0 Western vs Eastern Philosophy of Happiness

Western style of happiness is the pursuit of individual happiness. It's not the right thing because human is very social entity according to Eastern philosophy. If you want to be happy, be with others, with friends. Happiness needs friends, wisdom and freedom. I remember how happy I was when I spent time doing activity with friends; climbing mountains, cycling, swimming, travelling together even volunteering. Experiencing new thing is also good for happiness. We need excitement and hate boredom. Western lifestyle is unhealthy. If East emphasizes We-llness, West emphasizes I-llness. Always I, I, I. To be lonely ranger, to be rich and being in the top alone is not a good way to happiness or wellbeing. The result is depression and loneliness. One needs to do as legendary Socrates said, "unexamined life is not worth living". One should examine both Western and Eastern way of life and decides which one is the best for him or her. In Eastern culture, being the part of family member and community is the most important thing. The focus is not "I" but "we". Examine these; 1) Pray together with community in a mosque or church or temple rather than do it alone at home. 2) Be more social with friends and family members. Do not spend too much time alone doing individual activities in the room. While Western mindset is to aim at individual success, self improvement, don't care about others' opinions. Being with others, one needs to sacrifice some freedom and authenticity. Life is never be absolute left or right. It's better to stay in the center. Being in the balance is the savest position to live happier and longer. So far, most individual today adopted the Western way of life. Globalization causes this spreading Western lifestyle through movies and internet. Individual closes the door from community. They seek individual perfection and success and yet feel very lonely. It has positive as well negative consequenses. Being independence and free at one side and lonely, depressed and bitter at other side. To take the balance, one should try to be social, to attend religious rituals. Being very rational, one with Western mindset often see that religion is not convincing scientifically. It's merely performance of unauthentic people. It's ridiculous to join the mass of mediocre. They are wearing of masks and playing the drama of power. Being there is sickening and wasting time. The balance should be there but not consume by the play, just be more social with people, friends and families. It's still useful (at least for the sake of examine life) even if one doesn't share common interest and belief. Western individual enjoy solo activity like reading and watching movies. It can be done together with little sacrifice of freedom. One can only be him/herself when he/she is alone. Western takes these views; be alpha male, take your power, and seek individual perfection, be a legend and not commoner, be a master and not mediocre. People change all the time based on their understanding. I used to fall to the western mindset and believe that personal perfection is everything that matters. I have lived both ways and now can see them more clearly. Being happy together is better than being happy alone. Therefore religion is very healthy and useful for happiness and wellbeing. It doesn't matter whether it's scientifically correct or merely just like art performance. The best way to happiness is being together. Being very individualistic in the past, I don't regret it. It's not all bad as well, only more alienation and lonely no matter what is had and achieved. Western mindset of success is like, close the world and work hard on something, create yourself, sharpen your skill, the world is distraction, become social is mediocre and wasting the valuable time, be genius and exceptional individually, be powerful. This very mindset drove Nietschze crazy. Yes he was exceptional and will be remembered by the world as genius. Eastern philosophy is the opposite. The communism idea (do not mistaken this with communist party or political view). The individual is not so much inportance compare to the whole society. At the end of the day we all want to be happy everyday. Being individualistic and seeking personal excellent is fulfilling but it's incomplete. A person can be happy if he is competence and powerful and yet one should balance this individual power with the bigger power, society. Spinoza said power equals happiness. Society can provide protection, security, comfort and warm to individuals. Both must be taken in balance.