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Back
by popular demand, a new edition of the classic
first published in 1978!
- MOST
OF ALL
- THEY
TAUGHT ME
HAPPINESS
-
Dr.
ROBERT MULLER
Former Assistant Secretary General to the
United Nations
ARE
YOU HAPPY? DECIDE TO BE HAPPY!
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- You
can be happy no matter what the circumstances
- Deciding
to be happy can even save your life
- Your
happiness is a great contribution to Peace
"Robert
Muller shows us that through our intention we can manifest a
happy destiny for ourselves and others, regardless of
the circumstances." -- WAYNE DYER, author of The Power of
Intention
"These
stories reveal that by overcoming the illusionary fears and
limitations of our ego, we may step into the limitless power
and wisdom of our true divine selves." -- NEALE DONALD
WALSCH, author of Conversations with God
"Rober's
book is a compelling reminder that all of us are responsible
for creating the happiness of the human family and of the
Planet that sustains us - and in so doing we may bring about
our own fulfillment and highest bliss." -- DEEPAK CHOPRA,
author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
ORDER
TODAY
- A
CASE of 50 books to be shipped directly from the
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- 805
968 8567 or bgaughenmu@aol.com
- Excerpted
from:
- Most
Of All, They Taught Me Happiness By Robert
Muller
- Published
By Amare Media
- Volume
Four: Lessons From My Elders
- Pages
103-106
-
- Of
Daily Blessings Every day count one of your
blessings
One
of the great regrets in my life is that I knew only one of
my grandparents. In the 1920s longevity was not what it is
today. My mother's parents died while she was a child, and
my father's mother passed away before I was born. I knew
therefore only my paternal grandfather, the hatmaker. Today
I feel that my father and mother had the greatest influence
on my life, but when I was a child my grandfather was my god
and hero. My father was too involved in his own affairs,
worries, and beliefs, and he was constantly preaching and
thinking that he was right and that I was wrong.My
grandfather was different: He was old, smiling, gentle, and
in a constant state of love with me. He told me stories that
were close to my world: the world of nature, animals, and
legends. Through his stories he transmitted to me the wisdom
he had acquired in his life. I knew that he was telling the
truth, for at his age he had no ax to grind and no interest
in telling me lies. Furthermore, he knew that my father's
daily work, business, and sleepless nights were not
understandable to me. He sensed that I wanted basically to
know the world as a beautiful place.He knew that the world
of the very young and of the very old is essentially the
same, namely a world of miracles one is about to discover or
to lose. We were much closer to the truth than middle-aged
people.
My
grandfather taught me that every day in life I should be
thankful for one of my blessings:
- "You
will never obtain everything in life but you will always
be blessed with so much.Whatever your situation is, there
will always be someone more unfortunate than you. Think
of him and thank God for all the good things you have.
One day, remember how lucky you are to possess two eyes.
There are many blind people in the world. Think of them
and be grateful for the wonderful world you can see: the
flowers, the animals, the sunshine, the stars, the
brooks, and the meadows.How terrible you would feel
without eyesight.Another day, when you eat, think of the
hungry. A third day, when you play, think of the
crippled. A fourth day, when you go to school, think of
those who have no schools. When your mother kisses you,
think of those who have no mother. When you look at my
gray hair, think of the beauty of youth. And many years
hence, when you will be old, think how lucky you are to
be still alive, to be blessed with one more day, to be
wise, and to have a little grandson like you. . .
."
He
inculcated this basic belief deeply into me through
innumerable wonderful children's stories, which taught me
more about life than all I learned later in
school.
Today,
whenever despair menaces me, the image of my grandfather
comes back. I hasten to count my blessings, I concentrate on
one of them, and almost forthwith my worry vanishes or takes
on a more reasonable proportion.
The
world, alas, has lost the habit of counting its blessings.
Often when I speak to audiences with optimism about
humanity's future, I hear the most devastating comments on
the world's condition. Then I think of the time of my youth
and describe the kind of world in which I lived. It was a
very poor world indeed, the Europe of that time. We ate meat
only once a week, on Sunday. Our nourishment consisted of
heavy soups at luncheon and of boiled potatoes, cottage
cheese, and onions in the evening. Still I never saw a loaf
of bread being cut without my father making the sign of the
cross on it. Peasants took off their caps and crossed
themselves when they passed near a field of
wheat.
We
had only one precious pair of shoes, and the purchase of new
ones for our growing feet was an object of long discussion
in the family. I saw workers walk with their shoes tied
around the neck in order to spare them. The weakest electric
bulbs were used to save on electricity when that form of
light replaced the gas lamps. My eyesight suffered and I
lived the yearly ordeal of needing costly, new, stronger
glasses. I often heard my parents speak of women who had
died in Kindbett (in childbirth; literally, "in child's
bed"). I could not understand what it meant to die in a
child's bed. Only later did I learn that many mothers died
at the moment of giving birth. There was so much misery all
around. On Saturday evenings, I could hear screams of women
being beaten by their drunken husbands who out of misery had
squandered their paycheck in a pub to seek a moment of
well-being. And still, it was a beautiful life, a wonderful
world, for there was always a wise old man or woman to
listen to, a bird to be watched, an insect to be observed, a
morning Mass to be attended, a royal meal to be expected at
Christmas and Easter, those two high points of the year. And
what a miracle it was to receive the first toy or chocolate
or to see the first oranges and bananas appear in the
market.
Yes,
things that we take for granted today, such as food, were
Considered absolutely sacred. We were never allowed to leave
any food on our plates. If we didn't like a meal, it was
warmed up time and again for days until we ate it. All this
is gone today in our affluent world. People are seldom
grateful for what they have and usually want endlessly more.
What pains I had to teach my children to cut useless lights
in the house or to stop the faucets a little earlier. They
could not understand why it upset me so when they left the
tiniest grain of rice on their plate, until one day I had
them calculate how many tons and shiploads of rice it
represented each year if 4 billion* people wasted a grain
three times a day. The same is true for a drop of water, for
a watt of electricity, or for a sheet of paper.
As
long as people will not be able to think in these terms, all
the crises of Western civilization &emdash; be it the
environment, food, energy, water, or inflation &emdash; will
never be resolved. No governmental decree will suffice. Only
the will of restraint of the 4 billion inhabitants of planet
Earth will do the job. I wonder what my grandfather would
have said if he had learned that it would take 56 million
gallons of water, 37,000 gallons of gasoline, 5 1/2 tons of
meat, 9 tons of milk and cream, 48 tons of steel, etc., to
sustain an American over an average lifetime! He would have
answered that such a life was tempting God and that it would
end in world catastrophe. Well, he would not have been too
far from the truth, to judge from the recent global crises.
He would have been appalled by the lack of gratefulness amid
our abundance. He would have recommended also that we give
back to the children their grand-parents, that we keep them
in the warmth of our families so that they may teach the
wisdom of life to the young, a wisdom they no longer get
from parents, schools, political leaders, and the media. He
would have requested that the old people's homes be closed
and that the elderly be begged to come back and perform
again their most precious and inalienable function: the
transmission of wisdom in the eternal chain of life that
links generation to generation on our beautiful but forever
incomprehensible journey in the universe.
*Today
the worlds population is over 6 billion.
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