What Is Being Content?

Decent Essays
Being content is the last thing I learn from the Tao De Jing. Lao Tzu describes hat “people should feel happy if they are content with what they have.”(Stanza 44) This idea relates to the moral because people are not greedy when they are content. When people try to seek the wealth and frame, they may lose something that they have. For example, a person leaves his hometown and find a job in an unfamiliar city. He does not want to go back to his home and visit his parents because he wants to earn more money. Many years have passed, the person backed to his hometown because he is a successful businessman. He sees his mother only and his father dies. The person regrets his father’s death. Since he has lots of money, he cannot use the money to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    James Hamblin utilizes ethos, logos, and pathos to effectively argue that experience rather than material possessions brings true happiness. He begins by providing statistics pertaining a wondering mind and the negative effects it can have on our mental status. According to psychologist Matthew Killingsworth “it is not good for [ones’] well-being to have a wandering mind” (Hamblin, James, 2014, para. 1). Daniel Gilbert claims “a wandering mind is an unhappy mind”…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Greed

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” Greed is society's worst enemy. We need to be more thankful for what we have, but today in society commercialism and advertising makes it harder than ever to avoid the bottomless pit. We need to try extremely hard not to want what we can’t have. As humans, we thrive on the idea of what could be, not what is.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Are you living life, right? What if someone told you that you were doing this whole life thing wrong all along? In reading the writings of transcendentalist, ones perception of life may be completely altered. The comparing and contrasting of modern day Americans lives and how that should, can be eye-opening.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” ( Erich Fromm). Greed suffocates the heart’s ability to find love and happiness in the world. Wholesome things are often overcome by the need to find everlasting success. Your wealth and possessions might seem important today but family and true happiness are worth far more.…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Detailed Account of Aristotle’s Position on Happiness and why it is a Human Good According to Aristotle, happiness is an experience that is desired by all human beings. However, there are distinct views regarding what kind of life is considered happy. Aristotle provides readers with different types of lives that are believed to make people happy, including accumulation of wealth and a life of fulfillment that is characterized by comfort and pleasure. He also posits that a happy life is that which is pleasant.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The absence of his father becomes a theme that brings up an emotional toll between the protagonist and his mother. Being that his father was with another woman and not with his mother allowed for him to feel anger towards him simply despising him. As the protagonist enters his apartment building he states "waiting for my heart to slow, for the pain to lose its edge" (101). The amount he has suffered when his father left and the fact that he wants to come back begging for money was something he disapproved of. The phone call symbolizes pain within the mother since she continues to call him in hopes he will return…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This year we discovered many stories about the pursuit of happiness. It has been shown in different ways throughout The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men and The Red Badge of Courage. The one thing all humans desire the most is happiness. Everyone is trying to find happiness in their own way, whether it's through love, friends, family, or even their own selfish needs and wants. Happiness is the greatest thing that you can achieve some might say.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As he goes over the major events, he finds himself concluding what he wants to do with his life. Just from visiting his grandmother’s grave, opened his…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Everyone has their own individual definition of happiness. Richard Taylor describes happiness as “a state of being, not a mere feeling” (Taylor, 116), but how may one come to this total state of fulfillment? Vivien Sung who wrote Five-Fold Happiness and Richard Taylor who wrote a chapter on happiness in his book An Introduction to Virtue Ethics both agree that happiness is made up of many different parts. Because happiness is made up of different components, achieving prosperity, longevity, and wealth are three elements that can lead to being fully…

    • 91 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Delusion of Positive Thinking,” author Barbara Ehrenreich says, “Happiness is, of course, a slippery thing to measure or define,” and in different culture, we have different ideas about happiness. In her essay, American think if they have positive thinking, they will feel happiness and have a better life. However, in reality, happiness is not only create from positive thinking. What is happiness? Some people think if they rich, they will feel happiness; some people think having a beautiful wife, drive a sport car, and eat in expensive restaurant is happiness.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Analects, Confucius argues that wealth is something not “worth pursuing” (7.12). However, this does not imply it is better to be poor than to be rich, but rather asserts that happiness is attainable at any status given a person follows proper customs. As Confucius says, the ideal state is being “poor and yet joyful, rich and yet loving ritual” (1.15). Confucius relates the worth of the person to their actions instead of their financial or societal status. Even for his students he declares that those ashamed of wearing “shabby clothing” or recieving “meager rations” are not even worth conversing with (4.9).…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A psychiatrist is defined as “A physician who specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness” (Definition of Psychiatrist). In Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy, a personification from the narrators mind, assumes the role of a Socratic teacher who guides her student through questions and discussions. As Boethius awaits his execution in a prison cell, we are introduced to Lady Philosophy, Boethius’s old nursemaid who he is unable to recognize because of his anxiety and anger for the people who have wronged him. Lady Philosophy has arrived to help Boethius and uses a strategy to awaken him to the fact that he has not truly lost anything and that there is no point in feeling this way. Boethius shows…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Couples Therapy

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Humans have the tendency of comparing their lives with others and in doing so; they miss the charm of enjoying small moments of life. Couples tend to deviate from focusing on gathering happiness and love to be experienced together and rather strive to improve materialistic aspects of life. Unfortunately, couples do not realize the essence of a relationship and most of them think that getting a promotion, driving a better car or living in a lavish house is more important than staying happy and content with what they have. Lack of understanding and communication adds a rift in a relationship that becomes more a liability than a delightful journey which is filled with emotions of love and care. And when a relationship goes through…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As stated by Yuuki Asuna, “Life isn’t just doing things for yourself. It’s possible to live in such a way that other people’s happiness, makes you happy too.” Doing something for oneself is selfish and pointless. Happiness has been pursued by the people who come to America, wanting the American dream, to be happy and get what they want. Not being happy even have a negative connotation to it.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Money Doesn’t Always Buy Happiness Today in our day and age, there has been one topic that comes up that has been a controversy for people all over the world: money. Scientist have studied that, “Money does buys happiness, but it buys less than most people think,” (Dunn, Gilbert, Wilson, 2011, pg. 115). Some people believe that the more money that they have, the happier they will be. Others believe that money is the epitome of unhappiness because it can cause a barrier between them and those around them. Depending on how he or she use the money, happiness is determined on how the person decides to spend it.…

    • 1914 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays