A
good life is what everybody wants. But what does it mean to have a good life? I
know everyone of us has different ideas about living a good life. Some people
think more about themselves, some like to help others, and some just wants to
be selfless, just like Lao Tzu mean in his view about living a good life,
‘goodness must comes from within’.
Upon
reading and analyzing the lines about the views of Lao Tzu in living a good
life, I realize lot of things and base from the given question to us by our
professor, ‘why do I live a good life?’ , ‘why not be a bad person?’, and ‘Is
it always right to tell the truth?’.
Why
do I live a good life? I am living a good life because that is what I wanted
for. I live a good life because I want to have a life with purpose and meaning.
I want my life to be in accordance with what God has planned for me. Not because
I want fame, not because I want to be recognize or become famous, but because
this is where I know I can find my happiness. I live a good life because I
think this is what God wanted us to have. I believe in God and I know that in
living my life in a good way I know I will be happy. I may not receive any
material thing or fame from doing it but this is where I can be happy. I feel
happy whenever I can help others and whenever I can make others happy. Doing
right when no one is looking is the true essence of being a good man which is
said by Lao Tzu. Base from this line that Lao Tzu said, I can say that it is
what God also wants us to do. Living a good life requires us to be good also
from within. We cannot achieve a life that is good if we ourselves are not
good.
Why
not be a bad person? I think I can base my answer from the movie God’s not
dead. It was said there that if God is dead then everything is permissible. But
for me God is not dead and I strongly and truly believe in God, so for me doing
bad is not good. Doing bad is making me a bad person which I think is not good
because just like what I said, I can only find my happiness by doing good. Everybody
wants a life that is good; if I choose to be a bad person, I am not only
destroying my life but also the life of others.
Is
it always right to tell the truth? I think it is always right to tell the truth
because for me telling the truth will set me free. I believe that telling a lie
will just make the situation worst, so while it’s still early and before it’s
too late, it’s better to tell the truth. There was a time that I lied to
someone and that thing really bothered me. The longer I keep the truth to that
someone the more I felt conscience. And from that experience, I really learn
that ‘truth will set us free’. Living a good life also connects in telling the
truth. Why? It’s because telling the truth is what is right. We may not feel
good about telling it but we were able to do the right thing which is good. For
instance, I know that stealing is not right but by stealing I know I will also
earn good benefits. But the question is, am I doing the right thing? Of course
not, I may earn good benefit with it but it is wrong. The same also with
telling the truth, truth may hurt us sometimes but only truth that would set us
free. As the saying goes by, ‘there are no secrets that are not being
revealed’. Truth will always be the truth, it is constant. We can change
reality but never the truth.
Living
a good life is a choice. It depends on us
how we are going to live it.
