The Poem ' The Refuge '

There are no pure states of mankind. Whatever else happiness may be, it is neither in having nor in being, but in becoming. What the Founding Fathers declared for us as an inherent right, we should do well to remember, was not happiness but the pursuit of happiness. What they might have underlined, could they have foreseen the happiness-market, is the cardinal fact that happiness is in the pursuit itself, in the meaningful pursuit of what is life-engaging and life-revealing, which is to say, in the idea of becoming. A nation is not measured by what it possesses or wants to possess, but by what it wants to become” (Ciardi, par. 10). Even though I disagree most part of his article because it seems like only the Americans always un-happy, and don't know what happiness is. I think not only americans but other country can be un-happy in my own opinion. Despite the article, I really like the last paragraph because it “is not measured by what it possesses or wants to possess, but what it want to become” to be happy. Meanwhile, choosing Aristotle theory to help define happiness to support Dalai Lama and John Ciardi's

There are different factors that affect happiness and it is rooted from the country you were born in. “We are shaped not only by our current geography, but by our ancestral one as well" (Weiner 112). Most countries have different culture that contributes to people 's happiness. People who live in America will not be as happy as the one who lived in Moldova. In Eric Weiner 's, book The Geography of Bliss. He was searching for data on happiness. He conducts a study on how people in different countries understand and measure their happiness. The biggest factors that affect people 's happiness are the environment and cultural differences. Where you live is a big factor of who you are. People find happiness when they feel comfortable and

Life isn't worth living if you are not willing to accept the challenges thrown your way. How I grew up wasn't easy. It, instead, was rousing from being adopted out of China, learning a new culture, to facing some hindrance. Nevertheless, I couldn't have done this on my own. With the help of God all things are possible.

In Happy by Roko Belic (a 2011 documentary), “All I want is to be happy in life” was a reoccurring statement from the people in the film. A majority of people in today’s world agree with that statement. Everyone wants to be happy, but what truly defines happiness? The Happy documentary presents different things that make certain people happy, and what influences their feelings. The film does not only imply that direct message, but also paints a bigger picture for the audience. The bigger picture being: how ecology is the main factor behind people’s happiness. The director of this film combines real experiences from people around the world along with research from scientists to explain our simple emotion, happiness.

Everyone has struggles. Many teenagers struggle with self-esteem, stress, bullying, body image, drinking, and smoking. Many adults struggle with marriage, jobs, money, drinking, smoking, health problems, and stress. There is not one person that has an easy life with no struggles because it is impossible. Having struggles teaches us life lessons.

In The Geography of Bliss One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World he plots a guide of joy for absence of a superior depiction and afterward goes to a portion of the most joyful nations on the planet to discover why their kin are glad. From Iceland to Qatar, the Netherlands to India, Switzerland to America, Weiner visits a modest bunch of nations that are either ended up being cheerful by the factually disapproved of Dutch, who track such things) or have made satisfaction a need, (for example, Bhutan, with its estimation of Gross National Happiness. For a shockingly delightful complexity, he visits the exceptionally miserable individuals of Moldova, demonstrating that a cynic like Weiner is taking care of business when offered

situations in order to live a successful life. Hardships is something we all face and it’s

For the summer assignment, I read Make Lemonade (1993) by Virginia Euwer Wolff, and I viewed the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). This project was an exploration of the similarities among and the feelings of adolescents in different settings, having varied experiences and through time. Many young adults, including me, perceive themselves and others in a negative fashion. Both Make Lemonade and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off examine the ideas of young adults overcoming challenges and changing their mindsets.

Happiness is something very abstract and it differs from individual to individual. I always feel that a poor man will always be thankful to the almighty even if he is provided with two square meals a day but at least he can sleep happily with no stress; on the other hand a rich man will always be unhappy throughout his life either in the pursuit of creating wealth or in the tension of safeguarding his wealth. Accumulating wealth is extremely time consuming and time once lost cannot be regained; moreover, not all have the potential and skills of earning which is always coupled with hard work and

In one way or another, we have all struggled in life. But what is life without struggles and hardship? Life has ups and downs, but is it fair that some people struggle more than others? Why do some group of people such as the Native Americans struggle tremendously than any other ethnic group? Native Americans have struggled and still struggle to this very day greatly.

struggle is never resolved, others take most of a lifetime. For a lucky few, they are

I started to question about happiness in America after I saw a pattern in high school that students are often confused or stressed. I started out with the question, “why is it hard to be happy when being happy shouldn’t be that hard?” To answer these questions, I found Sophie Chan’s 2011 study, “Hong Kong Chinese community leaders’ perspectives on family health, happiness and harmony: a qualitative study.” This study would help answer questions on my audience’s curiosity about other countries happiness compared to the United States. Then I started to think that there were also other issues that friction with happiness in America and

Life is something that requires a considerable amount of physical and mental effort. Some are fortunate enough to have everything prepared for them. Such as some are born into money; some come across good fortune yet most work hard from the start to get some where in the world. It just all depends on how you were brought into this world. For some people, life is full of stress and hardships. That’s how life was for someone very dear to me. He had it difficult from the start. However he chose not to let life get him down. When life gave him lemons, he made lemonade.

At first glance, happiness is a state of mind that many, if not all people aspire to achieve in their lifetime. What exactly is that state of mind is up for debate among the east and the west, and varies between different cultures, traditions, and religions. In the west, happiness is mostly associated with success, wealth, fame and power. In the east, happiness can be viewed as freedom from mundane occurrences such as the occupation of western powers from within a country, the end of war, poverty and famine, and liberation of the false self. In contemporary times, and with the arrival of eastern philosophy, religions, and traditions in the west, many are turning inwards and using a tool believed to have more power than an atomic bomb, the human mind. In China, India and various other Asian countries, the mind has long been a powerful tool used to liberate one from suffering, the cyclic cycle of life, as well as a means to reach enlightenment and immortality. However, the mind is only a tool, and not the way per se.

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.