Happiness belongs to those who can enjoy themselves - read Schopenhauer's "The Wisdom of Life"

No matter from any secular perspective, Schopenhauer is not a successful person. He never married and was lonely; the public did not like to read the books he wrote, even his peers did not like them, so he had to publish them at his own expense; he had an eccentric personality, a big temper, difficulty getting along with his neighbors, and always quarreled with his landlord.

? Would you be willing to listen to such a person telling you what happiness is? hehe. To be honest, I don't want to hear it. But what is certain is that many people like Schopenhauer's book, and some even feel that it was an enlightenment that saved their lives. Nietzsche even felt that he wrote it specifically for himself. It made me want to find out.

? After reading it, my feeling is that Schopenhauer's views on happiness and life are very convincing in our era, but I can't guarantee it. Everyone may have different opinions. But Schopenhauer has an ability that I think many people are missing now. I don’t know what words to use to express this ability. In short, it feels like this:

Can’t sell books? Please, other people have no eyes to see, okay? My book is written for people in the future. Not easy to get along with? There is nothing happier than being alone, right? It's not that I'm not easy to get along with, it's that I don't want to get along with others. Can't get a wife? I get along very well with my dog. What kind of wife do I want? This is what mediocre people think about every day.

? This is typical Schopenhauer style. Don't think I'm laughing at the uncle. In fact, I have always believed that the existence of a political power needs to defend its legitimacy. When a person lives in the world, he also needs to find a set of theories to explain or defend the meaning of his existence. How can life be more meaningful? I have no idea. Anyway, you have to have the ability to defend yourself if you don't agree with others' values. It doesn’t mean that you have to be arrogant and quarrel with others, but that you have to have a firm set of values ??and beliefs in your heart.

Lao Tzu said that not laughing is not enough to practice the Tao. The revelation that Schopenhauer gave me is: The whole world can laugh at me and look down on me, but I know that I must be my own emperor.

Schopenhauer (1788~1860) lived a reclusive life all his life, single and with dogs as companions. He is known as the "pessimist philosopher". It was not until a few years before his death that he achieved the fame he deserved, and few philosophers had mentioned him before. His own explanation is that this is a conspiracy devised by his colleagues out of fear and jealousy of his unique and profound philosophy.

The world always labels people as pessimistic or optimistic, but Schopenhauer said that he only "pursued truth and served his purpose." He penetrates the essence of things, is profound, cold and uncompromising. Profound philosophy must be permeated with what ordinary people think of as pessimism, because "the world is unkind and treats all things as rotten dogs", and it does not depend on human will.

When a sergeant hears the Tao, he bows and practices it; when a sergeant hears the Tao, he or she lives or dies; when a junior officer hears the Tao, he laughs. Not laughing is not enough to practice the Tao. ——Lao Tzu

Schopenhauer said: Truth is my only guiding star. Although he remained unrecognized for sixty years, he never doubted his natural mission.

At the age of 30, Schopenhauer wrote the book "The World as Intention and Representation". This book is now an inescapable masterpiece in the history of Western philosophy. When this work first appeared, only five hundred copies were printed, and most of them sat in warehouses. His subsequent works are basically the development and supplementary elaboration of this work.

In 1850, Schopenhauer's last work in his life, "Appendices and Supplements", was finally completed, with a print run of 750. The uncle himself received 10 copies as a gift without receiving any royalties. The book "The Wisdom of Life" is taken from "Appendices and Supplements". It focuses on worldly human topics, such as health, wealth, fame, glory, health preservation and how to treat others.

? This time, the unknown Schopenhauer finally got the attention of famous critics and became famous in one fell swoop.

The uncle was as happy as a child: truth can wait patiently, because it exists for a long time.

Introduction

In this book, the wisdom of life means the art of how to spend your life as happily and happily as possible. This aspect of teaching can be called "happiness theory" in philosophy.

Happiness is not an easy thing: it is difficult for her to find it in herself, but it is impossible to find it elsewhere. ——Chamfort

Chapter 1? Basic Division

The fundamental difference in human destiny depends on the following three contents:

1) Human himself , mainly refers to a person's personality, including a person's health, strength, appearance, temperament, moral quality, spiritual intelligence and potential development.

2) The things outside the body that a person owns, that is, property and other possessions.

3) The way a person shows himself to others is how people view him. The opinions of others can be divided into honor, status and reputation.

Compared with the second and third points, the first point is innate and decisive.

? The happiness that a person can get has been determined by his personality from the beginning. What a melancholic person sees as a tragic scene is seen by an optimist as an interesting conflict, while an insensitive person sees it as an insignificant event. A healthy beggar is luckier than a sick king. A spiritually rich person can enjoy himself when alone, but a stubborn person can't drive away the tormenting boredom even if he attends parties, goes to the theater, and goes out for entertainment. A kind, gentle, and temperate person can still be happy in difficult situations, but a greedy, jealous, and despicable person cannot be satisfied even if he is sitting on thousands of wealth.

? Personality is difficult to change. The only thing we can do is to make full use of our established personality as much as possible, follow the direction that suits our personality, and strive for development that suits our personality. Other than that, it is the same. avoid. Therefore, we must choose a status, career and lifestyle that match our personality.

? For happiness, people themselves obviously play a greater role than wealth and other people's opinions.

Apart from satisfying human natural needs, wealth has little impact on our true happiness. On the contrary, in order to keep our property, we will have many unavoidable cares, which disturb our comfortable and leisurely life.

Chapter 2? Human Self

A person’s own personality will always be with him, and everything he experiences is colored by his personality.

Therefore, saying "to enjoy? one's self" in English is a quite vivid expression. For example, people say: "He enjoys himself in paris" (He enjoys himself in Paris), rather than "He enjoys Paris."

? A person's own personality is the only one that is directly related to his happiness, everything else only plays an indirect role, and these effects can therefore be eliminated.

? Among personal good qualities, the most direct thing that brings us happiness is the relaxed and pleasant senses. Because the benefits brought by this beautiful quality are immediate, a happy person always has a reason for being happy, and the reason is: he is a happy person.

"Whoever laughs often is happy; whoever cries often is miserable and miserable.'" - What a simple truth.

When good mood comes, we should open the door to welcome it, because its arrival is never untimely. But we are often hesitant to do this, wanting to know first whether our happiness and contentment are well-founded, or worrying that our happy mood will interfere with our daily serious work. In fact, it is still unknown whether it will disturb or not. Under the intersection, a happy mood directly benefits us. It is the cash of happiness, and everything else is just a check to cash happiness.

Nothing can enhance a happy mood more than good health.

When people meet each other, they first ask about each other's health and wish each other good health. This is not without reason, because health is indeed the top priority for a person's happiness.

Supernormal feelings often lead to emotional imbalance or lingering melancholy.

The condition for genius is a neurological power that exceeds that of ordinary people, that is, extraordinary sensory ability. So Aristotle said: "All those who excel in philosophy, politics, poetry or other arts appear to be melancholic." Of course, people with melancholic temperaments are not without benefits, because they are good in everything. Everything goes to the worst, so you can always be prepared and have fewer miscalculations and stumbles.

Although beauty does not play a direct role, it is also crucial to happiness.

Good looks are the testimonials that win us over from the start.

Pain and boredom are the two mortal enemies of human happiness, but unfortunately, our lives always oscillate between the two.

This is because the relationship between pain and boredom is a double opposition. The first is external opposition: hardship and scarcity in life produce pain, while abundance and stability easily lead to boredom; the second is external opposition: It's an inner opposition: one's capacity for pain is inversely proportional to one's capacity for boredom. Mentally retarded people experience less pain, but mentally retarded people are also more likely to feel inner emptiness and boredom.

In order to solve the emptiness and boredom, mentally retarded people are often keen on some external stimulation, such as frequent social interactions. Therefore, a person's love for human interaction is directly proportional to his mediocrity of intelligence and poverty of thought. In this world, people either choose to be alone or choose to be vulgar. There are no other choices.

Human brain consciousness is a parasite of the human body. It resides in the human body, and people’s hard-earned leisure is for people to freely enjoy the freedom of consciousness and personality. Bring fun. Therefore, leisure is the essence of life.

? However, leisure is only beneficial to those with active minds. For those with poor minds, leisure can either bring sensual enjoyment and nonsense, or it can be boring and muddled. Seneca said: "Leisure without spiritual entertainment is death, it is like burying people alive."

Happiness can only be found and obtained from ourselves. Aristotle said that happiness belongs to those who can enjoy themselves.

Because the external sources of happiness and joy are ultimately uncertain and subject to chance. Especially in old age, almost all external sources will dry up. Romance, banter, interest in travel, preference for horses, and energy for social interaction all leave us, and friends and relatives are also removed from us by death. Take them away one by one.

But most people place their happiness on things outside themselves, on obtaining happiness in life from property, status, wife, children, friends, and social groups; they place their happiness in life on these. . Therefore, once he loses these things, or becomes disillusioned with these things, his happiness will disappear.

Only those with extraordinary intellectual talent are lucky, because their intelligence exceeds what they want.

A person with a rich inner world has nothing else to ask for from the external world, except this gift of both negative and negative qualities - leisure. He needs leisure to cultivate and develop his spiritual faculties and enjoy his inner wealth. All he wants is to be himself every day and every moment of his life.

People often say that happiness can only come from being simple-minded. In fact, you have to look at both sides of this statement. If you are simple-minded, your perception of pain will naturally be slower. This is correct. But simple-minded people cannot enjoy the happiness of spirit and thought because of this. They always pin their happiness on real things such as external wealth, power, status, etc. However, since real things will soon be exhausted, they will soon fall into boredom and unhappiness. Only ideal things are inexhaustible and are neither evil nor harmful in themselves.