हरिवंश

AFTER A STILL winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what — how — when — where? But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight. The snow lying deep on the earth dotted with young pines, and the very slope of the hill on which my house is placed, seemed to say, Forward! Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution. "O Prince, our eyes contemplate with admiration and transmit to the soul the wonderful and varied spectacle of this universe. The night veils without doubt a part of this glorious creation; but day comes to reveal to us this great work, which extends from earth even into the plains of the ether.



噢，王子。我們的眼睛在讚嘆，在靜觀，把這宇宙奇妙多變的景象傳達於靈魂。夜幕固然把造物的光輝部份掩遮，但白晝轉瞬來臨，揭示這偉大的作品，其廣大甚至從此土延伸至蒼穹。

已故的孟祥森（筆名孟東籬）在上個世紀末翻譯此段引文時，因為沒有網路，以他的博學多聞，仍註明此段引文出處不明。但我卻輕易的找到出自 《Harivansa》（訶利世系，或譯為哈利家譜）, 是印度二大史詩之一《摩訶婆羅多》的一個續章。《訶利世系》與《摩訶婆羅多》在實際內容上沒有什麼聯繫，但關於黑天的一些最主要的故事都是保存在此續章中。之前買的《湖濱書簡》，Letters to a Spiritual Seeker，梭羅亦有在給朋友的信中（1849/11/20）引用此史詩：

（那些學習瑜伽的人，從婆羅門那裡得到了努力的成果，）可擺脱一切枷鎖，像鳥在空中飛翔那樣的自由自在。
瑜伽者在沉思中，就能對造化有所貢獻；他能吸入神奇的香味，聽到美妙的事物。神體穿過他卻不傷害他，而與大自然吻合，使一切對他都恰到好處。他的一舉一動都鼓舞了大自然。

Free in this world, as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chain.

Thus the Yogin, absorbed in contemplation, contributes for his part to creation : he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things . Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts, as animating original matter.

此書信集的編者在註釋提到梭羅於1849年9月11日自哈佛大學圖書館借出這套自梵文翻成法文的《Harivansa》，兩個月後，在給朋友的信中摘譯成英文。而1851年5月在修改《湖濱散記》而重讀此套書的同時，也在他的日記中記載了這兩段。因此可以推斷首揭引文應在此時加入《冬天的池》；梭羅說：正如其他的傳道者，寫完了我要講的，一段時日之後，我會再加進汲取自中國和印度經典的文字。

Like some other preachers, I have added my texts - derived from the Chinese and Hindoo scriptures – long after my discourse was written .

帝寶豪宅

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if one were to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for him, or, gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck skin, complain of hard times because he could not afford to buy him a crown! It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and luxurious than we have, which yet all would admit that man could not afford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less? Shall the respectable citizen thus gravely teach, by precept and example, the necessity of the young man's providing a certain number of superfluous glow-shoes, and umbrellas, and empty guest chambers for empty guests, before he dies? Why should not our furniture be as simple as the Arab's or the Indian's? When I think of the benefactors of the race, whom we have apotheosized as messengers from heaven, bearers of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind any retinue at their heels, any carload of fashionable furniture. Or what if I were to allow — would it not be a singular allowance? — that our furniture should be more complex than the Arab's, in proportion as we are morally and intellectually his superiors! At present our houses are cluttered and defiled with it, and a good housewife would sweep out the greater part into the dust hole, and not leave her morning's work undone. Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground.



日本三大隨筆之一的《徒然草》提到：

能持身簡樸，袪除奢欲，不務財富，不求世間名利的，方稱賢慧。自古富而賢者，為數極少。

許由身無長物，有人見他捧水而飲，乃贈以葫蘆。時或繫之樹上，風吹作響，許由頓覺厭煩，遂棄而不用，復以手掬水。真可謂清涼之心也！孫晨冬天沒有棉被，僅備乾草一束，夜來舖草而臥，醒來便將之收起。唐土之人，以此等人為高士，載之書冊以傳世；若生於日本，必湮沒無聞。


讀李永熾先生《從風土與場所看台灣族群》一文，說到台灣雖有獨特的風土，卻被來來往往的人刻意的漠視。我們只有過客，剝削者，外來政權，而沒有自己主體的台灣。因為風土與場所的不同，會產生不同的文化，所以許由及孫晨此等人物不為日本人所喜歡。而在美國，則有梭羅。

梭羅因為桌上的三塊石頭必須每天擦拭，而沒有時間擦拭內心的塵埃，頓生厭背之心，將之丟棄。較之必須每天清掃的帝寶豪宅內的高級沙發，他寧願選擇坐在露天的草地上。

梭羅說，我們是不是應該偶爾學著滿足於現況，而不是整天想著如何去獲得那些奢侈品，去告訴我們年輕的一代，在你們死之前，務必要擁有鉑金包，名錶，跑車，豪宅，否則你們就白活了？我們的監察院長在嘲笑大學生打工的不智時，只有人責怪他不懂民間疾苦，卻沒有人告訴他，求學問並不是為了將來可以賺更多的錢而已！難道將來在台灣的史冊上，就只會有王永慶，郭台銘這些人？如果是這樣，即便台灣建構成為完全屬於台灣人民的國家，也不會被其他世界的人所尊重的。

角色扮演

現在很流行的 Cosplay 大抵都在外表上作文章，所以都只能停留在好玩的
層面；好的演員必須深入到角色的內心才能感動人心。梭羅的朋友 Harrison Gray Otis Blake 說：在這個充滿了嘈雜，膚淺演員的世界裡，能站在一旁說我就是我的人是崇高的。（Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, "I will simply be." ）

但是當代的戲劇有汰半是歌頌愛情，大部份的角色是我無法扮演的。於是
我替自己找了幾種角色來試試；它們是：英語系學生，居士禪修者，程式
設計師，詩人，清道夫。其中居士禪修者及程式設計師每週二次，其他角
色每週一次。但是以後最好能夠每一種角色可以連續扮演一週再更換。

這五種角色應屬詩人最為有趣，我將它排在週五扮演；在那一天我可以是
陶潛，蘇軾；可以是奧瑪珈音，Emily Dickinson，達賴六世倉央嘉措....
但是最重要的，我可以跟他們看同一個星空，喝同樣的醇酒。

角色扮演的遊戲玩了沒多久，我就覺得沒意思了。之後發現自己可能有唾液腺結石的毛病，會造成腮腺發炎；為了減少發作的誘因，所以打算少喝啤酒，詩人也作不成了。

自從把《Walden》讀完後，覺得自己好像沒什正經事好幹，昨晚（8/31）竟然一個人跑去看《父後七日》電影。電影不怎麼樣，倒是在等候放映時在誠品書局買了一本《湖濱書簡》，英文書名《Letters to a Spiritual Seeker》，是梭羅寫給一位朋友 Harrison Gray Otis Blake（1816-1898）的書信集。這些書信日期涵蓋1848年到1861年，是梭羅在離開湖濱後所寫，所以中文書名《湖濱書簡》是把《Walden》錯譯成《湖濱散記》的一錯再錯。

我讀完《Walden》也有一段時日，現在開始讀這本書信集正是時候。 (2010/09/01)

瞎子摸象

There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature. For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself. At night there was never a traveller passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts — they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness — but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood. I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.

夜晚，過了午夜12點，我總是帶著小狗出門，到附近的文化中心；那個時候，整個文化中心都是我的庭院，尤其在夏間雨後，人們就把這個小小世界留給黑暗和我，退入他們溫暖的格子裡。時常，有一些精力過剩的年輕人闖入，在我的地方大聲嘻鬧；我想起自己也有過的年少輕狂，也會任由他們放肆。

無論是怎樣的風雨，一個健康純潔的人聽起來都像是美妙的樂章；沒有任何事情可以把簡單而勇敢的人逼入卑俗的悲傷之中。禽鳥之所以無法分辨燈泡和牠的卵，是因為他要把更多的精神用在撫育幼鳥上；人如果不要那麼有分別心，就可以達到真實究竟的清淨解脫。

最甜的生活

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me. The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought." Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, "and lo! creation widens to our view." We are often reminded that if there were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still be the same, and our means essentially the same. Moreover, if you are restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most significant and vital experiences; you are compelled to deal with the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.

梭羅說：『當你為貧窮所困，那也只是被困在最有意義也最富生機的經驗之中，你被迫面對的是能產生最多的糖和最多營養的材料。那一種生活，最是刻骨的甜。』

不要為了不夠潮而心中不安，別因為沒有買到最新的 iPad 而焦慮，不用急著去結交新的朋友或買新的名牌包。翻翻舊的東西，找找老朋友。他們沒有變，是我們變；無常的是自己，而非世事。賣掉你的衣服，保留你的思想！只要能夠思考，不論身陷何等困境，我一樣可以活得安適自在。子曰：「三軍可奪帥也，匹夫不可奪志也。」多餘的錢財只能用來買多餘的東西；靈魂需要的東西，用不著錢。

『不論你的生活何等低卑，都要去面對它，去安生；不要躲避，不要用難聽的名字咒罵它。』《經集．義品》中佛陀告誡修行的比丘們，既然已經選擇了出世的生活，要如何超越恐懼，如何消滅心中的黑暗勢力？

我得何食何處食，今實苦臥何處臥；
此等諸尋導悲泣，無家有學應調伏。

食物衣服有時得，少許滿足應知量；
護持此等村慎行，雖受污辱無麤語。

He should conquer these four thoughts of lament: 'What will I eat, or where will I eat. How badly I slept. Tonight where will I sleep?' These lamenting thoughts he should subdue — one under training, wandering without home.

Receiving food & cloth at appropriate times, he should have a sense of enough for the sake of contentment. Guarded in regard to these things going restrained into a village, even when harassed he shouldn't say a harsh word.

曹洞宗與相對論

There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a staff. Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life. He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him. Before he had found a stock in all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. Before he had given it the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that race in the sand, and then resumed his work. By the time he had smoothed and polished the staff Kalpa was no longer the pole-star; and ere he had put on the ferule and the head adorned with precious stones, Brahma had awoke and slumbered many times. But why do I stay to mention these things? When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places. And now he saw by the heap of shavings still fresh at his feet, that, for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a single scintillation from the brain of Brahma to fall on and inflame the tinder of a mortal brain. The material was pure, and his art was pure; how could the result be other than wonderful?

安可先生和曹洞宗曾經有這麼一段淵源：

根據吳晴月所持有禪門曹洞宗的「生死簿」的推算，王安可的陽壽只有四
十八年又三個月。若是活過這個年又不離開他的家，就會對家人有損。不
過安可先生確實活了幾年卻沒人知道，因為他在六十幾時還在台東太麻里
山上洗溫泉。

生死簿和一般算命完全不同，它是以一再轉世輪迴的靈魂為主體，記錄著
每一世所累積起來的善惡業，到目前這一世將會有什麼樣的業報出現，其
中預言了個人的生、老、病、死、劫，但是不提供任何意見，只告訴你有
什麼籌碼，藉由這些去掌握自己的一生。

吳晴月並告訴安可先生，一味空想要過多好的生活，或是整天羨慕別人的
財富和幸福，都是無益的。不承認自己這世的「實相」，會讓自己終日不
快樂，陷入痛苦的情緒中。只有了解業因並修正自己的內心，才能排解疑
難，過較正確的生活。人生的根本問題是沒有答案的，它無可限制，端看
你怎麼創造，因為人生就是一連串無常的活動，這才是「真相」。

據說，生死簿共二十本，成書於後唐，大約西元1230年東渡日本，1895年由曹洞宗四十八代開教使雪凝和尚帶來台灣佈教。雪凝和尚在中日戰後遭遣返日本，留下此套書籍交給同門師弟普信，也就是吳晴月的師父。然而「真相」是，安可先生根本沒見過吳晴月，一切都是他自己心中的想像。真相與實相也許可以用「真話」和「實話」來類比。真話是心裡的話，實話則不一定。但是真話的內容卻可能不是實情，而是因人的虛妄之心所造成的「假相」。但這種「假相」不能說不存在。『從因果施設邊說，即空的假名有，不可說無』，也就是說在這種情況下個人周遭的人、事、物，雖然是空的、假的，卻是存在的，不可說它們都是幻覺。『從自性不可得邊說，即假的自性空，不可說有』。這是相對於前面來說的。如果沒有前面的空的假名，就沒有所謂的假的自性，所以自性也是假、也是空。從這個觀點才可以說一切是不存在的。所以佛才說：『一切有為法，如夢、幻、泡、影，如露亦如電，應作如是觀』。這就是所謂的「實相」。實相是批判之依據，若無此為據，焉知世間之苦是何所指耶？說的白話一點，人要跳出自己的意想範圍之外，才能對此世間有所評斷。至於這個世界的「真相」佛陀似乎從來沒有提過，因為他認為瞭解它對於人的解脫並沒有幫助。這個世界在佛陀的心裡到底是怎樣的，也就成為佛學的一個重要課題。

愛因斯坦的相對論卻向我們透露了一點這個世界的「真相」。牛頓的運動定律基本上是假設時間的脈動頻率對每一個運動中物體都是一樣的。也唯有如此，他的運動定律才能成立。而這個假設對人類來說是完全合乎先驗的，沒有人曾經懷疑這個假設的真實性。但是後來發現，時間的推移是因運動而定。然而牛頓在發現他的運動定律之時，並不知道每個物體的時間都是不同的，所以他的定律和人心所產生的各種有為法一樣，都是夢幻泡影。然而，將時間的脈動施設為一致是有必要的，因為一切因果必須由此開始。羅素說：『如果我們處在一個不斷變動（無常）的世界中（事實上我們也是，只是沒人感覺到，釋迦牟尼是第一人），可能打從頭就推算出相對論，要不然就是糊里糊塗，永遠不知科學定理為何物。因為一步就跳到相對論的人必須一手包辦歐幾里德、伽利略、牛頓及愛因斯坦的科學成就，這種天才既不可能存在，我們只得選擇後者。』釋迦牟尼就是這樣的天才！牛頓的定律雖不契合真理，但是若沒有假的定律，如何去解釋這個零中之零，空中之空。

王中之王是誰？聖中之聖是誰？
何謂愚人？何謂智者？
如何離開垢穢？怎樣獲證涅槃？
何人沉溺在生死海裡？誰能逍遙於解脫國中？

正如庫魯城那個做手杖的藝術家所經歷的一樣，打坐的奇妙之處在於，不論你用功了多久，在你結束打坐時，你會覺得用掉的時間都差不多，所逝去的時間只是一種幻象。若是你搭上了一部以光速移動的自動扶梯，無論你在上面是站著不動或往上走，到達頂端的時間都是一樣。這與人們在俗世中急急忙忙死命地去追求成功，死命地去投身於某某企業的景況豈不相同？在生死輪迴中流轉就如搭上以光速移動的手扶梯，不論你跑多快，結果都是一樣。打坐的情形卻正好與之相反，時間不管怎麼走，你還是坐在那裡。這是很耐人尋味的事。由於專心一志，不跟時間妥協，時間只好站到一邊去，遠遠的嘆息。日本曹洞宗之父道元說：「即令是初學者的坐禪，也都是他們全部自性的顯現。」

《註》：
曹洞宗源自唐朝禪宗青原一系，青原指的便是行思(? ─ 公元740年)，為慧能會下的上首。得法後回到吉州，住青原山靜居寺。

五蘊即世間

What does Africa — what does the West stand for? Is not our own interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the Mississippi, or a Northwest Passage around this continent, that we would find? Are these the problems which most concern mankind? Is Franklin the only man who is lost, that his wife should be so earnest to find him? Does Mr. Grinnell know where he himself is? Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark and Frobisher, of your own streams and oceans; explore your own higher latitudes — with shiploads of preserved meats to support you, if they be necessary; and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

"Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.
Plus habet hic vitae, plus habet ille viæ."

Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.
I have more of God, they more of the road.

佛陀開示：就在這個六呎之軀以內，包含了種種感官意念、種種念頭和想法的這個五蘊合和的身心，就是整個世間，是苦的世間；同時，它也包含了痛苦世間的起源和結束，以及通往痛苦結束的道路。

梭羅說，相較於我們內心的領土，國家的領土不過是蕞爾小國。所以為何要為小的犧牲大的？愛國心不過是腦袋裡的蛆。讓他們去戡察喜馬拉雅山與南極洲，我富於神，他們富於路。有人說巨蟹座的人無法關心自己以外的任何事物，那是因為其他人沒有能力發現自己更高的緯度，只好向外探求。由於欲望與貪婪，人類已經成功地征服地球上的一切，除了內心；人類該成就的都達到了，除了快樂以外。在將台灣建立成一個獨立的國家之前，在形成台灣民族主義之前，為何不先成為一個獨立的人，為何不先確實實踐內心的"民族主義"，確立自己思想的一致性，而非人云亦云？

春天的恕道 (下)

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wildness — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander. We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion which disgusts and disheartens us, and deriving health and strength from the repast. There was a dead horse in the hollow by the path to my house, which compelled me sometimes to go out of my way, especially in the night when the air was heavy, but the assurance it gave me of the strong appetite and inviolable health of Nature was my compensation for this. I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence like pulp — tadpoles which herons gobble up, and tortoises and toads run over in the road; and that sometimes it has rained flesh and blood! With the liability to accident, we must see how little account is to be made of it. The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence. Poison is not poisonous after all, nor are any wounds fatal. Compassion is a very untenable ground. It must be expeditious. Its pleadings will not bear to be stereotyped.

四月二十八日午夜，零時過後，我照例帶著兩隻狗出去散步。老爹已經三歲，出生不久就帶過來了；貝莉則是朋友託我照顧的。老爹跟了我之後，我很老實的帶他去打預防針，一直打到剩下最後一項的心絲蟲檢查，因為發現這一項目在檢查完後還要每月吃藥預防，就決定不作檢查了。之後，我的收入就只夠我一個人生活跟買狗飼料，所以儘管老爹時常因與其他小狗鬥毆，有皮肉傷，我也隨他自行痊癒，未再找過獸醫。

這日在經過四維路及光華路口時，正好遇上一人騎著機車載了一隻狗，老爹就趕了上去，一直追到光華路上接近五權街口才折回。此時，看到一輛車往他開去，他閃開了，但到了另一方向的車道，卻沒逃過。車頭撞到他的右眼角處，碰的一聲悶響，老爹在地上滾了二圈才停，但他馬上爬了起來，可能受到驚嚇，往住處方向狂奔。我牽著貝莉回去找他，卻沒有找到他。一直到早上才聽到他在門外的叫聲，趕忙爬起來幫他開門。此時才發現他右眼角處的傷口，推測應該是撞到的點。開車的司機當時有停下車並走回去查看，但老爹早已跑遠，我看司機的表情無法知道他是否清楚撞到了什麼。

第一天情況還好，回來後也有吃東西，與過去受傷回來後差不多。4/29凌晨要出去時，他也要跟著出去，我也帶著出去了。但是到了4/29早上，情況卻有惡化的情形。身體會顫抖，眼角上方也因抓扯而脫皮紅腫。

下午我出門去，晚上回來時似乎穩定一點。我端了飼料到他前面地下，他就著吃似乎有困難，我便把盤子端到一個高度讓他吃。4/30凌晨出門散步時，卻又似生龍活虎，感覺是上了他的當。

梭羅說，我們對於大自然，永不饜足；我們必須被那無盡生機的景象所更新 －－ 走山的景象，大地震後的殘骸，水災後的荒蕪．．．。我們需要看到我們的界限被超越，看到某些生物在我們沒有涉足過的地方自由自在的吃草。我們埋怨媒體的嗜血，其實那反應人的本性。對照宇宙性的純潔天真，同情是一種難以站得住腳的立場，一瞬即過；嗜血的媒體卻是長存。人們總是說上天自有安排，然而無常的到來如此迅捷，可知上天從未認真地把意外的發生當一回事。

梭羅從他兩年多的實驗中至少認識到一件事：如果一個人有信心的向著他夢想的方向前進，努力去過他所想像的生活，他就會在平凡的時刻遇到出乎意料的成功。台灣的死刑犯被害者家屬無法原諒加害者，堅持不能廢除死刑；巧的是，死刑犯的家屬也不能原諒政府執行死刑的作為，連事先通知也做不到，以致在行刑前不能見到最後一面。最兩全的作法也許是兩造家屬好好談談，如果被害者家屬依舊堅持執行死刑，就由執法人員協助讓被害者家屬行刑。這樣執法單位也不用兩邊不討好；死刑犯也死的心甘情願（若不甘願他也知道要找誰）。以怨止怨終究是不可能，但是要以法律的途徑來化解喪親之痛所造成的怨恨也一樣是掾木求魚。廢死聯盟不該以為最文明的方式就是解決問題的最好方法，每一個死刑犯的處決都值得以個案處理，值得去把舊的法則擴充，以更為自由的精神加以解釋，使得任何決定的不正當性可以暴露出來。如此，罪惡就不再是罪惡，寬恕也不再是寬恕，死亡也不再是死亡。 （下篇完）

黃金年代

"A return to goodness produced each day in the tranquil and beneficent breath of the morning, causes that in respect to the love of virtue and the hatred of vice, one approaches a little the primitive nature of man, as the sprouts of the forest which has been felled. In like manner the evil which one does in the interval of a day prevents the germs of virtues which began to spring up again from developing themselves and destroys them.

