1 . The Happy Man

The happy man lives objectively, and has free love and wide interests, through which he secures his happiness. To be the receivers of love is a vital cause of happiness, but the man who demands love is not the man to whom it is given.     1     But it is useless to attempt to give love as a calculation, for it is not sincere and is not felt.

What then can a man do who is unhappy because he is enclosed in self? If he is to get out of the vicious (恶性的) circle of unhappiness, it must be by true interests. But before that, he should analyze his trouble first.     2     If fear is his trouble, let him practice exercises designed to give courage.

Admit to himself every day at least one painful truth.     3     Exercises of this sort will enable him to admit facts and will free him from the fear to a large extent.

    4     Do not say to yourself in advance, “I should be happy if I could become interested in stamp-collecting,” and thus set to work to collect stamps, for it may well happen that you will altogether fail to find stamp-collecting interesting. You may be pretty sure that true objective interests will grow up as soon as you have learnt not to be self-centered.

All unhappiness depends upon lack of integration (融合). There is disintegration within the self,consciously and unconsciously or between the self and society.     5     Such a man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying what it affords, untroubled by the death because he feels not separate from those who will come after him.

Whenever 1 feel lonely, I have a secret recipe that never fails: rice, milk and sugar, cooked low and slow. No matter how bad my mood is, that perfect combination is always enough to lift my spirits. Sometimes the smell alone can do the trick, not to mentionthe lovely     1     flavor, which works like a time machine immediately    2     me back to my sunny childhood. With pleasure, I remember the lazy Sunday afternoons I used to spend in the warmth of my grandma's flat, listening to her wonderfu tories and     3     eating bowl after bowl of her delicious rice pudding.I take my time over every     4     gently rolling the silky dessert around my mouth and enjoying the perfect     5     of rice and milk. Before I know it, I'm happy again.