Back on September 23, 2007 I vowed to use Wayne Dyer’s book, Change Your Thoughts — Change Your Life, Living in the Wisdom of the Tao, as a starting point for spiritual reflection each day. I liked the idea of reading a verse from the Tao Te Ching and then reading Dyer’s thoughts about it. The idea was to start from the beginning and do a few verses a week, which would allow me to live with each one for a few days.

Well, I abandoned it after just a few verses. I started with good intentions and then don’t follow through.

I can do better than that in 2008.

I have modified the idea slightly, but my resolve is basically the same. It’s just less orderly. Each day I will open the book to the table of contents and find a theme that resonates with me that day. Then I will turn to that verse and read it and Dyer’s accompanying essay. Occasionally, if no verse speaks to me in the table of contents, I will simply open the book to a random page and trust that The Universe will show me what I need to see that day.

So yesterday I began with verse 71 (for one interpretation, see http://www.taoteching.org/chapters/71.htm), whose title in the table of contents reads, “Living Without Sickness.” This verse is tough for me because it involves looking within and understanding what my body is trying to tell me in ill health. Two of the simple sounding (but not so simple to execute) suggestions by Dyer are “Have a happy mind” and “Examine your habits.”

I will stick with this verse for a few more days and let myself get immersed in its message.