About the secret: In an undesirable situation, or confronted with a loss, the inferior person, bitterly complain and curses his luck. The knowledgeable, successful person, remembers a good thing still left to him and smiles. He knows that the seemingly undesirable situation or loss will ultimately be a benefit to him. Thus, he responds in a positive way.

Chris Prentice, “The Little Book of Secrets: Gentle Wisdom for Joyful Living..”

Over the course of the many years I’ve been on this Earth, I have developed a moral core, a bedrock sense of myself and my deepest values, These values, these personal, often acknowledged “secrets of life” have come from my family and my dearest friends and relatives, They formed in grade school, and in college, and from my own reading and questioning. And they formed from what I have done that is good and which has helped others, and which then formed the solid basis for what would guide my future actions. All this has sustained me through failures and terribly wrong and impulsive decisions. It has given me the strength to carry on even in the darkest times. And by carry on, I mean literally to survive to write these words today.

It’s this core, our soul and essence, that forms over the course of a lifetime. But it’s still quite fragile, because there have been so many bad things that have countered this soul evolution, and which have attacked the foundation, the rock of my being and existence. This has been partly of my own doing, and partly from my upbringing, past decisions, and the actions of others. Some things are beyond my control, or at least they seem to have been.

The gist of what I just said is contained in a rapidly-typed instant message to someone I knew online 20 years ago, and have long since forgotten. However, for some reason I printed out that portion of the chat and saved it, as I do so many other things about which I think I might one day need to refresh my memory. Otherwise it’s gone forever. That statement from an instant messaging chat many years ago, which I am now elaborating on and thinking long and hard about, sums up so much of what I believe about myself and my values and how they were formed. It was one of those brief bursts of lucidity that sometimes come out in these online chat conversations, and which barely register with the other person. Such is life on the Internet, now and back then as well.

I am 73 years old now. I have read a lot, lived a lot, been a lot of places, but still, even at this age, I acknowledge I still have a ways to go yet on my journey toward peace of mind and spiritual completion, or fulfillment. Part of my basic philosophy, which I like to share with others, is summed up in that statement, in of all places, an instant message.

However, I am always seeking signs that mark the way, in a manner of speaking, signposts, blaze marks along the long trail of life that appear to me at surprising in unexpected times, and in unexpected places. They guide me as if I was in an old growth forest or wilderness that I had never been in before. They prevent me from getting lost.

When I scan the bargain book table at the bookstore, I occasionally come across surprises, such as “The Little Book of Secrets.” Sometimes, kernels of wisdom are contained within innocuous and serendipitous packages. By this I mean, when someone says he has “81 secrets for a living, a happy, successful life,” I am normally skeptical, even turned off. “How presumptuous,” I think to myself. But what a surprising exception this particular book is. I find self-help books fascinating for what they aspire to be for people, but I never buy them. Instead I look for offbeat or unusual books of wisdom, books of quotations, and this little book is a classic example of that. So I bought it and misplaced it, and now have a Kindle edition, to which I just referred.

What is prosperity? What is success? They have nothing to do with status, money or possessions. Those are just outward trappings that come with a certain kind of success. Prosperity to me is having enough materially to enable me to do those things in life which ultimately lead to peace of mind, spiritual enlightenment and union with God. One needs a certain amount of stability to advance along the path to knowledge and enlightenment, as well as meeting the basic needs of food, shelter, healthcare, a job that is secure, and relationships with others.

What are the secrets of life contained in this one barely known little book? Where did they come from? Well, the author spent 40 years researching wisdom texts, particularly by Chinese philosophers, in some of civilization’s most ancient and revered writings.

As we skim along the surface of life, we find ourselves yearning to delve deeper, to tap into the wisdom of the ages. When we do, the random signs and lessons we come across and learn from in life cohere into a meaningful stories and explanations. We glimpse the whole, briefly, fleetingly, and then it’s gone. But each time we do, we are more sure of our calling, our purpose, and our destiny. We know more. By the time we are old, we will have hopefully achieved a level of wisdom that enables us to calmly whether the storms of life, especially at the end. That is what I hope.