Chapter 6 Chapter Four Why Am I Often Unhappy? - Lost the true self

Ruo Ling, who is confident, visits the old man again with prepared answers and full of questions.After knocking on the door lightly, the same sentence "Come in", the door opened in response. Ruo Ling entered the house, this time he had more thought and time to look at the old man's living environment. The old man's residence is extremely simple, with traditional Chinese furniture and frugal layout, but the western-style fireplace seems a bit abrupt. "How's your week going?" the old man asked her as soon as she sat down. "Very good." Ruo Ling replied cautiously.

Then the two fell into silence.Ruo Ling heard the crackling sound of firewood, but didn't know how to speak.After a while, Ruo Ling hesitated and said, "About the question you asked me to think about last time..." "Oh, have you figured it out yet?" "Well, I think, everyone is pursuing wealth, power, health, love and happiness!" Ruo Ling peeked at the old man's face while talking. "Well," the old man nodded, "What about you? Are you after these too?" "I, of course I hope to have a certain amount of wealth..." Ruo Ling has always had a deep sense of insecurity about money.

"What will happen to you when you have wealth?" the old man asked. "I'm happier, I don't worry about the future anymore!" Ruo Ling couldn't imagine how much fun it would be if she had money that could never be spent in this life!Thinking that she can walk into any boutique she likes and buy whatever she likes without looking at the price tag, Ruo Ling feels a little ecstatic. "Where is power?" The old man interrupted Ruo Ling's daydream. "Well, I'm not particularly after power, because it seems that other basic requirements have not been met..."

"How would you feel if you were powerful?" "Then... I should be very satisfied and enjoyable!" Ruo Ling imagined what she would look like when she became the CEO of the company, and how cool it is that she can show off, play awe-inspiring, and dictate to many executives now! "What about health? What about you?" Ruo Ling didn't suffer from any serious illness except for a small cold.She had no deep feeling for health, but she could imagine how much those who lost it and regained it cherished it. "If you have health, you will be happy, very good!"

"Okay." The old man's series of questions seemed to come to an end. "So, if we go on like this, what we humans want to pursue can only be expressed in five words!" "Five words?" Ruo Ling was a little disappointed, she thought she would think more than she thought, but she didn't know less. The old man picked up a piece of chalk and began to write on the limestone - LOVE, JOY, PEACE. Ruo Ling was a little startled, looked at the old man and waited for his explanation. "You just said that human beings pursue things, such as power, wealth, and health. The ultimate goal is to pursue joy and inner peace, right?" The old man asked Ruo Ling for his opinion.

"You can say that, but what's the difference between happiness and joy?" Ruo Ling didn't understand. "Happiness is triggered by external things, and its prerequisite is that there must be something that makes us happy, so its process is from the outside to the inside," the old man brushed his long white beard by the way, "however Now, there is a problem..." The old man looked at Ruo Ling with meaningful dashes in his eyes. There was only one big question mark on Ruo Ling's face. "The problem is: since happiness depends on external things, once the situation or thing that makes you happy no longer exists, your happiness will also disappear. Joy is different, it blooms from the inside out, from It comes from within you. So once you invoke it, the outside world can’t take it away.”

Ruo Ling was dumbfounded.She rarely experienced real happiness in this life, let alone joy. "And the love mentioned here is still your ordinary love between men and women, but true love, unconditional, and without asking for anything in return..." the old man continued to explain. "Like the love parents have for their children?" Although Ruo Ling asked this way, she herself has never had the unconditional love of her parents.Ruo Ling's parents are too busy to take care of themselves and have no extra love for her.Since she was a child, she could only envy others, or when watching TV or movies, imagined that she was the lucky child in the film.

"Yes, some parents can indeed show the substance of true love, but many parents use the name of love to let their children live for them, but still respect their children's own life history." The old man looked a little serious at the moment. Ruo Ling lowered her head, her eyes turned red.Her own parents seemed to treat her like nothing, and she would have preferred that they treated her as property, meddled, and disciplined rather than being indifferent. "Children, every parent is also human, and they have their own limitations." The old man persuaded him tactfully.

"But you have to believe that at every moment in the past, your parents have played their role to the best of their ability. They may not be the best parents, but they have limited knowledge and limited resources. In many constraints Next, what you get is the result of their hard work, do you understand?" Ruo Ling nodded aggrievedly, the old man's words could indeed comfort Ruo Ling's wounded heart.It's just that Ruo Ling always has a regret in his heart, an eternal regret. In the tears of confusion, Ruo Ling raised her head and looked at the old man. "I know what you're going to ask me," the old man was reading his mind again. "You're going to ask me how to find love, joy and peace, aren't you?"

"Yes, moreover, each of us is pursuing these things, why is almost everyone in vain? Behind every forced smile, how much bitterness is hidden? Why is this so?" The more Ruo Ling spoke, the more excited she seemed to be speaking on behalf of the people of the world. The sound of injustice. "Because," the old man waited for her to finish, and replied simply and calmly, "you have lost your true self." (to be continued)