寧靜在說話（第十章：痛苦與痛苦的止息）

第十章：痛苦與痛苦的止息

Suffering and the End of
Suffering

 

The interconnectedness of all things: Buddhists have always
known it and physicists now confirm it. Nothing that happens is an isolated
event, it only appears to be. The more we judge and label it, the more we
isolate it. The wholeness of life becomes fragmented through our thinking. Yet
the totality of life has brought this event about. It is part of the web of
interconnectedness that is the cosmos.

佛教徒早已知曉萬事萬物是互相依存的，科學家也已證實了這點。世上沒有任何一件事的發生是獨立的，它們隻是表麵上看起來好像是獨立存在而已。我們越是用思維去論斷分別它，為它貼上標簽，便越孤立了那事件。生命的整體性因這許許多多的思維而變得片段破碎，其實，是生命整體的因緣和合讓那事件發生，它是宇宙相互依存網絡的一部分。

  

This means: whatever is could not be otherwise. 

這也意味著：萬物本來是什麽就是什麽，不可能是別的。

 

In most cases, we cannot begin to understand what role a
seemingly senseless event may have within the totality of the cosmos but
recognizing its inevitability within the vastness of the whole can be the
beginning of an inner acceptance of what is and thus a realignment with the
wholeness of life.

一般來說，我們無法去了解那些看似毫無意義的事件，可能在宇宙整體中扮演怎樣的角色，除非你認出它在廣袤的整體中的必然存在性，你才有可能打心底開始去接納這事件的本來麵貌，於是，你與生命整體重新結盟。

  

True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a
way as if you had

completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this
moment.

把當下的感受或經驗完全都當成好像是自己選擇的，這樣地過活就是真正的自由與痛苦的止息。

 

This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering.   

在心中與當下結盟，就是痛苦的止息。

 

Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no.  

受苦真的是必要的嗎？是，也不是。

 

If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no
depths to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. You would not be
listening to this now. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego. And then comes a
point where it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize
that it is unnecessary.  

如果你未曾經曆你所經曆的痛苦，那麽你將不具備身為一個人的深度，不會懂得謙虛，不懂得慈悲，你也不會現在聽著這些話了。痛苦將小我的硬殼敲破，這時它的目的也就達到了。痛苦是必要的，直到你明白了它並非必要為止。

 

Unhappiness needs a mind-made me with a story, the
conceptual identity. It needs time, past and future. When you remove time from
your unhappiness, what is it that remains? The “suchness” of this moment
remains.  

“不快樂”需要一個由心智所打造的“我”的故事，一個概念上的身份；“不快樂”還需要時間--過去與未來。當你將時間從“不快樂”當中抽離了，還剩下什麽？那就是此刻的“實際狀況”。

 

It may be a feeling of heaviness of heaviness, agitation,
tightness, anger

or even nausea. That is not unhappiness and it is not a
personal problem. There is nothing personal in human pain. It is simply an
intense pressure or an intense energy you feel somewhere in the body. By giving
it attention, the feeling doesn't turn into thinking and thus activate the
unhappy me.

它也許是一種沉重、不安、壓迫、生氣或極端憎惡的感覺，卻不是不快樂，也不是個人的問題。人類的痛苦皆非個人的，那隻是一種於你體內某處感受到的強烈壓力或能量，你隻要注意它，不讓那感覺轉化為念頭想法，不快樂的“我”就無法恢複動力。

 

See what happens when you just allow a feeling to be.  

留心觀察，如果你讓感覺就是感覺，會發生什麽事？

 

Much suffering, much unhappiness arises when you take each
thought that comes into your head for the truth. Situations don't make you
unhappy. They may cause you physical pain, but they don't make you unhappy.
Your thoughts make you unhappy. Your interpretations, the stories you tell
yourself make you unhappy. 

那麽多的痛苦與不快樂，都是因為你將每個進到大腦裏的想法都當真了。事情的狀況不會讓你不快樂，它們頂多引起一些生理上的不舒服，但不會讓你不快樂，是你的想法造成你的不快樂，是那些你對狀況的看法，你說給自己聽的故事，讓你不快樂。

 

“The
thoughts I'm thinking right now make me unhappy.” This realization breaks you
unconscious identification with those thoughts. 

“是我此刻的想法，讓我不快樂”，有了這點醒悟，你就擺脫了自己不自覺中對那些想法的認同。

 

What a miserable day. 

真是糟透了的一天！

 

He didn't have the decency to return my call. 

他真沒禮貌，竟然不回我電話。

 

She let me down. 

