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Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

The issue of happiness

Of all the things in the world, it seems that only happiness is something that everyone wants. Other things, such as getting married, having children, or even getting rich, surely some people don't want to have, but probably no one will refuse happiness. Everyone aspires to happiness, but happiness is the hardest to define. People often call getting what they want most and fulfilling their most heartfelt wishes happiness. Wishes vary from person to person, and the same person's wishes are constantly changing. To tell a joke: Once, I had a small operation and had difficulty urinating after surgery because of anesthesia. When I stood in front of the urinal, suffering the pain of urine bloating but not being able to drain it, I really felt that the gentleman next to me who urinated smoothly was a happy person.

If the wish is really fulfilled, it is difficult to say whether it is happy or not. It is not uncommon to try hard to fight for something, only to find that it is far less good than imagined. The sayings that "people's hearts are difficult and easy", "being in the midst of blessings does not know blessings", and "living elsewhere" all show that it is difficult to find people who think they are happy.

Is happiness a subjective feeling or an objective state? If it's just the former, ecstatic delusional people are the happiest people. If it is only the latter, there are many people in the world who have conditions that others envy and do not feel happy. One thing is certain: external conditions cannot be happiness if they are not translated into inner experiences and moods. Therefore, it is more appropriate to think of it as the unity of a satisfying life and a happy mood.

So, what kind of life is satisfying and brings happiness? Of course, this still varies from person to person. Philosophers agree that life includes both external life (physical and social life) and inner life (spiritual life), of which external life is a necessary condition for happiness, and inner life is a more important source of happiness.

Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

For happiness, it is necessary to have certain conditions for external life. Aristotle said: Happiness is primarily the goodness of the soul, but it must be supplemented by external goodness (luck), such as noble birth, many descendants, handsome appearance, and a poor, lonely, ugly person cannot be called happy. However, philosophers mostly emphasize that this is not the main aspect, and that it needs to be moderate. Aristotle pointed out that mediocre people equate happiness with indulgence. He criticized the Doassyrian figures of the nobility, living according to the inscription on the tombstone of the Assyrian king: "Eat, drink, play, the rest need not be remembered." Philosophers generally do not advocate such hedonism, and Epicureus, regarded as the father of hedonism, was actually the most opposed to indulgence, and his definition of pleasure was the absence of pain in the body and the absence of distractions in the soul.

The conditions for happiness in terms of external life can be roughly listed as follows: 1. Family origin. In societies where there is inequality of wealth or power, people are in an unequal position at the beginning of life, and family origin determines a person's early living conditions and educational opportunities, and affects later life. Of course, the impact of birth on a person is complex, wealth is not necessarily a blessing, poverty is not necessarily a curse, and it cannot be generalized. 2. Wealth (money). Poverty is certainly unfortunate, and at least food and clothing should be worry-free, and material life should be guaranteed.

However, more money is not necessarily the happier you are. My opinion is: well-off is best. 3. Success, status, and reputation in society. It is certainly unfortunate that the talent is not met and the career fails. However, success becomes happiness, and the prerequisite is that the external career is consistent with the inner pursuit, and that doing is what you really like to do. 4. Happy marriage and family life. For old-school people, add children and grandchildren. For the new school, these can be dispensed with, but at least there must be satisfying love. 5. Health. Tolstoy believed that the highest material happiness of an individual is not money, but health. 6. Leisure. It's a misfortune to be busy and tired all the time, even if you think you're doing your job. Have inner calmness and leisurely to taste the joy of life. 7. Peace, no major calamities in life. It is better to live a long life, the so-called end of life.

Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

There are also many contents of happiness in inner life, mainly including: 1. Creation. Creation is the realization of one's own abilities and values, and its happiness is not comparable to external success. 2. Experience. Including art appreciation, communication with nature, and more. 3. Love. The experience and enjoyment of all kinds of love emotions in the world, including love, family affection, friendship, etc. There is also broader love, such as Confucian benevolence, Christian gospel humanistic fraternity. 4. Wisdom, intellectual life. Including reading and thinking, philosophical contemplation,

Peace of mind at all times. 5. Faith. Almost all philosophers agree that inner life is the main source and aspect of happiness. The reasons for this are:

First, inner life is self-sufficient and does not depend on external conditions, and happiness in this area is often something that external changes cannot deprive. Aristotle said: The contemplative life is the closest part of man to God, and the joy of contemplation is equivalent to the happiness of God.

