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robertmullerhappiness

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!

  • 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

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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.