她太讓我失望了。

 

Little stores we tell ourselves and others, often in the
form of complaints. They are unconsciously designed to enhance our always
deficient sense of self through being right and making something or someone
wrong. Being right places us in a position of imagined superiority and so
strengthens our false sense of self, the ego. This also creates some kind of
enemy. Yes, the ego needs enemies to define its boundary. And even the weather
can serve that function.  

通常，我們都是用抱怨的方式，述說這些小故事給自己或別人聽。我們不自覺地將這些故事設計成自己是“對”的，別人或事情是“錯”的，藉此加強我們那總覺得匱乏的自我感。“我是對的”，讓我們置身於一個想象的優越感之中，因而鞏固了虛假的自我--小我；這同時也塑造了某些做“錯”了的敵人，沒錯，小我是需要敵人來劃定自己的界限，就算拿天氣出氣也可以。

 

Through habitual mental judgment and emotional contraction
you have a personalized reactive relationship to people and events in your
life. These are all forms of selfcreated suffering but are not recognized as
such because to the ego they are satisfying. The ego enhances itself through
reactivity and conflict.  

因為慣於在心智上做論斷分別，因為情緒緊繃，你生命中出現的人或事，與你形成了一種個人化的慣性反應式關係，這些全是自尋苦惱，但因為它可以滿足了小我，所以人們並不覺得是苦惱。小我透過慣性反應與衝突分歧，鞏固了它自己。

 

How simple life would be without those stories. 

如果沒有這些故事，生命會是多麽簡單啊！

 

It is raining.  

下雨了。

 

He did not call. 

他沒打電話來。

 

I was there, she was not.  

我到了那裏，但她沒來。

 

When you are suffering, when you are unhappy, stay totally
with what is now. Unhappiness or problems cannot survive in the Now.  

當你痛苦時，當你感到不快樂時，請全然臨於當下。所有不快樂或苦惱，都難以在當下活存。

 

Suffering begins when you mentally name or label a
situation in some way as undesirable or bad. You resent a situation and that
resentment personalizes it and brings in the reactive “me”. 

當你內心認定某件事是討厭的或不好的時候，痛苦便產生了。你厭惡某種處境，這厭惡被個人化，並帶來慣性的“我”。

 

Naming and labeling are habitual but that habit can be
broken. Start practicing not naming with small things. If you miss the plane,
drop and break a cup, or slip and fall in the mud, can you refrain from naming
the experience as bad or painful? Can you immediately accept the “isness” of
that moment? 

我們總是習慣去認定事情的好壞，但這習慣是可以破除的。一開始，你可以利用一些小事，練習“不去貼標簽”。如你錯過班機、滑落或打破杯子，或是在泥濘中滑到、摔跤，你可以試著克製自己不給這些事貼上“討厭”或“糟糕”的標簽嗎？你可以立即接納那一刻的“本來如此”嗎？

 

Naming something as bad causes an emotional contraction
within you. When you let it be without naming it, enormous power is suddenly
available to you. 

認定某件事是不好的，將讓你陷入情緒緊繃的狀態。一旦順其自然，不再為事情貼上好或壞的標簽，你將發現一股極為強大的力量突然湧現。

 

The contraction cuts you off from that power, the power of
life itself.  

情緒緊繃讓你自絕於那力量之外，那生命本身的力量之外。

 

They ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.  

他們吃下了善惡知識樹上的果實。

 

Go beyond good and bad by refraining from mentally naming
anything as good or bad. When you go beyond the habitual naming, the power of
the universe moves through you. When you are in a nonreactive relationship to
experiences, what you would have called “bad” before often turns around
quickly, if not immediately through the power of life itself.  

隻要不再於心裏為任何事情貼上好或壞的標簽，便超越了好與壞。一旦超越自己對事情好壞的慣性認定，宇宙的力量將透過你開始運行。由於你可以對自己所經曆的各種情況，保持一種“不起情緒反應”的關係，那些曾經被你認為是“壞”的經驗，通常會透過生命本身的力量，如果不是立即地改變，也會迅速地有所轉變。

 

Watch what happens when you don't name an experience as
“bad” and instead bring an inner acceptance, an inner “yes” to it, and so let
it be as it is.  

注意觀察當你不再認為某個經驗是“壞”的，而以一種接納，打心底接納的態度去麵對它並順其自然時，事情將會發生什麽變化？

 

Whatever your life situation is, how would you feel if you
completely accepted it as it is, right Now?  

不管你的人生處境為何，如果你當下能完整地接納它的真實狀況，你會有何感受呢？

 

There are many subtle and not so subtle forms of suffering
that are so normal, they are usually not recognized as suffering and may even
feel satisfying to the ego. Irritation, impatience, anger, having an issue with
something or someone, resentment, complaining.  

