How Then, Shall We Live?: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives [Paperback]

Wayne Muller (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 5, 1997

We all long to experience a sense of inner wholeness and guidance, but today's notions of healing and recovery too often keep us focused on our brokenness, on our deficiencies rather than our strengths. Wayne Muller's luminous new book gently guides us to the place where we are already perfect, already blessed with the wisdom we need to live a life of meaning, purpose and grace.



He starts, as do so many spiritual teachers, with simple questions: Who am I? What do I love? How shall I live, knowing I will die? What is my gift to the family of the earth? He then takes us deeper, exploring each question through transformative true stories. We meet men and women--Wayne's neighbors, friends, patients--who have discovered love, courage, and kindness even in the midst of sorrow and loss. And through them we glimpse that relentless spark of spiritual magic that burns within each of us.



Woven throughout are contemplations, daily practices, poems, and teachings from the great wisdom teachings. Page by page, we become more awake to the joy and mystery of this precious human life, and to the unique gifts every one of us has to offer the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the hazards of a reflective life is to grope for answers before you've asked the right questions. Wayne Muller, a minister, therapist and bestselling author has taken a stab at asking the big questions: Who am I? What do I love? How shall I live, knowing I will die? What is my gift to the family of the Earth? Following each of these questions are some of the most tender and luminous discussions one could hope to ponder. More than a monastery for the armchair seeker, this has potential to be a mind-altering book with permanent impact.

Review

Four questions are central to examining and revealing the beauty and meaning of daily lives: here Muller focuses on hidden strengths rather than weaknesses requiring healing, providing a spiritual exploration of life's meaning through a series of true stories. From a young woman abused as a child to a man depleted by cancer, this uses real life stories and tests as a method for analyzing meaning. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553375059
• ISBN-13: 978-0553375053
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wayne Muller has been a therapist, minister, community advocate, consultant, public speaker, and bestselling author of Legacy of the Heart and Sabbath, among others. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Wayne spent the last thirty-five years serving thee abused, bereft, sick, and oppressed. He founded Bread for the Journey, a network of ordinary people who volunteer in neighborhood philanthropy. Wayne listens primarily for what is beautiful, strong, and true within us, to learn to find nourishment as our lives unfold in new, unexpected directions. He was Senior Scholar at the Fetzer Institute, Extended Faculty at the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and has received several awards for his work with those in need.

He currently works with select individuals as a private spiritual director and mentor.

You can contact Wayne at www.waynemuller.com

"Wayne Muller gently moved me beyond the questions of Why? and Why me?, helped me step over the barriers of guilt and shame and encouraged me to look through my wounds as through a window that opens to a new view of who I am and where I am called to go." - Henri Nouwen, "The Wounded Healer"

"Wayne Muller gives us the license, the encouragement to take that single, mindful breath which puts our busy lives in perspective and helps restore our souls." - Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Poetic, Wise April 20, 2000

By Poetry Primavera

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wayne Muller has a deeply caring soul and in this book evidences a lyrical pen.

While no book can conclusively answer the question "How, Then, Shall We Live?" this book is a wonderfully readable and gentle, compassionate and evocative, exploration of some of life's ultimate issues.

Much of the book gains its power from stories of people facing death in heartbreaking yet courageous and liberating ways.

This book is good for your soul (however "soul" may be defined or experienced).

In addition to the author's own thoughts, he includes helpful exercises, and cites many inspiring and thoughtful passages from others.

This is not an analytic work that delves into complicated philosophical concepts. Instead, it touches on the simple, yet most profound, questions of life and death in the deceptive plainness of the most wise. It is food for the heart, and it rings deeply true. And, while the author seems to be a deeply spiritual man, there is nothing of a dogmatic sense about any of the writing.

Read this book; your best self will thank you!

