Back in 2015, I was on a transatlantic flight when a question came to mind.

2015 年，我在跨大西洋的班機上，腦中浮現了一個問題。

How is it that there is a field of study for psychology, philosophy, history, medicine, geography⏤you name it, and there is no field of study for happiness?

怎麼會心理學研究領域中，有哲學、歷史、醫學、地理，應有盡有，卻沒人研究幸福？

Yeah, there is, positive psychology, but that's just the psychology of happiness.

是的，有積極心理學，但這只是幸福的心理學。

What about what philosophers like Lao Tzu or Aristotle had to say about it?

像老子或亞里士多德，這樣的哲學家對幸福的想法呢？

What about what literature remarked on happiness or neuroscience or theology or economics?

文學界對幸福的評論是什麼呢？神經科學、神學或經濟學呢？

Why isn't there an interdisciplinary field of study that looks at life's ultimate highest goal?

為什麼沒有一個跨學科的研究領域是在審視生命終極目標的呢？

I resolved, on that flight, to help create a field dedicated to the study of happiness.

我在那次飛行中，決心創建一個專門研究幸福的領域。

There are two main critiques that people have for the field of happiness studies.

對研究幸福這個領域，人們有兩個主要的批評。

The first one is that it's superficial.

第一個，它很膚淺。

The reason is that they equate happiness with pleasure.

因為他們把幸福跟愉悅感劃上等號。

So, when people say, "Oh, I went to the beach, I was so happy," or "This ice cream just makes me happy,"

當人們說：「我去了海灘，我很開心。」或者，「吃這個冰淇淋讓我很快樂。」

Well, that's not happiness; that is pleasure.

那不是幸福，只是愉悅感而已。

Happiness is much more than pleasure.

幸福遠比愉悅重要。

It also includes our ability to deal with painful experiences, finding a sense of meaning and purpose, cultivating healthy relationships, and intellectual development.

幸福包括了我們處理痛苦經歷、找到生命意義及目標、培養健康人際關係、發展智力的能力。

The second critique of the field of happiness stems from the false understanding that a happy life is a life devoid of painful emotions.

對幸福領域的第二種批判，來自錯誤的理解，認為幸福就是沒有痛苦的生活。

It's not; it can never be.

不是，永遠不可能是。

Part of a happy life is the vicissitudes of daily life.

幸福生活的一部分正是日常生活中滄海桑田。

Overall, happiness includes life's ups and downs.

總的來說，幸福包括生活的起伏。

The science of happiness can strengthen our psychological immune system.

幸福科學可以加強人的心理免疫系統。

Because, as I see it, the role of the science of happiness is, first of all, to introduce us to concepts like post-traumatic growth, which is growing stronger as a result of hardship.

因為在我看來，幸福科學的作用是，先向我們介紹一些概念，像是創傷後的成長一樣，讓我們因困難而日益強大。

And second, to teach us what conditions we can put in place in our homes, in our organizations, in our schools, in our countries to increase the likelihood of growing from hardship.

其次，教導我們可以設置哪些條件在家庭、組織、學校、國家裡，增加人們從困難中成長的可能。

Hardship is inevitable.

困難是無可避免的。

What we do with the hardship ⏤ well, here we have a choice.

我們該如何處理困難？這裡，我們有個選擇。

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觀看影片，跟隨世界偉大思想家們一起聰明思考。

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