How Can We Get Happiness and Peace ?

How Can We Get "Happiness and Peace" ?

When people are asked what they want, almost all of them say in no time, "We want happiness and peace." However few people know the way they can get happiness and peace. Though people don't know what happiness is and what peace is, it seems that they want happiness and peace just because their lives are tough.

Peace

And how can we get happiness and peace? From old times, many teachings have been handed down in the world. Among them we hear the word 'truth' a lot and sometimes the word 'truth' can be expressed by different words in some cases. For example, 'Do'(Korean pronunciation), 'law' or 'promise' etc. have the same meaning as truth. When we give a definition of truth on law or 'Do' 's view, it can be explained that truth is way, the way to make the world exist. And 'way and virtue'(morality) means that right behaviour cultivates great 'virtue'. Right behaviour and life are exactly 'Do' and way as well. In other words, truth is the way, 'Do' is the way and law is the way to let any phenomena exist. Promise is also classified as the same meaning. In case we do not keep what we have to do, happiness and peace can not exist. Happiness and peace come to exist when the condition is completed.

When we live the bright mind in the bright world, true peace comes to exist in our mind. When we do not have any unhappy things, when it is guaranteed that miserable things will not happen to us, the life can be maintained peacefully and we can always feel peace. Otherwise peace does not exist. When we keep our conscience in a righteous world, when we make our conscience stand right, peace will exist in ourselves. However these things have never been taught right in human society so far, people came to forget how to get peace and it became the object which exists in an ideal. People say that they want peace because life is tough and uneasy. However people are overlooking the fact that the peace can be obtained by their own efforts.

Happiness

What is happiness indeed? What is the law of happiness?

Once we live without hunger, without loneliness and with bright mind; those kinds of minds exist, that is happiness. In order to live without hunger, loneliness and darkness, we ourselves should make those conditions.

Then, how those conditions can be made?

First, when we work hard, live frugally and put aside some money, the property will increase. As a result, hunger can be got rid of.

Second, when we live diligently and frugally, we can get trust from others. If we work hard without deceiving others, we can get trust and come to make friends with good people. If we get acquainted with good friends, talk with them, depend on each other and share blessings, we can lead a life without loneliness.

Honesty is the third condition. When we do not lie, our minds get bright.

Therefore, being diligent, frugal and honest are just right way and law to get happiness.

But there is a society where we can not get happiness no matter how diligently, frugally and honestly we may live. In the circumstance that truth and justice are ignored, those three conditions are not admissible in certain cases. In the society where truth and justice are ignored, even though we keep those three conditions, we can not feel happy easily. That is because that kind of society is dark. No matter how bright mind have we, it is difficult for us to see the light in a dark world. No matter how good sight we may have, once we are in a world which is pitch black, there is no difference between our vision and the blind's. On the contrary the blind feels less uncomfortable while living in such a dark world.

Reality

Peace and happiness can not be mere words any more which exist in an ideal. Peace and happiness are made just by ourselves. These two (peace and happiness) have to be accomplished by ourselves. Nobody can bring us peace and happiness except ourselves. And an Enlightenment is essential for us to get peace and happiness.

Enlightenment is the most important thing in human life and for the Enlightenment a lot of people have been playing all kinds of foolish things. But we will never know even where the way to Enlightenment is unless we are awakened to the truth. In other words, we don't know which things are on which way. If we don't know what makes things exist, it is difficult to achieve our expecting goals.

The importance of life and the things in truth are what we always explain through what is. Once we know the things in truth, we ourselves can lead a life which we want. This is a very crucial point.

Today, we can see that lots of people debate on certain matters with the greatest enthusiasm on media. But listening to the discussion, we cannot help feeling frustrated. Recently the debate on the subject of "Lay-off, How can we solve the problem?" was on TV.

Each one of the professors of economics expressed his ideas hard but listening to them carefully, we found out that actually they were talking about what they themselves didn't know. They were insisting on their opinions like this. " We should restructure" or "we should not".

