Wisdom of the Ages: A Modern Master Brings Eternal Truths into Everyday Life

Description

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

Wisdom of the Ages reads like a workshop on "What the Masters can Teach You." Author Wayne Dyer offers wisdom taught by the world s "great teachers" (such as Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Michelangelo, and Emily Dickinson) and then provides an easy-to-digest interpretation for modern readers. The book is formatted into daily, quoted passages (around a page in length) from 60 of these teachers--the "60 Days to Enlightenment" in the book s title. After each quote, Dyer offers his own thoughts on how the "lesson" can be applied to contemporary life. After his essay, the author includes a list of exercises to put the teacher s advice to use. Each passage includes a heading--"Soulcenter" for a quote from Herman Melville s Moby Dick, or "Communication" for William Blake s poem "A Poison Tree," for example.

While his tone is always reverent, Dyer s interpretations occasionally sound flat and obvious--as if he is dumbing down the language 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 with the eloquent and enthusiastic voice that earned him his huge popularity--glimpses of that voice do appear in this book--one sees why so many consider him a "master teacher" in his own right. --Gail Hudson