"After the germs of virtue have thus been prevented many times from developing themselves, then the beneficent breath of evening does not suffice to preserve them. As soon as the breath of evening does not suffice longer to preserve them, then the nature of man does not differ much from that of the brute. Men seeing the nature of this man like that of the brute, think that he has never possessed the innate faculty of reason. Are those the true and natural sentiments of man?"

"The Golden Age was first created, which without any avenger
Spontaneously without law cherished fidelity and rectitude.
Punishment and fear were not; nor were threatening words read
On suspended brass; nor did the suppliant crowd fear
The words of their judge; but were safe without an avenger.
Not yet the pine felled on its mountains had descended
To the liquid waves that it might see a foreign world,
And mortals knew no shores but their own.
. . . . . . .

There was eternal spring, and placid zephyrs with warm
Blasts soothed the flowers born without seed."

奧維德 Ovid (43 B.C.-7 A.D.) Roman poet

孟子曰：“牛山之木嘗美矣，以其郊於大國也，斧斤伐之，可以為美乎？是其日夜之所息，雨露之所潤，非無萌櫱之生焉，牛羊又從而牧之，是以若彼濯濯也。人見其濯濯也，以為未嘗有材焉，此豈山之性也哉？雖存乎人者，豈無仁義之心哉？其所以放其良心者，亦猶斧斤之於木也，旦旦而伐之，可以為美乎？其日夜之所息，平旦之氣，其好惡與人相近也者幾希，則其旦晝之所為，有梏亡之矣。梏之反覆，則其夜氣不足以存；夜氣不足以存，則其違禽獸不遠矣。人見其禽獸也，而以為未嘗有才焉者，是豈人之情也哉？故苟得其養，無物不長；苟失其養，無物不消。孔子曰：‘操則存，舍則亡；出入無時，莫知其鄉。’惟心之謂與？”

在那個尚未有山老鼠的黃金年代，人內心的良善亦未嘗遭砍伐。所以人們沒有任何仇敵，也無需法律規範，忠誠及正直的德性自然就能培育滋養。沒有懲罰，也沒有恐懼，不用害怕法官的威脅與恐嚇。

古印度的韋達經典記載金器年代由眾神統治世界，所有的人事物都純真至善。這個時期沒有嫉妒、憎恨、驕傲、邪惡，也沒有恐懼及悲傷。人們沒有物質欲望，懷有純粹的靈性真我意識。經典中以公牛來比喻宗教：牛之四足好比宗教四大支柱，即仁慈、苦行、潔淨、真實。在金器年代，牛之四足完整，牛也得到人們小心看顧，正如未曾遭砍伐的牛山之木。

春天的恕道 (上)

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, recreating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten. There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year's life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors — why the judge does not dismis his case — why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

2008年4月11日《消費者債務清理條例》正式施行，一個在當律師的朋友打電話問我要不要去他那邊幫忙，心想這是一個作散工的好機會，在電話中就答應了下來。

　 三年前(2005)台灣發生卡債風暴，二十二萬人，三千三百億的無擔保債款透過所謂的「一致性協商」機制暫時把問題緩了一緩。這已是2006年底的事。但是才不到二年就已經有逼近五成的卡奴毀諾，原因是當初簽下那一紙協議書多半是出於不得已。第一代的協商機制一開始銀行就沒有打算去作，完全是採抗拒的態度。等到立法院迫於民意祭出修法限制雙卡利率的手段，銀行的高姿態才不得不軟化。但即使是第二代的協商機制債務人也討不到任何便宜，僅只是利率稍低而已，而且完全不考量債務人的收支狀況，其中將近一半(48%)的協議甚至要求每月還款高於債務人的收入。這種「普遍的、不公義的壓迫」激化了卡債族結合的力量，於是才有了《消費者債務清理條例》的催生。

台灣五十萬卡債族也是努力在過日子，但是卻過著比奴隸還不如的生活。一天八小時的工作，到了月底扣掉三分之一的法院執行扣薪，往往只剩下一萬出頭。我看著他們的薪資單，心情實在沉重。奴隸還有喘口氣的機會，但他們沒有；奴隸不必遭人恥笑，卡奴卻要背著過度消費以及欠錢不還的罪名。人在打倒了所有的王公貴族之後，卻出現了「貨幣」這個絕對的君主。資本家就是這個王朝的管理者。只要活在市民社會中，就無法不成為它的臣僕。正如夏傳位先生說：「卡奴是現代經濟運作不可或缺的副產品。」若是沒有奴隸又如何稱其為暴虐呢？

據說卡債風暴以及次級性房貸的產生都是所謂的市場失敗(market failure) ── 自由競爭的壓力愈大，需求者反而愈是需要付出更高的代價來得到他所需要的；反倒是對於同樣商品所得邊際效益較少的人，需求不這麼迫切的人，可以以較低的代價獲得。就好像古董商要買一件中意的東西之前要假裝自已對該物品並沒有興趣，才能用較低的價格購得 ── 這種市場扭曲其實也是人性，但前者卻是因市場機制的失敗產生的，因為其他供給的競爭者若不跟進，會有被市場淘汰之虞。古董交易與金融交易有相同的特性，即不完整的資訊(imperfect information) ── 賣方在交易那一刻無法得知買方的能力及意向。此時，賣方最保險的方式就是漫天要價，因而只有有能力討價還價的人才佔上風。對那些需求緊迫的人來說，不管賣方出多少價，他都只好接受。在我看來，這其實也是市場的成功，只是當初亞當史密斯沒有想到而已。電影〈駭客任務〉中電腦人在逼問莫斐斯時說出一段很富哲理的話。他說，原本母體所創造的虛擬世界是一個完美的世界，人人都過著幸福快樂的日子。但後來發現這樣的世界並不成功，人類會無故大批的死亡。經過一次次的實驗升級改良，才發展成今天這樣一個不完美的版本；似乎人類必須從痛苦的掙扎中找到生活下去的理由。

從市場失敗的教訓，不知那些在政治上主張自由主義的人是否得到一些啟示。現代的自由主義者所一致認同的目標是讓所有的人儘可能的有機會去發揮自身的潛能，包括透過政治力制定必要的政策。而《消費者債務清理條例》的通過正是這種主張的體現。如果有一天真能如此，是否會發生像市場失敗同樣的事？在這個「市場」裡，所要達到的均衡是全體人類的幸福（唯一的商品）。因為每個人對幸福的定義不同，於是在不妨害別人追求幸福的前提下讓每個人自由追求自身幸福，不論是政治的或社會的力量都不應對其有所限制 ── 應該要防範的反倒是社會力的專制。自由主義者假定這樣就能讓所有人皆能得到最大的利益，就如完全競爭市場一樣。自由主義者也都是人道主義者，這些人立意雖都良善，但就好像牙醫師一樣，可能替一個年近古稀的老者安了一副千年不壞的牙齒。電腦人也說了，人類其實是地球上的癌細胞，地球上的生物沒有一種像人類一樣貪婪地濫用地球的資源，漫無限制的增生。這個市場的需求者當然是每個個人，那供給者呢？誰能提供我們幸福呢？這個提供者是否對他的需求者有充分的認知呢？人們在未得到幸福時也許會怪政府，或者怨天尤人。但明白的人知道，只有自己才能給自己幸福。但是人們對於幸福的定義總是被物慾及肉慾所左右。由於對自己的認知不足，於是向自己漫天要價，若不是像古董商那樣假裝自己並不是這麼需要，就是接受自己所開的價。問題是這個價錢是沒有人付的起的。結果不但沒有人得到幸福，而且最終將無法滿足所有人類的需求；市場不但會因對需求者的資訊不足而失敗 ── 因為自己對自己的橫征暴斂，沒有人因自由競爭而得利 ──，也會因資源的有限性而失敗。也許再過幾年，自由主義者除了認同安樂死，也會贊成一胎化政策，或者類似人類生存年限或自殺條款之類的東西吧！亦或者有一天他們終將覺悟，要達到這個市場的均衡唯一的方法就是放任人類自生自滅？回到過去讓所有的暴君可以恣行他們的苛政，人們可以再次從對抗暴政中找到生命的意義及幸福。

離題了。《消費者債務清理條例》施行二年後，卡奴的噩夢並未結束。台灣法院對卡奴的態度反應社會大眾對卡奴的觀感，對於弱勢的輕視跟歧視，還有冷漠。梭羅說，這是因為台灣的法官或者說一般民眾不服從神給他們的諭示，亦不接受祂無私地給予一切人的寬宥；正如春天給予大地的寬宥一般。 （未完）

時 運

At length the sun's rays have attained the right angle, and warm winds blow up mist and rain and melt the snowbanks, and the sun, dispersing the mist, smiles on a checkered landscape of russet and white smoking with incense, through which the traveller picks his way from islet to islet, cheered by the music of a thousand tinkling rills and rivulets whose veins are filled with the blood of winter which they are bearing off.

