As I prepared to write this article, I gathered around me several Wayne Dyer's books.

Once these books were all around me, I could gather my sense of calm and write one word, and then the next.

One of Wayne's favorite Patanjali aphorisms defines inspiration, and applies six rewards to the process:

When you are inspired, or in-spirit, at one with God/ess, and at one with some great purpose, 1) all thoughts break their bonds, 2) the mind transcends limitations, 3)consciousness expands in all directions, 4) and you find yourself in a new and great wonderful world. 5) Dormant forces come alive, 6) and you discover yourself greater by far than you ever imagined before.

Inspiration is not just an idea. It is a signal that you are living your life as if you never left your source.

Dyer took a Patanjali aphorism a day and allowed the message of each one sink into his consciousness.

He did the same with the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu, all 81 verses, and spent 4 1/2 days on each one. This is what he recommends we all do as we read "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life."

Oprah asked Wayne Dyer if he thought a person needed to be far along the spiritual path in order to understand the Tao.

Wayne said, "No." You just have to think of life as conflict free, to learn to think as God/ess thinks, without force, excluding no one.

You learn to see that life is all about giving, as you progress through the wisdom.

You learn to forgive everyone, including yourself.

Oprah asked Dyer about the movie The Secret. He said that he was asked to be in the movie, but the emphasis on materialism turned him off. In fact, he virtually gave everything away that he did not want or need, including his shoes, as he embarked on his intensive study of the Tao.

Dyer learned from the Tao that anything and everyone can be a teacher.

For instance the sun: After all this time, the sun never said to the earth, "You owe me one."

Our live-in animals, the bugs and trees all have messages for us.

Wayne mentioned that his next project is to teach people how to change their negative thoughts. This will be very helpful, I am sure.

Wayne never met his father but harbored resentment towards his dad because he abandoned Wayne, his brother and mother. In fact both siblings had to live in an Orphanage until his mom could get herself in a position where she could take care of her children, again.

Wayne went on a mission to find his dad, and in that odyssey, found that he died.

He went to the grave and let out all the pent-up resentments and hatred he had simmering inwardly for years.

At the end of the session, he told his father, "From now on, I send you only love."

After this, his career took off, and his spiritual quest began in earnest.

Wayne Dyer describes forgiveness as the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel of the one who crushed it, a quote Mark Twain.

Dyer describes the Tao as a return trip. We come back to where we originated and see it for the first time.

We are returning to our source, the womb of God/ess.

Dyer says when you are connected to Oneness, there is nothing to say.

You only do that which inspires you with an inner excitement of creativity and beauty.

The day after Dyer turned sixty-five, he sold his property in Florida, gave everything away, and moved to Maui, Hawaii.

Oprah asked, "Do we have to give up all our material possessions to live the Tao?"

"Absolutely not," said Wayne Dyer, "But if what you own, owns you, then get rid of it."

At the end of the year of living the Tao, Dyer said he was in a consciousness of thinking like God/ess thinks. He became like water, as the Tao instructs, and entered every pore, every opening.

The Tao does nothing and leaves nothing undone.

The ego falls away.

"What is the ego?" Oprah asked.

Dyer said it is: "I am what I have, I am what I do, I am my reputation."

The ego separates you from everyone and everything.

Tao is emptiness. It's all about selfless giving and practicing what this means day by day.

Spiritual thinkers say the world is getting better, that we are now solidly living in a New Age.

The evening news tells us otherwise, that everything is a battleground and we (America) must win.

How could divinity create anything that is not worthy of itself?

How could divinity create anything that is not divine?

The Tao taught Dyer to be joyful everywhere he found himself.

He learned to see the enfolding of God/ess in everyone.

I am inspired to some day take four days per the eighty-one lessons to do the Tao, as Wayne Dyer instructs, as preparation for each moment at hand, and beyond.

Far beyond anything I have ever known, or will ever know.