五福 개념을 통해 본 유교의 행복론

Abstract

Man is composed of body and mind. Thus, if one overemphasizes either physical happiness or mental happiness, he is soon faced with a limitation and cannot experience true happiness. If people neglects mental happiness and pursue only physical happiness through material abundance, they confront death, the physical limitation. If one cannot overcome the limitation properly, he will seek happiness only through material abundance and physical pleasure. As a result, he values his own comfort without consideration of others’ happiness. Furthermore, people’s physical desire is infinite, but material for satisfying the desire is finite. As a result, one may lose the sense of well‐being if he cannot overcome the mental stress coming from failure in satisfying the physical desire. On the other hand, human happiness comes mostly from mental pleasure and content, but if one overlooks physical happiness and pursues only mental happiness, he may fail to meet basic physical needs for sustaining the life, and this goes against contemporary people’s sentiment emphasizing sensible pleasure and material abundance. True happiness comes from moderate harmony between physical happiness and mental happiness, and is completed when one lives according to his inborn nature while sharing happiness with others. In this sense, we need to pay attention to the five blessings in Juseo Hongbeom of Seogyeong, which emphasizes harmony between physical happiness and mental happiness.