梭羅說，之所以會吸引我到林中生活的原因之一便是，我可以有閑情及機會去看著春天的到來。

他說，此時陽光將冰雪銷溶，淙淙流水中充滿冬天的血液，將冬載走。

陶淵明有《時運》詩四首，描寫春天來時，到東郊獨游時的景物心情。欣慨交心，不必悲欣交集也！

《時 運》並序

時運，遊暮春也。春服既成，景物斯和，偶景獨遊，欣慨交心。

其一
邁邁時運，穆穆良朝。
襲我春服，薄言東郊。 （春天來時，應買件新衣服穿。）
山滌餘靄，宇曖微霄。
有風自南，翼彼新苗。

其二
洋洋平潭，乃漱乃濯。
邈邈遐景，載欣載矚。
人亦有言，稱心易足。
揮茲一觴，陶然自樂。

其三
延目中流，悠想清沂。
童冠齊業，閑詠以歸。
我愛其掙，寤寐交揮。
但恨殊世，邈不可追。

其四
斯晨斯夕，言息其廬。
花藥分列，林竹翳如。
清琴橫床，濁酒半壺。
黃唐莫逮，慨獨在余。

人間四月天

At length the winter set in good earnest, just as I had finished plastering, and the wind began to howl around the house as if it had not had permission to do so till then. Night after night the geese came lumbering in the dark with a clangor and a whistling of wings, even after the ground was covered with snow, some to alight in Walden, and some flying low over the woods toward Fair Haven, bound for Mexico. Several times, when returning from the village at ten or eleven o'clock at night, I heard the tread of a flock of geese, or else ducks, on the dry leaves in the woods by a pond-hole behind my dwelling, where they had come up to feed, and the faint honk or quack of their leader as they hurried off. In 1845 Walden froze entirely over for the first time on the night of the 22d of December, Flint's and other shallower ponds and the river having been frozen ten days or more; in '46, the 16th; in '49, about the 31st; and in '50, about the 27th of December; in '52, the 5th of January; in '53, the 31st of December. The snow had already covered the ground since the 25th of November, and surrounded me suddenly with the scenery of winter. I withdrew yet farther into my shell, and endeavored to keep a bright fire both within my house and within my breast. My employment out of doors now was to collect the dead wood in the forest, bringing it in my hands or on my shoulders, or sometimes trailing a dead pine tree under each arm to my shed.

從這段文字可以看出，梭羅一直到1853年，即本書初版的前一年，仍在修改書中的內容。而他是在付梓九年前，即1845年三月就開始他的實驗的。根據後人研究，本書的初稿，寫於梭羅在湖邊生活的兩年間，而其份量不到成書時的二分之一。所以有些學者認為本書不過是一本散文小說。從 Brute Neighbors 之後的幾章到 Spring 之前有關冬天的部份都是在1851年後才寫就的。

現在已經是春天，我決定暫時將冬天的部份跳過，直接從 Spring 讀起。這樣也許更貼近梭羅的實驗。

蕃薯及 Ground Nut

Digging one day for fishworms, I discovered the ground-nut (Apios tuberosa) on its string, the potato of the aborigines, a sort of fabulous fruit, which I had begun to doubt if I had ever dug and eaten in childhood, as I had told, and had not dreamed it. I had often since seen its crumpled red velvety blossom supported by the stems of other plants without knowing it to be the same. Cultivation has well-nigh exterminated it. It has a sweetish taste, much like that of a frost-bitten potato, and I found it better boiled than roasted. This tuber seemed like a faint promise of Nature to rear her own children and feed them simply here at some future period. In these days of fatted cattle and waving grain-fields this humble root, which was once the totem of an Indian tribe, is quite forgotten, or known only by its flowering vine; but let wild Nature reign here once more, and the tender and luxurious English grains will probably disappear before a myriad of foes, and without the care of man the crow may carry back even the last seed of corn to the great cornfield of the Indian's God in the southwest, whence he is said to have brought it; but the now almost exterminated ground-nut will perhaps revive and flourish in spite of frosts and wildness, prove itself indigenous, and resume its ancient importance and dignity as the diet of the hunter tribe. Some Indian Ceres or Minerva must have been the inventor and bestower of it; and when the reign of poetry commences here, its leaves and string of nuts may be represented on our works of art.

中國把馬鈴薯稱之為土豆顯然是從英文 ground nut 直譯過來。但是 ground nut 是一種藤蔓植物，土下有長在根上頭的塊莖；因其塊莖形狀像個球而得名。也許曾經用來稱呼馬鈴薯，但現在馬鈴薯都改稱 potato 了。 Ground nut 在美洲是原住民的主食，據說內含的蛋白質是一般食用馬鈴薯的三倍。所以梭羅說，這種塊莖是大自然的允諾，允諾在未來某一段時期，（若是世界有了什麼變化），還是可以用來餵養她自己的孩子。

蕃薯英文 Sweet Potato，中國稱之為地瓜。台灣原本是沒有蕃薯的，它是由中南美洲輾轉傳布到世界各地。雖然不是台灣的原生作物，但是十六世紀末，蕃薯幫助台灣先民度過荒蕪與天災。隨著移民的拓墾，蕃薯在台蔓衍茁壯，清朝時更成為輸往中國的高獲利作物。進入日本殖民時代，日人以科學方法栽植改良，使蕃薯質精量盛。六○年代以降，蕃薯從食糧轉型為家畜飼料，協助台灣以畜產品對外貿易，對之後台灣的經濟飆揚，有著不可磨滅的功蹟。現在蕃薯又成為當紅的健康食品。台灣人稱自己為蕃薯仔；蕃薯早已經成為台灣的 ground nut，也是大自然的允諾。有一天世界溫度升高了2度C，所有的外國人都跑了，它就會再用來餵養台灣的蕃薯仔囝。

柴山的龍目井

It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters only. How retired the otter manages to live here! (below: The Northern River Otter, Lontra canadensis) He grows to be four feet long, as big as a small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse of him. I formerly saw the raccoon in the woods behind where my house is built, and probably still heard their whinnering at night. Commonly I rested an hour or two in the shade at noon, after planting, and ate my lunch, and read a little by a spring which was the source of a swamp and of a brook, oozing from under Brister's Hill, half a mile from my field. The approach to this was through a succession of descending grassy hollows, full of young pitch pines, into a larger wood about the swamp. There, in a very secluded and shaded spot, under a spreading white pine, there was yet a clean, firm sward to sit on. I had dug out the spring and made a well of clear gray water, where I could dip up a pailful without roiling it, and thither I went for this purpose almost every day in midsummer, when the pond was warmest. Thither, too, the woodcock led her brood, to probe the mud for worms, flying but a foot above them down the bank, while they ran in a troop beneath; but at last, spying me, she would leave her young and circle round and round me, nearer and nearer till within four or five feet, pretending broken wings and legs, to attract my attention, and get off her young, who would already have taken up their march, with faint, wiry peep, single file through the swamp, as she directed. Or I heard the peep of the young when I could not see the parent bird. There too the turtle doves sat over the spring, or fluttered from bough to bough of the soft white pines over my head; or the red squirrel, coursing down the nearest bough, was particularly familiar and inquisitive. You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns.

Discover Thoreau’s white pine by Brister’s Spring

Brister's Hill 是華爾騰湖北邊約半英哩處的一個小台地。此篇部落格日誌提到 Brister's Spring 是 Mill Brook 的發源處及可靠的飲用水來源。梭羅在夏日最炎熱時，因池水太熱，會跑到這裡來汲水。部落格作者則推測華爾騰湖的池水也是冷泉水的來源之一；池水滲到地下後再由冷泉出口處冒出來。不過未經証實。目前冷泉的右側有一木製地標標示著。

在台灣，凡是從岩石裂隙中湧出的山泉，大都叫作龍目井。高雄市的北柴山龍皇寺步道入口處左側有一大水塘，水塘中的水位隨季節不同，容枯各異，其水的來源就是來自上方的一口龍目井，名曰『龍巖冽泉』。高雄市柴山會所立的一塊解說牌如此描述：「昔日柴山東麓多處礁岩裂縫有冷泉奔湧而出，汨汨不絕，孕育眾生－－平埔族、漢人、到一草一木。青翠山巒，加上山緣多處奔流的冷泉，猶如打狗血脈！清朝時將此湧泉壯觀地稱『龍巖冽泉』，而民間通常將會噴出湧泉的礁石裂縫稱『龍目井』」。過去在夏日雨季時泉水源源湧出，兒童每在此戲水，清涼無比。然而不知是原本的環境受到破壞，還是人為的過度開發，導致涵養水源的功能下降，如今的龍巖冽泉，已經是從終年不竭到雨季才有水，再變成下大雨後才有水了。 （取材自龍巖冽泉）

我們的神殿

Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

林肯曾經說過，一個人40歲以後的相貌應該由自己負責。("Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40.")

梭羅說，任何的高潔，都會馬上使一個人有更優雅的特徵；任何的卑下或肉慾，都會使他更像野獸。

《薄伽梵歌》有：人由自己的信仰建構而成。信仰崇拜什麼，他就會變成什麼。 (17.3)

梭羅則說，每個人都是神殿的建造者，此神殿即他的身軀，用來供奉他所信仰的神；用我們自己的血肉骨幹當材料，以我們自己的風格來設計建造。

什麼都不信的人，就什麼也不是。現在的人大多相信金錢，所以到處都聞得到銅臭味，即便他們們噴了再多再貴的香水也掩蓋不了。

精進不放逸

All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one. It is the same whether a man eat, or drink, or cohabit, or sleep sensually. They are but one appetite, and we only need to see a person do any one of these things to know how great a sensualist he is. The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity. When the reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at another. If you would be chaste, you must be temperate. What is chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know it. We have heard of this virtue, but we know not what it is. We speak conformably to the rumor which we have heard. From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality. In the student sensuality is a sluggish habit of mind. An unclean person is universally a slothful one, one who sits by a stove, whom the sun shines on prostrate, who reposes without being fatigued. If you would avoid uncleanness, and all the sins, work earnestly, though it be at cleaning a stable. Nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome. What avails it that you are Christian, if you are not purer than the heathen, if you deny yourself no more, if you are not more religious? I know of many systems of religion esteemed heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites merely.

惡由放逸所致，非心性之本然；欲迴心向善，貴在攝護其心。梭羅說，從精進，得到智慧與純潔；從放逸，得到無明與肉慾。對學習者來說，肉慾即是心靈的懶惰習慣。當我們放逸時，生殖的精力會令我們渙散而污穢下沉；當我們自安時，則會啟發並激勵我們向上。

《法句經》有：

不誦為言垢，不勤為家垢，不嚴為色垢，放逸為事垢。

所以梭羅說，不潔之人大概就是懶惰的人，只剩下一張嘴，就算不累也不想起來動一動的人。


《增一阿含》有：

猶如山河、石壁、百草、五穀，皆依於地而得長大。然復此地最尊、最上。此亦如是。諸善道品之法，住不放逸之地，使諸善法而得長大。

37道品中的四正勤的內容為：

1. 勤於防護眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意六入處。任何欲念令不生起。
2. 已生起者，速速將之斷絕。
3. 勤於修習七覺支，令善法增廣。
4. 修習不淨觀、多修習，令已生之善法不退。

《經集．大品》精勤經有：

This wind will wither the currents of the rivers, why should not my exertion dry up even the blood? When the blood dries up, the bile and phlegm wither. On the wasting away of the flesh the mind becomes more and more serene and my mindfulness, wisdom and concentration are established more firmly.

