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Title: The Happy Owls
Author: Celestino Piatti
Narrator: Pauline Brailsford
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-24-06
Publisher: Weston Woods Studios
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes
Genres: Kids, Ages 5-7
Publisher's Summary:
Two owls discover the secret of peace and happiness and eventually share their secret with all their barnyard friends.
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©1963 Celestino Piatti; (P)1969 Weston Woods Studios
Members Reviews:
Happy Owls Still Making Me Happy!
Had to give this to a close friend! Very grateful to find it.
One of my childhood favorites and amazing artwork.
Great message!
The Happy Owls...
My favorite book to read to my son when he was a little boy. I finally found it!!!! It was/is very meaningful to both of us. It was in fine condition, and now it is ours forever.
The Sufficiency of Everything: Knowing it and Living it is Happiness
The Happy Owls is a picture book whose origins go back to the nineteenth century, an 1895 fable written by a Dutch artist. The message of The Happy Owls, however, precedes the entire history of mankind including all mankind's unhappiness and suffering. And that message is, "There is no such thing as shortage of existence." And one has only to remember that it has been "The Father's good pleasure to give all things in existence the Kingdom": the kingdom of perfect tranquility, perfect sufficiency, never-ending consciousness. [For the complete treatise, read A Guide to Awareness and Tranquility reviewed separately.]
The happy owls possess the certainty of that kingdom. They're neither unmindful nor uncertain of it. The barnyard fowl, however live lives ruled by unmindfulness and uncertainty; they just stuff themselves with food and fight all day, never finding anything better to do. The certainty of the happy owls, in contrast to the stupid refusal of the barnyard fowl to question their unhappiness is the theme of this wonderful story, a theme well worth contemplating for all who consider themselves intelligent. I'll quote William Samuel to sum the certainty possessed by the happy owls:
"There is just enough ground for the pebble to lie on. There is just enough gravity to hold things on the earth. There is just enough earth to make up the world; just enough ocean, lake, stream, verdant field and arid plain to be the intricate balance called nature. There is just enough moon to make the tide; just enough centrifugal force to hold the earth in its orbit; just enough solar system to keep the sun in its galaxy; just enough galaxy for the Milky Way to spin its way through the universe; just enough universe to be Infinite and All. There is no plethora, no excess of anything. Sufficiency is the word; there is sufficiency of everything."
Knowing the fact of sufficiency, and then actually living it at each moment, is the art of happiness. That's the message of the happy owls.
Does the vain peacock dare to drop the unhappiness of pendulum swings between "I am the most beautiful" and "My beauty is fading"? Do the chickens dare drop the pendulum swings of "I grabbed the most corn and now I'm satisfied" and "I got the least and now I'm horribly empty"? Do they dare to stop identifying with false appearances?
I have to contemplate: Do I dare?
A very Zen fable for children from 4 to 104
A lovingly executed testament to the value of seeing the beauty in the world around us, and of standing apart from the crowd. Celestino Piatti was a Swiss graphic artist (he passed away in 2007) primarily known for his bold illustrations. During his long life, he was intensely fascinated with owls.