes as he apologizes for not having prepared for his own elderly health care—for what he now perceives as burdensome to others. He still intends to write and teach, however, without the travel—we can now come to him. Maui is healing—Maui is where Ram Dass wishes to stay for now.

  He is currently living in a home on Maui, which he doesn’t own and is in jeopardy of losing. I am asking all of you to help purchase this home and to set up a financial foundation to take care of this man who has raised so much money to ensure the futures of so many others—to live out what Ram Dass has practiced with his actions. Please be generous and prompt—no one is more deserving of our love and financial support. In the end, these donations will help ensure that Ram Dass and his work will reach another generation or remind a current generation that it is in giving that we receive.

  If there has ever been a great spirit who lived in our lifetime, literally devoting his life to the highest principles of Spirit, it has been Ram Dass. I love this man; he has been my inspiration, and the inspiration for millions of us. It is now time to show him how we feel by doing what he has taught all of us to do—just be here for him, now.

  Please send your donations to: Ram Dass, c/o Hay House, P. O. Box 5100, Carlsbad, CA 92018-5100.

  In love and light,

  Wayne W. Dyer

  Truly, giving is receiving and vice versa. Ram Dass lived a life of giving; by staying in-Spirit, I was sent to this man who has meant so much to me. I always had a knowing that I’d be involved in his mission and his life—it was an idea that I held in-Spirit for several decades, and now its time has come and cannot be stopped. (If you feel called to help, you can send in any contribution to the address above, and I will see that it goes directly to Ram Dass.)

  It was Ram Dass’s total belief in what his spiritual teacher told him to do with his life that allowed this all to unfold. When we banish all doubt in favor of faith, there’s nothing more powerful on this planet. You must believe, and then you’ll see it unfolding right before your eyes.

  Spirit’s Timing at Work

  The power of an idea whose time has come is really the power of Spirit at work. Equality for all is how God is, for instance, and we seek to be like God. When enough of us, along with one or two at visionary consciousness, begin to contemplate these in-Spirit ideas, they can’t be stopped. Let’s take some time here to note a few such ideas from America’s history:

  — When it was time for the unspeakably horrid practice of slavery to be abolished, that was an idea whose time had come. This was because a critical mass of individuals with a new vision for humanity began to contemplate something that had been espoused a few generations earlier: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It took more than 85 years after Thomas Jefferson wrote these words, but then the idea couldn’t be stopped—even though slaves represented a tiny part of the population and had no voting rights. When a man with visionary consciousness, Abraham Lincoln (along with many others), approached this idea from an inspirational perspective, it was clear that the time had indeed come to end slavery. This new idea of equality for all is the way of Spirit.

  — We can see also an idea whose time had come in the granting of voting rights for women in 1920. Despite the opposition of a nonvisionary President (Woodrow Wilson), and over the objection of a majority of men who had voting privileges, the idea couldn’t be stopped. Several visionary women, who aligned with many other men and women, believed and made it happen—a right that we take for granted today.

  — The racial integration of the United States is another example of an idea whose time had come. When this concept began to surface in the visionary consciousness of a few individuals such as John F. Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Lyndon Johnson; and Rosa Parks; it couldn’t be stopped—despite the objections of millions of people, many of whom were in positions of political power. Today, in schools that once practiced segregation, we have a multiracial student body. Racial integration is still in the process of manifesting everywhere in our society, and there’s much still to be done, but make no mistake about it, this idea cannot be stopped.

  — Gay rights is another idea whose time has come. One of the many reasons I admire Ram Dass so much is the stand he took a long time ago on equal rights for people of all sexual orientations. No individual or group can be denied legal or social privileges because we all come from one Source, which excludes no one. An idea whose time has come is always in perfect alignment with our originating Spirit.

  — Finally, the shift in consciousness from a collective belief that smoking in public places is permissible to one where it’s not tolerated was an idea whose time had come. The idea became unstoppable when one visionary airline banned smoking on their commercial flights—and then the rest fell into spiritual alignment. Since we come from a nontoxic Source of Well-Being, aligning with It is our destiny and can’t be stopped.

  I could go on and on with examples of such ideas manifesting in our society, but instead I propose that we begin looking around us for evidence of ideas whose time has come. You see, when we’re ready, willing, and open to it, the Divine guidance we seek will spring into action on our behalf. It has been that way throughout our life. For example, the people we’ve had love affairs with—regardless of how long the relationships lasted—are all characters in this dream of ours called “life.” They come to us for any number of reasons, such as to help us create a child (or children), to teach us forgiveness, or to assist us in fulfilling some other destiny.

