Happiness Is Not Thinking Summary

Happiness Is Not Thinking

The chapter begins when Eric feels like he is living a cliché because he is in at an erotic bar called Suzie Wong’s. He convinced himself that it is his friend Scott’s fault because he knew the place. Scott moved in Bangkok three years ago and considers himself atheist but has Buddhist tendencies. Nick, an entrepreneur who often travels between New-York and Bangkok, was sitting next to Eric and shares him a lot of things he knows about Thailand. For instance, he told him things on muay Thai, or kickboxing, on the proprer Thai business attire and on Thai dating customs. Then Scott shared his theory about sex, which consists of three things that must be there: method, motive and opportunity.
-Thai permissiveness
Eric arranged a meeting with him not only because of his architectural skills, but also because of being a direct descendant of the Thai king Rama III allowed him to grow up in many different countries and to study in a prestigious University, thus he is a cultural person. On his way to meet Sumet, Eric thought how Bangkok has grown from a little city to an important megapolis in only a few decades. Thinking back to what Ruut Veenhoven told him on the happiness question, he remembered the fact that in developing countries, people living in cities are happier that those in rural areas. This statement could be explained, according to Eric, by the fact that cities give economic opportunities that villages can't provide. The real reason, for Eric, is that people moving in big cities bring their village with them, thus they can benefit of the best of both world and this contributes to their happiness. Arrived to Sumet Jumsai's office, he signifies to Eric that he is in a bad stage. Then, he poured Eric a glass of Bhutanese whiskey and a generous glass of gin for himself. Eric decided to begin his interview because he noted that he was already pleasantly drunk. He asked Sumet if the notion of merit making is like a karmic bank account and he agreed, precising that if someone accumulate negative energy, he could offset it by doing positive things. After, the Thai talked about the importance of the notion of "sanuk" in Thailand, which means fun, and said that Thai people believe that everything should be "sanuk" because if they are not, they not even worth doing. Also, Thais have not the same conception of the fun because they thing it should be present in our every day life. For instance, Thais take some days off scattered on the year instead of doing like Americans and take a few days or weeks off in a row once a year. After many drinks,