用減法過日子

When I consider my neighbors, the farmers of Concord, who are at least as well off as the other classes, I find that for the most part they have been toiling twenty, thirty, or forty years, that they may become the real owners of their farms, which commonly they have inherited with encumbrances, or else bought with hired money — and we may regard one third of that toil as the cost of their houses — but commonly they have not paid for them yet. It is true, the encumbrances sometimes outweigh the value of the farm, so that the farm itself becomes one great encumbrance, and still a man is found to inherit it, being well acquainted with it, as he says. On applying to the assessors, I am surprised to learn that they cannot at once name a dozen in the town who own their farms free and clear. If you would know the history of these homesteads, inquire at the bank where they are mortgaged. The man who has actually paid for his farm with labor on it is so rare that every neighbor can point to him. I doubt if there are three such men in Concord. What has been said of the merchants, that a very large majority, even ninety-seven in a hundred, are sure to fail, is equally true of the farmers. With regard to the merchants, however, one of them says pertinently that a great part of their failures are not genuine pecuniary failures, but merely failures to fulfil their engagements, because it is inconvenient; that is, it is the moral character that breaks down. But this puts an infinitely worse face on the matter, and suggests, beside, that probably not even the other three succeed in saving their souls, but are perchance bankrupt in a worse sense than they who fail honestly.

很難相信，150年前的美國，人們為貸款所苦的情形，一直到現在都沒有改變。台灣樂透彩公司的經理說，幾乎所有頭獎得主拿到錢後第一件要做的事就是把房貸還清。我持續的買樂透已經一段時間，但一直到最近我才確定，若是我中了頭彩，我還是要過目前這樣的生活；除了會把為朋友作的事停掉之外。雖然多了錢，但一樣的用減法過日子；如果有增加了什麼東西，那只是為了更快速的消化之前已有的。

所謂用減法過生活，除了是物質上的，主要還是精神上的。當初釋迦牟尼提出輪迴轉世說法的重點在於解釋現象，而不在教化人心。釋迦牟尼在成道後自然認清了他的前世今生，於是他把他的體驗加上原本在印度就有的觀念加以說明。而也許在那個時代此種轉世的現象不像現在這麼稀有，佛陀的說法就為普羅大眾解釋了那些現象。

但是知道了自己的前世並無助於佛教解脫的目的。如果沒有因此而體認到整個世界體系在無止盡的、周而復始中生起與消滅，前生的記憶將只是一項負擔、一項無用且不必要的心靈累贅。死亡的作用不只是釋放衰壞的身體，還包括了過份擁擠的知識、習慣了的常規、僵化的意見與偏見、不重要的記憶累積。這些會把我們綑在過去，抑制我們在面對新的情境與較廣的關係時可能的醒覺。恢復了前生的記憶而沒有正確的體認，會使死亡的釋罪失去作用。要想過一種新的生活，不能佔用舊的軀殼，因為舊的軀殼只會腐朽。

用減法過生活就是一種釋罪的生活。