(book review)
“Power of Happiness “: Yoshitoshi Shinohara, PHP Research Institute, 1998 – It is good to be yourself in your natural state.
This book is a theory of happiness written by a doctor. You are good just the way you are. You can do whatever you want to do at this moment, without any comparison with others, without any concern for winning or losing, and without any other distractions. That is success in life, and you have it. He has seen many patients who are sick because they are doing things they don’t want to do, which creates stress and makes them sick.
The following are some of his words. They are all gems of words. Do you love yourself?
–Many people think that happiness is something outside of themselves. They are not satisfied with their present selves, which creates stress. The pursuit of happiness leads to unhappiness.
–People can be happy in any situation. If we can feel the happiness that comes from within, we can live a life filled with happiness 24 hours a day.
–When asked what patients would like to do when they are cured, the most common answer is speechless.
–Most people seem to live their lives without an exciting purpose that they want to do right away.
–Getting sick is a chance to realize what is really important.
–Life expectancy is like the amount of time God has promised you when you were born. The length of time you have is not the issue, the issue is living it to the fullest.
–Work is something you don’t like to do, but you have to put up with it because you have to make a living. It is like going to see a movie that you know from the beginning will not be interesting. The human body is designed to do things that excite you. Doing anything else will destroy the body.
–The only choice before us is to do what we originally want to do. Illness is often the result of a life lived in a state of distraction from one’s true self.
–Don’t worry about illness or health. It is important to fully live and shine the life you have.
–You think you are a bad person or that the world is a bad place. From the very beginning, they think they have no control over it. Stress, I don’t want to waste my life on this.
–I try to plan only what I can do myself. If it doesn’t work out, that’s okay. Live in the moment. This is all we can do.
–Human beings by nature do not need to be positive or negative oriented. In Oriental medicine, illness is located far away from its cause. Illness is like a wake-up call that tells us that our way of life is out of alignment.
–Survival mode has seeped deep into the mind. You have forgotten what you wanted to do and what kind of constitution you had in the first place.
–When you give up, you start to see the reality of things. From then on, you can see the truth. While you haven’t given up yet, you can’t see things because you are still attached to them.
–The greatest gift from God is to be present here and now.
–Why do we have to win? For the sake of your family, your pride? Or you want to be rich, that is not who you are now. Not being your true self creates stresses for you.
–Winners are just running faster than anyone else on the rails that have been laid out for them. Children already feel they are on the rails.
–When stress is eliminated, the brain integrates and starts working.
–Catching up with and overtaking the West has been the national motto since the Meiji era: uniformity has worked better than diversity. There is nothing more painful than a life in which people abandon their natural advantages in order to obtain something they don’t have.
–Why is it that most people seek uniformity, envy those who shine with their own talents, and have the mindset of dragging them down? It is because they are comparing themselves to others.
–People’s eyes overlook what they have and only try to see what they lack or what others have. This is endless.
–Everyone is dimly aware of this, but they are standing still not knowing what to do.
–When you are doing what you really want to do and how you want to do it, it is useless if you have succeeded or failed.
–When you look at yourself as you are, you have succeeded in a way that only you could have. People succeed all the time. What you are now is what you wanted to be with all of your mind, body, and actions.
–Affirm yourself as you are now. Only one in ten people say they like themselves. Comparison is at the root of their thinking and they live in survival mode. Stop doing that and start liking yourself.
–Do what you want to do, and do it now. People can only live in the present.
–The past and future can only be determined by how we perceive the present.
–Take away survival mode and what comes out is what has been bubbling up over a person’s entire life. Many people try to follow authoritative opinions without trusting this. They have ceded their dignity and authority to an outside source.
–Only you can evaluate the value of your life. It is like a diamond.
–When you are excited about what you are doing, other people’s criticism is meaningless.
–This world is as beautiful as a poem, made up of all kinds of one-of-a-kind things.
–If you can travel hand in hand with you, you are the best partner. The purpose of life is to become one with your partner.
–When a person is content with what he or she is, his or her full power comes out. Striving is because you are trying to get something that you don’t have in you.
What is important comes from within. Until now, you have been trying to take in what is outside of you, and you have considered that to be success. Your very existence is happiness.