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read March 13, 2007

By Dr. John Laughlin VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Wayne Muller is an ordained minister, psychotherapist and best-selling author. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, he has spent the last twenty-five years working closely with some of the most disadvantaged members of society. He founded Bread for the Journey, a national, nonprofit charity serving the poor and underprivileged. Muller's meditation on four simple questions takes him far afield into revealing much of himself, the struggles and victories of the many he helps and into beautiful, illustrative literature and stories from world religions. At the end of each section he has inventive exercises that help the reader find her answer to these immortal questions. The questions:

Who am I? The way we feel about ourselves, the way we live our lives depends upon how we answer this question. Am I the sum of my symptoms? Am I the roles I play, my job titles, what others think of me? Have I shrunk to the circumference of a label others placed upon me? Or is there a hidden wholeness within that I must strive to connect with each day? Jesus answered the question in saying "You are the light of the world?" He did not say you are the light of the world if you grew up in a rich or famous family, or if you are svelte and good looking, if you have never been abused or a child of a broken home. "No, regardless of the shape of the sorrow or victory or grief or ecstasy we have been given, there is a potent inner luminosity that is never extinguished and is alive in us this instant." (17). We come into the world with a true self that lets us know when we have gone astray from our nature as children of God. Ask yourself throughout the day, "Who am I?" Pay attention to the breadth of your answers. Which reflect your deepest nature?

What do I love? You cannot love everything or everyone. Jesus said "Where your treasure is there will you heart be also." The aim of this section is to help you with the fruitful challenge of discerning and choosing those things you truly love -- to reset your center of gravity. Who and what gets most of your attention. "Attention is the tangible measure of love" (p. 87) Look through you date book, recall your week. Where are most of you time and energy going? This is where your love is going too. Do you need a course correction, a realignment between what you do and what you profess doing? In a world where doing is more important that being, we can easily lose ourselves in doing too much. Gather some magazines and cut out those pictures that seem powerful and intriguing. As you do this keep in mind this one question, "What do I love?" What do you notice of each, how do they make you feel, pick one and ask what it says to you about your inner life, what you love? (P. 123)

How shall I live, knowing I will die? It is life's impermanence that makes us value it so dearly. Nothing intensifies life as the scare of facing death. Suddenly, life is intense, the unnecessary fades, worries about money are eclipsed by the preciousness of our remaining time. If we are not careful, our life becomes a joyless grind of work and chores. How many of us want immortality but don't know what to do with ourselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon? Who of us is just passing through this life waiting for a happier more fulfilling afterlife? Take an hour to plan your own memorial service. Who do you want to be there, for what do you want to be remembered, what do you want people to say? What is the primary legacy of your life? What would you like your epitaph to say? This exercise may afford you some surprises about the kind of life you want to live. What one thing can you do to begin this life? (P. 204)

What is my gift to the family on the earth? If you believe what Jesus told you that you are the light of the world, then upon what do you shine that light? Or do you hide it behind sorrow, or hurts and try to save it like the last morsel of bread? It is only from the broken places of our life that our light can shine. It is in suffering we gain wisdom, and in trials that we learn empathy. Our gift is ourselves, in whatever manifestation of generosity we share it. Daily we are given opportunities to offer our gifts to fellow workers, family, strangers, to the lonely, dying, to our planet and its many endangered species who have given us so much. Take a day and track your impulse to give in different circumstances. Does giving emerge naturally or is it hindered by a sense of obligation, or resentment? Notice how it feels to give of yourself. Does it produce happiness or leave you feeling weary and drained? (P. 253).

How Then, Shall We Live? makes you aware of the need to listen and to learn from your inner life. As Emerson wrote "Our life is an apprenticeship to truth, that around every circle another can be drawn . . . under every deep a lower deep opens."

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars this book is a song for the mind, body and spirit.... January 5, 1999

By Joseph Griffin

Format:Audio Cassette

i read this book at a time of my life when i had lost a dear friend.....it is truly inspiring with a purpose of legacy......and celebration of spirit that is within all of us.....grace and gratitude.