13883 Ego
IELTS Writing Task 2
Writing Topic: Selfishness and Greediness
Sample Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh 谢振礼
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com 写作讲座
Essay Topic:
>Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People are becoming increasingly selfish and greedy, and as a result, many of them are not happy. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience to support your opinion.
Example Answer by Jeenn Lee Hsieh:
Selfishness and greediness beyond reason will often kill people's happiness at heart. In pursuit of happiness, there is no greater calamity than blind ego, and there is no greater disaster than lavish desires. To achieve happiness, it is necessary to reduce dangerous ego and avoid having too many desires.
On the one hand, ego is one of the biggest enemies of human happiness because it tends to destroy any relationship on which essential happiness is built. In a certain sense, if you do not leave ego, everyone would leave you, unhappily alone. To illustrate, an analogy may be made about the ugly side of excessive selfishness. A drop of lemon juice can spoil galleons of milk; similarly, a drop of ego can destroy the beauty of all virtues, including happiness. Unfortunately, however, this world is burning in the fire of excessive ego; and for that matter, many people are not able to feel as happy as they wish to be. In other words, to be happy is, in humility and modesty, to leave ego, love people, live life.
On the other hand, if people choose to relinquish unnecessary desires, they would have more happiness. How can one be happy with so many desires since greed is like a bottomless pit that exhausts one's endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction? Probably it is the nature of desires not to be completely satisfied; as well, it is the nature of humans not to be entirely happy. Apparently, it is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow. As a result, when people desire many things, many things would seem few. Under these circumstances, true happiness remains far away.
When too much ego and too many desires are at work, it is next to impossible for people to become happy mentally. This argument may be summarized by citing a story about selfishness and greediness. A man once told the Buddha, "I want happiness", and Lord Buddha replied: First, remove 'I', that is ego; then remove 'want', that is desire; and now all you are left with is 'happiness'. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh, ielts360toefl@hotmail.com pigai zuowen)
