2013年3月9日 星期六

查拉圖斯特拉說了什麼?



It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life. Moreover, with wisdom we shall learn liberality. The solitary hired man on a farm in the outskirts of Concord, who has had his second birth and peculiar religious experience, and is driven as he believes into the silent gravity and exclusiveness by his faith, may think it is not true; but Zoroaster, thousands of years ago, travelled the same road and had the same experience; but he, being wise, knew it to be universal, and treated his neighbors accordingly, and is even said to have invented and established worship among men. Let him humbly commune with Zoroaster then, and through the liberalizing influence of all the worthies, with Jesus Christ himself, and let "our church" go by the board.


這段話提到了瑣羅亞斯德的宗教經驗。瑣羅亞斯德是西元前七世紀的人;遠古時代所謂的宗教經驗,也許就如被附身的乩童;但因為瑣羅亞斯德是一個祭司,再加上當時的社會動亂,所以能夠進行宗教改革。但即使如此,瑣羅亞斯德也因傳教受阻而離開家鄉,但因他深信自己的經驗,不因受排斥而孤立無援就氣餒,才能成功地完成宗教改革。這也就是梭羅此節所提到的 -- 相信智慧能令人開明,不因立場不同而拒絕接受其他有價值的東西。

身處在台灣社會,即使已經相對開放,但仍有許許多多潛規則必須遵守;然而,當你經歷過不同的生活,而且你發覺自身的天性不適合那些潛規則時,你就會陷入孤絕的境地。對自己的啟悟信心不足的人,只有更為沉默;但相信智慧的宇宙性以及普遍性的人,則可以突破萬難,安然的生活,甚至讓其他具有同樣天性的人相信自己也能如此。