Section 3: Detailed Reading 03 The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others. To be the recipient of affection is a potent cause of happiness, but the man who demands affection is not the man upon whom it is bestowed. The man who receives affection is, spea king broadly, the man who gives it. But it is useless to attempt to give it as a calculation, in the way in which one might lend money at interest, for a calculated affection is not genuine and is not felt to be so by the recipient. 0
3 The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others. xxxTo be the recipient of affection is a potent cause of happiness, but the man who demands affection is not the man upon whom it is bestowed. The man who receives affection is, speaking broadly, the man who gives it. But it is useless to attempt to give it as a calculation, in the way in which one might lend money at interest, for a calculated affection is not genuine and is not felt to be so by the recipient. Section 3: Detailed Reading
Section 3: Detailed Reading 4 What then can a man do who is unhappy because he is encased in self? so long as he continues to think about the causes of his unhappiness, he continues to be self-centered and therefore does not get outside the vicious circle; e if he is to get outside it, it must be by genuine interests, not by simulated interests adopted merely as a medicine. although this difficulty is real. there is nevertheless much that he can do if he has rightly diagnosed his trouble If, for example, his trouble is due to a sense of sin, conscious or unconscious, he can first persuade his conscious mind that he has no reason to feel sinful
Section 3: Detailed Reading 4 What then can a man do who is unhappy because he is encased in self? So long as he continues to think about the causes of his unhappiness, he continues to be self-centered and therefore does not get outside the vicious circle; if he is to get outside it, it must be by genuine interests, not by simulated interests adopted merely as a medicine. Although this difficulty is real, there is nevertheless much that he can do if he has rightly diagnosed his trouble. If, for example, his trouble is due to a sense of sin, conscious or unconscious, he can first persuade his conscious mind that he has no reason to feel sinful
Section 3: Detailed Reading and then proceed, by the kind of technique that we have considered in an earlier chapter, to plant this rational conviction in his unconscious mind, concerning himself meanwhile with some more or less neutral activity. If he succeeds in dispelling the sense of sin, it is probable that genuinely objective interests will arise spontaneously. If his trouble is self-pity, he can deal with it in the same manner after first persuading himself that there is nothing extraordinarily unfortunate in his circumstances. If fear is his trouble. let him practice exercises designed to give courage. Courage in war has
Section 3: Detailed Reading and then proceed, by the kind of technique that we have considered in an earlier chapter, to plant this rational conviction in his unconscious mind, concerning himself meanwhile with some more or less neutral activity. If he succeeds in dispelling the sense of sin, it is probable that genuinely objective interests will arise spontaneously. If his trouble is self-pity, he can deal with it in the same manner after first persuading himself that there is nothing extraordinarily unfortunate in his circumstances. If fear is his trouble, let him practice exercises designed to give courage. Courage in war has
Section 3: Detailed Reading been recognized from time immemorial as an important virtue and a great part of the training of boys and young men has been devoted to producing a typ pe of character capable of fearlessness in battle. But moral courage and intellectual courage have been much less studied; they also however, have their technique. Admit to yourself every day at least one painful truth; you will find this quite as useful as the Boy scouts daily kind action. Teach yourself to feel that life would still be worth living even if you were not, as of course you are immeasurably superior to all your friends in virtue and intelligence e曰
Section 3: Detailed Reading been recognized from time immemorial as an important virtue, and a great part of the training of boys and young men has been devoted to producing a type of character capable of fearlessness in battle. But moral courage and intellectual courage have been much less studied; they also, however, have their technique. Admit to yourself every day at least one painful truth; you will find this quite as useful as the Boy Scout’s daily kind action. Teach yourself to feel that life would still be worth living even if you were not, as of course you are, immeasurably superior to all your friends in virtue and intelligence
Section 3: Detailed Reading Exercises of this sort prolonged through several years will at last enable you to admit facts without flinching, and will, in so doing, free you from the empire of fear over a very large field 5 What the objective interests are to be that will arise in you when you have overcome the disease of self-absorption must be left to the spontaneous workings of your nature and of external circumstances. Do not say to yourself in advance "I should be happy if I could become absorbed in stamp-collecting", and thereupon set to work to collect stamps, for it may well happen QUESTIO
Section 3: Detailed Reading Exercises of this sort prolonged through several years will at last enable you to admit facts without flinching, and will, in so doing, free you from the empire of fear over a very large field. 5 What the objective interests are to be that will arise in you when you have overcome the disease of self-absorption must be left to the spontaneous workings of your nature and of external circumstances. Do not say to yourself in advance, “I should be happy if I could become absorbed in stamp-collecting”, and thereupon set to work to collect stamps, for it may well happen QUESTION