溪流既已風乾，血液如何不因我的精勤凝結？
當血液稀薄時，膽汁及惡痰亦隨之乾涸。
肉體愈是消瘦，心靈愈是清明，我的心志、智慧、修行也更為穩固。

人之所以異於禽獸者

We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure. The other day I picked up the lower jaw of a hog, with white and sound teeth and tusks, which suggested that there was an animal health and vigor distinct from the spiritual. This creature succeeded by other means than temperance and purity. "That in which men differ from brute beasts," says Mencius, "is a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully." Who knows what sort of life would result if we had attained to purity? If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith.


孟子曰：「人之所以異於禽獸者幾希，庶民去之，君子存之。舜明於庶物，察於人倫，由仁義行，非行仁義也。」

《孟子》-- 離婁下

從這段孟子的話看來，他所指的異於禽獸者主要應該就是仁義。他強調舜是心存仁義而行，而不是將仁義道德當作治國的口號。

我們如果依著獸性而活，也可以活的很好。歷史上許多文明較高的國家就是被比較不文明的國家給消滅的；譬如波斯之於阿拉伯，明朝之於清朝。但是在他們的政權穩固後，就會開始感到自己教養之不足，自己的虛榮與虛空；開始感到權力與財富的不足，而開始為他們後代累積真正有價值的東西，進而學習他所曾征服的民族所擁有的心智成果。

梭羅說，如果他知道有那個有智慧的人可以教他過聖潔的生活，他會迫不及待的出發去探訪他。為什麼什麼都要等到有了財富才能做呢？行善有這麼難嗎？

雜阿含13經

A puritan may go to his brown-bread crust with as gross an appetite as ever an alderman to his turtle. Not that food which entereth into the mouth defileth a man, but the appetite with which it is eaten. It is neither the quality nor the quantity, but the devotion to sensual savors; when that which is eaten is not a viand to sustain our animal, or inspire our spiritual life, but food for the worms that possess us. If the hunter has a taste for mud-turtles, muskrats, and other such savage tidbits, the fine lady indulges a taste for jelly made of a calf's foot, or for sardines from over the sea, and they are even. He goes to the mill-pond, she to her preserve-pot. The wonder is how they, how you and I, can live this slimy, beastly life, eating and drinking.


<雜阿含13經>有：

若眾生於色不味者，則不染於色；以眾生於色味故，則有染著。


菩提比丘長老根據南傳相對經文的英譯為：

if there was no gratification in form, beings would not become enamoured with it; but because there is gratification in form, beings become enamoured with it.

愛味(gratification)是會令人回味黏著、還想再要的滿足。就是因為眾生對於五蘊會有滿足感，所以才有染著。《瑜伽師地論》解釋：觀察諸行為緣，生樂生喜，是名於彼愛味。

梭羅在此則用了其他的字眼。愛味是為 sensual savors；染著為 devotion。他說，敗壞人的不是入嘴之物，而是吃東西的食欲；如果只是為了吃而吃，那就只是在餵養我們體內的貪吃蟲。出家人也會跟國會議員一樣喜歡吃麻油腰子。梭羅認為，對美食趨之若騖的時尚名流、嫺嫺淑女與喜歡嚼檳榔、吃狗肉的人是完全相等的。嚼檳榔的人有時還是為了提神，而淑女們只是為了吃。

心不在焉

Who has not sometimes derived an inexpressible satisfaction from his food in which appetite had no share? I have been thrilled to think that I owed a mental perception to the commonly gross sense of taste, that I have been inspired through the palate, that some berries which I had eaten on a hillside had fed my genius. "The soul not being mistress of herself," says Thseng-tseu, "one looks, and one does not see; one listens, and one does not hear; one eats, and one does not know the savor of food." He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.

所謂修身在正其心者：身有所忿懥，則不得其正；有所恐懼，則不得其正；有所好樂，則不得其正；有所憂患，則不得其正；心不在焉，視而不見，聽而不聞，食而不知其味。此謂修身在正其心。

梭羅在此又引用了《大學》。四書中的《大學》可說是儒家思想的綱領，其中不少段落在高中時也曾讀過，卻是視而不見，聽而不聞。梭羅說，能夠體會食物的真味之人，不會貪得無厭；而食不知味的人，永遠無法滿足。台灣的教育制度造成每個學子在上大學之前，他的靈魂無法為自己作主，只希望自己像電腦一樣，能塞多少就塞多少。在印象中，那個時期，未真正品嚐過為準備升學所必須閱讀的材料，只是想盡辦法把那些材料記下來而已。這些吸收進來的知識無法滋養我的心靈，只能佔據我的硬碟空間，以致於後來找回自己的心時，發現要把它們清一清也不是一件容易的事。據說，受到黨國教育毒害最深的就是 40 - 60 歲這一水的人。而要清除的還不只是這一部份而已。

靈性的呼喚

If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.


我這麼生活所可獲得的東西往往難以描述，亦無可捉摸。也許是一時與古人心靈相通的喜悅，也許是月光造成的、未曾為人類所描述過的景象。男人在交媾後會有快死的感覺，這是我可以理解的；但據說女人高潮時則可以興奮到死了也沒關係。我認為這種說法可能只是男人的性幻想。梭羅說，人與人之間，可能從來未有真正令人驚駭或真實的事實互相傳遞過。我想他的意思是，因為無法用人可以使用的表達方式傳達。梭羅用的字是 man to man，但 man to woman 或 woman to man 或 woman to woman 是否有可能呢？就算是有，也不會是性慾的滿足；因為感官是無常的，女人的感官也無法違背我們這個婆娑世界中的物理定律。

有趣的是，梭羅說，人如果傾聽他靈性那最微弱但卻不斷的暗示，他將不知它會帶他到何等的極端及瘋狂的境地；設若他變的更為果決及對此暗示更有信念的話，他便會發現他的道路在哪。這樣的說法卻很貼切的描述一個女人對愛情不顧一切的執著。男人雖可能為愛情拋棄一切，但少有到瘋狂的境地。女人的執著儘管不為世人所欣賞瞭解，有時連自己都懷疑到底執著的東西是否存在，卻也不因之悔恨。

四食 four nutriments

It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery. Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made. It may be vain to ask why the imagination will not be reconciled to flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way — as any one who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn — and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.

梭羅說，當我們餵養自己的身體時，也要同時餵養我們的想像力。而他以為肉食會冒犯人的想像力。佛陀則用夫婦在糧食乏盡時共食子肉的比喻來告誡世人應如何看待人類對食物的需求。這對夫婦在吃肉時當然不會去想肉的味道如何。佛陀說：「若於四食，無貪無喜，則無憂悲，亦無塵垢。」

今時今日修道之所以不易，乃是因為光是飲食並不足以支持這個身體。人必須滿足於各種生理及心理上的需求之後，才有能力修梵行；否則在修行途中，就會無法支持，餓死或精神失常。佛陀說有四食資益眾生，令得住世攝受長養。何等為四？謂一粗細搏食，二觸食，三意思食(intellectual intention)，四識食。而此四食又因貪愛而生。這也就是二刃的刀 ── 人為了要活著需要此四食，得此四食又緣於貪愛。所以當你要此四食以長養此色身時，就會自然產生貪愛。在物慾橫流的今日要滿足於此四食並不容易。除非下了決心過著隱姓埋名的日子，與家人朋友不再往來，不然便必須面對社會對你的期望：正常人必須具備的積極進取的人生觀。這樣的人生觀如果沒有一定的物慾及企圖心(意思食)是無法支撐的。如此一來，要保持不退轉就要知道「一心正念、安住觀察」。要「覺諸受起、覺諸受住、覺諸受滅，正念而住，不令散亂」。對於自已的感受要像局外人一樣的觀察它們的生起、持續以及消滅，而不是任由自己因這些感受產生的各種情緒散亂迴轉。隨著感覺的產生、停留及消逝，要如實的觀察。觀察其愛味、過患、及出離。如此才不會因放縱損及修行。萬不可留戀已消逝的感覺，苦苦追求，蓋此正是諸結煩惱之因。

更高的食物

The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth. Like many of my contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, etc.; not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination. The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live low and fare hard in many respects; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination. I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant fact, stated by entomologists — I find it in Kirby and Spence — that "some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with organs of feeding, make no use of them"; and they lay it down as "a general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much less than in that of larvae. The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly ... and the gluttonous maggot when become a fly" content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid. The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly still represents the larva. This is the tidbit which tempts his insectivorous fate. The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them.

臺灣人跟大多數的已開發國家的人民比較起來，最大的不同之處就是在吃的方面。每個週末，我的姐姐弟弟帶著孩子回到家裡，通常就是看看電視，然後以吃飯結束假期。而電視上的旅遊節目如果不提到美食，大概就沒有收視率；就連公共電視的一個頗受歡迎的節目，誰來晚餐，也還是要以吃東西來表示對來賓的款待之意。

梭羅在這段文字裡提到，昆蟲只有在幼蟲階段才會大吃大喝；蛻變為成蟲後，就只需吃一點點足可維生。這似乎表示臺灣人雖然在經濟上已然是世界上的成蟲，但在其他方面仍然處於幼蟲階段，還要繼續大吃大喝才能化為蟲蛹，繼而幻化為美麗的蝴蝶。大部份的奢侈品及生活上的許多享受，尤其是吃的享受，不但沒有必要，還會成為難以克服的障礙，使人無法提昇到較高的層次。印度聖雄甘地在齋戒時感覺到，血液漸漸變得稀薄時，心靈就變得清明了，不相干的瑣事消失了，而最基本的東西 －－ 有時竟是世界之靈魂的本身 －－ 從現象世界脫穎而出，像聖母峰從雲層上出現一樣。據說，完全戒絕肉食的人會養成一種非常敏銳的嗅覺，他們從一個人的氣息或皮膚的汗水能夠馬上說出那個人有沒有吃肉。

「自我」、「本我」與「超我」

AS I CAME home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented. Once or twice, however, while I lived at the pond, I found myself ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison which I might devour, and no morsel could have been too savage for me. The wildest scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good. The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommended it to me. I like sometimes to take rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Perhaps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. They early introduce us to and detain us in scenery with which otherwise, at that age, we should have little acquaintance. Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them. The traveller on the prairie is naturally a hunter, on the head waters of the Missouri and Columbia a trapper, and at the Falls of St. Mary a fisherman. He who is only a traveller learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.