  It’s difficult for our ego to grasp, but every single person who’s drifted in and out of our life is a part of our Divinely chosen life experience—that is, they are ideas whose time had come. As we move into a life of inspiration, we’ll find it easy and even necessary to give thanks for all of these individuals, and to take serious note of what they brought us at the time of their arrival and/or departure.

&n
bsp; By the same token, when we needed to have a certain vocational experience, it was made available to us. Because we were a vibrational match to what showed up, we took it in and got out of it precisely what we needed. And when we were no longer a vibrational match to that job, those people, that city, that house, or whatever, we left.

  We’re in a system that’s directed by a Supreme Intelligence, and we’re a part of that system. Everything is on purpose. Our vibrational matchup determines what we attract and what we repel in our life. We needn’t focus on what’s already happened and what we’ve gone through; rather, we must shift our vibration upward so that it harmonizes with Spirit, and then—and only then—will spiritually based ideas come knocking on our door. These ideas won’t give up or go away because, as we know, there’s nothing in this Universe more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Our responsibility is simply to become beings who expect and await inspired ideas that will not and cannot be stopped.

  Manifesting in-Spirit Ideas

  Our expectations are virtual ideas that are manifesting right now in our life. Remember that we receive what we match up with energetically, so if we persist in expecting our ideas to work, we’ll create an idea whose time has come. It’s our job to shift the energy of our thoughts so that they harmonize with what it is that we truly wish to attract.

  For example, many years ago I believed in something called “writer’s block,” those times when ideas simply refused to flow. Today I have a very different point of view: I know that in some way, God writes all the books and builds all the bridges. Now when I sit down to write, I expect ideas to flow through me and onto the pages. I feel as if I’m a vibrational match to ideas that want to be expressed in the words I write; consequently, I know that these are ideas whose time has come—they’re matching up with me right here, right now, and they can’t be stopped.

  If I ask myself, “Where does what appears on this paper really come from?” I know that I don’t own them. The words flow from Spirit to physical manifestation because I allow myself to be a receiving agent who’s willing to transcribe them on pieces of paper that will eventually be a book. I expect these ideas to be here and know that they can’t be stopped. I sit here awestruck and in a state of love and gratitude for being able to be used in such an inspirational way—while writing about inspiration, no less!

  The crucial message here is to match our desires to our expectations. We need to see it all arriving and know that it can’t be stopped. We must learn to smile inwardly at those who scoff at our optimism and then go on about the business of expecting our in-Spirit ideas to manifest by looking for evidence of their arrival. At the slightest hint of their appearance, we can energize them with gratitude.

  Finding even a penny can be a clue that our expectation of abundance is manifesting. That penny is right where it belongs, so we should treat it like a treasure-hunt clue. That is, we should gratefully assume that it was placed there for us to shift our expectations so that they’re compatible with the unlimited abundance that we desire. We can say, “Thank you, God, for this symbol of abundance,” knowing that we’ve initiated a new idea that’s so powerful that its time has come!

  We need to create compatibility with Spirit by changing around our expectations so that they align with the central premise of this chapter: There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Try these words out as personal affirmations for tuning in to this new expectation: I desire it. It’s on its way. There’s nothing for me to worry about. Whatever “it” is—a job, a promotion, financing, the right person, well-being, the return to health, information, or what have you, tell yourself: It’s an idea that can’t be stopped because I’m balanced perfectly with my Source of Being. I am at God-realization, and with God all things are possible, so that leaves nothing out.

  We don’t want to ask the Universe to be different so that we can feel better, but we can choose to feel better by shifting our expectations so that we’re vibrating with the Universe. We don’t have to be like anyone else in order to achieve this vibrational harmony because we’re individualized expressions of God, unique in what we have and what we desire. After all, when we approach a long food buffet, we don’t focus on eliminating the things we don’t want; instead, we begin to vibrate in our thoughts to what we do want and ignore what we don’t.

  Keep in mind that our expectations are uniquely our own. They’re ideas whose time has come . . . and that have always been coming.

