Monday, August 29, 2011

An open secret to happiness

A friend forwarded to me this message, which reminds me of a truism that secret is what you tell people one at a time! But this seems like one used in Christian preaching, so Muslims are advised against reading it lest I am guilty of proselytizing even though I am not a Christian!

The other thing which I am reminded of is that knowing the secret is one thing but life is such that people need to go through it to discover for themselves.

For example, for a failure like me, will anyone listen to me when I say we need no big house, big car nor other luxuries? Even my wife would not agree.

We still need a rich lady to say that she is so glad she had given up having maids because she has peace of mind now instead of worrying over what they were up to when she was not in the house! We still need her to tell us that mopping the floor is just us good as her membership with Fitness First or similar gym clubs. We still need someone who owns several luxury cars and yet uses his favourite small car when he goes out on his own to give us the message that what we need is just a basic car to get us from A to B. This reminds me of an ex-classmate's dad who owned a Rolls and several luxury cars and I was so surprised to see him driving a Mazda 1000 in Petaling Street! That was around 1970. Anyway here is the so-called Secret:

The Secret

One day, one friend asked another, 'How is it that you are always so happy? You have so much energy, and you never seem to get down.'

With her eyes smiling, she said, 'I know the Secret!'

'What secret is that?'

To which she replied, I'll tell you all about it, but you have to promise to share the Secret with others. The Secret is this:

I have learned there is little I can do in my life that will make me truly happy.
I must depend on God to make me happy and to meet my needs. When a need arises in my life, I have to trust God to supply according to HIS riches. I have learned most of the time I don ' t need half of what I think I do. He has never let me down. Since I learned that 'Secret', I am happy.'

The questioner's first thought was, 'That's too simple!' But upon reflecting over her own life she recalled how she thought a bigger house would make her happy, but it didn't! She thought a better paying job would make her happy, but it hadn't. When did she realize her greatest happiness? Sitting on the floor with her grandchildren, playing games, eating pizza or reading a story, A simple gift from God.

Now you know it too! We can't depend on people to make us happy. Only GOD in His infinite wisdom can do that. Trust HIM! And now I pass the Secret on to you! So once you get it, what will you do? YOU have to tell someone the Secret, too! That GOD in His wisdom will take care of YOU!

But it's not really a secret... We just have to believe it and do it. Really trust God! I just did and hope you will too.

God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close. Even if you do not need God to open some doors for you pass it on anyway.

From my personal experience, it amuses me to see younger men showing off their wealth in terms of properties (like putting their names on their so-called Wisma or Villa) and luxury cars and seem to sympathize me when seeing me walking around town, sometimes under the hot sun. Would they believe me if I were to tell them the Cantonese saying 'Mah sei lok tei hang' which literally means 'when your horse you are riding died, you need to walk' which goes back to ancient China. In my case, my legs probably need more exercise than my car (in terms of maintaining engine and battery life) and I do not have to worry about finding a parking space and more important, worry over whether I have taken too much time for what I have paid for parking. Similarly, washing the cars, doing the gardening and some DIY jobs myself provide me with free exercise and getting jobs done which give me satisfaction. I was told by my father many years ago that even WT Kiat, an ex-director of Maybank who used to live in a colonial house in Jalan Tun Razak (Jalan Pekeliling) opposite LUTH building, told him that sometimes, he washes his cars as a form of exercise. See the difference between a poor man and a rich man doing the same thing?

Just thought this might be relevant to the topic:

A question was posed to the Dalai Lama: What thing about humanity surprises you the most?

His answer was as follows:

"Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present.
And as a result he doesn't live in the present or the future.
And he lives as if he's never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."

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