FIND YOUR INNER GOLD

Many years ago, in Thailand, there was a nine-foot, clay statue of Buddha. It weighed over five tonnes and wasn’t particularly attractive, but it had survived for hundreds of years, withstanding wars, hurricanes, and all kinds of natural disasters. It was a local landmark. One year, cracks began to appear on the surface of the statue. Wanting to assess how extensive a repair might be, a curious monk peered closely into the fissures with a flashlight. As he was doing his examination, he noticed something bright underneath the clay. It was yellow and shiny. Could it actually be gold? As he chipped away at the encrusted covering, he realized that it was! The entire statue was made of gold. Solid gold. The statue, now called the Golden Buddha, has become world-famous, and is renowned as one of the most beautiful images of Buddha on the planet. It draws thousands of visitors every year. Why had the gold been covered over? Although no one knows for sure, it’s believed that the golden statue had been covered with muddy clay and other materials to protect and preserve it and perhaps, most importantly, to keep its value from being known. So, it would be safe. Don’t most of us cover up what shines inside us in the same way? To be safe? When we’re born, we are unique and pure and radiate our own golden perfection. But as we move through life, we get splattered and muddied and before we know it, we start feeling dull and ordinary. Although we might be sad about losing what’s bright about us, we all have experienced the safety of not shining. The safety of not standing out. The security of not being too noticeable. If we hide our light for long enough, or continually tune our brightness down, we start to lose touch with our brilliance. We might even start denying that there is anything bright and beautiful about us at all and say things like, “There’s nothing special about me. What was I thinking?” The premise of this book is that each of us, in our own ways, are amazing. That doesn’t make us better than others. It simply acknowledges that at our core, each of us is made of gold. I know this is contrary to what most religions say. As a child I remember sitting in church and being told I was a miserable sinner. I remember scouring my mind looking for things I’d done wrong, but I sensed the badness the minister was talking about didn't come from a misdemeanor, but arose from some quintessential fault in my very being. In other words, I hadn’t done something bad, I WAS bad. It was hard to accept. Years later, I learned that in Buddhism, people are considered to be basically good. It was a relief to hear that. It got me thinking that maybe we aren’t born sinners at all, but are simply saints who, like the golden Buddha, just got muddied up over the years. Saints that simply needed a power wash. That’s the intention of this book: to be a power wash. For decades now, I’ve worked as a personal development coach. My job is to help people rediscover the gold inside themselves. In order to do this, I provide them with the power tools to clear away all the detritus that’s covering up the gold so they can shine fully once again. Now I want to give those tools to you. Finding What’s Extraordinary Just like Michelangelo, we must begin by trusting that what appears to look like a nondescript block of stone has a divine being inside it trying to get out. As Michelangelo said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” This book will give you the carving tools to shave away all that you are not until you reach what shines again. A Cautionary Note Just so you know what to expect, as you begin to rediscover your own inner gold and start to shine, you may find yourself feeling more self-conscious and vulnerable. Others may notice you more, as if you’re walking around wearing jewels. You may even feel like a fraud for a while, but that’s all right. It’s part of the process. Even though you might feel a little overwhelmed by the attention and be tempted to dim yourself down again, resist that temptation and trust the truth and power of the gold inside you. You will begin to understand that your greatest gift is merely this: to shine. You will become a lighthouse, showing the way home. The Tools There are thousands of self-development tools, and I have picked the ones that I believe are the most effective. These are all tools I've used both personally and professionally. You can use all of them to modulate your energy field and change your moods and actions. This is the ultimate form of self-empowerment. As you begin to use them, you'll find some work for you better than others. We are all at different stages of development, so what is going to help one person may not help another. Or one tool may be good for one kind of issue and not be as effective for another. Experiment. All the tools I’ve listed in this book trustworthy and will all yield good effects in the various aspects of your life. Some will yield spectacular effects. Try them and find out for yourself.