2010-12-31

我是谁 之八

【原文】

Seeing beauty in a flower can awaken you, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of  your own innermost being, your true nature. Joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Flowers can become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves,. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerge, are like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only have a scent that is delicate and pleasing, but also bring a fragrance from the realm of spirit.

When you are alert and contemplate a flower with out naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you in to the formless. There is an inner opening , however slight, into the spiritual dimension.

【译文】

看到花之美丽,哪怕只有片刻,就能使你苏醒,并意识到美乃是你自己的内在本质,是你的天性。愉悦与爱与这种美的认识内在相通。花朵成为一种表达,代表我们内在的高级,神圣,终极之无形之物。比起枝干,花朵转瞬即逝,空灵飘渺且娇嫩纤细。如同域外的使者,如同物质世界与无形世界间的桥梁。它们不仅有轻柔爽心的清香,更能带来心灵世界的芬芳。

当你清醒的注视花朵,不在心中给她冠名,她就会为你开启一扇窗,通向无形。心灵维度轻轻向你敞开。

【心得】

想到了王阳明“庭前格竹”的故事。这种藉由观察外物而通达内心的方式,很类似于王阳明的学说。这种格物,也就是对世上万物的探究,其目的乃是明白自己的内心。万物都有其美。万物都因此相同。通过观察发现眼前是物的美,使自己的内心与之共鸣。心灵之窗的洞开,全在者微不足道的一草一花一目。人们所需要的,只是慢下来,甚至驻足一会儿,让心灵有机会释放。

俗话说,一把钥匙开一把锁。这开心的钥匙,却是数不清的。只是,看你愿不愿西慢下来,去开心锁了。

2010-12-30

我是谁 之七

【原文】

How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them. In the meantime, just be aware of your attachment to things.Sometimes you may not know that you are attached to something, which is to say, identified, until you lose it or there is the threat of loss. If you then become upset, anxious, and so on, it means you are attached. If you are aware that you are identified with a thing, the identification is no longer total. "I am the awareness that is aware that there is attachment." That's the beginning of the transformation of consciousness.
When you contemplate the unfathomable depth of space or listen to the silence in the early hours just before sunrise, something within you resonates with it as if in recognition. You then sense the vast depth of space as your own depth, and you know that precious stillness that has no form to be more deeply who you are than any of the things that make up the content of your life.
The twofold reality of the universe, which consists of things and space -- thingness and no-thingness-- is also your own. A sane, balanced, and fruitful human life is a dance between the two dimensions that make up reality: form and space. Most people are so identified with the dimension of form, with sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions, that the vital hidden half is missing from their lives. Their identification with form keeps them trapped in ego.
Just as space enables all things to exist and just as without silence there could be no sound, you would not exist without the vital formless dimension that is the essence of who you are. We could say "God" if the word had not been so misused. I prefer to call it Being. Being is prior to existence. Existence is form, content, "what happens." Existence is the foreground of life; Being is the background, as it were.
The collective disease of humanity is that people are so engrossed in what happens, so hypnotized by the world of fluctuating forms, so absorbed in the content of their lives, they have forgotten the essence, that which is beyond content, beyond form, beyond thought. They are so consumed by time that they have forgotten eternity, which is their origin, their home, their destiny. Eternity is the living reality of who you are.

【译文】

如何才能与物质分离,获得解脱?不可强求,因为强求也不可得。只有当你不再是同从事物中寻找自我时,对于事物的依赖才能自行消亡。停止寻找自我的同时,仍要持续关注你对事物的依赖。有时,你依赖于某些事物而不自知,只有当你失去或将要失去这种依赖时,才会有所觉察。如果这是你感到失落,焦虑等等,就意味着你存在着依赖。当你意识到某事某物代表着你时,这种代表性就不再是完整的了。“我是注意到这种依赖关系的觉知。”这就是意识转变的开始。
当你审视空间的浩淼或者倾听日出前的几个小时的静寂,你自身的某些部分就像是与其相识似的与之共鸣。你会感觉那空间的广阔深远就是你的深度,你会知道那宝贵且无形的寂静比做成你生命的所有有形之物更能代表深层次的你。

宇宙的真实具有两面性:事物与空间,有形与无形。你也如此。健全,平衡,富有成果的人生是在现实的形态与空间这两个维度之间的舞蹈。大多数人附着于形态这一维度,附着于直觉,思维,情绪。那重要的无形的一半在他们的生活中确实了。附着于形态使得他们深陷与自我之中。
就如同空间使万物得以生存其中,又如同没有寂静便没有声音,失去了无形的那一维度,你便不能生存。无形的那一维度才是你存在的核心。如果“上帝”一词不是被乱用做了其他的意思,我们大可以将这无形之维度成为“上帝”。而我,更乐于称其为“存在”(Being)。“存在”高于实存(existence)。实存是指形态,内容,“发生的事”。实存是生活前台;而“存在”则是生活的背景,历来如此。①

人类有一个通病:人们总是全神贯注于正在发生的事情,被这个变动不居的有形世界所催眠,被他们生活的内容而吸引而忘记了生活的本质。超越内容,超越形态,超越思维的本质。 人们被时间所消耗而忘记了永恒。忘记了永恒乃是人们的起源,家园和宿命。永恒是“我是谁”的鲜活现实。

【心得】
①对于Being 与Existence的辨析,请参考这里 http://www.cctv.com/lm/131/61/85949.html 。简单来说,这两个词的中文翻译,都是存在。这其实是对后者的错误翻译。Being翻译成存在,意指一切的本源。这一切包含了时间,空间,事物在内的所有范畴。existence则只适用于事物之一范畴,是指事物作为实体而存在。这里我采用何光沪的说法,使用“实存”作为existence的中译。

2010-12-06

我是谁 之六

【原文】
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." What does "poor in spirit" mean? No inner baggage, no identifications. Not with things, nor with any mental concepts that have a sense of self in them. And what is the "kingdom of heaven"? The simple but profound joy of Being that is there when you let go of identifications and so become "poor in spirit".

【译文】
“心灵简单虚空的人有福了”,耶稣有言:“因为天国是他们的”①。心灵简单虚空指的是什么呢?没有内在负担,没有各种确认证明。不执着于事,或者与自我有关的思维观念。 什么又是“天国”呢?即当你放弃确认证明,成为心灵简单虚空后得到的单纯而深刻的存在的喜悦。

【心得】
①出自新约圣经『马太福音』,是论福的第一句话。对于这句话的翻译我参考了这里和这里。
对于圣经,我的知识是零。因此在了解作者对于圣经的这句“心灵简单虚空的人有福了”这句话时就格外的费力些。心灵空虚,缺少与物的附着,正是使得人们的本性得以独立存在的前提。没有附着于事物之上,受事物的影响就少,就越容易能超越羁绊,达到不以物喜,不以己悲的状态。