(Week 5 Topic) What is happiness to me?

I was thinking about this all weekend.

One thing I kept remembering was something I read in a magazine in an interview with a Buddhist monk:

　　人間には究極の幸せが４つあります。


　　　ひとつめは、愛されること。

　　　ふたつめは、ほめられること。

　　　みっつめは、人の役に立つこと。

　　　よっつめは、人に必要とされること


I think there are big happinesses and little happinesses. As the monk wrote, the big happinesses in life come from 1) being loved by others, 2) being praised by others, 3) being useful to others, and 4) being needed by others. Those may not be the only ones, but I agree they are the main ones. In addition, I think "loving someone" is also a big happiness in itself and achieving some goal you set is also a big happiness.

For me, my big happinesses are:

1. Getting a jumping hug from my kids when I open the front door of my house.
2. Watching my children sleep like angels after I come home late from working.
3. Going out to a quiet lunch with my wife Megumi, with no kids.
4. Getting birthday cards or Good Job! cards from my kids.
5. Seeing my two kids learning something new like being able to ride a bicycle or being able to read a more difficult level of book.
6. Seeing my students grow intellectually and as a person through the discussions, writing or presentations that they do. Getting emails from past students makes me very happy, too.
7. Getting positive feedback on a research paper or project I did, especially from colleagues and professors of other universities.
8. Being able to run a marathon to the end, even if slowly.

Some small happinesses are:

1. A cold beer at the end of a hard day.
2. A jog on a cool night with the moon and crickets singing everywhere.
3. A swim on a hot, sweaty day in a cold pool.
4. Climbing a mountain.
5. A class where everything goes better than I expected.
6. Creamy, sweat uni and other fresh seafood.
7. Going out with friends on a weekend evening in Kichijoji.
8. Making plans to travel to a new country, and then making them come true.
9. The list will continue!

Famous quotes on happiness (link) included the following:

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne