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Hang Luong
Professor Gerald Giles
LE 1350-401
25 September 2016
My Personal Philosophy
While I was growing up, I recognized my most important value was family. I was a very
arrogant child in my younger years. I thought that I was the most intelligence person in the
world. Therefore, I looked down on my parent and acted my own way. As a result, it did not
work out very well due to my lack of knowledge and logical as a human being. My parent
stepped in and helped me through this time. I was touched by my parents love and learned my
life lesson of becoming a better person. From this experience, I am very much appreciated for
my parents understanding of me being young and reckless; also, I realized their unconditional
love that given to me. Indeed, my personal values that influenced me in many ways are family,
spiritual, physical and the importance of happiness.
Based on the interview that Ive had from my friend, my most significant value was
family. Through family, I learned to adapt my own point of view in life. Which was defining my
morality and principal standard as a critical thinker. As I mentioned above that I was not a logical
thinker, thus I trained myself to become a critical thinker to overcome my weaknesses. With all
the supports that came from my family, I felt that I am the most fortunate human being there is
and I really dont know if repaying them is enough for what they did to me. As a college student
and a full-time mother, my husband was the most incredible person that sacrificed his personal
time for our child care. Onto my parents support, they do assist me on watching my daughter on
the weekend. What can I ask for more from my family, they always be there and support me. No

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matter what kind of a person Ive had become, they will accept the way I am as a part of them.
That is the reason why family is my most important value in life.
Last semester, I enrolled in a Humanity class, the course taught me variety point of views
in life. One of the viewpoint that I was impressive with was happiness is the meaning of life. I
learned that viewpoint through a chapter Ive read and it could have been a double-standard
question. Of which happiness could be a meaningful life or a meaningful life does not
necessarily mean a happiness life. As an example in the chapter, they talked about Beethovens
philosophy, he created such an enormous impact on the music industry but had a very sorrowful
life. Beethoven was dealing with his own mental and physicals illness, as well as with his
unhappy marriage life. But he did live a very meaningful life due to his influenced on world
wides music. However, I am still believed that happiness could create a meaningful life if only
that I can practice what I believed.
On the other hand, having a meaningful life does not guarantee happiness. If we all think
deeper about this question, we need to ask ourselves what makes a life meaningful and what
makes a life not meaningful. Personally, I think it is all depend on our perception and how we
view this question. In return, I can still live a meaningful life without happiness for my
daughters happiness. Sacrifice for my own happiness in order for my daughter to capture it.
Since I was very young, I often felt connected with my spiritual in my Buddhas religion.
In my favorite article that Ive read, it stated that the practice of Buddhism was beyond our belief
and it could alleviate pain that lead us to a peaceful mind. The meditation was one of the most
important step to able to have a peaceful mind, it influenced the family in the article to find their
inner-self and searching for a new meaning of life. As for the family, they stated that the most
important is the technique that being practiced throughout.

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Ive had been introduced to Buddhism in a very young age, back when I was still in
Vietnam. While my fathers business was expanding, he worshiped many altars within his house
because he wanted the business to be as successful as always. Therefore, I often seen him
worship the main Buddhism and fairies by burning incenses and displaying varieties of fruits and
deserts every week. As well as my mother, she prayed in Buddhisms dialect for the wellness of
the whole family. I started to recognized the important of religious belief that ran through my
family, and for most of my neighbor at the time.
Afterward, I had been study in my own time about where Buddhism was originated from
and how was the religious expand to many part of the world. It started it in India, where the son
of the King was noticing many stages that a humans lives went through such as being born,
getting old, sickness, and death. He was trying to search for the ultimate solution of how to stop
getting to those stages and it was a very rough but divine journey for him. Long story short, he
had fought many obstacles and temptations to be the only one that established the greatest gift as
the understanding of the universe and the basic knowledge of everything that being create or
born in this world. I was astonishing while learning about the journey of the divine power and
being enlightenment that myself need million years to recognized.
In the article, it stated that Jack Cornfield who described to be violence but abusive was
amazed of how meditate helped him through his inner self. Also, he found his new meaning of
life and making such an influence on everyone. This story took places in Little rock located in
California, where that Jack decided to trained as Buddhist monk and how he found his inner-self
unconsciously driven to a better knowledge and spiritual practice. In term of the influence of
America of Buddhisms practice, Jack focused on the duration and the openness to women with

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this religious around the 1700s. This was how Buddhism had brought to many lives and also
educated everyone about the importance of being a Buddhists scholar.
My last value that extremely significant to me is physical, to have a stable mental and
physical wellness. I was never being satisfaction with my physical self and level, I always strive
to improve my wellness by exercising and eating healthy. After my pregnancy, I gained
tremendous of weights but managed to lost more than half of the amount Ive gained. At this
stage of my life, I am glad that at least; I am making differences toward my wellness goal and
being to accomplished my goal. Based on the University of Mary Washington, they found that
there are six dimensional of Wellness, which will improve with human lives.
There are six characteristics that being recognized are social, occupational, spiritual,
physical, intellectual and emotional. In term on society, it always a good thing to be an impact on
multiple environment. Whether it is or is not from our own choice, taking a part in a community
to make differences is a great contribution for society. On the other hand, to have an occupation
that holds our personal interest, values and beliefs are better than with something that completely
opposite. This is a key to a better wellness.
I would say that spiritual and intellectual usually goes together, to recognized the
meaning of life that will lead to a better knowledge. From that point, we will have a fully
understanding of knowing who we are and better at identify the problem that occurs. Therefore,
the next character is similar to our mind, emotional, the article stated that it is better to accept our
feeling than to deny them and also being optimistic in our approach of life than pessimistic. I am
more than agreed with these two statement and would be great practice in life. The last character
is physical, it is always better to be in active than out of shape, because exercise help to relieve

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stress. As well as taking an appropriate amount for food consumption. These are what Ive found
that extremely fascinating to my point of view.
In my person philosophy, the four values that made a great impact in my life are
happiness, spiritual, family and physical. In fact, they are very importance to me, they became a
part of my morality and self-principles. I learned through many hardships in life to recognized
these value, so I have a well-knowledge of how these will help me through most of my life. For
my personal belief, I would not change them for anything else because of it had helped me
through many difficulties in life.

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WORKS CITED
Solomon, R.S. (1942-2007). Philosophy, Happiness, And The Meaning of Life. It Begins With
Our Question. Plymouth, MI, Hayden-McNeil Publishing.
Wu, T.W. (Oct. 5, 2014). The Meaning of Life. The New York Times. M2176.
Dr. Hettler, B.H. (2015-2016). Six Dimension of Wellness.
http://students.umw.edu/wellness/wellness-resource-center/6-dimensions-of-wellness/ internet info
Interviewer: Long Ngo, Date of Interview: 09/24/2016.