Now, the urgent thing to be done in our society is not the discussion about lay-off but the producing social environment in which everyone who wants to work can do. It is important to build up the social environment in which anyone who is healthy and able to work can work easily. And we can say that today's system or conception - most people are tied up in the company which is run by conglomerates, chaebol*, and people are living on it - is really wrong.

A nation can not take all the individual's place for his/her life.

A ruler can not take all the individual's place for his/her life and we can not have a ruler undertake all the rights to live of over 40 million people. Then, we should demand our right openly. "Make the society where we can have jobs." This is an important thing. Actually, lay-off and restructuring are less important.

How can we make a profit producing goods when wage is fairly high. What can we do paying people who are unnecessary and making unprofitable goods? So far in this countries government* have been demanding that the conglomerates do that. Therefore the government is cowed by the chaebol. This phenomenon results in the a collusion between big companies and government and insolvent operation. It seems that bad finance of this country is much more than we thought. It might be over hundreds of trillion Won.

Affection and Love

Why this phenomenon happens? It's because everything is controlled and meddled by only one person. I believe that because all our happiness is swayed by ruling classes, there is no happy people essentially in this country. In other words, when we get temporal comfort and come to have lots of material for a while and we made our ideal come true, we think that we are happy for the time being. But that is not true happiness.

Here is an example. When a passer-by gives a beggar 5000 Won for food, is this love? No, it isn't. This is pity and sympathy. But people often call this love. This is actually a wrong idea. Love must be blessing.

Treating a beggar to food with 5000 Won can not become love. It is giving pity or sympathy. As it is mentioned before, gaining temporal satisfaction, it can not be happiness.

Reality in Education

Why do we need education? The studies of technology field such as engineering are needed to develop our daily life and other studies mostly are needed to know what is right and what is wrong, which is the biggest purpose in our life, and cultivate our personality. The education to make us know what is right and wrong is needed for us to be awakened to the things in the world. But if the world is dark and justice is gone, the education can not teach people what is right and wrong.

Actually, since 1970 there has been a strange trend in our society.

Somebody told that this was reported as a topic in other countries. "Korean high school students go to school at 5 a.m. and come back home at 10 p.m. carrying their bags in order to prepare college entrance exam. This kind of country exists in the world."

What is the reason to make sensitive young men stay at school? At school, even though the students have to stay at school for over 15 hours, they are never taught the studies for the accomplishment of their personality and forced to memorize the writings of the textbooks. And the questions in the tests are so tricky that they can not be solved easily. As a result, the publication of commentary comes to be necessary and students are forced to memorize its contents again.

Making up the right social environment will contribute to our gaining happiness and peace. As it was mentioned before, when social environment makes it possible to provide people with jobs, even people who are not specially outstanding can settle down in their jobs. And sometimes they find themselves worth living more and more by accepting good teachings and frugal life. This is the way people can achieve happiness they want.

They that know nothing fear nothing

In our country, this phenomenon seems to be so common that wrong ideas and knowledge cause bad results. When we listen to the most intellectual people, they are playing upon words.

When we go to farmers and ask them how to do farming, they give us realistic answers. "This seed has certain kind of nature. So if we put it in the warehouse for freezing and lower the temperature, it sleeps feeling that winter has come. And then, if we take it out and plant it in the greenhouse in the winter, it buds feeling that the spring has come since it already wintered. " That is correct.

But the intellectuals are saying what does not fit in with the reality. Why this phenomenon happens? This is also due to the social environment. When we would like to know about a problem, first of all, we should look at 'what is'. And then we should find out precisely why the thing became like that. After that, the problem can be solved properly.

