Zhuangzi Says: What is Happiness? Happiness is when there is no pain in the body and no worries in the heart.
What is happiness?
Some say it’s about taking good care of this life and settling this heart.
Everyone has a life and a heart.
This life is a gift from parents, and it’s the foundation of our existence in the world. We must ensure its health. Pain in the body affects the overall quality of life.
This heart needs to be cultivated. We must calm it down and find peace and happiness.
Without pain in the body and worries in the heart, this is happiness.
I. Body is the Foundation
In the past, people worked at sunrise and rested at sunset.
Since the invention of electric lights, humanity’s evenings have become time for work and entertainment.
Therefore, overwork has become a major threat to modern people’s health.
With the acceleration of the pace of life, we have no time to eat breakfast, just a simple lunch, and irregular meals, plus more and more additives in food, we eat without restraint, various health problems come one after another.
As the eminent scholar Kou Zun of the Northern Song Dynasty said in his ‘Six Reflections’, ‘Not allowing the breath to stop, regretting when sick.’ This means that we regret only when we’re sick.
We often mess with our bodies when we’re healthy, and only realize the importance of health when we’re sick.
The body is the foundation for revolution; without healthy bodies, endless pain will invade your life and drive your quality of life to the bottom.
II. Natural Principles and Health Methods
How can we ensure our health?
Zhuangzi said in the Zhuangzi’s Health Manual, ‘Use the vital meridian as the guide, to ensure one’s body, to preserve one’s innate nature, to relieve parents of worry, and to enjoy a long life.’
Following the natural and central path and applying it as a common method is to protect ourselves, to preserve our innate nature, to relieve our parents of worry, and to enjoy a long life.
Maintaining a healthy body requires understanding and following natural principles; this is the method of health care.
The Nobel Prize winner also proved this point: humans do have a true biological clock, and overwork can cause endocrine disorders.
‘Rising with the sun and resting at sunset’ is not only an ancient standard, but also a natural proof.
In spring, metabolism accelerates, and the liver detoxifies, so spring is for liver care. In summer, the hot and humid weather causes irritability and heavy heart, so summer is for heart care. In autumn, the weather is dry and coughs are frequent, so we should replenish lung energy. In winter, people need enough heat to resist the cold, so we should warm our kidneys.
Therefore, health care is to follow natural principles and not do anything against them, so as to maintain a healthy body and live a long life.
III. Excessive Desire is the Root of Sorrow
The development of information technology has exposed the greatest wealth and poverty at the same time, revealing the comparison, which easily triggers desires.
Unsatisfied desires always increase.
Too much desire becomes the source of people’s pain.
Zhuangzi said in the Zhuangzi’s Health Manual, ‘A simple heart is the most beautiful in the world, and no one can compare with it.’
A simple and pure heart is free from external interference and desires, and only then can happiness come.
Zhuangzi was fishing in the River of Zhuang, and the King of Chu sent two officials to ask him to take office. They told Zhuangzi, ‘The King wants you to deal with the affairs of the Chu Kingdom.’ Zhuangzi didn’t turn back and said, ‘I heard that there is a god tortoise in the Chu Kingdom, which has lived for three thousand years. The king has wrapped it in silk and put it in a wooden box for treasure in the ancestral temple. This god tortoise is willing to die and leave its bones for people to treasure, or willing to live and roll in the mud, but not willing to live and roll in the mud.’ The two officials said, ‘We prefer to live and roll in the mud.’ Zhuangzi said, ‘Please go.’
No matter how much wealth or status you have, if you can’t live freely, how can you be happy?
IV. Accept Fate and Be Natural
No matter how much we reduce our desires, we are still human beings, and our inevitable decline is a concern for many people.
Whether it is fearing our own extinction or grieving the death of loved ones, we all have to experience the ending.
A heart filled with worries and sorrow cannot be relieved.
Zhuangzi’s wife died, and Hui Zi went to Zhuangzi’s home to mourn. He saw Zhuangzi sitting on the ground, beating a tin can and singing. Hui Zi said, ‘Your wife lived with you, grew children with you, and aged and died. Now she is dead, and you don’t cry, it’s too much!’
Zhuangzi said, ‘No, when my wife died, I was of course sad. But when I looked at her, she had never been born, nor had she ever had a body, nor had she ever had breath. She appeared in a hazy state, changed with the change of the four seasons, and then she had breath and form, and now she has returned to death, which is just like the four seasons turning. When she died, she lay quietly in the earth, and I wept, thinking that I couldn’t understand the meaning of life, so I stopped crying.’
Tao Yuanming wrote in his poem ‘Even if the waves are vast, I don’t care,’
Harmony with Heaven is the root of happiness and goodness, and harmony with people is the root of suffering. Heaven represents nature, and people represent human will. Only when the heart is enlightened and accepting the natural order, worries and sorrows will naturally disappear.
