Wisdom of the Ages - Softcover

Wayne W. Dyer

4.24

1,559 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0732264510 ISBN 13: 9780732264512

Publisher: Thorsons, 1999

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER

This inspiring book by Wayne Dyer, author of the bestselling classics Your Erroneous Zones and Pulling Your Own Strings, delves into the teachings of intellectuals of our past to mine values and wisdom for the present.

"What do our ancestral scholars, whom we consider the wisest and most spiritually advanced, have to say to us today?" asks Dyer. The answer lies in this powerful collection of writings, poems, and sayings by some of the greatest thinkers of the past twenty-five centuries. In succinct original essays, Dyer sets out to explain the meaning and context of each piece of wisdom, and, most important, to explain how we can actively apply these teachings to our modern lives. From sixty ancestral masters - Buddha, Michelangelo, Rumi, Whitman, Jesus, Emily Dickinson, and Emerson, among others - here are treasured passages on a variety of subjects, including solitude, time, and passion. Among the contributions are words on inspiration from Pantanjali, author of the Hindu classic Yoga Sutras; teachings about the power of prayer from 13th-century monk St. Francis of Assisi; and thoughts about the importance of action written by Mother Teresa.

The voices collected here cut across a wide range of historical eras and cultures, yet they communicate universal truths about the human experience. Wisdom of the Ages provides us with a marvelous dual opportunity: to receive guidance from our great ancestors and to recognize our own potential for greatness

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Review:

Wisdom of the Ages reads like a Wayne Dyer workshop on "What the Masters can Teach You". His ambition is to offer the wisdom taught by the world's "great teachers" (such as Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Michelangelo and Emily Dickinson) and then provide an easy-to-digest interpretation for modern readers. He uses a format of briefly quoted passages (about a page or less) from 60 famous teachers, thus the "60 Days to Enlightenment" claim in the title. After each quote, Dyer offers his own three-page essay on how this "teaching" can be applied to contemporary life. He finishes with a list of exercises that put the master's advice to use. Finally, he gives each passage a heading such as "Soulcentre" for a quote from Herman Melville's Moby Dick, or "Communication" for William Blake's poem "A Poison Tree". While his tone is always reverent, Dyer's interpretations occasionally sound flat and obvious--as if he is dumbing down for his audience, rather than elevating readers to a higher consciousness, or at least a higher education. This is a shame, because when Dyer writes from the eloquent and enthusiastic voice that earned him his huge popularity (there certainly are glimpses in this book), one see why so many consider him a "master teacher" in his own right. --Gail Hudson

From the Author:

Applying eternal wisdom in to your daily life
This is the most important book I have published in my entire career. I experienced automatic writing as I worked on this collection of essays interpreting the words of some of the greatest teachers in my life. Not one of these sixty great masters died with their music still in them. They were all people of great passion. My method of completing these essays was to work for a twenty four hour period on each of these chapters. I would wake up very early in the morning and read for eight hours about the lives of the particular person I was writing about on that day. Then I would go for a long walk along the beach and contemplate what I had learned. In the afternoon I would read as much of their work as I could for another eight hours, immersing myself in their writings. After meditating for an hour I would look at a photograph, drawing or engraving of the teacher and I would literally make conscious contact by asking the question, "What would you like to say to those of us who are here on Earth today?" I would then listen and experience automatic writing. It was the most blissful, easy and rewearding experience of my writing career. The result is sixty interpretations of the wisdom of the ages and how you can apply this wisdom in your life, beginning today. The most unique thing about all of these masterful people is refliected in the folowing observation of mine.. Society seems to honor its living conformists and its dead trouble makers. Their message to you is reflected in all of these brief essays..."Don't you dare die with your music still in you."

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