Second, the happiness of the mind is a higher level of happiness. Plato believed that wisdom is happiness in both wisdom and happiness. His reasoning is that wisdom itself is good and joy at the same time, and that other pleasures are not necessarily good. John Mill equated happiness with happiness from a utilitarian standpoint. Even he also believes that happiness does not equal satisfaction, the higher the talent, the less satisfied, but the unsatisfied are happier than the satisfied pig, the unsatisfied Socrates than the satisfied fool. Because spiritual happiness is higher and richer than physical happiness, but only those who know both can judge this. Maslow, a contemporary humanistic psychologist, divided human needs into different levels in a similar sense, arguing that after the low-level material needs are satisfied, the higher-level spiritual needs are highlighted and the higher happiness of satisfying this need is felt.

Third, the soul is the "organ" that feels happiness, and any external experience must have the participation of the soul to become happiness. Therefore, the richness, sensitivity and activity of the inner world determine a person's ability to feel happiness. In this sense, happiness is an ability. You have money to buy the best sound, but you don't know music, what's the use? For people with different inner worlds, the same experience on the surface (such as traveling the world) has a completely different meaning, and in fact it is not the same experience at all.

Fourth, external encounters are subject to external factors and are not at one's disposal, so they should not be the main goal of life. The only thing that can really be controlled is the attitude towards all external encounters. People who live a fulfilling inner life seem to have another higher self, are able to distance themselves from external encounters, have an appropriate attitude towards changes and setbacks, and are not disturbed by earthly misfortunes. The sky is unpredictable, and detached wisdom is important for happiness.

Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

In general, people feel that a certain moment or period of their life is happy, but it is difficult to assess whether their entire life is happy. One of the reasons is that happiness is related to fate, and fate is unpredictable. So the Greeks like to say: No one can be called happy before life. Herodotus tells a story in the History: Solon was on a trip, and a king asked who was the happiest, and he gave the example of the dead, because it could be concluded that the coffin could be closed, and the king laughed at him and said that those who ignore the current happiness, all things, etc. to see the end are fools. Aristotle also commented on this: Solon's view is absurd. I believe that life is never perfect, and by the standard of perfection, no one in the world can be called happy, not just when you are alive. If we think carefully about the meaning of the concept of happiness, we will find out.

It mainly refers to the affirmative evaluation of the meaning of life. To feel happy is to feel that life is meaningful. No matter how short the time, the experience always points to the whole of life and contains an overall evaluation of the meaning of life. Especially in creation, in love, when people feel happiness, there seems to be a voice in their hearts: "For this moment, my life is worth it!" Therefore, to measure whether your life is happy in general, it is mainly based on whether you feel that this life has meaning. Of course, external conditions are also indispensable, but the standard may as well be lowered, as long as it is not very unfortunate.

Since happiness cannot be devoid of external conditions and inner peace, in the view of some philosophers, happiness is not the main purpose and highest value of life. There are many geniuses in history who were unhappy and destitute in their external lives, Van Gogh being the most prominent example. Deep souls are also often filled with pain and conflict, such as Nietzsche. Equilibrium geniuses like Goethe are a minority, and he has experienced painful inner struggles. At the same time, there are sufferings and desperate situations in life, and anyone can fall into it, and in that case, a person can still bear it in a dignified way, thus giving life a meaning, but you can never say that this is happiness. In the final analysis, the most important thing in life is not happiness or unhappiness, but to maintain the integrity and dignity of human beings regardless of happiness or misfortune.

Compare these conditions to judge whether your life is happy?

Reader: Gao Gao, screen name Go On, Deputy Secretary-General of the Language Arts Committee of the Chinese Culture Promotion Association, Deputy Secretary-General of the Reading Professional Committee, and professional broadcaster of Shanxi Radio and Television Station for more than 20 years, focusing on documentary commentary. Hear more of his voice, public number: sound realm, ID: tyreader

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