Siyi Valley
Philosophy is the study of love for wisdom. Traditional education tells us that philosophy is a kind of knowledge that makes people smart and inspires wisdom. It is a theoretical system about the worldview. In fact, the meaning that philosophy gives us is not only wisdom, but also happiness. There are many philosophers who associate happiness with philosophy, and recently I read the book "With "Philosophers Talk About Happiness" is about the philosopher's views and pursuit of happiness, which further endows philosophy with the meaning of always being happy.
This book consists of a preface, seven main parts and an epilogue. In the preface, it is clearly stated that happiness has a power that can impact our hearts, occupy our brains, and make us experience extreme fulfillment. It also explains that this book is the author's combination of Chinese and Western philosophers' views on happiness, including Spinoza, Nietzsche and Bergson as typical happiness philosophies. The title of the book is "Happiness is Innate" and explains the true happiness. What is it, how to get happiness, what is the meaning of happiness.
In the first part, the author first uses pleasure, happiness and happiness as analogies, thus highlighting the superlative level of happiness. Among them, the author analyzes the disadvantages of pleasure, which are its shortness and excessive harmfulness. The author cites the case of drinking heavily at a party and having a headache and dry tongue the next day to fully illustrate this point. So how to find balance, the author talks about Siddhartha. It is precisely because Siddhartha had the experience of going from being a drunken prince to enlightenment that he realized the idea that the four elements are empty, thus explaining the charm of moderation and balance. Promote the birth of the source of happiness. Naturally, this also means the golden mean and harmony, and it is also very reuniting (note that this does not refer to the Avengers, but refers to the bad relationship being reunited and reconciled as before).
Then the author talked about happiness, but how to obtain happiness in a lasting way? This will be the focus of the rest of this book. Among them, St. Augustine's famous saying: "Happiness is to continue to pursue what you already have." This is true insight. In other words, in addition to pleasure and short-term happiness, there is also a continuous feeling of happiness, which is happiness. Happiness is an emotion, a feeling, which is explosive, intense and full of passion. The author also cited his own example, that is, he is a fan of France, so he was naturally very happy when France won the 1998 World Cup. Of course, although the happiness in such a game is short-lived, the author can continue to pay attention to his favorite French football, which is naturally the reason for sustainable happiness.
In the second part, the author talks about philosophers who study happiness. Among them is Montaigne. The author also does not hesitate to praise Montaigne's happy thoughts, "We should spread happiness and do everything possible to remove sadness." Such thoughts naturally regard happiness as a measure of living a good and happy life. Hence the coincidence of the later Spinoza. Spinoza's view of happiness is whenever we grow, progress, and win. On the basis of nature, if something happens suddenly, we will feel happy. These ideas come from his book "Ethics". He divided happiness into negative happiness and positive happiness. The so-called negative happiness is impulse. If you fall in love impulsively, it is negative and cannot gain power. Love that is based on reason, adopts a pragmatic attitude, and deepens mutual understanding is a good and lasting state. This is a kind of rational love, which can achieve a positive and powerful happiness. It is precisely because Spinoza made in-depth analysis and observations about happiness that he came to the conclusion. So it is true to say that he is the first person to define happiness philosophy.
Then we talked about Nietzsche. The author uses a comparative method to compare Nietzsche with Spinoza, explaining that Nietzsche's unique contribution is that "happiness means bearing everything life gives us, including pain." In addition, Nietzsche emphasizes the aesthetics of happiness, such as Nietzsche said that "the creative process is essential to happiness." This is also very original. Later, I talked about Bergson. In Bergson’s view, he not only inherited Nietzsche’s aesthetics of happiness, but also opposed Spinoza’s view of negative happiness. Because in Bergson's view, the negative happiness about impulse is not happiness, but only the physiological feeling of pleasure, and real happiness radiates the light of glory.
In the third part, we talked about how to bloom happiness in life.
Such as concentration, participation, meditation, confidence, open-mindedness, spontaneity, kindness, gratitude, and persistence. Among them, in the author's opinion, in terms of concentration, he introduced a large number of music that can help us focus, such as "Mass in C minor", "Lamentation", "Tubular Bells", "Cologne Concert", etc. Among them, the ones that the author particularly deserves to learn are: It is meditation, because meditation is not thinking, but letting go, and simply being happy about existence and life. How inspiring this is, especially for the author who is a social animal, especially to gain spiritual happiness through meditation. In addition, in terms of goodwill, it is also said that we should avoid comparison. This also talks about the Buddhist thought: Comparison breeds misfortune. Only by knowing how to appreciate the advantages of others and sincerely wish others success. Only in this way can you obtain a steady stream of happiness. In addition, the author also mentioned in the third part that one must know how to let go at the right time and maintain a healthy body in order to obtain perfect happiness.
Come to the fourth part. It comes to the point where you can be happy just by being yourself. Here are two paths to happiness. The first is to find strength from within yourself, which is to release happiness. The second is to open your heart to others and reach reconciliation. That is the joy of fusion. In addition, Spinoza’s road to liberation is also mentioned here. It also illustrates the statement that Jesus and Spinoza are both masters of desire, including Jesus' admonition "I bring my happiness to you, hoping that your happiness will be more complete." The text of Penoza's first sermon, entitled "The Joy of the Gospels," is a good example of this.
The fifth part is about how to be in harmony with the world. Here we talk about friendship and love. It turns out that in "Nicomachean Ethics", Philia means including love and friendship, and is described as "an indispensable thing for life". It is the expression of the deep friendship of these two emotions. Forms the cornerstone of true human emotions. So philosophy was abbreviated as "Phil", which is so relevant.
The sixth part talks about perfect happiness. It teaches us to put aside psychological effects and withdraw from self-awareness. For example, the author cited Nietzsche's description of the ecstasy of music by Onessos, the god of wine, "...the living and only substance, intoxicated in this creative joy." This shows the true situation that music can make people withdraw. . In addition, the author also used his own example as an example, writing that one of the reasons why he entered the monastery was to be better than his father and become a saint. But after practicing, he discovered that he was narcissistic and that the monastery was discriminatory against Buddhism. These were all contrary to the author's original intention, so he chose to leave.
The last chapter talks about the joy of life, and talks about how to release the source of one's own happiness. There is no doubt that the author listed the Brazilian dance. The joy of life derived from the happy dance of Brazil has always been in our hearts. And at the end, the wisdom about happiness. What is particularly noteworthy is that the author lists the significance of the hummingbird movement to illustrate that we can turn impulse into action and turn negative happiness into positive happiness through our kind deeds. And use the power of happiness to save the world.
As Seneca said: "The function of wisdom is to bring continuous happiness to people." Philosophers are constantly exploring how to bring continuous happiness to human beings. This book is based on the thoughts of Eastern and Western philosophers, and the author uses vivid and popular language to bring the "secret history" of happiness into the depths of every reader's heart. Tell us that there is a way to happiness. In addition, Frederic Lenoir tells us in the book: The so-called perfect happiness is a deep, active and conscious expression of life itself. It is innate. When we supplement it with wisdom, then we will It is different from the current false modern view of happiness based on consumerism and self-absorption, and then obtain truly deep and lasting happiness.