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Happiness elusive holy grail in a materialistic world
By Wan Lixin |
January 26, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A PRIVATE school recommends itself to parents of prospective pupils: Children here are never bored.
But boredom - rather than being a situation requiring apology - is an essential part of education.
Another private school knows better: "Don't be scared of letting your children 'get bored,' for this enhances observation and imagination skills as well as creativity. The best ideas and most incredible stories are born in such moments!"
Unfortunately, the modern tempo of existence - fast-paced, materially encumbered, and full of distractions - leaves little room for one to stand and stare. With so many things going on, quiet and uneventful moments are often considered negative and boring. One is either busy making money, or busy consuming it.
As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his "An Apology for Idlers" (1877), "Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself."
Since all poems are produced in a reflective turn of mind, we find it increasingly hard to appreciate, to say nothing of create, poems.
One of China's best-known poet Li Bai's (701-762) best known poems is about his homesickness brought about by the shower of moonlight in his bedroom.
All educated Chinese should be able to recite the short masterpiece on short notice.
But picture today a man staring at the moon in the dead of night and you might well pronounce him an object of pity: he must be wretched because he doesn't even have the consolation of television or Internet.
But one of man's salient features is his capacity for reflection. That sets him apart from myriad other species, and that ability is both a strength and a cause of discomfort.
For one thing, he begins to be disturbed by the question of whether he is happy, or if he is as happy as his neighbor.
?Happy hype?
The hype about the "happy" question tends to link it to external conditions: the state of being excited, stimulated, intoxicated, or in the throes of consumption.
Few Chinese sages would regard the modern condition of happiness as bliss.
Even the earlier Western perception of the good life was different. When the idea of a life beyond the grave was widely held, the good things in this life were enjoyed with a view toward felicity in the next. Thus, saving the soul was an overriding concern.
Although we Chinese do not have institutionalized religious belief, our forefathers did place a premium on ideal domestic and social conditions that are in harmony with the universal WAY. This is probably what "happiness" was first about.
Rather than craving the comforts around us today, our forefathers paid much more attention to the life of future generations and were willing to make sacrifices for posterity.
Thomas Hurka's "The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters" tries to provide some insight into the qualities of a good life in the modern industrial context.
"Good feelings don't often come in the front door because you asked them to enter; they prefer to slip in the back door when and because you're absorbed in something else," he observes.
Seeking happiness head-on, with that as your firm goal, won't bring nearly as much pleasure as a indirect approach.
Seek "flow," that total state of focus where you lose sense of time and awareness of nearly everything around you as you merge and become one with whatever you're doing.
The author said, "The root of flow is the successful exercise of a developed skill, which requires the right balance between challenge and ability."
In other words, be absorbed in an activity - whether in your work, in the pursuit of knowledge, or in the fulfillment of domestic duty - and let it take you away, and good feelings will naturally follow.
The book also mentions that virtue contributes to a good life, just as vice detracts.
Aligning your viewpoint with the good compounds your goodness, as when you feel good because you brought pleasure to someone else.
But though accumulation of knowledge depends on human effort, neither the quest of knowledge nor its application can prolong life beyond the grave.
Here, the books do attempt to reconcile us to a secular view of the problem, which bears on the mystery of life: death.
An accidental death at a young age deprives you of years of good things, but if you're sick and in pain and you die today, then you're spared more suffering.
Thus death prevents evil rather than depriving you of good things. Enjoying the good things in life and living well, then, is a reasonable response to inevitable death.
But boredom - rather than being a situation requiring apology - is an essential part of education.
Another private school knows better: "Don't be scared of letting your children 'get bored,' for this enhances observation and imagination skills as well as creativity. The best ideas and most incredible stories are born in such moments!"
Unfortunately, the modern tempo of existence - fast-paced, materially encumbered, and full of distractions - leaves little room for one to stand and stare. With so many things going on, quiet and uneventful moments are often considered negative and boring. One is either busy making money, or busy consuming it.
As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his "An Apology for Idlers" (1877), "Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself."
Since all poems are produced in a reflective turn of mind, we find it increasingly hard to appreciate, to say nothing of create, poems.
One of China's best-known poet Li Bai's (701-762) best known poems is about his homesickness brought about by the shower of moonlight in his bedroom.
All educated Chinese should be able to recite the short masterpiece on short notice.
But picture today a man staring at the moon in the dead of night and you might well pronounce him an object of pity: he must be wretched because he doesn't even have the consolation of television or Internet.
But one of man's salient features is his capacity for reflection. That sets him apart from myriad other species, and that ability is both a strength and a cause of discomfort.
For one thing, he begins to be disturbed by the question of whether he is happy, or if he is as happy as his neighbor.
?Happy hype?
The hype about the "happy" question tends to link it to external conditions: the state of being excited, stimulated, intoxicated, or in the throes of consumption.
Few Chinese sages would regard the modern condition of happiness as bliss.
Even the earlier Western perception of the good life was different. When the idea of a life beyond the grave was widely held, the good things in this life were enjoyed with a view toward felicity in the next. Thus, saving the soul was an overriding concern.
Although we Chinese do not have institutionalized religious belief, our forefathers did place a premium on ideal domestic and social conditions that are in harmony with the universal WAY. This is probably what "happiness" was first about.
Rather than craving the comforts around us today, our forefathers paid much more attention to the life of future generations and were willing to make sacrifices for posterity.
Thomas Hurka's "The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters" tries to provide some insight into the qualities of a good life in the modern industrial context.
"Good feelings don't often come in the front door because you asked them to enter; they prefer to slip in the back door when and because you're absorbed in something else," he observes.
Seeking happiness head-on, with that as your firm goal, won't bring nearly as much pleasure as a indirect approach.
Seek "flow," that total state of focus where you lose sense of time and awareness of nearly everything around you as you merge and become one with whatever you're doing.
The author said, "The root of flow is the successful exercise of a developed skill, which requires the right balance between challenge and ability."
In other words, be absorbed in an activity - whether in your work, in the pursuit of knowledge, or in the fulfillment of domestic duty - and let it take you away, and good feelings will naturally follow.
The book also mentions that virtue contributes to a good life, just as vice detracts.
Aligning your viewpoint with the good compounds your goodness, as when you feel good because you brought pleasure to someone else.
But though accumulation of knowledge depends on human effort, neither the quest of knowledge nor its application can prolong life beyond the grave.
Here, the books do attempt to reconcile us to a secular view of the problem, which bears on the mystery of life: death.
An accidental death at a young age deprives you of years of good things, but if you're sick and in pain and you die today, then you're spared more suffering.
Thus death prevents evil rather than depriving you of good things. Enjoying the good things in life and living well, then, is a reasonable response to inevitable death.
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