Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/187

 indeed, but not in the old meaning; and in what way? It is true, I think, that happiness which we fancied to be something substantial is found to-day to be a mote psychical phenomenon; the question is where we can find it. It is much nearer to truth to say that one who least expects it always gets it, and to seek after it persistently is not always the way to get it. You must learn how to get it without a thought of it. And first of all you must understand that happiness is a most arbitrary word; the word itself means almost nothing. It should have a wider meaning than it used to have, because it should be understood, as I wish, to be a living quality of psychical life rather than one particular human feeling. Let me explain it to you in some other way.

A man went to a holy priest of the Zen sect, and disturbed his deep meditation with his complaint. He said: “I am miserable, because I am poor. I am miserable, because I am in ill health. I am miserable, because I am old.” The priest said: “If you are poor, you try to live in poverty, and you shall be happy. If you are in ill health, you try to live Rh