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這個被譽為美國十大經(jīng)典之一的畢業(yè)演講告訴我們，人生這一世，意識覺察的力量！（下）

安妮何

2013

2019-4-9 14:30 原創(chuàng) · 圖片10

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這個演講，有個上篇。

我把全文分成了39段，已經(jīng)說完前24段。按照順序看。：）

Or, of course, if I’m in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas.

And I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers.

And I can think about how our children’s children will despise us for wasting all the future’s fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on. You get the idea.

如果我自己的默認(rèn)設(shè)置，更具社會意識與人文素養(yǎng)，那么我會在黃昏的車陣中花上一點時間，對所有巨大的，笨重的，又特別礙事的休旅車，悍馬車，以及十二汽缸卡車，心生厭惡。它們自私又浪費，正在消耗著油箱里的四十加侖油。

我可以詳盡地說出一個我自以為真的事實：那些保險桿上的愛國標(biāo)語，宗教箴言，總是貼在最大，最自私，最令人厭惡的汽車上，由最丑陋，最不體諒人，最好斗的司機駕駛著。

我也能想像到我們的子孫后代會如何鄙視我們，因為我們正在浪費未來的石油，或許把氣候也給搞壞了！

我們?nèi)绱说貗煽v，愚笨，自私，可憎。這個現(xiàn)代的以消費為主的社會，實在是太糟太爛了！......類似的想法，還可以說上很多很多，你們懂我意思。

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine. Lots of us do. Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn’t have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting.

It’s the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I’m operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the centre of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities.

在商店，在高速公路，如果我選擇像剛才說的那樣想，無可厚非，畢竟我們很多人都會這么做。不過這種思維方式很容易自動產(chǎn)生，以至于我甚至連選都不用選。這是我的先天預(yù)設(shè)，已經(jīng)默認(rèn)好的設(shè)置。

當(dāng)我的思考處于自動模式，而無法察覺我已將自己放在世界的中心時，順理成章地，我就會去經(jīng)歷成年生活中的無趣，挫敗，擁擠。我自己的當(dāng)下需求與感受，決定了這個世界的輕重緩急。

The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations.

In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it’s not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive.

Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I, who am in HIS way.

Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.

我想說的是，遇到這些狀況時，我們可以采取完全不同的思考方式。

當(dāng)身處車陣，當(dāng)所有車子都好像停下來擋住了我的去路時，這些開著大型休旅車的人，或許有的曾經(jīng)遭遇過可怕的交通事故，覺得開車很恐怖，以至于他們的心理治療師都要求他們?nèi)ヅ惠v又大又重的車，從而保證足夠的安全感。這種情況不是不可能。

或者剛剛超我車的那輛悍馬，說不定就是由一位父親駕駛，坐在他旁邊的小孩受傷了，生病了，他想趕快帶著孩子去醫(yī)院。他的理由要比我的正當(dāng)且迫切得多。事實上，其實是我，在擋他的路。

或者我也可以選擇強迫自己，去考慮一種可能：結(jié)帳隊伍中的每個人都跟我一樣，厭煩，挫敗。其中有些人的生活，說不定比我的更艱難，更無趣，更痛苦。

Again, please don’t think that I’m giving you moral advice, or that I’m saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it.

Because it’s hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out won’t want to.

我要再說一次，請不要認(rèn)為我在對你們進(jìn)行道德勸戒，告訴你們應(yīng)當(dāng)這樣這樣去思考，或者期望你們可以自發(fā)地這么做。

因為這很難，需要意志力，需要努力。如果你們跟我一樣，有一天也會感到力不從心，或是干脆就選擇放棄。

But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line.

Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer.

Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness.

Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider.

然而大部分的日子里，如果你們的清醒程度可以幫助你們做出選擇，你們就可以做到，從另外一個角度，去看結(jié)帳隊伍中的那位胖女人。

她兩眼呆滯，濃妝艷抹，對著自己的小孩大聲吼叫。也許她平常不是這樣，也許她為了陪伴自己骨癌末期的丈夫，一直握著他的手，已經(jīng)連續(xù)三晚沒有睡。

又或者這位女士就是汽車監(jiān)理所的基層員工，昨天剛剛發(fā)揮了公務(wù)人員的一點善舉，順手幫助你的愛人解決了一些令人火大又討怒的繁文縟節(jié)。

當(dāng)然，這些看起來好像都不太像，但也不是沒可能。這取決于你們自己想要怎么看。

If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable.

But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

如果你們不加思索地就認(rèn)為自己知道真相，如果你們一直遵循已有的默認(rèn)設(shè)置，那么你們會和我一樣，不太會去考慮說，事情本身也許還有其他可能，也許并不惱人，并不痛苦。

如果你們真的學(xué)會如何控制思考方向，就會發(fā)現(xiàn)還有其他情境可以選，而這會成為你們內(nèi)在的真正力量。

即使身處擁擠，悶熱，遲鈍，給你帶來極大痛苦的場景中，也能感受到其中的意義與神圣，感受到烈火燃燒中，繁星得以誕生的力量：愛，義，宇宙萬物皆為一，內(nèi)在深處的神秘。

Not that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted.

You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.

