“The quest for happiness is a quest for God.”
Aivanhov
A Book Review of The Seeds of Happiness by Omraam Mikael Aivanhov (1994)
by Cheryl A Chatfield, PhD
Omraam Mikael Aivanhov was a philosopher and spiritual teacher who died in1986. I first read The Seeds of Happiness 20 years ago. In revisiting his work, I am reminded that despite any changes in our evolving spiritual views, there are truths that survive. His words remain just as powerful today.
Join me as Aivanhov provides direction to the current preoccupation with being happy. While most spiritual leaders today agree that happiness is a worthwhile goal, Aivanhov reminds us what that actually means.
”We are here to learn.”
Five of Avanhov’s Seeds of Happiness:
- Happiness is not pleasure.
- Work/Service is happiness.
- Accept all difficulties; efforts lead to true happiness.
- Live an intense spiritual life; fuse into your higher self; thoughts and feelings are powerful, so concentrate on good ones.
- Show gratitude, say “Thank You” often.
- Happiness is not pleasure.
“It is not a question of depriving yourself of all pleasure, but simply of not giving it priority, of not making it the goal of your existence, for it inevitably weakens and impoverishes those who do so.”
”Happiness, therefore, is already within you. If you are not conscious of it, it is because you live on the surface.”
”If you want happiness, it is not money you need but light.”
- Work/Service is Happiness
“It is in work that you will find happiness.”
“Replace pleasure with an ideal. Do something sensible and noble, resolve to do some serious, useful work.”
”You must continue to do what you can for others because that is how you yourself gain the strength of light, even if you don’t see any changes in the other.”
“…make every moment of every day an occasion to advance and grow in self-mastery, harmony and light.”
- Accept all difficulties; efforts lead to true happiness.
“You must accept all the difficulties that come along, therefore, knowing that it is the efforts you impose on yourselves that will lead to true happiness.”
“Those who hope for harmony and peace without having learned to overcome all obstacles are… laying the foundations of a life of disorder and contradictions.”
”Peace therefore is a state of consciousness that can only be reached after long years of sustained effort to achieve self-mastery and inner harmonization.”
”Set unattainable goals so that you are always moving forward.”
- Live an intense spiritual life; fuse into your higher self; thoughts and feelings are powerful, so concentrate on good ones.
“… if you were looking for happiness, the only secret to finding it is to live an intense spiritual life. It is useless to look for help from talismans or other magical objects, precious stones, medals, perfumes, etc., For the only true magic is life itself.”
“If you want to be happy, work on your physical body, your astral body (your feelings), and your mental body (your thoughts). You will immediately begin to see results: your health will improve; you will feel the constant presence of love around you and all around. The meaning of life will become clear to you.”
“If you want to find happiness, it is not enough to conquer your lower nature. This conquest is necessary, to be sure, but it is insufficient: you must also fuse into one with your higher nature.”
“If you want to regain your inner joy and peace, tell yourself that you must count only on your own love and not expect it from others. As long as you expect, and hope to be loved, you will be dependent on others. If others fail to love you or love you less than you would like – and they are perfectly within their rights of doing so – you will always be unhappy.”
- Show gratitude, say “Thank You” often.
“Get in the habit of saying “Thank You.”
“Be grateful always, even in the midst of difficulties, sorrow and suffering. In this way, all the poisons seeping into you from those negative influences will be neutralized, and all your wounds will be healed, for gratitude is such a powerful remedy that nothing can resist it.”
“Give thanks, therefore, until you reach the point where you sense everything that happens to you is for your good.”
“… you can always do something to make yourself feel better about things, for your thoughts can influence your state of mind. This is something you must never forget: thoughts and feelings are all powerful where our consciousness is concerned.”
Instead of nourishing and reinforcing negative states of mind, disappointments, or animosities by constantly dwelling on them, leave them alone, shrug them off, and concentrate on all the good, pure, luminous things that have happened to you.
“On the highest level, peace and happiness are one;
they cannot exist apart from each other.
You’ll never meet someone really happy who is not at peace.”
A Mystic Journey 
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