寧靜在說話（第二章：超越心智思維）

 第二章：超越心智思維

Beyond the Thinking Mind

作者：艾克哈特 托利  Eckhart  Tolle

劉永毅 譯


The human condition: Lost in thought.  

人類的現狀是：迷失在思考之中。



Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past. 
多數人一輩子被囚禁在自我設限的思維之中，他們從未跨越那狹隘的、由心智所打造、個人化的自我認知--這被過去製約的自我認知。

In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In the ancient teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature. 

在你身上，一如在每個人身上，有個遠比思維更為深邃的覺識層麵。那就是真正的你的核心本質，我們可稱之為“臨在”、“覺性”，或“不受製約的覺識”。在古老的教義之中，它就是你心中的上帝或佛性。

Finding that dimension frees you and the world from the suffering you inflict on yourself and others when the mind-made “little me” is all you know and runs your life. Love, joy, creative expansion, and lasting inner peace cannot come into your life except through that unconditioned dimension of consciousness. 

找到那覺識層麵，將使你和整個世界從受苦中解脫。那痛苦是你強加於自己和他人身上的，因為心智所造的“小我”，是你唯一認知的，並掌控了你的生命。愛、喜悅、創意的延伸，以及心中長久的平靜，都必須透過那不受過去製約的覺識層麵，才能進入你的生命。

If you can recognize, even occasionally, the thoughts that go through your mind as just thoughts, if you can witness your own mental-emotional reactive patterns as they happen, then that dimension is already emerging in you as the awareness in which thoughts and emotions happen—the timeless inner space in which the content of your life unfolds.  
如果你能認出，自己心頭一閃而過的念頭純粹就隻是念頭，如果你能在自己情緒反應的當下，認出它發生的慣性模式，那即使隻是偶然做到，那個有覺識的層麵已然在你內在以覺性浮現了，念頭與情緒就是從覺性中生起的--在這個沒有時間性的內在空間裏，你生命的種種內容就是在這裏展現。

The stream of thinking has enormous momentum that can easily drag you along with it. Every thought pretends that it matters so much. It wants to draw your attention in completely. 
思緒之流擁有極大的動能，可以輕易地拖著你與它同行。每個思緒都假裝自己是如此地重要，這樣才可以獲得你全部的注意。

Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don’t take
your thoughts too seriously.  
提供你一個新的靈修練習：對你的思緒別太認真。

How easy it is for people to become trapped in their
conceptual prisons. 

人們多麽輕易地就掉入自己的概念牢籠之中。

The human mind, in its desire to know, understand, and control, mistakes its opinions and viewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how it is. You have to be larger than thought to realize that however you interpret “your life” or someone else’s life or behavior, however you judge any situation, it is no more than a viewpoint, one of many possible perspectives. It is no more than a bundle of thoughts. But reality is one unified whole, in which all things are
interwoven, where nothing exists in and by itself. Thinking fragments reality —it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces. 由於想知道、明白與想控製的種種欲望，心智把自己的意見與觀點悟認為是真相。心智說：事情是這樣、這樣的；
所以，你得比你的心智所想的更為宏觀才能明白，無論你如何詮釋“你的生命”，或他人的生命、行為，你對任何情況的意見或看法，也都不過就是一種見解，是諸多可能的看法之一，最多也不過就是一堆思緒。但“真實”是一個整體的存在，這裏麵所有事物是交織的，沒有一件可以獨自存在。思考碎裂了“真實”，將它切成了無數的概念碎片。

The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool, but it is also very limiting when it takes over your life completely, when you don’t realize that it is only a small aspect of the consciousness that you are.
會思考的心智是一種強而有力的工具，但是當你沒有意識到它隻是覺識的一小部分，而讓它完全掌控你的生命時，它反而會是局限的。

Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deep knowing that
is wisdom arises through the simple act of giving someone or something your full attention. Attention is primordial intelligence, consciousness itself. It dissolves the barriers created by conceptual thought, and with this comes the
recognition that nothing exists in and by itself. It joins the perceiver and the perceived in a unifying field of awareness. It is the healer of separation.  
智慧並非思考下的產物。智慧是深刻的“了知”，你隻要單純的做一件事--全心注意著某人或某事--“了知”就會生起。專注是本初的智性，是覺識本身。它消除了概念化思維所形成的阻礙，於是你認清了沒有任何事物可以獨立存在。在覺性之中，專注讓感知者與被感知對象合而為一，專注是你我分別的療愈師。

Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are
avoiding what is. You don’t want to be where you are. Here, Now.  

