Happiness is a word which needs no explanation. It is explicitly as good as gold, silver, pearl and agate. Undoubtedly the song “Happy Birthday” is one of the songs in the world with simplest words and melody but with most enormous amount of singers and audiences. After Merry Christmas we would say Happy New Year. Soon comes Happy Spring Festival, then Happy Mid-Autumn Day and happy for ever!
But are we really happy?
Are we sure that our happiness is only for those who need us to be happy?
Have we really had a moment when warm spring waves surged through our heart? Could we confirm that there was a time when we know clearly that we are being loved and loving, so our brilliant smiles made fish sunk and wild geese fallen?
It should have been a very happy day yesterday for one of my friends and me. She has finally got the BMW car for which she had been longing for two years. She would have driven the precious car by herself to pick me up for a meal out. She set out in the early morning from Wuchang but did not arrive at my home after two and half an hour. The traffic was jamming! I consoled her by saying that traffic jam was not bad, for it offered a good chance for her to slowly show off her new car in the street. With SMS messages to and fro, I did my best to make my friend happy but the happiness eventually had gone: the BMW clashed with a taxi and the accident resulted in two deep marks on the door of the car. My friend cried on the phone, “F**k!” A gentle and quite lady as she was driven to curse rudely only because she was quarrelling with the taxi driver in the chilly wind on the No.2 Yangtze Bridge.
It is no surprise that the ostentatious happiness from material is doomed to decay as quickly as the material itself. Even if our celebration today would have gone on smoothly, it is hard to say that my friend would not find demerits from her BMW later and want to change a new car once more. After our first mobile phone brought us surprise and joy, we have been pushed on the way of casually upgrading our mobile phones. The earth is round and so is the material world. There would be no topmost luxury which could bring you highest enjoyment. When you put on first class hand made clothes in Paris, the fashion has already been changed to trousers with battered holes.
Why the Bible says that “Those who are in hunger are blessed”? Because that only people in hunger could enjoy the happiness from having a hearty meal. While there is always plenty of food available, one would feel nothing is delicious. Due to the quick replacement of material products and the unpredictable and fluctuating nature of the culture and fashion, happiness clung to material would not only be short lived, but also shallow and superficial. Essentially you are not happy, but only being regarded happy by someone else.
Restaurants are full of dinner parties, people are drinking and chatting and laughing, but when the party is finished and you are back home, you have already put on a face with no expression. Everyone knows that dinner party is no good, it is only for the maintaining of social relations. Either you or others are doing this, it is just out of the necessity of the society. Basically you are not happy but only pretend to be happy. Therefore I would assert that to be happy is not easy.
I agree with a scientific viewpoint that human being is born pessimistic. While crying and laughing are equally capable of opening the lung, why children are crying as soon as they are born? Because green grass is growing constantly and children are doomed to die. How sad! Human life is bitterly short and one hundred years elapse just in a wink. So pursuing happiness is justifiable, for earth and heaven’s sake.
Majority of people take the idiom “one who is aware of satisfaction is always being happy” as the motto of happiness. But to achieve this “awareness” is really a topmost task. It is from Laozi’s writing that “awareness of satisfaction is not shameful, awareness of standstill is not lazy. In this way you might live a long life.” What is the satisfaction to the majority? Is it warmth of body and a full stomach? Is it fish and meat? Or is it a Fukang car, or even Benz and BMW? To today’s reality, the idiom is no longer practical. It has become the newly rich’s self-abasement, the loser’s bitter irony, the poor’s self-sarcastic remark.
After all it is the common sense that makes things clear, such as the saying that “one is exhilarated when something happy occurs to him.” What happiness! It is not only material, but spiritual. Real and deep happiness must lie in the aspect of spirit.
Long ago I used to ride a bike with my friend rushing round the East Lake, appreciating flowers and willows on the way, wearing little flower and grass on my hair, I was happy! Today my friend possesses a BMW but I still like riding a bike, I am happy! I usually write my books at home with a cup of tea and leave far from all kinds of dinner parties, that’s happy. Occasionally I do have feast, but it is always with my sincere friends. We would drink to our hearts’ contents and infect each other in a pleasant way. We are happy! We would be happy if we are obedient to the nature, knowing the beginning and ending of the being and understanding the life of ourselves.
Under the principle of not being harmful to the others, following one’s own personality, satisfying one’s own desires, knowing not to be happy for the others, and not pretending to be happy, that is the real happiness.
Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at his or her heels.作者: Sanmal 时间: 2011-4-2 20:50
Nice photo and essay~ And the last sentence作者: Sanmal 时间: 2011-4-2 20:50
Nice photo and essay~ And the last sentence作者: bonnieju 时间: 2011-4-2 21:55
Happiness is a kind of feeling. It's simple to get for somebody, but not everyone.
My family and my friends are in good health, I am happy;
I get a message from my friend,I am happy;
I can take care of my sisters and brothers, I am happy;
I listen a good music, I am happy and so on.
But I am not always happy in my lifetime. If want to get more happiness, I think a warmly heart is necessary.作者: xiaomeixin 时间: 2011-4-2 22:12
Under the principle of not being harmful to the others, following one’s own personality, satisfying one’s own desires, knowing not to be happy for the others, and not pretending to be happy, that is the real happiness.
Just following our mind,do what we want to do,and try our best to get what we want.And I will be happy.,作者: evaxiaofan 时间: 2011-4-12 15:13
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