Rethinking and Epiphany: A Mental Path to Happiness

Abstract

   In Friedrich Carl von Savignys Vorlesungen über Juristische Methodologie und Nachschrift Jacob
Grimm (Lectures on Jurisprudential Methodology and Jacob Grimm’s Notes), there is a passage that
reads: "The achievement of scholarly research depends not only on talent (the  degree of one's individual

intellect) and diligence (a certain application of that intellect), but even more on a third factor—method,
that is, the direction in which the intellect is applied." In academia, we value the cultivation of
inspiration, the stimulation of thought, and the exploration of pathways to solve problems. Yet if we turn
our gaze to everyday life, it is not difficult to observe that what human beings gain is often proportional
to what troubles them. We constantly create inner burdens for ourselves, yet seldom take the time to seek
a spiritual guide—one who might harbor our inspirations, our thoughts, and the answers to life's
perplexities. Perhaps the so-called index of happiness depends, no less, on one's mental approach to life.
And maybe, through each person's repeated practice of deliberation and momentary insight, the
perennial predicament—"knowing what is right but finding it hard to act"—may gradually be
transformed for the better.