善用物质才能拥有快乐

最快乐的人不是那些拥有最好物质的人，而是那些懂得享受生活并善于利用所拥有物质的人。

A group of prestigious university graduates came to visit their old professor. During the visit the conversation turned to work: graduates were complaining about countless difficulties and problems of life.

一群知名大学的毕业生去拜访他们的老教授。在拜访之中，学生们的谈话变成了抱怨生活中数不清的困难和问题。

After offering coffee to his guests, the professor went to the kitchen and came back with a coffee pot and a tray, filled with many different cups: porcelain, glass, plastic and crystalline. Some cups were simple, other ones – expensive.

说完要请大家喝咖啡后，教授走进厨房拿出来一个咖啡壶和一个托盘，托盘里摆着不同材质的杯子，有陶瓷的，玻璃的，塑料的，以及水晶的，这些杯子有些很普通，有些很贵。

When the graduates picked out the cups, the professor said:

当学生们端起杯子时，教授说：

– Notice, how all the beautiful cups were picked out, and the simple and cheap ones were left. And although it seems normal for you – wanting only the best things for yourself, but that is the source of your problems and stress. You need to understand, that the cup doesn’t make the coffee better. Most of the time it’s only more expensive, but sometimes it is hiding what we are drinking. Actually, all that you wanted was only coffee, not the cup. But you consciously picked the best cups, and later watched what kind of cups others got.

注意一下：那些漂亮的杯子都被选走了，普通又便宜的杯子却被留下了。这看起来是一件很平常的事：因为我们都想要给自己最好的，但这正是我们问题和压力的源泉。你需要明白，这个水杯并没有让咖啡变得更可口，大多数情况下只是让咖啡变得更贵，这些昂贵的杯子甚至让我们忘记了自己在喝什么。实际上，你所需要的只是咖啡，并不是杯子。但是，你下意识的选择了最好的杯子，然后又去观察别人在用什么样的杯子。

And now think: life – is coffee, and job, money, position, society – are the cups. They are only instruments for maintenance and upkeep of life. The type of cup we have, doesn’t determine the quality of our life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cups, we forget to enjoy the taste of coffee. The happiest people are not those who have the best things, but those who enjoy life and get the most of it with what they have.

那么现在想想：如果生活是咖啡，那工作，金钱，地位，社会就是水杯，这些都是让生活继续下去的工具而已。我们拥有什么样的杯子，并不能决定我们的生活品质。有时候，我们把注意力都放在杯子上，却忘记去品尝咖啡的美味。最快乐的人不是那些拥有最好物质的人，而是那些懂得享受生活，并善于利用所拥有的物质的人。

翻译：嘿喽英语