追憶逝水年華

Thus for sixteen days I saw from my window a hundred men at work like busy husbandmen, with teams and horses and apparently all the implements of farming, such a picture as we see on the first page of the almanac; and as often as I looked out I was reminded of the fable of the lark and the reapers, or the parable of the sower, and the like; and now they are all gone, and in thirty days more, probably, I shall look from the same window on the pure sea-green Walden water there, reflecting the clouds and the trees, and sending up its evaporations in solitude, and no traces will appear that a man has ever stood there. Perhaps I shall hear a solitary loon laugh as he dives and plumes himself, or shall see a lonely fisher in his boat, like a floating leaf, beholding his form reflected in the waves, where lately a hundred men securely labored. 

這段充滿詩意的文字立刻讓我想到了《徒然草》中第26段所引的一首和歌：

昔日幽期處牆腳傾廢，

唯見堇花叢生荒草間。

有不待風吹而自散落者，人心之花是也！

從人事的慣例看來，曾經互訴情愛的兩人往往會變成不同世界的人，這比死別更可悲。生長在都市的人，一切變化太快，幾年後回到舊的地方，連可回憶的景物都不見了，更何況是人呢！

梭羅的整體論

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect; but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws, which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as, to the traveller, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through it is not comprehended in its entireness.

對於人世間不公義的事儘管不應袖手不顧，但當已盡了力而無法改變時，則可以認為：之所以有這樣的世間，是因為我們所不知的法則所造成。正如高山和深海，如此不同，卻又如此和諧。梭羅說，因為我們所知的法則甚為有限，計算所得結果也會因為我們的無知而有缺陷。我們對於法則以及和諧的看法通常受限於我們的視野，所以真正和諧美好的事物卻看起來互相矛盾衝突，這是因為造成這些真正的和諧美好事物的法則無法為我們所見。我們所見者猶如山中的旅者，山的輪廓隨著行進而有無限變化，但其實山只有一個；即使將之劈開或鑿穿了，我們也無從得窺全豹。

無功任運是謂捨。佛法講捨是有前提的；當修行的人的心既不高昂，亦不下沉時，便不需使用寂止及策舉之法。孔子七十而從心所欲不踰矩，便是捨的法門。在學習電腦語言時，讀到了兩個觀念：reductionism 以及 holism. 前者認為一件事物可以藉著瞭解組成它的各個部份而被瞭解；後者認為事物的整體經常是大於各個部份的總合。程式設計師在學習程式設計時，經常要交錯的使用這兩個互相對立的觀點。修行也是如此。因為偏於修止，於境暗昩，謂之沉沒，此時宜修策舉相；若心高舉，則應修厭背相，使心沉靜。然而，若是使用遞迴的技巧，則 reductionism 會成為瞭解程式的敵人，必須讓自己完全以 holism 的觀點來思考。此時就跟捨的法門很類似了。在山中修行的行者，或急或徐，若在某處美景耽著，則怠慢修行；若是急著攻頂，則會錯過身旁美景。梭羅說，我一生中曾遇見過一兩個人真正懂得每天散步的心法，－－ 不僅僅是為了運動身體，或只是為了振奮精神，而是確實地鍛鍊身心，讓自己能夠藉著拋棄任何特定的目標而達到最真實究竟的目標 －－ 這樣的人可以說是具備了溜達閑晃的天賦。

華爾騰湖測量圖

When I had mapped the pond by the scale of ten rods to an inch, and put down the soundings, more than a hundred in all, I observed this remarkable coincidence. Having noticed that the number indicating the greatest depth was apparently in the centre of the map, I laid a rule on the map lengthwise, and then breadthwise, and found, to my surprise, that the line of greatest length intersected the line of greatest breadth exactly at the point of greatest depth, notwithstanding that the middle is so nearly level, the outline of the pond far from regular, and the extreme length and breadth were got by measuring into the coves; and I said to myself, Who knows but this hint would conduct to the deepest part of the ocean as well as of a pond or puddle? Is not this the rule also for the height of mountains, regarded as the opposite of valleys? We know that a hill is not highest at its narrowest part.

梭羅在池畔生活的第一年冬季，即1946年初，便對華爾騰池進行測量。他的測量技術是自學的，但1946年所繪製的測量結果卻真實呈現了華爾騰池的形狀：（圖中箭頭所指是北方）

圖右下角的 D點現在叫作梭羅灣（Thoreau's Cove），他的池畔小屋則位在D點右下標示著 House 的位置。

底下是google map 的地圖：

檢視較大的地圖

梭羅所繪地圖翻轉180度後如下：