德人佛洛依德言「自我」調合「本我」與「超我」，而求其平衡；然而梭羅卻反其道而行。梭羅鼓勵年輕人在成長的過程中藉著打獵來認識森林，他說，人類在經過了輕狂的年少時期後，便不會輕易傷害任何和他自己一樣享有生命的動物。把時光像動物那樣渡過、讓自己的野性得到充份的發展後，就會對生命產生敬畏。

中國《易經》坤上六爻辭釋義有：龍戰于野，其血玄黃。指的即是靈肉之交戰。文言傳釋義有：夫玄黃者，天地之雜也，天玄而地黃。是為交戰後身心恢復平衡。那麼靈肉交戰發生於何時呢？即陰爻居上位之時，也就是人的野性發展到極致之時。

A Mode of Life to Pursue

I tried to help him with my experience, telling him that he was one of my nearest neighbors, and that I too, who came a-fishing here, and looked like a loafer, was getting my living like himself; that I lived in a tight, light, and clean house, which hardly cost more than the annual rent of such a ruin as his commonly amounts to; and how, if he chose, he might in a month or two build himself a palace of his own; that I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food; but as he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he had to work hard to pay for them, and when he had worked hard he had to eat hard again to repair the waste of his system — and so it was as broad as it was long, indeed it was broader than it was long, for he was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he had rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not endeavor to compel you to sustain the slavery and war and other superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the use of such things. For I purposely talked to him as if he were a philosopher, or desired to be one. I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men's beginning to redeem themselves. A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.

噗友Tseng說：

在地球上，生命是一種揮霍。幾乎只要可能就會有一種生命形式產生。而作為一個人最有力的，是我們可以選擇自己要如何活著。如果你只是一隻珊瑚，你大概沒有選擇；如果你是一隻美洲豹，你能選的是為了生存拼死一搏，或是一隻公豹。 但是身為人類，社會如此寬廣，我們可以選擇怎樣生活，為何而活。

像這樣的想法在梭羅那個時代還是相當前衛的；梭羅告訴他的鄰居說：你從愛爾蘭移民到美國來，不是為了天天可以喝茶喝咖啡，吃奶油吃牛排；而是因為你在此可以有自由去追求或不追求這樣的生活。若是你能像我一樣，選擇不食用這些東西，也許美國政府就能停止奴隸買賣或發動不必要的戰爭。

但是150多年過去，即使大家都知道這個道理，能夠將Tseng的話聽進去的還是少之又少。在台灣，我們也已經有這種選擇的自由，可是大部份的人卻與那個愛爾蘭移民一樣，嘆一口氣，尋思自己是否有辦法如此過活；對他們來說，這樣的日子風險太大，一點保險也沒有。不少人還覺得台灣太自由，而寧願像狗一樣戴上項圈，綁上繩索才敢出門。這些人一點安全感也沒有，再怎麼窮也要跟保險公司買些保險才覺得自己像個人。人類何時才會為了自己的救贖，而任地球上的草地回歸原野？何時才能學會，不為了更高級的茶咖啡、更多汁可口的牛排，放任自己及別人由資本社會所奴役？

心猿意馬

I have spent many an hour, when I was younger, floating over its surface as the zephyr willed, having paddled my boat to the middle, and lying on my back across the seats, in a summer forenoon, dreaming awake, until I was aroused by the boat touching the sand, and I arose to see what shore my fates had impelled me to; days when idleness was the most attractive and productive industry. Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher's desk. But since I left those shores the woodchoppers have still further laid them waste, and now for many a year there will be no more rambling through the aisles of the wood, with occasional vistas through which you see the water. My Muse may be excused if she is silent henceforth. How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down?

唐玄奘在五十六歲時想要歸隱少林寺，於是向高宗進表：

　... 斷伏煩惱，必定、慧相資，如車二輪，闕一不可。至如研味
　經論，慧學也；依林宴坐，定學也。玄奘少來頗得專精教義，唯
　於四禪九定，未暇安心。今願託慮禪門，澄心定水；制情猿之逸
　躁，縶意馬之奔馳。若不歛跡山中，不可成就 ...

可見要想成就定學，外在環境也是必要因素。這也可以說明為何自己總是心猿意馬，不得安住。住心尚不能得，何況解脫？任憑一個人如何有修養及智慧，要在人世凡塵中以佛教的修煉方式求得解脫是不可能的。因為要想成就定學，外在環境也是必要因素；「若不歛跡山中，不可成就 」。

　《法華經》的勸持品中提到修煉聲聞乘的比丘們承認自己沒有能力在我們這個世界中廣說《法華經》，這是因為我們這個世界的人多弊惡、傲慢、功德淺薄，內心多懷瞋怒、污濁、諂媚，而且不誠實。只有具備大忍力的菩薩才能在這裡教化弘通這部經典。

　　
梭羅年輕時經常於夏日上午，乘著他的小舟，划到池心，然後躺在舟上，作著他清醒的夢。就這麼載浮載沉，直到他的舟給徐徐的風帶到了岸上，他才起來看看命運之流將他帶到了那裡。他說，在那些日子裡，閑散、無所事事才是最迷人而具有生機的勞動。因為他有的是明媚的陽光和夏日，所以可以大筆揮霍。他往往偷溜出來，寧願把一天中最寶貴的時間就這麼渡過，而不要用在工作室裡或老師的桌前。嗣因他離開湖邊的日子裡，伐木工人把附近的林地攪的荒蕪一片，原來的林間小道沒了，自然也沒了偶爾透過樹林空隙可以瞧見的池水景緻；梭羅的詩興因之沉默，畢竟你如何忍心責備被砍了樹林的小鳥不再鳴唱！

　

湖水、海水和玻璃的顏色

All our Concord waters have two colors at least; one when viewed at a distance, and another, more proper, close at hand. The first depends more on the light, and follows the sky. In clear weather, in summer, they appear blue at a little distance, especially if agitated, and at a great distance all appear alike. In stormy weather they are sometimes of a dark slate-color. The sea, however, is said to be blue one day and green another without any perceptible change in the atmosphere. I have seen our river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, both water and ice were almost as green as grass. Some consider blue "to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid." But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both. Viewed from a hilltop it reflects the color of the sky; but near at hand it is of a yellowish tint next the shore where you can see the sand, then a light green, which gradually deepens to a uniform dark green in the body of the pond. In some lights, viewed even from a hilltop, it is of a vivid green next the shore. Some have referred this to the reflection of the verdure; but it is equally green there against the railroad sandbank, and in the spring, before the leaves are expanded, and it may be simply the result of the prevailing blue mixed with the yellow of the sand. Such is the color of its iris. This is that portion, also, where in the spring, the ice being warmed by the heat of the sun reflected from the bottom, and also transmitted through the earth, melts first and forms a narrow canal about the still frozen middle. Like the rest of our waters, when much agitated, in clear weather, so that the surface of the waves may reflect the sky at the right angle, or because there is more light mixed with it, it appears at a little distance of a darker blue than the sky itself; and at such a time, being on its surface, and looking with divided vision, so as to see the reflection, I have discerned a matchless and indescribable light blue, such as watered or changeable silks and sword blades suggest, more cerulean than the sky itself, alternating with the original dark green on the opposite sides of the waves, which last appeared but muddy in comparison. It is a vitreous greenish blue, as I remember it, like those patches of the winter sky seen through cloud vistas in the west before sundown. Yet a single glass of its water held up to the light is as colorless as an equal quantity of air. It is well known that a large plate of glass will have a green tint, owing, as the makers say, to its "body," but a small piece of the same will be colorless. How large a body of Walden water would be required to reflect a green tint I have never proved. The water of our river is black or a very dark brown to one looking directly down on it, and, like that of most ponds, imparts to the body of one bathing in it a yellowish tinge; but this water is of such crystalline purity that the body of the bather appears of an alabaster whiteness, still more unnatural, which, as the limbs are magnified and distorted withal, produces a monstrous effect, making fit studies for a Michael Angelo.

梭羅在此用了一大段文字描寫華爾騰湖的湖水顏色。他還用玻璃的顏色來作比較。但是我們現在知道這可能是兩回事。應該是無色的厚玻璃之所以會呈現綠色，跟它的材質(原料配方)有關；低鐵玻璃可以作到完全透明。而湖水和海水的顏色之所以會產生不同的變化，主要是因為大海的顏色是由海面反射的光和來自海水內部的回散射光的顏色決定的。湖水亦然。

太陽光線雖然從表面上看是白色的，可實際上它是由紅、橙、黃、綠、青、藍、紫七種可見光組成。這七種光線波長各不相同，而不同深度的海水會吸收不同波長的光，也就是說，海水對不同波長光的吸收和散射是有選擇性的。一般情況下，紅色和黃色等色光的波長比較長，最容易被海水吸收，當他們射入海水後，大部分光會被海水吸收，只有極少部分被水分子及海水中的懸浮顆粒反射和散射。而波長較短的藍光和綠光的穿透能力強，當它們射入海水後，只有少部分被海水吸收，大部分光遇到水分子或其他懸浮顆粒便向四周反射和散射，這樣一來，海水對藍光吸收得少而反射得多，而且越往海水深處越有更多的藍光被折回到水面上來。當這些被反射的藍色光射入到我們眼睛裏時，我們看到的大海便是藍藍的一片。 （問號小博士）

溪頭之旅

There was one older man, an excellent fisher and skilled in all kinds of woodcraft, who was pleased to look upon my house as a building erected for
the convenience of fishermen; and I was equally pleased when he sat in my doorway to arrange his lines.

Once in a while we sat together on the pond, he at one end of the boat, and I at the other; but not many words passed between us, for he had grown deaf
in his later years, but he occasionally hummed a psalm, which harmonized well enough with my philosophy.

Our intercourse was thus altogether one of unbroken harmony, far more pleasing to remember than if it had been carried on by speech. When, as was commonly
the case, I had none to commune with, I used to raise the echoes by striking with a paddle on the side of my boat, filling the surrounding woods with
circling and dilating sound, stirring them up as the keeper of a menagerie his wild beasts, until I elicited a growl from every wooded vale and hillside.

