超越思考 之六

【原文】

Choose an object lose to you —— a pen, a chair, a cup, a plant—— and explore it visually, that is to say, look at it with great interest, almost curiously. Avoid any objects with strong personal associations that remind you of the past, such as where you bought it, who gave it to you, and so on. Also avoid anything that has writing on it such as a book or a bottle. It would stimulate thought. Without staining, relaxed but alert, give your complete attention to the object, every detail of it. If thoughts arise, don’t get involved in them. It is not the thoughts you are interested in, but the act of perception itself. Can you take the thinking out of the perceiving? can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out? After a couple of minutes or so, let your gaze wander around the room or wherever your are, your alert attention lighting up each thing that it rests upon.

Then, listen to any sounds that may be present. Listen to them in the same way as you looked at the things around you. Some sounds may be natural —— water, wind, birds——while others are man-made. Some may be pleasant, others unpleasant. However, don’t differentiate between good and bad. Allow each sound to be as it is, without interpretation. Here too, relaxed but alert attention is the key.

When we perceive without interpreting or mental labelling, which means without adding thought to our perceptions, we can still sense the deeper connectedness underneath our perception of seemingly separate things.

【译文】

在你周围选一件物品——可以是笔，椅子，水杯或者盆栽——仔细观察一下。带着极大的兴趣甚至是好奇来观察。不要选那些待遇个人感情的物品，它们能勾起你旧时回忆，比如你是从哪里买的啦，是谁送给你的啦等等。也不要选那些有字的物品，比如书或者瓶子——字能引发思考。不要把玩，把全部的注意都投放在这个物品上，不放过每一个细节。放松但保持警觉。如果有念头或想法出现，不要管它们。你需要关心的不是想法，而只是观察。你能把想法从观察中剔除么？你能只是看而不让头脑里的声音评判，比对，下结论或者试图理解它么？这样过几分钟，让你的视线在你的周围漂移一会儿。你的警觉的注意就会使每一件进入视线的物品都鲜活起来。

然后，听一下周围的声音。用你观察周围物品的同样方式来倾听，继续保持放松且警觉的注意。有些是自然的声响——水流，风动，鸟鸣，有些则是人类活动的声响。有些悦耳，有些难听。但，请不要区分好坏，也不要试图解释。体验每种声音的原汁原味。①

当我们只是接收周围环境而不对其进行解释或者分类，也就是说不对我们的感知觉赋予想法的时候，我们仍然察觉到那些貌似分离的知觉之间的深层联系。

【评论】

通常，人们是通过思维来了解一件事物的，通过把事物分类，与其他事物类比等等方式。这里，我们遇到了另外一种说法，即便是没有思维的参与，不对事物进行思考辨别，而只是简单的观察与感受，事物之间的紧密联系一样会显现出来。不进行思考的观察才是更直接的了解世界的方式。思考会让我们忽略很多细节。而没有了细节变成了头脑中的概念的事物，离真实相差很远。

【注释】

① 这段我调整了原文语序。不然，怎么读也不通畅。