The idea of happiness

I'm currently reading Dalai Lama's "The Art of Happiness"



What is happiness? As a normal girl I had listed Kate Spade and Manolo Blahnik on my achievement list since my first year of college. Years went by, As I was sipping my cosmopolitan after I got a job to pay the rent (and the cosmopolitans) , I was thinking to make my first credit card, forgetting the fact that I once promised myself that I would never ever even consider to live with that symbol of consumerism. Suddenly emptiness rushed in. I almost failed to recall my own principle since I was a kid. Began to think “What is happening with me?” I felt purposeless. My life has become a series of craving list. What’s next? Maybe the next time I woke up I could be a gold digger, luring wealthy men without even recognized it in the name of materialism. Hell of a nightmare, I don’t want to be a low person. I don’t want to be a homo consumericus and lose control over myself. Wait a minute, I think I’ve been in this situation… let’s rewind a bit

I was an active smoker from 1999 to 2005. Nicotine was a good friend of mine. It helped me to get through exams and bad moods, or so I thought. Until one night I was out of pack in the middle of the night and the entire store was closed. I felt so depressed. As if nicotine had become a master and I was the slave. I felt like I was out of control over myself, so dependent and weak. I hated it a lot. It was hurting my ego as a homo sapient. It really encouraged me to quit. That was enough.

On the credit card case, I was fooled by society’s stereotypes about symbol of success. Home ownership, car ownership, wealth, fame, just to keep up with the Joneses may I say. What about Mahatma Gandhi? He had less possession but I think he’s a great person, even greater than the Joneses. He’s a man of impact. If someone give away his possessions and dare to become a Tibetan monk as his calling, live happily to the fullest, I think he is a success man.



Mahatma Gandhi left only little possesion, but a lot of change to the world 

So what is happiness ?

I read this amazing post about minimalism from freestylemind

“Modern society has trained us to believe that happiness comes from the things we own. Million of dollars of corporate money are spent every single day just to maintain this belief. But does happiness really comes from the number of things we own? I hardly think so.

If you try to associate happiness with the number of things you own, then happiness becomes an addiction that is outside of your control. Initially, you may experience a good feeling after buying something new, but eventually this feeling will start to fade until you reach a point where buying new stuff becomes an addiction, like alcohol or cigarettes”

Now stimulate your mind , what is happiness?

For me,

happiness is to live constantly like human ( homo sapiens; latin :means wise man ) should be, to live without silly addiction that is not necessary ( e.g shopping, nicotine, working, sex, or even a boy that is no good to you) , to be free and to be in full control of yourself. Happiness is not to be attached to things or someone, to live less and save more, more time and resources to do something else that is more important and have positive impact. Happiness is not about having tons of friends, happiness is not about laughter but the silence afterwards. Happiness is when you know everything about yourself holistically, your strength, weakness, overcome it and live to your fullest potential. Not only the satisfaction of needs, but happiness is a full awareness of what you’re doing, to treat human like human, to accept that every each of us is unique, compassion over empathy, and to embrace humanity. Happiness is to live like human among humans.

I believe this is different to each person in the world. I don't want to be self centered. I'm just a little part of the system. I imagine if all people were minimalists, a lot of bank and financial inst. will meet bankruptcy and a lot of people will be jobless. It's not good.

So, what’s yours?