Dormant Forces

Dormant Forces

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

· Patanjali, Yoga Sutras (“Method of Enlightenment,” ca. Second Century B.C.)

I have selected this passage from Patanjali because I believe it expresses a universal truth across the miles and eons of time. I urge you to go through Patanjali’s words with me, step by step, and while you do, remind yourself that millions of people, to this day, study the words of this teacher from ancient times who is still considered an avatar offering us his divine wisdom. He explains that when we become truly inspired by something that we consider extraordinary, truly extraordinary things will begin to happen for us, particularly in our thought processes. Somehow, when we become intensely involved in what we truly love to do, our thoughts begin to change and lose that quality of feeling limited in any way.

From my own personal experience I know that I feel most “on purpose” in my life when I am speaking to an audience and when I am writing. I have a deep sense of being used in some way at those moments, as if it isn’t really this physical body called Wayne Dyer that is producing the talk or the book. In those moments I notice that my mind does not contemplate the concept of limitation. I know that I am not alone and that divine guidance is with me, and I speak or write effortlessly. It seems to me that the body and the mind are in a state of harmony during those moments. Some have called this state “flow,” others call it “peak experience.” Patanjali describes it as “your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.”

As you read these words, keep in mind the timelessness of this advice. Even those living in pre-pre-premodern times knew the significance of being on purpose in life. At the moments of peak experience, these inspired moments of feeling at one with God and the entire universe, you experience life as truly wonderful. This occurs when you are involved at a level that is called inspirational. Your attention is not on what is wrong or missing, but on the balanced feeling that comes from being in spirit. You are co-creating with spirit. In other words you are having an inspirational moment.

Patanjali then speaks of what I consider the most phenomenal aspect of being in this state of inspirational grace. “Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive,” he tells us. This means that many of the things we thought were outside our power to manifest awaken within us. I have found that when I am truly inspired in some extraordinary project, I forget about fatigue, despite an absence of sleep. I find that I don’t think about being hungry, and in fact my body just seems to cease all its incessant demands and shifts into a state of moving me through my work effortlessly. Jet lag disappears when I am centered in my activity, even though I have crossed eight or nine time zones in a single day.

These faculties and talents that Patanjali describes are simply dormant if you are not taking the steps to become inspired in your life. I think the use of the term “dormant forces” is very critical here. When you are in that centered state of purpose, you activate forces in the universe that previously were out of your range. What you need will show up. The right person will be there on time. The phone call will come. The missing pieces will be brought to you. You manage the coincidences of your life, which sounds paradoxical. But when you enlist spirit by being inspired, the ancient Zen proverb applies: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

-Wayne Dyer, Ph.D.