This rare collection of time-honored wisdom gently guides, inspires, and opens us to life as it is meant to be, even in its ups and downs—joyous, peaceful, and prosperous.
Chris Prentiss spent forty years searching for the world's secrets that, for thousands of years, have brought people success, prosperity, and deep-down, soul-drenching happiness. The Little Book of Secrets: Gentle Wisdom for Joyful Living is the result of his quest. This delightful book shares 81precious sayings distilled from the world's ancient wisdom along with the author's own perceptive comments. Both will help you find insight, peace, and guidance in our busy, modern world.
These elegant principles for enlightened living cover everything from creating enduring relationships to achieving a quiet and contented heart to the best way to face conflict, loss, and danger. "Following the path of the secrets," says Chris Prentiss, "has brought me and others to whom I have revealed the secrets all the good things we most dearly cherish: true friendship, prosperity, peace, happiness, wonderful relationships with people we love, rewarding professions, and relationships with our children that are loving, truthful, and totally satisfying."
With its beautifully designed interior, The Little Book of Secrets makes a meaningful gift for any occasion. Small enough to fit into every backpack, pocketbook and briefcase, it can become a well-loved friend and trusted companion as you travel along the twists and turns of life's journey.
Chris Prentiss is cofounder and codirector, along with his son Pax, of the world-famous Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California. He is also the author of a dozen books on personal growth. Prentiss has also led personal empowerment workshops in Southern California and has written, produced, and directed a feature film. He resides with his wife in Malibu, California.
"Showcases 81 sayings which have stood the test of time. . . . Elegantly presented principles furnishing a sound foundation for being able to discover, discern, decipher, and develop a life attitude and a lifestyle that will enhance our appreciation for life and what it offers us all regardless of our present circumstances or future challenges.” —Midwest Book Review
“Filled with positive witticisms for meditation and upward striving. The book is a perfect blending of East and West philosophy. . . . If you want to spread the joy within you during the holiday seasons, then Chris Prentiss is the one to show you the way. You can’t go wrong with The Little Book of Secrets." —ReverseSpins.com
“Never tell the truth!” I was three and half, and it was the first of the lessons my mother, Bea, was to teach me over the next twenty years. She said, “Only fools tell the truth.” And she followed it up with “Never tell the truth when a good lie will suffice.” One of her lessons in lying was “a good liar has to have a good memory.” So I memorized endless poems to improve my memory. I was never permitted to call her mom or mother, only Bea.
Bea was born in New York City in 1900. Her father was a longshoreman who worked on the docks, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom, who took care of her and her two sisters and brother. When Bea was fifteen, she was raped by an older man and became pregnant. In those days, it was a time of shotgun weddings and they forced this older man to marry Bea. They hated each other, and Bea said he delighted in tormenting her. She sewed buttons on shirts for fifty cents a day to get spending money. When she got out of the marriage three years later, she was tough and hard.
She was also totally unforgiving, never forgetting a wrongdoing and waiting patiently to pay back a wrong done to her. Her motto was “six times double.” That meant she would repay the wrongdoer six times double for the pain he or she had caused her. I saw her wait twenty-four years to repay one man who had wronged her, and the glee and happiness she experienced kept her laughing for months. As for the man who raped her, she caused him endless pain through the years. She spread rumors and lies about him, sporadically ruining his life every few years until she was satisfied he had been repaid six times double.
In the roaring twenties, Bea was in her twenties. She was poor and learned to live by her wits in a wild and lawless element of New York City. She turned to a life of crime. By the time she was twenty-one, she ran the largest stolen car ring in New Jersey and had a gang of con artists working for her in New York City. When prohibition began, Bea was immediately on the scene running whiskey to the speakeasies. She became successful living outside the law and was determined that I, too, should become successful in the same way.
By the time I was four, Bea had taught me shoplifting, and I was praised warmly for my little successes. A single parent, she taught me to survive by any means, and I learned well. My early business career was characterized by deceit, trickery, and fraud. No one was safe. I even cheated my friends. It was great fun and I made some money doing it. In the evening, Bea and I would sit and talk about the cheating and conniving we had done, and we shared many a good laugh over our trickery. Bea also had a wonderful sense of humor, but it was not the usual kind of humor. She would laugh heartily over someone else’s misery—not in a mean way, but in a genuinely funny way that was so comical that everyone listening would join in.
