Greetings Friends!
Welcome to Perennial Meditations (Saturday Review) — A weekly recap and reflection of timeless lessons on the art of living. Below are links to this week’s meditations, podcasts, and a Saturday Meditation.
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On Finding Happiness
This week’s Saturday Meditation comes from the Chinese philosopher Chuang-tzu (who lived around the fourth century BCE). Chuang-tzu suggested,
I cannot tell if what the world considers “happiness” is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while, they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness. My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
Paradoxically, finding things like success, happiness, or wisdom require us to let go (or at least loosen our grip). More than two millennia after Chuang-tzu, the psychologist Viktor Frankl observed, “For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself …. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”
Reflection Questions (Pick one or create your own):
How do you define (or think about) happiness?
What does it mean to loosen our grip on happiness?
This Week’s Meditations…
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Thank you for reading and listening this week; I hope you found something useful for daily life.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. As always, feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions!