John Locke (1632-1704) was a major English philosopher, whodevised the phrase ‘pursuit of happiness’, in his book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.Greatly influenced by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, Locke distinguished between “imaginary happiness” and “true happiness”.Since God has given everyone the desire to trail the real bliss, majority of peoplestart a relentless search for it, but when they don’t get what they desire, they conclude they have been deprived of.
On the other hand, everybody on this earth is quite ready to take the credit for the progress that mankind has achieved. Religionists, scientists, politicians, philosophers and economists - are all quick to claim that humanity is grateful to them for the progress that …show more content…
If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you.[4]
During one of his speech on Compassion and the Individual Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama once explained the purpose of human life:
..…. we all have an innate self-centeredness that inhibits our love for others. So, since we desire the true happiness that is brought about by only a calm mind, and since such peace of mind is brought about by only a compassionate attitude, how can we develop this? Obviously, it is not enough for us simply to think about how nice compassion is! We need to make a concerted effort to develop it; we must use all the events of our daily life to transform our thoughts and behaviour.[5]
At another place, during one of his lectures he …show more content…
Serenity and joys are greatly misunderstood. If we have riches, we seem to have a platoon of friends. But they are our friends up to the extent we have money and power. The moment we lose our wealth and influence, it will be very difficult to track these people. But then the question arises that who can be our compassionate friends? Because the problem with the human character is that sometimes, when destiny favours us and feel that we can manage everything by ourselves and feel we do not need friends, the moment we quickly realizethat how wrong we are. At that moment we learn who is really helpful and who is completely useless. So, to prepare for that moment, to make genuine friends who will help us when the need arises, or from whom we can get good counselling is really a herculean
On the other hand, everybody on this earth is quite ready to take the credit for the progress that mankind has achieved. Religionists, scientists, politicians, philosophers and economists - are all quick to claim that humanity is grateful to them for the progress that …show more content…
If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you.[4]
During one of his speech on Compassion and the Individual Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama once explained the purpose of human life:
..…. we all have an innate self-centeredness that inhibits our love for others. So, since we desire the true happiness that is brought about by only a calm mind, and since such peace of mind is brought about by only a compassionate attitude, how can we develop this? Obviously, it is not enough for us simply to think about how nice compassion is! We need to make a concerted effort to develop it; we must use all the events of our daily life to transform our thoughts and behaviour.[5]
At another place, during one of his lectures he …show more content…
Serenity and joys are greatly misunderstood. If we have riches, we seem to have a platoon of friends. But they are our friends up to the extent we have money and power. The moment we lose our wealth and influence, it will be very difficult to track these people. But then the question arises that who can be our compassionate friends? Because the problem with the human character is that sometimes, when destiny favours us and feel that we can manage everything by ourselves and feel we do not need friends, the moment we quickly realizethat how wrong we are. At that moment we learn who is really helpful and who is completely useless. So, to prepare for that moment, to make genuine friends who will help us when the need arises, or from whom we can get good counselling is really a herculean