  Oneness and Sameness

  I’d like to take a minute here to explain that there’s a vast difference between oneness and sameness. We’re all one, but we’re not the same. If this sounds like a conflict, think about the fact that there’s only one light, yet there are many colors; there’s only one fire, yet there are many bonfires; and there’s only one water, yet there are many lakes, rivers, and oceans. Likewise, although we all come from one Source, we are individualized expressions of It, and therefore unique.

  We live in a society that often seeks to make us conform and fit in with everybody else, yet Spirit created each of us as a distinct, separate entity that’s unique in all of creation. Thus, in order to be inspired, we must maintain our singular individuality while seeing our connection to our Source and to everyone and everything in the Universe. Each of us is an unparalleled idea whose time had come: We didn’t manifest to be the same as each other, but to be like God and express ourselves as we agreed to when we merged into physical form.

  I’ve always loved author Leo Buscaglia, and here’s a story he often told that perfectly illustrates the point I’m making.

  The animals got together in the forest one day and decided to start a school. There was a rabbit, a bird, a squirrel, a fish and an eel, and they formed a Board of Education. The rabbit insisted that running be in the curriculum. The bird insisted that flying be in the curriculum. The fish insisted that swimming be in the curriculum, and the squirrel insisted that perpendicular tree climbing be in the curriculum. They put all of these things together and wrote a Curriculum Guide. Then they insisted that all of the animals take all of the subjects. Although the rabbit was getting an A in running, perpendicular tree climbing was a real problem for him; he kept falling over backwards. Pretty soon he got to be sort of brain damaged, and he couldn’t run anymore. He found that instead of making an A in running, he was making a C and, of course, he always made an F in perpendicular climbing. The bird was really beautiful at flying, but when it came to burrowing in the ground, he couldn’t do so well. He kept breaking his beak and wings. Pretty soon he was making a C in flying as well as an F in burrowing, and he had a hellava time with perpendicular tree climbing. The moral of the story is that the person who was valedictorian of the class was a mentally retarded eel who did everything in a halfway fashion. But the educators were all happy because everybody was taking all of the subjects, and it was called a broad-based education.

  Respect your oneness and eschew any pressure to be a conformist—be the being you came here to be. After all, you are that powerful idea whose time has come.

  Some Suggestions for Putting the Ideas in This Chapter to Work for You

  — Become aware of as many things that impinge on your reality as you can, particularly the ones you call “meaningless” or “circumstantial.” Nothing is meaningless in this Universe, so remind yourself that whatever shows up in your life has been attracted there. For example, an accident isn’t any kind of karmic payback or something to feel guilty about—it simply means that you were a match to it. When you stub your toe, bang your elbow, cut your hand, feel a twinge, get a headache, or anything similar, remind yourself that this is energy that has shown up on time. Try to notice what you were thinking at that precise moment, and be open to the idea that it showed up physically to teach you something.

  — You get what you think about, whether you want it or not! So be careful about what you think about. Memorize this beautiful little homily and post it in a conspicuous place in your home or work
place. Always be mindful of your thoughts about what you expect from the Universe.

  — Send a silent blessing to everyone who’s ever shown up, or continues to show up, in your life. A surly waiter can trigger a reminder to send love out if that’s what you want back. An ex-spouse can be blessed for what he or she offered you, and even for being an ex. A slow driver ahead of you is an idea of God who’s shown up on time—bless him for giving you an opportunity to slow down, thus saving you from the speeding ticket you were a vibrational match to before he showed up.

  — Resist fitting in: Do it gently, but do it just the same. Every time someone attempts to get you to conform, affirm: I am an individualized expression of God. That’s all you need to remember. Then be in the place within yourself where you feel one with God, and send love to those who’d push you in the direction of uniformity and conventionality. Refuse to be “a mentally retarded eel who [does] everything in a halfway fashion,” or even worse, the way other people want you to.

  — Most important, have faith. Trust in a Universe that’s endless and endlessly creating. Trust that the Creative Source of All knows exactly what It’s doing. Trust in the awareness that there can’t be accidents in such an intelligent system. Look out at the vastness of the Universe and contemplate the power of its Source—by doing so, you’ll shift your energy. Practice this every day.

  Truly, there’s absolutely nothing in this Universe, including ourselves, that isn’t perfectly timed. There are no wrongful deaths or mistakes—what shows up is ours, and it showed up precisely on schedule. Before we move on to Part III, I’d like you to think about the simple wisdom that the former slave and philosopher Epictetus imparted to us nearly 2,000 years ago: “It is my business to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens.” Now there’s a powerful idea whose time has come!