惱怒、不耐煩、生氣、對某人或某事有意見、憤慨、抱怨等小痛苦，或者也不那麽小，它們看起來如此“正常”，以致一般都不被認為是痛苦，甚至對小我來說，還覺得是滿意的。

 

You can learn to recognize all those forms of suffering as
they happen and know at this moment I am creating suffering for myself. 

你可以學著在那些痛苦發生時認出它，並且在心裏明白：此時此刻，我正在為自己製造痛苦。

 

If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself,
you are probably

creating suffering for others too. These unconscious mind
patters tend to come to an end simply by making them conscious, by becoming
aware of them as they happen. 

假如你習於為自己製造痛苦，你很可能也會為他人製造痛苦。若想中止這些無覺識的心智模式，很簡單，隻要讓它們變得是有覺知的，在它們發生時覺察到它們就行了。

 

You cannot be conscious and create suffering for
yourself.  

你不可能在覺察到痛苦時，同時為自己製造痛苦。

 

This is the miracle: behind every condition, person or
situation that appears “bad” or “evil” lies concealed a deeper good. That
deeper good reveals itself to you, both within and without through inner
acceptance of what is.  

每個看似“壞”的或“惡”的人、事或際遇的背後，都隱藏了一個更深沉的“善”。那深沉的“善”，在你打心底接納事情本來的狀況時，便會由內到外地向你揭示它自己。這真是奇跡啊！

 

“Resist
not evil” is one of the highest truths of humanity.  

“不要抗拒不幸”是人類至高真理之一。

 

A dialogue: 

一段對白：

 

Accept what is. 

接納事情的本來狀況。

 

I truly cannot. I am agitated and angry about this. 

我真的沒辦法。我對這既激動又生氣。

 

Then accept what is. 

那就接納你現在的狀況。

 

Accept that I am agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot
accept? 

接受我既激動又生氣？接受那難以接受的事？

 

Yes. Bring acceptance into your non-acceptance. Bring
surrender into your nonsurrender. Then see what happens.  

是的。將接納帶入你的不接納之中；將臣服帶入你的不臣服之中。看看會發生什麽？

 

Chronic physical pain is one of the harshest teachers you
can have. Resistance is futile is its teaching. 

慢性的身體疼痛是最嚴厲的人生導師，“抗拒無用”是它所要教導的。

 

Nothing could be more normal than an unwillingness to
suffer. Yet, if you can let go of that unwillingness, and instead allow the
pain to be there, you may notice a subtle inner separation from the pain, a
space between you and the pain, as it were. This means to suffer consciously,
willingly. When you suffer consciously, physical pain can quickly burn up the
ego in you since ego consists largely of resistance. The same is true of
extreme physical disability. 

沒有什麽比“不情願受苦”更正常了。然而，如果你可以放下那個“不情願”，容許痛苦存在，你可能會在痛苦之間，留意到有個細微的內在分界，有個介於你與痛苦之間的空隙一直都在那裏。這意味著你是有覺識的，是心甘情願去受苦的。那麽，身體的疼痛將很快地耗盡你的內在小我，因為小我主要是由抗拒所形構的。這對重度的身體殘障而言，也是真的。

 

You “offer up your suffering to God” is another way of
saying this.  

“將你的痛苦獻給上帝”，是從痛苦解脫的另一種說法。

 

You don't need to be a Christian to understand the deep
universal truth that is contained in symbolic form in the image of the
cross.  

即使不是基督徒，也可以理解十字架這個象征符號之中所包含的宇宙真理。

 

The cross is a torture instrument. It stands for the most
extreme suffering, limitation, and helplessness a human being can encounter.
Then suddenly that human being suffers willingly, consciously, expressed
through the words, “not my will, but thy will be done.” At that moment, the
cross, the torture instrument shows its hidden face. It is also a sacred
symbol, a symbol for the divine.  

十字架是古代的一種刑具，它代表了一個人所能遭遇到的最大痛苦，一種全然的無力與無助，接著突然之間，那個受苦的人臣服了，他心甘情願地、有意識地接受了那個苦，他說出：“不要從我的意思，隻要從你的意思”。就在這一刻這刑具的十字架，揭開了它隱藏的麵目，告諸世人：十字架也是神聖的象征，它是神性的象征。

 

That which seemed to deny the existence of any
transcendental dimension to life, through surrender becomes an opening into
that dimension.  

那原本似乎否定生命中有任何超越層麵存在的十字架，透過臣服，變成了通往超越的入口。