The Art of Living Wisely: Lessons on Inner Contentment from Schopenhauer

Influenced by Schopenhauer,
Ancient Greece, Buddhism, Cynicism, and other ancient knowledge,
he sought the formula for happiness.
He realized that life is a painful place.
Because life is a place full of suffering,
he said that the secret to a happy life lies not in achieving pleasure,
but in escaping suffering.
According to him, the only condition for escaping suffering was achieving inner contentment and inner peace.

On What a Person Is

According to Schopenhauer, happiness is divided into three parts:
The first and most important of these
is what a person is.
The others are the things a person possesses
and their place in the eyes of others.
Of these three, only the first directly affects happiness.
The other two can only contribute indirectly.
In other words, a person who has not achieved the first element
can never be happy, no matter how rich or famous they are.
Because happiness is individual. That is, it depends on the subject.
Happiness can only be achieved by attaining inner peace and inner contentment.
Property, honor, and fame do not depend on the subject but on external factors.
If a person cannot find happiness within themselves,
they should not expect anything from the remaining two items.

Reality consists of two halves: the subject and the object.
The object is the same and fixed for everyone.
The subject, however, is different for everyone.
Therefore, the main factor that
determines a person’s world is not objects but the subject itself.
The subject’s perspective on objects gives meaning to events.
Therefore, achieving inner contentment is only possible by changing one’s inner self.
One of the most important things that
changes the subject’s perspective on objects is temperament.
If you have a cheerful temperament,
even events that others consider tragic will not cause you unhappiness.
However, if you are a gloomy person,
even the smallest thing in life will turn into a tragedy in your eyes.

Therefore, the most important thing a person must do to be happy is:
To try to turn their temperament in a positive direction.
A negative temperament can occur for psychological reasons
or due to the nature of the soul.
Therefore, a person should seek psychological support
and try to turn their disposition toward the positive as much as possible.
They should accept the parts that come from nature as their destiny and
develop themselves mentally.

Inner Peace is Achieved through Mental Development

Schopenhauer called the attainment of inner peace and contentment true happiness.
According to him, happiness could only be achieved by avoiding pain,
not by pursuing pleasure.
Because while pleasure has a negative value in our lives, pain is positive.
In other words, the effect of the pleasures we obtain on our lives is very short lived.
However, the impact of the pain we experience can last a lifetime.
Therefore, pain is more dominant than pleasure in terms of value.
For example, when we are healthy, we don’t even think about how healthy we are.
But as soon as we get a small wound on our body, we immediately begin to feel the pain.
That is why, for an intelligent person, achieving inner contentment
comes from suffering as little pain as possible.
Suffering less pain can be achieved through a simple life
and by ridding ourselves of unnecessary desires.
The more desires we have, the more dependent we become on those desires.
These dependencies always lead us to pain.

Escaping pain is largely only possible through mental development.
If a person’s mind is limited,
they cannot transcend animalistic human happiness.
They become dependent on external factors
and suffer when their dependencies are not met.
Furthermore, a person with a rich inner world accepts fate
as it is and expects nothing from it.
They direct their own lives.
They do not suffer because of the parts they cannot direct.
Most people are exposed to boredom
because they do not develop themselves mentally.
To relieve their boredom, they constantly seek time-killing pursuits.
“Killing time” is, according to Schopenhauer, escaping from life.
It is the complete opposite of inner contentment.
Because they are not mentally developed,
instead of engaging in any creative activity in their free time,
they prefer to engage in time-killing games and activities.
A person who fills their mind with intellectual knowledge has no need for such activities.
Because they are always satisfied with themselves.
They seek happiness within themselves, not outside.

The Biggest Problem of Our Day: Becoming Stupid

Schopenhauer’s criticism is very important from today’s perspective.
Because today, people spend all their free time scrolling through social media and engaging with trivial matters.
They prefer to handle information or projects through artificial intelligence rather than their own skills.
Tech companies develop their algorithms to dumb us down.
Because the more stupid we become, the more money they make.
We now use our minds as little as possible.
This has negative effects on our intelligence, our attention span, and our psychology.
It trivializes our understanding of knowledge and art.
Because all these algorithms are designed for empty minds.
Those who try to keep up with society therefore cannot go beyond being extremely superficial people.
That is why it is very important to do a digital detox and distance ourselves from social media.
This will both reduce our need for the approval of others.
And it will also increase our mental development.
Ultimately, it will be very beneficial in helping us achieve inner contentment.

Free time is the boredom of the ignorant. -Aristotle

Happiness Belongs to the Self-Sufficient

Alongside mental development,
health comes first among other important things.
If a person is not healthy, it is unlikely that they will be happy.
Therefore, being healthy is essential for happiness and inner contentment.
To achieve this, it is necessary to pay attention to nutrition and daily activities.
Good nutrition prevents potential problems related to hormones and the brain.
Daily exercise prevents potential physical problems.
Furthermore, daily exercise also benefits mental development.
In addition, being virtuous is also essential for a happy life.
Because every unvirtuous act we commit will disturb our inner peace and cause us pain.
Logically, if happiness is a good thing, it would be contradictory to achieve it by doing evil.
Because a good thing can only be achieved by doing what is good.
People can sometimes achieve pleasurable results through their immoral actions.
However, this is nothing more than a trap set by life.
If a person succumbs to the allure of the wrong path they have taken,
they will eventually find themselves in a vortex of evil.
This prevents them from achieving inner peace and happiness.
A person who has sufficiently developed their mind does not become dependent on external influences.
This makes them both freer
and removes them from the anxieties and responsibilities of external influences.
They do not build their life according to the approval of others.
They do not live their entire life in the grip of unhappiness in order to acquire possessions.

“Happiness is not easy to find.
It’s very difficult to find it in yourself
— and impossible to find anywhere else.” –Nicolas Chamfort