What inspired or compelled you to write Essential Wisdom, Volume 1?

Essential Wisdom has really evolved over a number of years. Or maybe I should say my awareness of what Essential Wisdom would eventually become has evolved over a number of years. But the impetus behind it has always been to help spiritual seekers and soul searchers create a fulfilling life from an authentic place of power while moving consciously toward their destiny. The contents of the book have come from the insights and spiritual teaching acquired during my first twelve years of meditation and spiritual training. They have helped tremendously in my own growth and transformation, and I am sure they will be helpful to others.

In the opening of your book, you talk about the concept of spiritual sunshine or spiritual brilliance as it relates to living the life you are meant. Can you talk a little more about that concept?

Spiritual sunshine is the natural glow of your authentic power. It is the radiance that shows from being your true self. Living the life you are meant is about being that person—being your true self, radiating your true light. I think many people get distracted with the idea that there is some particular thing that they should be doing in the world—some single purpose for their life that can be clearly identified and labeled. Well, that’s like saying there’s only one place where the sun is supposed to shine. The point is, if you are radiating your truth at all times, you will always be fulfilling your purpose, you will always be walking the right path—no matter what it is that you do.

Can you talk a little bit about the process the reader goes through when working with the book?

One of the reasons I'm so excited about this book is because it’s never the same book twice. As you grow, your experience with the book evolves right along with you. The interactive exercises really help you to see your own consciousness and energy in action, empowering you to create change in your life. The book addresses a variety of spiritual and metaphysical subjects like self, society, relationships, well-being, emotions, and provides exercises and worksheets that help you through the soul-searching process. The companion CD gives you an invaluable education on the nature of your essential self, your mission and how to live a more spiritually brilliant existence.

Essential Wisdom features nearly fifty interactive exercises for personal growth and transformation. What was the process of putting the exercises together with each chapter?

One of the interesting things about this whole process is that as you read from chapter to chapter, even from verse to verse, you are sometimes jumping across great spans of time from one stream of consciousness to another. Weaving everything in this book together was really a great exercise in creating a new stream of consciousness that flows throughout the book. And that’s really what the book is about—helping you create a new stream a consciousness that will flow through your life, and open a channel for transformation. Many of the exercises have come from my own training. Some came with the wisdom teachings during meditation. Putting the exercises and chapters together was really a matter of matching the essence of each exercise with the spirit of the teaching that it tries to illustrate.

How will the exercises in this book help people live the life they are meant?

Metaphorically speaking, living the life you are meant is like baking a cake. If you have a recipe, the ingredients, and the energy to mix and transform those ingredients you will end up with cake in the end. The spiritual teachings and the exercises help you develop a recipe and put the necessary ingredients into consciousness—and into action—so that you can “bake up” the life you are meant. One of the most important things that the exercises do is help you generate momentum—momentum to break free of old energy and habits and move forward with new energy and awareness.

What is a common misconception people have about personal transformation and spiritual development?

Perhaps the most common misconception is that transformation takes a very long time. What it takes is focused attention and practice. If you take someone who meditates or does some other spiritual practice a few days a week or even a few hours every day, and then you take somebody like a monk who's practicing the whole day—perhaps even in their dreams sometimes, there’s no question who will demonstrate the greatest transformation in a year’s time. One of the things that Essential Wisdom helps you do is increase attention and practice in everyday life. It helps, for example, to turn a mundane trip to the store or a party into an opportunity to transform. Actually, there is a spiritual exercise in the book that involves mingling at a party. One of the great things about Essential Wisdom is that it really turns your everyday life into a rich and exciting path to enlightenment.

What would you most like soul searchers to realize and start doing after reading Essential Wisdom?

One thing that Essential Wisdom strives to do is put you in touch with your own inner wisdom. So I hope soul searchers will come to trust and own their inner wisdom. I hope they will be spiritually alert and aware, and apply whatever wisdom they have to their everyday life.

Essential Wisdom is a guide for living the life you are meant, but what about the concept of playing the cards you were dealt? What if the life you are living now is your destiny?

If you are behind the wheel of a car, how far, how fast, and how smoothly you will travel to a destination depends not only of the condition of that car, but also on how practiced a driver you are. Practice strengthens potential. Destiny depends on potential. A driver with little practice or skill may do little more than drive around a parking lot or around the block at first. Once the driver becomes more capable, his "destiny" opens up. In a manner of speaking, the exercises in the book provide you with an opportunity to practice driving your life, your consciousness, and your energy so that you can become more capable of achieving your greatest possible destiny.

You describe the book as revealing some of the most essential wisdom every human being should possess in order to transform. What have you found to be the most important pieces of wisdom from the book?

I really believe that this book reveals some of the most essential wisdom every human being should possess to close the gap between who you think you are and who you are meant to be. I think the section of the book that sums it all up and hits the spiritual nail on the head, so to speak, is the one called “What Must Be.”

“Do what must be done and do it masterfully without apprehension or vacillation. Say what must be said and say it sincerely without fear or malice. Feel what must be felt and feel it completely without censorship or shame. Listen to what must be heard and listen attentively with openness of heart and mind. Learn what must be known and learn it proficiently in a meaningful context. Question what must be challenged and question it wisely with respect and good intention. Release what must be freed and release it willingly without bitterness or regret.”

Those really are words to live by…spiritual directives by which you can exact great change in your life. And you don't have to wait until 20 years from now or 10 years from now. You don’t have to wait another day. Do what must be done now, and you will find yourself living the life you are meant.