is a story concerning the Buddha, who is in the company of a fellow traveler who tests this great teacher with derogatory, insulting, disparaging, and bitter responses to anything the Buddha says. Every day, for three days when the Buddha spoke, the traveler responded by calling him a fool, and ridiculing the Buddha in some arrogant fashion. Finally, at the end of the third day, the traveler could stand it no more. He asked, “How is it that you are able to be so loving and kind when all I’ve done for the past three days is dishonor and offend you? Each time I am disobliging to you, you respond in a loving manner. How is this possible?”
The Buddha responded with a question of his own for the traveler. “If someone offers you a gift, and you do not accept that gift, to whom does the gift belong?” His question provided the traveler with a new insight.
When someone offers you a gift of their insults, and you refuse to accept them, they obviously still belong to the original giver. And why would you ever choose to be upset or angry over something that belonged to someone else?
In this aphorism, Patanjali states, “all living creatures will cease to feel enmity” in the presence of one who does not think or act in a violent manner. This suggests we can affect the animal kingdom when we are steadfast in this attribute. You’ve heard the stories of how Saint Francis of Assisi would tame wild wolves who were decimating the livestock, merely by being in their presence. Moreover, doves would fly to his hands and all manner of wild creatures would feel the love that emanated from him and would cease to feel enmity.
I have experimented with this notion on many occasions myself. Once while jogging in Egypt a pack of dogs came running toward me at 4:30 A.M. barking ferociously. I stopped jogging and also stopped thoughts of fear or violence and they became calm and harmless.
As you contemplate this idea of abstention from harmful thoughts or intentions, keep in mind that those areas of your life, which you have labeled as “problems,” could no longer exist if you were to be this idea each and every day. The reason you are not experiencing bliss at this precise moment is because you are focusing on what is wrong or missing. Begin the process of filling your mind with love, gratitude, and forgiveness. Ernest Holmes wrote, “What a load is dropped from the shoulders of personal responsibility, when we realize that the eternal mind holds naught against anybody.”
Being in the space of the eternal mind is what you need to do as you pursue spiritual solutions in your life. Hold naught against anyone, and while you’re at it, keep in mind Albert Einstein’s helpful hint about why it is important to change around the way you process everything and everyone involved in what you call your problems. Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking which created them.”
Problems are illusions of the material world. Solutions are attributes of your immersion in the world of spirit. Yes, there is a spiritual solution to every problem. But you will have to move to a higher level of thinking to do so. These then are the five basic aphorisms of Patanjali that will guide you to change the mind that created the problem:
1. Identify yourself beyond ignorance.
2. Calmness is the peace of God within you.
3. You create obstacles, you do not sin.
4. Be steadfast in abstaining from falsehood.
5. Be steadfast in abstaining from harmful thoughts and acts.
You can work at applying these whenever you are involved in a “problem.” They are extremely useful in the discovery and application of spiritual solutions.
As you face a problem, remind yourself that you created it with one mind, and you will solve it with another. Hence, the idea that is the title of this book. “Problems” come from a nonspiritual mindset. There is a spiritual solution available, and you can create the energy to access it at will.
As you work at mastering these five aphorisms of Patanjali, know that they represent the highest places you can attain in the world of spirit. They symbolize how those we call masters and saints lived, breathed, and helped others to transcend their problems. You obviously won’t be one hundred percent on the mark with all five at all times, but gradually, you will remind yourself of the need for a spiritual solution in trying times or when confronted with a problem.
One step at a time, you will find grace, and peace supplanting the strife. You will literally be creating a new energy field for yourself, which is the subject of the next chapter in this book and in your life as well.
Nothing happens until something moves.
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
Spiritual problem solving ultimately means examining the entire concept of energy in a new way. Generally we think of people with high energy in terms of stamina and vigor with qualities of enthusiasm and tirelessness. I am suggesting you think of energy in a context of vibration and movement.
In this formulation, energy is the speed of an individual’s energy field. The idea here is that a higher frequency will aid in problem solving, whereas a lower frequency will intensify problems and inhibit solutions. This is a crucial point in the simplified paradigm I present here and in chapter four. You have within you the absolute ability to increase your frequency and enhance the energy field of your everyday life. By increasing the speed at which you vibrate you move into those frequencies I am calling spirit, and away from those that are grounded in the material world of problems.
Stephen Hawking, who may be the most scientifically enlightened mind on the planet today, has said, “Apparently common sense notions work well when dealing with material things like apples and/or comparatively slow moving things like planets; but they don’t work at all for things moving at the speed of light.” Hence, if you want to access and utilize the energy that vibrates at faster frequencies than ordinary levels of awareness you have to be able to Shift Your Energy At Appropriate times out of good old-fashioned “common sense.” Valerie Hunt, in her well-documented and intriguing book Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness, concludes, “As a result of my work, I can no longer consider the body as organic systems or tissues. The healthy body is a flowing, interactive electrodynamic energy field. Motion is more natural to life than non-motion—things that keep flowing are inherently good. What interferes with flow will have detrimental effects.”
I do not expect you to become an expert on electrodynamic energy fields or to explore this ever-growing field of quantum energy physics. All I want at this point is to introduce you to the fundamental awareness necessary to activate your higher frequency. Here are five simplified verifiable facts, which it is my hope will introduce you to your innate ability to do that.
1. Everything vibrates, everything moves.
2. Faster vibrations mean getting closer to “spirit.”
3. Slower vibrations keep us in the world of “problems.”
4. You can choose to eliminate whatever interferes with increasing your vibrational field.
5 You can negotiate the presence of factors in your life to increase your frequency of vibrations.
There you have it in a nutshell. A spiritual solution to your every problem includes changing your energy
