Re: POST 1: ON HAPPINESS

Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 03:35:10

=)

thanks for the comment.

the way i see it, everything in the world hangs in balance. chinese people have the yin-yang stuff, buddhists believe in karma (it IS buddhists, right? apology if i'm wrong. i'm uncertain on that), scientists (and even old days alchemists) believe in laws of conservations. there are a lot of things in this world that's sorta give us a hint that this world is a place of balance. same thing with the irrational-rational part of our mind. aristotle thinks that happiness can be found by rationally controlling the irrational part of ourselves, but if we can have full control of our irrational part, how does that make us any different than a robot? if it weren't for our irrational part, EVERY SINGLE ACTIONS WE'RE ABOUT TO TAKE ARE EASILY PREDICTED. future is predictable. what's the happiness in such a monotonous world?

life has its ups and downs, and many times people give up when they're at the downpoint. but if life is all ups and no downs, the ups will no longer have meaning. how are you happy if you never experience sadness? how do you know sweet if you never taste bitter? i think it was epicurus who said that pain exists to further pleasure. or was it epictetus? they all sound greek to me. well, for sure it's one of them. i don't agree completely with his philosophy on happiness, but it's true, without pain, pleasure means nothing. albert einstein was right. everything in this world is relative.

one thing i've been believing all this time, is that life is balanced. so when you're down, don't give up. if your life is at the downs, or at the bottom of downs, keep moving on, it's all ups from there. like a sinusoidal curve. =) the drawback is that if you're at the ups, don't take it for granted, you might be going downhill after. it's only natural that your life is in balance. but happiness is fully at your control. if you're at the ups, be happy because your life is good. if you're at the downs, be happy because soon it will be ups again. =)

optimism rules.