有一善釣魚的老者，精於各種木工，樂於將我的小屋當作釣客休憩之所；而我亦欣然見到他來坐在我門前小逕整理釣線。一日，我與他在池上，各坐在舟的一端；因其年老耳朵漸聾，我們交談不多，然其偶爾哼唱之詩歌，與我的哲學頗相合。我們之間的交流乃成了一段沒有間斷的旋律，較之言語的溝通更值懷念。當我無話可說之時，也嘗用漿擊船舷，鏗鏗鏘鏘，聲振林木，好似馴獸師的鞭子拍在地上，激得每個林壑山坡發出回應之吼。

-- 譯自湖濱散記, 於溪頭大學池旁

此段《湖濱散記》是我有一次去有「台灣的康乃爾」之稱的溪頭時所譯。那時我的朋友帥憲正在康乃爾求學，所以想去體會他在異鄉生活的景況。

這大概是我生平第二次來到這裡。十多年前，當我們都還是理著平頭的高中生時，也曾來到這個地方參加救國團的自強活動。只是我人到了溪頭，卻似從未來過一般。此時方知，『凡走過必留下痕跡』這句話，應該是某個無聊的人憑空想像的蠢話。

第二天上午，洗過澡，練了一套八段錦，到大學池旁的咖啡廳，也許看過書，寫過東西以後，便從銀杏林道出發，往不知名的方向走去。這一天，是絕對自由的。

即使在平常的夜晚，森林裡都比一般人所料想的更黑。人之所以群居，之所以貪財好富，皆是由於恐懼；恐懼黑暗，恐懼孤獨，恐懼貧窮。

風行草偃

I had no lock nor bolt but for the desk which held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day, though I was to be absent several days; not even when the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. And yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The tired rambler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the literary amuse himself with the few books on my table, or the curious, by opening my closet door, see what was left of my dinner, and what prospect I had of a supper. Yet, though many people of every class came this way to the pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from these sources, and I never missed anything but one small book, a volume of Homer, which perhaps was improperly gilded, and this I trust a soldier of our camp has found by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while others have not enough. The Pope's Homers would soon get properly distributed.

"Nec bella fuerunt,
Faginus astabat dum scyphus ante dapes."
"Nor wars did men molest,
When only beechen bowls were in request."

"You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends."


《論語．顏淵》

季康子問政於孔子曰：“如殺無道，以就有道，何如？”孔子對曰：“子為政，焉用殺？子欲善，而民善矣。君子之德風，小人之德草。草上之風，必偃。”

不患寡而患不均是梭羅的思想，他認為如果每個人都生活的像他在樹林時這麼簡樸，根本就不會有偷盜發生；那種事情只會發生在有些人所得超過必需而有些人卻不足的社會。現在大概沒有人會相信這種事情。有些人即使所得已經很足夠了，他還是要偷盜。我在東西德統一之後不久曾到過東德，有機會到一個動物園管理員家中作客。那天，他帶著我和另一位研究鳥類的台灣朋友，跟著他做日常的餵養和管理工作。晚上，他在小小的居室點起暖爐，沒有多餘的傢俱，只是牆壁上排滿著書。三個人吃著很簡單的食物，也許談到孔子的學生顏淵，以前的東德。他大概也不認為共產主義的社會合乎人性，但卻對過去人與人的關係充滿懷念。

如果在上位者都爭著去富豪家的婚宴作客，要人民不跟從也難。你們拿著人民的錢，制定了法律，要求人民不可學你們這樣；但是只要努力打拼，總有一天，總有一天，等賺夠了錢，有了足夠的身份地位，那也能像你們這樣。那些沒有能力，也沒有祖上庇蔭的人，應該安份守己，等你們吃飽喝足了，也許還會剩下一些排翅鮑魚，可以讓他們嚐嚐，作作夢也好。

非暴力反抗 (Civil Disobedience)

One afternoon, near the end of the first summer, when I went to the village to get a shoe from the cobbler's, I was seized and put into jail, because, as I have elsewhere related, I did not pay a tax to, or recognize the authority of, the State which buys and sells men, women, and children, like cattle, at the door of its senate-house. I had gone down to the woods for other purposes. But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might have run "amok" against society; but I preferred that society should run "amok" against me, it being the desperate party. However, I was released the next day, obtained my mended shoe, and returned to the woods in season to get my dinner of huckleberries on Fair Haven Hill.

第一年的夏天將近尾聲，某天下午，梭羅到鎮上拿之前送去修補的鞋子時，被逮捕入獄，因為沒有繳稅。他認為那種會在國會門口販賣奴隸的政府，沒有資格抽人民的稅。

目前台灣這個政府，似乎沒有在做什麼正面的事；若是有，也是人民自己做，而它剛好樂觀其成的。它沒有在維護國家主權及自由，也沒有幫台商西進大陸。它沒有教育人民，而是台灣人民自己教育自己，以免被它的教育污染。一切完成的事多是台灣人民依據自己性格完成的；要不是政府從中阻撓，台灣人民還能做的更多。所以，這樣一個犯下跟李泰安搞軌案一樣罪行的政府，怎能讓人繳稅繳的心甘情願？

梭羅說，培養對法律的尊敬，正如培養對權利的尊敬一樣，是不當的。法律從不能使人的正直增加絲毫。而由於對法律的尊敬，即使天性善良的人也日日做了非正義的代理人。說到對權利的尊敬，以音樂的智慧財產權為例，智慧財產權的存在實是人類在市場經濟的機制運作下退化的現象。市場經濟假設除非這些智慧財產受到保護，沒有人會有動機去發明新的事物；譬如大成本的電影，或者是需要龐大研發經費的新藥品。所以實際上，這些受保護的人，基本上是為了私利而創作，雖然受法律保護，實在不值得尊重。從經濟方面來說，像音樂這種製作成本很低的智慧財產有沒有必要保護也有爭議性。也就是說，保護唱片業者，是否就保證大眾能夠聽到較好的音樂？恐怕未必。我不知道馬英九先生是否天性善良，但他不但尊敬法律，也尊敬權利。

我們唯一應盡的義務，是在任何時候都不做違背自己良心的事。林義雄先生說的好，他的道德標準一點也不高，他周圍的人都是這樣誠實地在過日子，這樣才是個人，才是個台灣人。

共產黨宣言

Ancient poetry and mythology suggest, at least, that husbandry was once a sacred art; but it is pursued with irreverent haste and heedlessness by us, our object being to have large farms and large crops merely. We have no festival, nor procession, nor ceremony, not excepting our cattle-shows and so-called Thanksgivings, by which the farmer expresses a sense of the sacredness of his calling, or is reminded of its sacred origin. It is the premium and the feast which tempt him. He sacrifices not to Ceres and the Terrestrial Jove, but to the infernal Plutus rather. By avarice and selfishness, and a grovelling habit, from which none of us is free, of regarding the soil as property, or the means of acquiring property chiefly, the landscape is deformed, husbandry is degraded with us, and the farmer leads the meanest of lives. He knows Nature but as a robber. Cato says that the profits of agriculture are particularly pious or just (maximeque pius quæstus), and according to Varro the old Romans "called the same earth Mother and Ceres, and thought that they who cultivated it led a pious and useful life, and that they alone were left of the race of King Saturn."

這段文字讓我想起了馬克斯的<共產黨宣言>。

160多年前，即1848年二月，由馬克思主筆，而與恩格斯共同署名的<共產黨宣言>問世。那時梭羅已經結束他在華爾騰湖旁兩年的實驗，暫住在愛默森的家裡。此時的共產主義已經被歐洲一切勢力公認為一種勢力。

<共產黨宣言>裡說：

凡是資產階級已經取得統治的地方，就把所有封建的、宗法的和純樸的關係統統破壞了；無情的斬斷了那些使人依附於「天然的尊長」的形形色色的封建羈絆，使人和人之間，除了赤裸裸的利害關係，即冷酷無情的「現金交易」之外，再也找不到任何其他的聯繫。也把高尚激昂的宗教虔誠、俠義的血性及平凡人的溫情，一概淹沒在利己主義的冷漠之中。... 總而言之，它用公開的、無恥的、直接的、冷酷的剝削，代替了由宗教幻想和政治幻想掩蔽著的剝削。

資產階級如果不使生產工具經常發生變革，就不能生存下去。... 生產中經常不斷的變革，一切社會關係接連不斷的震盪，恆久的不安定和變動 －－ 這就是資產階級時代不同於過去各個時代的地方。... 一切新產生的關係，也都等不到固定下來就變陳舊了。... 一切神聖的事物都給褻瀆了，於是人們最後也就只好用冷靜的眼光來看待自己的生活處境和自己的相互關係了。


羅馬的農業作家Marcus Porcius Cato(234-149 B.C.)曾說：農業的收益是特別虔敬或正當的；但是，梭羅說，”由於貪婪與自私，我們把土地視作私產，或拿來作為獲取私產的手段，農業因之跟著我們一起降格，而農夫則過著最低下的生活”；由於貪婪與自私，我們把智慧視作私產，或拿來作為獲取私產的手段，智識因之跟著我們一起降格，而讀書人則過著最低下的生活。

共產主義本有著天下為公的理想，所以土地不能私有；然而共產主義終究敵不過人類的貪婪和自私，到最後變成了服務少數統治階級者鞏固權力的工具，另一種更厲害的、由政治幻想掩蔽著的剝削。中國的共產黨員肯定對<共產黨宣言>的內容十分熟稔，但是統治階級及資本主義社會才有的中產階級卻可以為了祖國的榮光（事實上是個人的榮光）自欺欺人，掛羊頭賣狗肉。即使中國真的強了，也不過是全世界最大的詐騙集團罷了。而左派人士最為人詬病的地方亦在於此：一方面不願放棄資本主義世界所提供的舒適生活，另一方面批評資本家的不義及剝削，渾然不知自己是剝削者的幫凶。梭羅說，事實上，人並沒有義務獻身於根除錯誤。但如果他要獻身於其他的追求和沉思，他至少必須先弄清楚，他不是坐在別人的肩膀上追求他們的。我們不再需要由宗教幻想和政治幻想掩蔽著的剝削，但如果你無法過簡單樸素的生活，而又不是資產階級，那就只能成為生產機器的簡單附屬品，和其他的勞動工具競爭，跟著受到市場波動影響，隨時準備放無薪假，自願從自由人降格為資本家奴役的對象。