每當你沉溺在強迫性思維裏，你便是在回避事情的實際情況，你不想處於你所在之處--此地、此刻。

Dogmas — religious, political, scientific— arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth. Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of “I
know.” 
宗教、政治或科學上的教條，皆源於人們的錯誤信念--相信思想可以涵括真理或事實。這些教條就像集合式的概念牢籠，奇怪的是，人們卻喜歡這些囚室，隻因它們帶來安全感，以及一種假象的“我知道”。

Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas. It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others. 
沒有任何東西比教條在人類身上所造成的痛苦更多。事實上，每個教條早晚都會崩解，因為“真實”最後一定會揭穿它虛假的麵目；然而，除非人們看穿教條虛妄的本質，否則舊教條將隻是被另一個新教條取代罷了。

What is this basic delusion? Identification with thought.  
何謂教條虛妄的本質呢？那就是認同於思維。

Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.  
靈性的覺性，指的是從思維之夢中醒來。

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought
can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are.

覺識所能覺察的範圍，遠比思維所能理解的更為浩瀚廣闊。當你不再相信你所想的每件事，你便跨出了思維，並清楚知道那位“思考者”並非是真正的你。

The mind exists in a state of “not enough” and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with mind, you get bored and restless very easily. Boredom means the mind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for thought, and its hunger is not being satisfied. 

心智常處於“不滿足”的狀態之中，因此它總是貪得無厭。當你認同於心智時，你很容易覺得無聊與不安，無聊代表著心智渴求更多的刺激，更多填飽思考欲求的糧食，它的饑渴遠沒被滿足。

When you feel bored, you can satisfy the mind’s hunger by picking up a magazine, making a phone call, switching on the TV, surfing the web, going shopping, or — and this is not uncommon — transferring the mental sense of lack and its need for more to the body and satisfy it briefly by ingesting more food. 

當你覺得無聊時，可以隨手拿起一本雜誌，打通電話、轉換電視頻道、漫遊網絡、逛逛街；或者，更常見的方法是大吃一頓，暫時以身體上的口欲，來滿足精神上的匱乏欲求。

Or you can stay bored and restless and observe what it
feels like to be bored and restless. As you bring awareness to the feeling, there is suddenly some space and stillness around it, as it were. A little at first, but as the sense of inner space grows, the feeling of boredom will begin to diminish in intensity and significance. So even boredom can teach you who you are and who you are not. 

然而，你也可以保持無聊與不安，並觀察這無聊與不安是什麽樣的感受。當你帶著覺性去觀察感受時，刹那間，某些空間與寂照會在感受四周生起。它一直都在那兒，起初並不明顯，但隨著心中空間感的不斷增長，無聊的感受將開始消失，並不再那麽明顯與強烈。所以，即使隻是無聊，都可以教導你認識“你是誰”與“你不是誰”。

You discover that a “bored person” is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not “yours,” not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. 

你將發現，“無聊的人”並非是“你”。無聊僅隻是你體內一股受限的能量流動。相同地，你也不是一個愛生氣、悲傷或滿懷恐懼的人。無聊、生氣、悲傷或恐懼，既不屬於你，也不是你個人所特有。它們是人類的心智狀態，總是來來去去、變化不斷。

Nothing that comes and goes is you. 

那些來去的，都不是你。

“I am bored.” Who knows this? 

“我很無聊。”誰是那個知道無聊的人？

“I am angry, sad, afraid.” Who knows this? 

“我很生氣、悲傷、害怕。”誰是那個知道“生氣”、“悲傷”、“害怕”的人？

You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.  

你就是那個“知道”，而不是那些被知道的情緒狀態。

Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.  
任何偏見，皆意味著你認同於思考的心智。這也意味著在你眼中，不再看不見其他人，但隻有概念認知上所謂的“人”。將活生生的人簡化為一個概念，已經是某種形式的暴力了。

Thinking that is not rooted in awareness becomes
self-serving and dysfunctional. Cleverness devoid of wisdom is extremely dangerous and destructive. That is the current state of most of humanity. The amplification of thought as science and technology, although intrinsically neither good nor bad, has also become destructive because so often the thinking out of which it comes has no roots in awareness. 

思考若非根植於覺性，將變得自私與功能障礙。沒有智慧的聰明是非常危險，且具有毀滅性的，然而，這卻是目前大多數人類的狀態。思維會以科學和科技的形式不斷地擴大，本質上這無所謂好壞，然而，當有太多是出於缺乏覺性的思考時，也可以變得具有毀滅性。

The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. This is now our urgent task. It doesn’t mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be completely identified with thought, possessed by thought.  
人類進化的下一步，將是超越思考的局限，這是我們的當務之急。但這不是說人類不再去思考，而隻是希望人類不要全然認同於思維，而被思維所掌控。

 Feel the energy of your inner body. Immediately mental noise slows down or ceases. Feel it in your hands, your feet, your abdomen, your chest. Feel the life that you are, the life that animates the body. 

