Active happiness -- not mere satisfaction or contentment -- often comes suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener; bird songs are sweeter; the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision. Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles. The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you -- people, thoughts, emotions, pressures -- are now fitted into the larger scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom.
積極的快樂 – 並非單純的滿意或知足 – 通常不期而至，就像四月裡突然下起的.春雨，或是花蕾的突然綻放。然後，你就會發覺與快樂結伴而來的究竟是何種智慧。草地更青翠，鳥吟更甜美，朋友的缺點也變得更能讓人理解，寬容。快樂就像是一副眼鏡，可以矯正你的精神視力。 快樂的視野並不僅限於你周圍的事物。當你不快樂時，你的思維陷入情感上的悲哀，你的眼界就像是被一道牆給阻隔了，而當你快樂時，這道牆就會砰然倒塌。 你的眼界變得更為寬廣。你腳下的大地，你身邊的世界，包括人，思想，情感和壓力，現在都融入了更為廣闊的景象之中，其間每件事物 的比例都更加合理。而這就是睿智的起始。
