I’m so excited and inspired by this wonderful book by Vernon Howard, The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power. Here is another marvelous chapter; so plum full of good cheer and practical wisdom that any honest seeker will be moved with a new brightness and purpose for their day.

The Magic Power of Wonderment

A man or woman painfully explains, “You know, in spite of all my busy activities, I really don’t know what to do with myself. Oh, I have my television and social life; I don’t mean things like that. I mean my inner self. It’s all so empty and pointless. Yes, that’s the whole problem; I just don’t know what to do about my inner emptiness. It aches so badly.”
Of course it does. Such a confession by one man or woman is an honest reflection shared by millions of trapped people. They just don’t know what to do with themselves. Their secret emptiness makes every day a new terror. They desperately hope to find enough artificial activities to get them through another empty day.
You need not live that way. There is a new way. Take courage and know it can be yours. I will give you a technique that can be used with magical effect, if you will but work with it: The very next time you feel overwhelmed by confusion or emptiness, look at this psychic state with a sense of wonderment, yes, wonderment. Don’t react with customary fright or resistance. Calmly sit down and try to see what it is all about. Be cheerfully curious, just as if it is a new adventure in self-discovery, for that is just what it is.
Something quite remarkable will happen before your eyes. You will see this state in an amazing new way. It will no longer be emptiness, but something else, something which I cannot describe to you, but which you can know for yourself. The darkness turns to light.
The next time you do not know what to do with your emptiness, look at it with a sense of wonderment.
Your resolve to change yourself will certainly arouse protests from your deeply-entrenched habits, but you must flatly refuse to listen. Ignore their accusations. Stay with yourself. And especially–don’t fear the consequences of breaking free.
We must recognize this subtle enemy called fear of consequences. Unless we are alertly aware of its terrible tyranny, it keeps us its unconscious slave. By consequences, I mean whatever happens to you–inwardly or outwardly–as a result of your blow for personal liberty.
Do not fear consequences from anyone, or anything. Do what you must do and quietly observe what happens. Stand up in the face of reactions from other people, or from your own negative nature. You broke away from that relationship because you can no longer live that kind of life? You acted heroically. You refused to compromise yourself by agreeing with someone simply because you value his friendship? Good. You dared to look within yourself and were shocked to see more negativity than you suspected? That is a positive act.
Whatever the consequences, even if painful, let them teach you the lesson. They are trying to tell you of another way to live. They do their best to break you free of the monotonous life.

Inner Life Exercise

Whatever happens, start each new day with wonderment, as if it were the very first day of your life. This should be done by anyone who doesn’t want his future to be a repetition of his past.

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