感受你內在的能量，腦中的雜音便會立刻慢下來或停止。在你的雙手、雙腳、腹部與胸部上去感受它，感受你本然的生命，那讓肉體活起來的生命。

The body then becomes a doorway, so to speak, into
adeeper sense of aliveness underneath the fluctuating emotions and underneath your thinking. 

身體於是變成了一扇門，通過它你可以更深刻地去感受，那潛藏於你不安的情緒與思維底下活著的感覺。

There is an aliveness in you that you can feel with your
entire Being, not just in the head. Every cell is alive in that presence in which you don’t  need to think. Yet, in that state, if thought is required for some practical purpose, it is there. The mind can still operate, and it operates beautifully when the greater intelligence that you are uses it and expresses itself through it.

你的內在，有種可以以你全然的本體（而非隻是頭腦）去感受的活潑生命。“臨在”的當下，身體的每個細胞都是活的，你不需要思考。然而，在此狀態中，如果為了某些實際的需要你必須思考，心智就在那兒，仍可運作，而且可以完美地運作，因為更大的本初智性--真正的你--在啟用著心智，並透過心智來表現其自身。

 You may have overlooked that brief periods in which you are
“conscious without thought” are already occurring naturally and spontaneously in your life. You may be engaged in some manual activity, or walking across the room, or waiting at the airline counter, and be so completely present that the usual mental static of thought subsides and is replaced by an aware presence. Or you may find yourself looking at the sky or listening to someone without any inner mental commentary. Your perceptions become crystal clear, unclouded by thought. 

你也許忽略了在你生命裏，曾經瞬間閃過一些“不思而察”的片刻，當時你也許正從事著某種體能活動，或是走過房間，或是在航空公司櫃台前排隊等候，由於你全然地“臨在”，平日紛起的思緒沉澱了下來，取而代之的是一種有覺知的“臨在”。也許你曾經發現自己正凝視天空或傾聽他人說話，但腦中不起一絲意見，你的感知如水晶般清澈，不為念頭之雲所遮蔽。

 To the mind, all this is not significant, because it has
“more important” things to think about. It is also not memorable, and that’s why you may have overlooked that it is already happening.

對大腦而言，這些片刻並不重要，因為還有“更重要的”事情得去思考。它們是如此地短暫且無從記憶，以致雖然已發生，你卻沒能覺察。

 The truth is that it is the most significant thing that can
happen to you. It is the beginning of a shift from thinking to aware presence.  

事實是，這些短暫片刻才是你生命中能發生的最有意義的事。它們是從思考轉化到有覺知“臨在”的開端。

Become at ease with the state of “not knowing.” This takes
you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret. It is afraid of not knowing. So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.  

麵對“無知”要處之泰然，這會帶領你超越心智的局限。因為心智總喜歡推斷與詮釋，它害怕“無知”，所以，當你可以寬心麵對“無知”，你就已然超越心智，而一種更深沉、非概念化的“了知”，也將從這裏麵生起。

Artistic creation, sports, dance, teaching, counseling —
mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer involved at all or at least is taking second place. A power and intelligence greater than you and yet one with you in essence takes over. There is no decision-making process anymore; spontaneous right action happens, and “you” are not doing it. Mastery of life is the opposite of control. You become aligned with the greater consciousness. It acts, speaks, does the works.  

想要在藝術創作、運動、舞蹈、教學、谘商的領域中有所專精，需要的是努力，這也意味著思考的心智完全不需要介入，或至少是次要的。當一切皆由一個遠超過你，但本質上與你合一的力量與本智接掌時，就再也沒有什麽決定要做了，但你卻可以臨場適恰地隨機反應，這都不是“你”在做。掌握生命與控製它是對立的，你要與更廣闊的覺識合而為一，讓“它”采取行動、發表言論、完成工作。

 A moment of danger can bring about a temporary cessation of the stream of thinking and thus give you a taste of what it means to be present, alert, aware.  

危險出現時，思維之流會短暫中止，在此間隙中，你將品嚐到何謂“臨在”、“警覺”與“覺知”。

 The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could
ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: “All things are intrinsically one.” That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.   
真理遠比心智所能理解的更為全麵。思維是無法涵蓋真理的，最多隻能指向真理，譬如思維可以說“萬物在本質上是一體的”，但它隻是個指標，並非一個明白的解釋，想要懂得這句話的意思，你得在內心真正“感受”這句話所指涉的真理。