Two small stories about Bea will further reveal her character to you. When I was in the sixth grade, my two brothers and I went to a sophisticated private school. It had its own golf course. Toward the end of the school year, my two brothers, who had been less than studious, were in danger of failing. The night before the final exams, Bea climbed the wall surrounding the school, broke into the headmaster’s office, stole the final exams, came home and tutored us for several hours, then returned to the school and put the exams back.
The next story was told to me by my father, Ralph Prentice, whom I first met when I was forty four. He was a writer who made part of his living writing stories for The Saturday Evening Post. He and Bea were driving around in one of her beautiful cars when Ralph spotted a magnificent sedan. He exclaimed, “Bea, look at the wonderful car!” She said, “Do you like that car, Ralph? That’s a Stutz Bearcat.” The next morning there was a Stutz Bearcat parked in Ralph’s driveway. He was overwhelmed with gratitude and remembers saying, “Oh, Bea, what a wonderful gift! You shouldn’t have done it—it’s so expensive.” Of course, Bea had stolen the car and she laughed for a whole month while she waited for Ralph to be arrested, which he was. Bea had paid off the police and nothing came of it except a huge joke at Ralph’s expense.
One of Bea’s many saving graces was her generosity. I’ve never met anyone as tough and hard but also as courageous, resourceful, and wonderfully giving as Bea. We moved to New Jersey in 1940, one step ahead of the law, and she became a real estate broker and insurance agent. She gave away most of her commissions to help people get started in new homes. She was loved by everyone, except those who managed to get on her bad side, and then she was an implacable enemy.
Because of her generosity, Bea became a bit of a political force in our small township, controlling enough votes to swing elections. One of her lovers, Carl, a stone mason by trade, wanted to become tax collector and Bea had enough of a following to get him elected. A couple of years later, he wanted to become mayor, and she obliged him by getting him elected by an overwhelming majority. He became very egotistical, jilted Bea, and moved out of our house. When he came up for reelection, Bea contacted just about everyone in town, creating a lie to tell each person. For the veterans, she said Carl hated veterans. For the crippled, she said he hated cripples. You get the idea. He was voted out of office by the same huge majority and was so badly damaged by the lies she spread that he couldn’t even get work as a mason. Bea was happy.
She carried a gun until the day she died in 1994. I was holding her hand when she left her body and moved on. The last thing I did was to take her gun from under her pillow.
What saved me from a life of crime was my appetite for reading. I read every day, mostly fiction, and through the books I began to perceive a different way of life. I read of courage, valor, integrity, and a life lived as a hero. I was powerfully drawn to such a life. One day, when I was twenty-five, I sat at my kitchen table and looked around at the shambles I had made of my life. Sure, I had made some money, but I hadn’t been able to hold onto any of it. I had no real friends, everyone was afraid of me because I was so deceitful, and my reputation was terrible. I was a failure as a husband, a father, a friend, a businessman—and as a man. I had hurt so many people.
I realized that Bea, that warmhearted, generous, fun-loving, protective mother whom I loved and who loved me, had programmed me 180 degrees in the wrong direction. If I continued to follow the course she had set for me, I would surely wind up in prison, friendless and alone.
I was overwhelmed by remorse, and I made a decision to discover the way to real success, real happiness, real love, real inner peace, and lasting prosperity. I tried to turn my life around in New Jersey, but Bea’s influence was too strong. So in 1965, I went to California, determined to become the man I dreamed of being. When I told Bea of my purpose, she replied, “What a jerk!” She had nothing but scorn for living that type of life.
I spent the next forty years searching the world for the secrets that have sustained people and brought them true success, prosperity, and lasting happiness. My search has taken me to many lands, and I have read the world’s most ancient writings that have been handed down to this day. Those teachings have survived thousands of years because of their immense value to people. In those writings, I discovered a clear path that led to the wonderful gifts I sought.
Following the path of the secrets has brought me and others to whom I have revealed the secrets all the good things we most dearly cherish: true friendship, prosperity, peace, happiness, wonderful relationships with people we love, rewarding professions, and relationships with our children that are loving, truthful, and totally satisfying. And now I have the great good fortune to be able to write about the secrets and share them with you.
I humbly offer you these ancient secrets with my wish for your deep-down, soul-drenching happiness, abundant prosperity, and unconditional love. These secrets will liberate you, protect you, and bring you good fortune.
As for you, Bea, wherever you are, I offer you great thanks for your constant message to me: “You can do it!”
