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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2005-06 Rotary Year : Issue 20 : 19 April | ||
| This
is the biweekly bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kingspark Hong Kong Club Website: http://www.rotary3450.org/kingspark-hongkong | ||
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| Chief
Editor : Francis Wann Club Webmaster : John Wan | ||
| Editorial
(The
Meaning of Happiness) - By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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The Meaning of Happiness
But this occasion also gives us a time to reflect on our own values and morals. As thousands gathered in Rome to celebrate a liturgy around the Stations of the Cross, they would be surprised to hear Pope Benedict XVI leading an attack on the advances of the "modern man" and our contemporary culture. The denunciation was most thorough when it came to science and its fiddling with nature, all in the guise of medical breakthroughs and research. As Archbishop Comastri, who prepared the prayers, has written at the Third Station: Lord, we have lost our sense of sin. Today a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a mindless desire for transgression.... as if they were new heights of sophistication. There were 14 Stations in the traditional meditations which put the real nature of the human race on trial. As the Pope prayed at the Fourth Station, "Lord Jesus, our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society's incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness." The Pope's message was disturbing, yet it's loud and clear. It came at a time when we mortals are mostly obsessed with desires and wants of various kinds. These are the same questions which confront us Rotarians from time to time. When we look at the faces of poverty, hunger, and human sufferings, wouldn't we just wonder if it's all but God's own destiny? Recently I went to a lecture entitled "The Pursuit of Happiness" in which the speaker compared Buddhism with modern psychology and psychotherapy. Prof Marvin Levine, who confessed to be a weekday psychologist and weekend monk, explained the limitations of human nature which are the cause of sufferings (dukkha). It's our craving (tanha) which make us vulnerable, and the only way to reach Nirvana i.e., liberation from dukkha, is by changing ourselves in between our urges. Perhaps not everyone of us can understand the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism, but happiness is certainly what we are all after. How can we stay happy and detached when there's so much social injustice around us? Prof Levine suggested that theoretically we separate our mind and our "self" and it's only the mechanism of our mind which experiences agony. Somehow I still prefer the German philosopher Nietzsche's "formulae" for happiness: Yes. No. A straight line..... Happy Easter. | ||
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More on Happiness
Such is the nature of things in our times. I cannot help feeling like a fiddler on the roof, trying to make things work without breaking one's back, which ain't easy, as those who follow what I am trying to say would appreciate, some more than others. I hope you all have had a Happy Easter and a fruitful or restful holiday. I spent two days in Macau over the weekend with the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) campers. There was a bit of nostalgia as I meant Ronnie, the trainer at the RYLA camp organized by our club back in 1997 in Shan Shek Wan, Lantau Island. Young people have changed very little in the last decade. They still live and behave as if they had unlimited energy and very little time. As I talked to a group of young people, I watched their body language. It was a mixed bag, but all of them could have had more sleep the night before. Over the Q and As, one of them asked me to tell them my greatest achievements. Among other things, I told them I had fathered two children who appeared to be doing great, that I was a trailwalker and completed the Trail the first time in 1992, and that I was District Governor in 2000. I told them I was rather pleased with myself, but added in the same breath that one should not compare one's achievements with others' and that one should seek to become a better person every day. I don't know how much of what I said went down and how well it went down. My brother seems to have become more religious if what he wrote this week reflects his latest thinking. Eric (or Erich) Fromm wrote in "Man for Himself" that "the question is not: religion or not; but which religion" and went on to say, "the question is not: ideal or not; but which ideal?" Religion brings out the potentials of human beings to benefit humanity. Religion is a necessary means to unfold a person's potential to its highest level. As such, it can be looked upon as a person's obligatory path in life, somewhat like Russell's definition for economics. Back to Rotary, a number of our RI past presidents have built their themes on happiness and on dreams. They all went down rather well. Yes, dreams and ideals are part of the process towards happiness, along the path leading to the cessation of sufferings (or dukkha). Someone said that dreams had become a forgotten language, alluding to the modern man's continuing search for facts rather than taking positive steps to unfold the human mind and the human potentials. When was the last time you feel very happy with yourself? What happened? I bet it had to be an occasion you did something nice, more likely to others. Try to make it a habit to be nicer to others, so as to make yourself happier more often, and hence be nicer to yourself. | ||
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Views in any article in Kingspark News reflect those of the authors. They are not necessarily the views of the Rotary Club of Kingspark or of District 3450. You are welcome to write to Chief Editor Francis Wann or Club Webmaster John Wan on any topic, particularly in response to articles published in Kingspark News. We would publish all contributions as long as the authors identify themselves, the contents are not offensive or abusive, and would not offend common decency or common sense. You need not be a Rotarian to write to us and you have a choice to withhold your name in the published version. Where the contents make reference to statements or policies of individuals or organizations, we would try to obtain a response from the latter for publication in the same issue if possible. | ||
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Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Dominic Ko | ||
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