共產黨的實驗已經證明馬克思理論的失敗，人類只能盡可能的讓人類社會往更開放的路上走。階級之分會永遠存在於人類社會；年輕時的哥兒們在經過一二十年的發展後，在下層工作的人會自然與上流社會遠離。這樣的階級之分無法以鬥爭來打破。市場經濟鼓勵公平競爭也許是階級鬥爭的最終型態。馬克思理論的另一個誤判是人類的健忘。馬克思認為由於工商業太發達，社會所擁有的生產力會大到市場無法消耗。結果是，資產階級一方面不得不消滅大量生產力，另一方面奪取新的市場以及更加徹底的剝削舊的市場。然而，人類的歷史與個人的一生都是片斷而不連續的。這是因為人類的記憶往往是破碎而不完整之故。如果我向世人宣稱，昨日的我已非今日之我，世人多半存疑；但是沒有人會否認十年前的我已經和今日的我大不相同。就我本身而言，十年前的我又有多少意義可言呢？幸好，因為人類的健忘，市場經濟對地球資源的消耗才能稍微緩一緩。企業為了保持競爭力，必須不斷創新。但是太陽底下能有多少新鮮事呢？因為人類的健忘而把舊的事物當成新的，於是多餘的生產力便可以適時被市場消化。共產黨的實驗雖已經證明馬克思理論的失敗，但馬克思主義仍會是個備忘錄，提醒世人市場經濟只是必要之惡，絕對不是真正的解決之道。

播 種

This further experience also I gained: I said to myself, I will not plant beans and corn with so much industry another summer, but such seeds, if the seed is not lost, as sincerity, truth, simplicity, faith, innocence, and the like, and see if they will not grow in this soil, even with less toil and manurance, and sustain me, for surely it has not been exhausted for these crops. Alas! I said this to myself; but now another summer is gone, and another, and another, and I am obliged to say to you, Reader, that the seeds which I planted, if indeed they were the seeds of those virtues, were wormeaten or had lost their vitality, and so did not come up. Commonly men will only be brave as their fathers were brave, or timid. This generation is very sure to plant corn and beans each new year precisely as the Indians did centuries ago and taught the first settlers to do, as if there were a fate in it. I saw an old man the other day, to my astonishment, making the holes with a hoe for the seventieth time at least, and not for himself to lie down in! But why should not the New Englander try new adventures, and not lay so much stress on his grain, his potato and grass crop, and his orchards — raise other crops than these? Why concern ourselves so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about a new generation of men? We should really be fed and cheered if when we met a man we were sure to see that some of the qualities which I have named, which we all prize more than those other productions, but which are for the most part broadcast and floating in the air, had taken root and grown in him. Here comes such a subtile and ineffable quality, for instance, as truth or justice, though the slightest amount or new variety of it, along the road.Our ambassadors should be instructed to send home such seeds as these, and Congress help to distribute them over all the land. We should never stand upon ceremony with sincerity. We should never cheat and insult and banish one another by our meanness, if there were present the kernel of worth and friendliness. We should not meet thus in haste. Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans. We would not deal with a man thus plodding ever, leaning on a hoe or a spade as a staff between his work, not as a mushroom, but partially risen out of the earth, something more than erect, like swallows alighted and walking on the ground: —

"And as he spake, his wings would now and then
Spread, as he meant to fly, then close again —"

so that we should suspect that we might be conversing with an angel. Bread may not always nourish us; but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic joy.

我一直想著，像我這樣的人，若是沒有佔了這麼多的便宜，而是必須像大部份的人一樣工作謀生養家，那我最適合幹什麼？深思熟慮之後，就只剩下去種一些不用去街上叫賣的農作物了；如果作物賣不出去，至少可以養活自己。但是這樣恐怕還養不活我的家人。假設性的問題就不要想了！

《耕者婆羅豆婆遮經》說到一則故事：

佛陀有一次在化緣時遇見耕者婆羅豆婆遮。婆羅豆婆遮對佛陀說：「世尊！我種作人耕種而食，不從人乞。瞿曇！汝今亦可耕種而食。」佛陀回道：「我亦耕種而食。」婆羅豆婆遮說：「自說耕田者，而不見其耕，為我說耕田，令我知耕法。」

佛陀於是說：

信心為種子，智慧為時軛，慚愧心為轅，正念為犁鞭。
保藏身口業，知食處內藏，真諦以除草，樂住為懈息。
精進為馱牛，安隱而速進，直往不轉還，得到無憂處。
如是耕田者，逮得甘露果，如是耕田者，不還受諸有。

婆羅豆婆遮聽了，以大銅缽盛乳粥奉上，說道：「請尊者食用！尊者是耕作者，因為，尊者所種植的是真正的甘露果。」

梭羅第一年種了豆子後，第二年似乎就沒種了。他說他要在那片土地上播下其他的種子：譬如真誠，真理，單純，信念，純潔，以及諸如此類的其他種子。然而在過了幾年之後，他發現他播下的那些種子可能因為被狗啃了，所以連發芽的機會都沒有。

如果人類應該從歷史得到經驗，則我可以跳過種豆子的過程，直接再去播下真誠，真理，單純，信念及純潔這些甘露果的種子，看它們會不會在台灣這塊土地上抽出芽來。只要這些種子能在台灣生根，那我們便永遠不必再去講求虛禮，不必再用卑下來欺騙和污辱對方，像郭台銘和林百里那樣試圖消滅對方。

阿羅漢的神通

As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in primeval years lived under these heavens, and their small implements of war and hunting were brought to the light of this modern day. They lay mingled with other natural stones, some of which bore the marks of having been burned by Indian fires, and some by the sun, and also bits of pottery and glass brought hither by the recent cultivators of the soil. When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans; and I remembered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the oratorios. The nighthawk circled overhead in the sunny afternoons — for I sometimes made a day of it — like a mote in the eye, or in heaven's eye, falling from time to time with a swoop and a sound as if the heavens were rent, torn at last to very rags and tatters, and yet a seamless cope remained; small imps that fill the air and lay their eggs on the ground on bare sand or rocks on the tops of hills, where few have found them; graceful and slender like ripples caught up from the pond, as leaves are raised by the wind to float in the heavens; such kindredship is in nature. The hawk is aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his perfect air-inflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea. Or sometimes I watched a pair of hen-hawks circling high in the sky, alternately soaring and descending, approaching, and leaving one another, as if they were the embodiment of my own thoughts. Or I was attracted by the passage of wild pigeons from this wood to that, with a slight quivering winnowing sound and carrier haste; or from under a rotten stump my hoe turned up a sluggish portentous and outlandish spotted salamander, a trace of Egypt and the Nile, yet our contemporary. When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible entertainment which the country offers.

梭羅說他在華爾騰湖旁的高地種了兩英畝半，每行田畦長15杆，總長加起來是7英哩的豆田。

1杆是16.5英呎，16.5×15=247.5英呎。(每行田畦長度)
1英哩是5,280英呎，5280×7=36,960英呎。(田畦總長度)
36960÷247.5=149.3，所以梭羅大概種了150行田畦的豆田。

一英畝是43,560平方英呎，
2.5英畝則是43560×2.5=108,900平方英呎。(田畦總面積)
108900÷247.5=440英呎(田畦總寛度)，
440÷150=2.9英呎，所以每行田畦有大約3英呎寬。
一英呎約等於30公分。

《法句經》有：

如鴈將群　　避羅高翔　　明人導世　　度脫邪眾

這一偈說的是透過修行，人可以橫越天空、凌水而過，遁入地中等。這些能力是精神的、超越自然的，但絕不是奇蹟。梭羅說他在鋤豆田時看到一對鷂鷹在天空飛翔，一會盤旋而上，一會俯衝而下，互相接近而又遠離，正如他思想的化身。有時，我真的覺得透過梭羅的文字，我腳下的不是磨石子地板，而是踩在華爾騰湖旁，清晨露濕的豆田上。

給家穗

I could not but notice some of the peculiarities of my visitors. Girls and boys and young women generally seemed glad to be in the woods. They looked in the pond and at the flowers, and improved their time. Men of business, even farmers, thought only of solitude and employment, and of the great distance at which I dwelt from something or other; and though they said that they loved a ramble in the woods occasionally, it was obvious that they did not. Restless committed men, whose time was all taken up in getting a living or keeping it; ministers who spoke of God as if they enjoyed a monopoly of the subject, who could not bear all kinds of opinions; doctors, lawyers, uneasy housekeepers who pried into my cupboard and bed when I was out — how came Mrs. — to know that my sheets were not as clean as hers? — young men who had ceased to be young, and had concluded that it was safest to follow the beaten track of the professions — all these generally said that it was not possible to do so much good in my position. Ay! there was the rub. The old and infirm and the timid, of whatever age or sex, thought most of sickness, and sudden accident and death; to them life seemed full of danger — what danger is there if you don't think of any? — and they thought that a prudent man would carefully select the safest position, where Dr. B. might be on hand at a moment's warning. To them the village was literally a com-munity, a league for mutual defence, and you would suppose that they would not go a-huckleberrying without a medicine chest. The amount of it is, if a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.

曾經看過一部日本電影《黃昏清兵衛》，其中有一段對白令我頗為感動：

男主角真田廣之是一個明治維新初年落魄的低階武士，妻子死後獨力撫養
二個幼女及癡呆的老母，需要靠作散工及借貸渡日。一晚聽到大女兒背誦
《論語》，問起學校的事。女兒說現在不論男女都要讀《論語》了。父親
不禁嘆道：多麼懷念兒時讀《論語》的日子！

女兒便問：我學會裁縫後，可以作和服、浴袍，但讀了書有什麼用呢？

父親想了想，說道：這個問題不是很容易回答 －－ 可以這麼說，讀了書
後，可以讓人學會思考，只要能夠思考，不論世道人心如何，你一樣可以
生存下去。

小女孩似懂非懂地答是，繼續背著：
　
　”吾日三省吾身：為人謀而不忠乎？與朋友交而不信乎？傳不習乎？”

這也就是說，只要學會怎樣思考，再大的難關都可以過得去。妳曾經遇過
比現在更困難的日子，可是從未想過尋短見。現在妳覺得累了，而且苦日
子好像沒有盡頭，但事實上並非這樣，自我了斷也解決不了問題。最要緊
的是妳如何看待事情，如何擺脫自我的束縛。