Give Love and Do Good

According to Wayne Dyer, the eight points long attributed by many to Mother Teresa of Calcutta are actually a version of "The Paradoxical Commandments" written by Kent M. Keith while he was a sophomore at Harvard University in the 1960s. Dyer talks about this commandments in his amazing book, "There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem" and adds on his personal comments to it, of which I will share with you my brief interpretation of it. You must read the whole book to truly appreciate the beauty of it. If you have not read this book, please get it! I highly recommend this book and it is an absolute must have.

The Eight-Point Plan

1. People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred. Forgive them anyway.

Dyer: When you forgive them, you choose to not be impacted in a negative manner.


2. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

Dyer: Be kind because it is you, not because of the reactions you want from others.


3. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.

Dyer: Focus on what you know to be your divine purpose, and by doing so, the universe will
support and sustain you with what is labeled success. Others will be offended, but if
you persist in ignoring their reactions, you will not allow the presence of false friends
or true enemies to be a factor in your life.


4. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.

Dyer: Those who attempt to cheat you, will respect and honour your position when you
stay true to your spiritual values. Behave toward others from your highest self and
you will eventually be free of the fear of being cheated. Ironnically, when that fear
disappears, the problem of being cheated also dispappears.


5.What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight. Build anyway.

Dyer: Do not build anything only for the purpose of having it completed. Build because it is
your way of expressing your purpose. Building something is a means of expressing
yourself.


6. If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

Dyer: Happiness is the way. If you seek the reactions of others as the basis of your way of
being, then you have turned the source of your happiness over to those whose
reactions you covet. Happiness is an inside job. You don't get it from anyone or
anything; you bring it to everyone and every event of your life.


7. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Dyer: Stop looking for the approval and gratitude of others as your reasons to do good.
Even if no one ever says thank you, do for others as your heart dictates from spirit,
which is rooted in the faster energy of love, kindness and connectedness to all.
Remind yourself to give love and do good because that is who you are, and for no
other reason at all.

8. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best
you've got anyway.

Dyer: The best implies your highest, most sacred self. People may attempt to be more
demanding of you, or by critizing you repeatedly, or even by ignoring your efforts.
When you return to your highest self, you are independent of those opinions almost
instantly, and problems of feeling unappreciated are nonexistent. Give the world your
spirit, and detach from the outcome of your efforts.

As written in Dyer's book, these eight suggestions that Mother Teresa adopted as a plan for life concludes with the truly profound essence of this offering: "You see, the in the final analysis, it is all between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway."