Simple and happy

According to the Vietnamese Dictionary: “Happiness is a state of joy because one feels one’s wishes have been completely fulfilled. For example: Because of the happiness of children. A very happy family”. “Simple means not having many components or aspects, not complicated or troublesome. For example: Simple calculation. The problem cannot be solved simply”.

Last century, writer Nguyen Tuan (1910 - 1989) wrote: "Happiness in life is a reward created specifically for simple people, to compensate for other disadvantages". Clearly, Nguyen Tuan's compassionate and compassionate summary of humanity revealed two very important ideas in human life. First, if anyone lives simply, is not too ambitious, does not complicate life too much, then he will find happiness. Second, the happiness found in that simple quality of life is a natural way to compensate for the difficulties and disadvantages that each person must endure in daily life.

In the eyes of modern psychologist Dale Carnegie, there is a difference between “success” and “happiness”. He wrote: “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get”.

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Happiness in life is a reward created specifically for simple people, to compensate for other disadvantages.
Nguyen Tuan

To be clearer and easier to understand, philosopher La Cordaire (1802 - 1861) defined happiness as follows: "Happiness is just the direction of human pursuit". If so, then "happiness" does not have a specific address, but in reality, the "simple", easy to find, easy to do, suitable to one's ability and strength is the easiest to find, the easiest to achieve. Why are there foolish people who keep complicating life, always creating more difficulties caused by themselves, so that forever, or half of their life has passed, they still cannot find happiness.

Philosopher De Sivry said bluntly: “To confuse money with happiness is to take the means as the end, which is a huge mistake. It is like thinking that the knife and fork make our appetite delicious.” What an interesting and appropriate example.

Another Western author considers “happiness” as a house that is too big but has only waiting rooms inside.

Philosopher Gustave Droz describes happiness in a very simple and understandable way: “one can reach happiness only by carefully collecting the pieces of happiness”. This sentence is worth repeating every day because it is the key. the secret of happiness.

“Every piece of happiness” that we have every day is the joy of trying to study and work, whether in the countryside or in the city. It is the gratitude to our homeland, country, grandparents, parents, and neighbors who have helped us overcome many difficulties every day to grow up step by step. Whoever has gratitude, that person has happiness.

Once we do something good, help the poor, the needy, and the needy overcome a specific difficulty or hardship, it is also a piece of happiness as taught by Gustave Droz.

Our grandparents often advise us: "Love others as you love yourself", or "The whole leaf covers the torn leaf", or "Gourd, love the squash too. Although they are different species, they are on the same vine"... which teaches us how to accumulate the scraps of happiness that if we try hard, we can have.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an Indian saint of compassion, devoted her entire life to the poor and the sick. She once said: “We are small people, we cannot do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” This sacred teaching of Mother Teresa of Calcutta has encouraged millions of hardworking people around the world to be patient and persevere in overcoming difficulties to win a life for themselves and for the community.

To make a more precise distinction, philosopher Emile de Giradin (1806 - 1881) gave specific instructions: “There are two types of happiness. Material happiness and emotional happiness. This is social in nature, the other is internal in nature.”

Alas, how noble is Giradin's way of distinguishing happiness because it has comforted even the most miserable people in society, because it has encouraged and motivated honest citizens to live peacefully in all the ironic and miserable circumstances of everyday life. It is the inner happiness that truly belongs to humans, to concrete circumstances, which are "Now and here".

“Here and now” is a specific and simple way of thinking for all those who really want to strive to achieve their own desires and happiness, created by their own hands, reminded and persistently strived for by themselves. It will be more sustainable and less likely to be destroyed than relying on the help of others, from outside influences.

At this point, we can think of a simple habit that can be applied in daily life such as when we eat, when we speak, when we think. With the old French saying that many people have learned, known, and memorized: "People eat to live, not live to eat". Therefore, eating and drinking are essential to have enough nutrients, on time, eating slowly, chewing thoroughly, eating cooked food, and drinking boiled water. If anyone takes their daily meals too seriously, indulges in beer, alcohol, and drinking, they will suffer the disaster of illness as the ancients taught "disease comes from the mouth", meaning that people get this or that disease because of the way they eat and drink.

When speaking, you should learn to think carefully before speaking. It is better to say only one when you should say two. The words you say should be short, concise, and have enough meaning for your partner to understand the problem and easily respond. You should avoid beating around the bush, using silly metaphors, or talking too long, which will make the conversation lose interest and produce no results.

When thinking, you should also learn to look straight at the problem, don't think randomly and ramblingly. For example: if your academic performance is poor, then try to graduate from grade 12 to have a milestone of completing high school. Just have a diploma first, then think and calculate the next step. There are students who are poor academically, forcing their parents to sell their land and house to go to the city to take this or that exam preparation class. In the end, they lose money, suffer from disabilities, lose money and several years away from home, aimlessly, in vain.

Learning how to eat, how to speak, how to think concisely are skills that will stay with us throughout our lives.

The great French poet Nicolas Boileau (1636 - 1711) once advised: “Be simple in your thoughts. Be noble without being proud. Be naturally beautiful without makeup.” Of course, this is the milestone of all efforts, but it is also very easy to understand, very practical and can be applied in everyday life.

On programs praising good people and good deeds, everyone clearly sees one thing: They are ordinary people, the manual laborers who have to work hard to earn a living every day. But the great difference in each of them is the love for their homeland and country, the love for their compatriots in remote areas, the laborers who still have to work hard and have difficulties.

That love of compatriots is the strength that helps the emulation fighters, the labor heroes strive and contribute as Boileau analyzed: "Noble but not proud". We are forever grateful to those who have brought happiness to others in our "one for all" society.

Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson affirmed: “No one can give you peace and happiness but yourself”. The more you analyze and dissect this famous quote, the more true it becomes. Why? Because it directs people to a higher skill, which is “from giving to oneself to being oneself”.

People who have passed through adolescence to adulthood, passed through middle age, will be very stable and have experienced the mechanism of "self-reliance" is completely correct and completely authentic. All reliance, help, reliance, and support will fail miserably if the subject does not stand firm before the harsh realities of time, of natural changes and social situations.

To conclude the article on “Simplicity and Happiness”, to find happiness, we should remember the famous quote of William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830): “The essence of simplicity is the natural conclusion of profound thought”. Because it is the natural conclusion of profound thought, “simplicity” is difficult to find and difficult to see in the daily life of each of us ordinary people. The only way is to try, make an effort, and be patient to learn how to think simply in all matters to achieve happiness for yourself.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/don-gian-va-hanh-phuc-10278480.html