不是說神秘事物必為真理。事實上，獨一無二的真理是，你們要去決定，將以何種角度去看這身邊萬物。

這才是真正的教育，真正地學(xué)會如何高度適應(yīng)，所能孕育出的心靈自由。

你們能夠有意識地去選擇，什么有意義，什么只為虛。你們能夠決定，什么才是自己的崇拜與追尋。

Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship.

And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship–be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles–is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

有些事情看似詭異卻是事實：在成年人的日常戰(zhàn)場上，其實沒有所謂的無神論者。沒有人不崇拜某種事物，我們每個人都崇拜。

我們唯一能夠選擇的，是崇拜的對象。

我們之所以選擇某個神祇，某種心靈皈依，不論是耶穌基督，阿拉，耶和華，現(xiàn)代巫術(shù)的母神，佛教的四圣諦，抑或某種神圣不容質(zhì)疑的道德準(zhǔn)則，那是因為，若是做了其他選擇，我們的生命，也就差不多都會被其吞噬掉。

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough.

It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

如果崇拜金錢與物質(zhì)，認(rèn)為這些才是生命的意義，那么你們所得的，將會永遠(yuǎn)不夠，你們也將永遠(yuǎn)都不會感到足夠。

事實就是如此。如果崇拜身體，美貌，性魅力，永遠(yuǎn)都會自覺丑陋。當(dāng)歲月的痕跡開始浮現(xiàn)，即使生命并未終結(jié)，也將死過千百回。

On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables, the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear.

Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.

道理我們多少都懂。這個道理也被編入神話，諺語，陳詞，警句，寓言中，是所有偉大故事的基本框架。

這其中的訣竅只有一個：通過日常的意識覺察，從而意識到：真相在前，而非已知。

崇拜權(quán)力，會使自己感到虛弱，害怕，因此便會追求更多權(quán)力，以求凌駕他人，好能麻痹自己的內(nèi)心恐懼。

崇拜自己的智識，希望被視為一個聰明的人，最后會覺得自己其實是個愚蠢的騙子，永遠(yuǎn)處于害怕事跡敗露的恐懼中。

這些隱隱而生的崇拜模式，并非本質(zhì)邪惡，或者罪不可赦，而是因為，它們是無意識的反應(yīng)，是我們對自己的默認(rèn)設(shè)置。

這些崇拜之心會讓人逐漸沉淪，日復(fù)一日，在毫無意識，并不自知的情況下，對自己的所見所聞，對自己的評價標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，逐漸有了越來越多的片面選擇。

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self.

Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom.

The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull- sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it.

But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving….

這個所謂的真實世界，并不會阻擋你們?nèi)プ裱约旱哪J(rèn)設(shè)置。因為這個由人，財富，權(quán)力所組成的世界，正愉悅地浸泡在恐懼，憤怒，挫敗，欲望，以及自我崇拜的染缸中。

我們當(dāng)前的文化，又推崇了這樣一種趨勢的產(chǎn)生，以求帶來驚人的財富，舒適的生活，還有個體的自由。

然而，能夠自由掌控這顆頭顱大小的王國，才是萬事萬物的中心，才是值得我們?nèi)O力推崇的自由。

自由有很多種，可以控制自己頭腦意識的自由，才是最最重要的。只不過在這樣一個充滿欲望與企圖的大千世界中，我們很少聽到它，說起它。

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

這種自由非常重要。它需要注意力，覺察力，自制力；需要在每天的日常中，在各種細(xì)微瑣碎中，用不那么驚天動地的方式，對他人的經(jīng)歷，想法，做上自己的思考，并能保持，在思考后，做出一個平衡選擇。

這才是真正的自由，這才是何謂接受教育，何謂懂得如何思考。否則則會進(jìn)入沒有意識的默認(rèn)設(shè)置，本能反應(yīng)。在激烈的且毫無意義的競爭中，在得與失的無限循環(huán)往復(fù)中，一直地，痛苦著。

I know that this stuff probably doesn’t sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound.

What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish.

But please don’t just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

我知道我的這些話，大概既無聊又沉悶，不像你們對一個畢業(yè)演講所有的預(yù)期，發(fā)人深省，引人深思。

我想說的是，在我已知的范圍內(nèi)，這是褪去了所有華美修辭，獨一無二的真理。當(dāng)然，你們可以用自己的角度去詮釋。

但請不要把它看成是一場搖搖手指就好了的布道大會，而對它毫不在意。我說的這些，無關(guān)道德，無關(guān)宗教，信仰，教條，也無關(guān)死后世界的各種疑問與探尋。

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

我說的這些，關(guān)于我們?nèi)说倪@一生在世。

關(guān)于教育的真正價值，不是知識，而是意識的覺察。對事物的本真進(jìn)行覺察，對隱于我們身邊的平凡無奇進(jìn)行覺察。

因為它們?nèi)绱吮菊妫绱穗[匿，以至于我們必須一直地不斷地提醒自己說：

這就是水。

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true:

Your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

在日復(fù)一日，年復(fù)一年的成年生活中，保持覺察，保持活力，有著無法想象地難。

這剛好驗證了另一句老話：

活到老，學(xué)到老。開始于現(xiàn)在，終其這一生。

......

最后，祝你們擁有的，不止是運氣。