Pleasure and Happiness

       Pleasure is immediate gratification while happiness is lasting satisfaction. Happiness is a process, a journey, a lifelong marathon. In order to live a good and happy life all through our life, we have to give up immediate pleasure at the moment.

As an Chinese saying goes, “Bitter before sweet.” When we take Chinese traditional medicines, it’s really bitter at first. You even almost can’t help spitting it out. But later, you will feel a little sweet in your throat. The most important thing is that those medicines can cure you of diseases. That is “Bitter before sweet.” Sacrificing a little at the moment, you will gain a lot that you even didn’t expect in the future.

However, many people just ignore this principle of life. Instead, they live by the pleasure principle. They believe that life is short and they should seize every minute, every second to enjoy life. Drinking, smoking, dating and having sex with many people are their so-called “pleasure”. They think those are the best way to enjoy life and they will not regret for their short life when they get old. However, they have mistaken pleasure for happiness. They don’t know that happiness, instead of pleasure, is the very pursuit of our life. They don’t know what their life will be like in the future if they go on living by the pleasure principle. Though they can have fun and enjoy themselves now, they will suffer a lot in the future.

Pleasure is also sometimes gained at the expense of others’ benefits. It’s a self-involved principle. Those who live by the pleasure principle always go against their parents’ and teachers’ expectations. They just ignore others’ feelings and do whatever they like. For example, those who are singing and drinking at midnight are ignoring others around them. They gain pleasure at the expense of others.

Many university students also conform to the pleasure principle. They live far from their parents. Like birds being set free out of cages, they live a free life. They don’t study hard or learn skills that are required for their future career. Instead, they are hanging around all day, playing computer games, chatting on line, going out to drink, dating with their girlfriends or boyfriends and so on. They don’t realize that there will never be another chance for them to have such a good environment to study in. Life is a one-way road. You can never go back to the starting point.

In order to lead a comfortable and happy life in the future, we have to get rid of the pleasure principle. After all, happiness is the very pursuit of our life.