Re: The root causes of cheerfulness?

A response from Lan:

"Hi A.K.:

Never thought that your kindness to enlighten us will elicit such a debate?!

When I first read the article, due to time constraint, I sent you an instant teaser because I was not sure that I totally agreed with it. I'm glad that Stephen has further elucidated us on the subject.

My humble opinion is: "The root causes of cheerfulness" and "the pursuit of happiness" are profound subjects which can be viewed from different perspectives.

The article you sent is from a religious perspective, while Stephen's exposition is from a philosophical, psychological, and physiological perspective. And "The pursuit of happiness" is American's Constitutional right perspective.

As human beings, as long as we're breathing and alive, it's difficult to control all the impulses firing from our brain cells all the time. Desire is one of the impulses. Desire is the source of motivation. Be it good or bad, it's how our lives come to be.That's why we try to control the bad ones with all kinds of means, external means such as reward and punishment; internal means such as moral, ethics and self-discipline; and physical means such as meditation, focussing techniques, biofeedback,etc. Confucius says, "A sage has no dreams." because he/she has already achieved the art of controlling the firing impulses, I guess.

By the same token, I think in Buddhism, when you have no desires (even the desire to be cheerful or happy), you have achieved the no I-ness, leading to Nirvana.

Lan"

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