[One Thousand Characters a Day] Reading Schopenhauer at Forty <3>

Editor's NoteSchopenhauer's philosophy offers us wisdom and insight for life instead of mere consolation. One of these is the method of focusing on oneself. The reason we are unhappy is mostly because we depend on others. We are deficient and empty within ourselves, so we place our hopes on others instead. Many people view even themselves not through their own eyes but through the eyes of others. He says it is foolish to wish to be well reflected in a narrow, prejudiced, selfish, and distorted mirror. Word count: 914 characters.

The Stoics were a representative school that pursued equanimity. They argued that all events occurring in the world are already determined to happen according to the laws of cosmic nature. The reason we feel unhappy about certain things is that they are 'chance (fortune)'. However, if we accept aging, death, and the sad events in daily life as inevitable, we will not grieve. If we think many things in the world happen by chance, life is a continuous suffering, but if we accept them as fate, anxiety and worry decrease.

To be happy, one must have less will and emotional disturbance. In fact, the surest way not to become too unhappy is not to demand to be too happy. The more people you meet, the more friends you have, and the more people you like, the wider the range of contact with desires and hopes becomes, increasing the opportunities and environment for self-inflicted unhappiness. Ultimately, human happiness and unhappiness depend on one's mindset. Living simply and monotonously may not be easy. To live simply, one must always cultivate the intellectual capacity to handle an intellectual life.

If peace of mind is happiness, it is necessary to maintain the mind like a 'calm lake.' External stimuli should be reduced, but it is also necessary to be wary of comparative feelings, jealousy, envy, excessive expectations, and hopes. What stirs the mind is not true happiness. The flow of desire must be well controlled so that the wheel of Ixion stops.

Peace of mind is a state without suffering. A wise person strives above all to achieve a state without pain, without torment, stability, and composure. We too must be able to break free from the flow of desire and sometimes look at the world objectively with indifference. When Ixion's wheel stops, one reaches the state of perfect happiness described by the Epicurean school. This is ataraxia, a state of equanimity without emotional disturbance or confusion.

- Kang Yong-su, <Reading Schopenhauer at Forty>, Yuno Books, 17,000 KRW

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