It is dangerous to prescribe for a patient without examining him who went to see a doctor. First, diagnosis is needed and then prescription is to be followed. However, today in our society, the diagnosis of the problem is not made properly. Though doctors who diagnoses are not seen, fabulous opinion of prescription is full. People who say the right thing are denounced instead. All kinds of wrong opinions fabricated by wrong people make the right people be denounced in a morning and make them bad people finally. When a seriously ill patient is in hospital, the comfort words saying "You will recover soon, Have courage, Be healthy and Get up" can not make him healthy. To solve a problem, a reliable diagnosis is always needed and then an accurate prescription should be followed.

Open your eyes on 'what is'

The true purpose of education is to make people know what is and understand what is correctly. To know what is correctly, first we have to recognize that the right thing and the wrong one exist in what is. And when we come to know about what is and see what is, we call it Enlightenment. If the education can not make it possible for people's consciousness to see what is, the education is a failure.

Today, the wrong education is responsible for our society getting into trouble under the structure of conglomerates, chaebol. Take today's social condition. People only from primary school are willing to work in a factory with low wages. People just completed the junior high school choose jobs as delivery men and vegetable sellers. And also they are willing to carry a handcart and do farming. But the problem is the people with high educational background. They want to use their brain but do not want physical labour. So conglomerates are the only means and purpose of their living.

Why do we have to depend on others? Human beings are able to take care of and be responsible for themselves. Once the government keeps the society's justice, all the things can be solved by individuals. It is very pity that our society still can not do such things.

'Everything comes to exist according to one meaning.'

A 'meaning' is law, truth, promise and 'Do'(way). We should not ignore the meaning. It is the right thing for us to teach people to live abiding by the meaning by the education or teachings.

It is true that Admiral Yi, Sun-Shin, General Eul Ji Mun Deok and people like that shielded our country when it was invaded by other countries. But we should not spend time just admiring them all the time. The important point is that we ourselves have to become such people and all the nation have to try to be an Admiral Yi, Sun-Shin and a General Eul Ji Mun Deok. "Andrew Carnegie from America became the king of steel. In difficult circumstances, he became the king of steel in the world and came to have both honor and wealth.'' This is a good lesson. The important thing is that not just reading his biography and admiring him but making ourselves be a Carnegie.

Education means to make all the young be a Carnegie and the most important purpose of education is to make all the people holding dream and courage brave commanders such as Admiral Yi, Sun-Shin and General Eul Ji Mun Deok. However, for the past decades, this has never happened in our society. And that is the problem.

Nothing convinces me why these days deserts the right thing and takes the wrong one. The way we can lead our lives worthy of men is knowing what is right and wrong. We should be able to defend ourselves by avoiding what is wrong. Why should we try to avoid the wrong thing? That is because to defend ourselves. We should not have a feeble thought that we will rely on others while living.

Today, our society is unsafe and the problem of this unsafety can not be solved easily. That is because social environment is not improved. If something is wrong, we should abandon the wrong one.

Let's assume that you are gambling now. After playing the cards a few times, if it does not go well, then you should stop. It is the best way to give it up when you do not have any confidence. Even though you lost 9,000 Won* out of 10,000 Won, do not lose the rest of it, 1000 Won, trying to get back your loss. Leaving the gambling place, you can think that you earned 1,000 Won in gambling today and unless you quit right away, we will lose even the last 1,000 Won.

If we think we are in the wrong place, we had better leave the place right now. If we think that there must be something wrong in our society, we should break from the structure. If we make sure that something is wrong, we should cut it off without hesitation. Today, our society is unable to make up its mind.

This is the reason that our nation and society where a lot of people are living are quite a distance from happiness and peace. If we are awakened to what is, we ourselves are able to get out of the wrong place. This is the way to bring glory to our society and nation.

*Tathagata talks about South Korea his home country.

*The chaebol are the large, conglomerate family-controlled firms of South Korea characterized by strong ties with government agencies.

*Won is the Korean Currency.

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What is happiness ? What is peace ? How can I get happiness ? How can I get peace ?

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