tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26659755795125084122024-02-03T07:28:27.010+08:00Walden 2.0湖濱散記續集王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-88744033941423607072013-05-08T11:00:00.001+08:002013-05-08T11:00:32.945+08:00禪學述原(二)<br />
<span style="color: black;">T<span>HIS</span> I<span>S</span>
A delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes
delight
through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a
part
of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my
shirt-sleeves,
though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing
special
to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The
bullfrogs
trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is
borne
on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering
alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the
lake,
my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small waves raised by the
evening wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface.
Though it is now dark, the wind still blows and roars in the wood, the
waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes.
The
repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek
their
prey now; the fox, and skunk, and rabbit, now roam the fields and woods
without fear. They are Nature's watchmen — links which connect the days
of animated life.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">三年多前我讀到這裡時寫了一篇<<a href="http://accesstoinsight.blogspot.tw/2009/12/blog-post_10.html" target="_blank">禪學述原</a>>。之後我繼續研讀</span>《清淨道論》,對於禪定的境界有較多的認識。南傳佛教對’定‘的分類雖有多種,但主要還是以四禪來分;初禪至少應具備五支(成分):尋,伺,喜,樂,心一境性。(applied thought, sustained thought, happiness, bliss and unification of mind.)二禪無尋無伺,三禪離喜,四禪斷樂。也有將無尋唯伺的狀態視為二禪的,如此則成五禪。依梭羅此段的描述,已在二禪無尋唯伺的境界。<br />
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然而,這段文字令我重新感興趣的地方在於,梭羅提到,野生動物藉著低吟聲哄自己入睡。安眠卻永不完全。最野的動物並不安眠,而是在此刻尋找獵物。<span style="color: black;">(..., and some creatures lull the rest with their notes.
The
repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek
their
prey now;...) </span>陳冠學的《田園之秋》也曾提到,公雞從不睡覺。過去我一直不懂睡眠為何是習定的障礙,因為我一直將禪定狀態視為佛教徒對睡眠或動物冬眠狀態的想像;譬如,慈祥的人總能睡得安穩,就好像將慈心當作業處修行的人一樣。實際上,南傳佛法所述禪定境界的差別以及種種說明,多是經驗之談,純粹的想像或理論並不多。<br />
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王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-88116624439316404582013-03-09T12:39:00.000+08:002013-03-09T12:40:10.789+08:00查拉圖斯特拉說了什麼?<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">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. </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2665975579512508412" name="14" style="background-color: white;"></a><span style="background-color: white;">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,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 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.</span><br />
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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。<br />
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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。<br />
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<br />王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-37234266366828972902013-02-01T09:26:00.000+08:002013-02-06T10:38:02.470+08:00勞保年金制度<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over — and it will be called, and will be, "A melancholy accident." No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time. This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?" Yes, I answer, </span><i style="background-color: white;">comparatively</i><span style="background-color: white;"> good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>華爾騰湖的第一章,經濟,仔細一讀,處處都點出目前台灣的問題。梭羅說,人們總有一種不清楚的概念,以為只要大家有錢出錢,有力出力,接在一起,接得夠長,則最後人人都不用花多少錢,不用多少時間,要坐到哪就坐到哪。然而,等到高鐵站都蓋好了,才知道能夠乘坐的人畢竟只有少數。我們的保險制度不也是如此?大家努力繳保費,等到快要退休了,才發現每月可領的不足以讓自己活下去。現在好了,我們知道,鐵軌至少還可讓關廠老工人們拿來抗議。因此而無法準時搭到火車的乘客請不要生氣,此時正好讓自己靜下來想想,是否沒有火車高鐵的台灣會比現在幸福一點。<br />
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<br />王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-51682655125969442582013-01-23T12:35:00.005+08:002023-01-23T10:24:51.641+08:00房屋無法遮蔽我們的過失,唯有戒水才能清淨有情的塵垢<div><br /></div>We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race, some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter. Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion, any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in us. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass and straw, of boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. At last, we know not what it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more senses than we think. From the hearth the field is a great distance. It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots. <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>摩訶僧祇律第二卷記載著,一開始人之所以會蓋房子居住,是因為作了讓自己覺得慚愧的事,所以跑去藏起來不讓人看到;藏久了,才有了起造房子的念頭。現代人卻以擁有房子為人生奮鬥第一目標,有錢人則競相購買豪宅來顯示自己的身份地位。富人真的是應該覺得慚愧,所以必須買豪宅把自己藏起來。 「人類的進步一定要把吃肉的習慣拋掉,如同野蠻人和比較文明的人結交久了以後,逐漸把人吃人的習慣拋棄掉一樣。」梭羅如是說。總有一天,人類也會進步到自覺太過富有是一件羞恥的事;因為,只要你吃葷,就有人會為你殘忍的殺生;只要你過於富有,就有人因之挨餓受凍。
</div>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-80168517496351621442011-01-16T12:11:00.002+08:002011-01-16T12:19:50.489+08:00追憶逝水年華<p></p><br />
<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">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. </div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">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:</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">昔日幽期處牆腳傾廢,</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">唯見堇花叢生荒草間。</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">有不待風吹而自散落者,人心之花是也!</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">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!<br />
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</div><p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-77611402805294446272011-01-11T08:08:00.005+08:002011-01-11T08:26:00.134+08:00梭羅的整體論<p></p><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">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. </div><br />
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<p>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。<br />
</p><p>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。<br />
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<p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-44711451665752128382011-01-05T11:11:00.010+08:002011-01-05T16:37:43.617+08:00華爾騰湖測量圖<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br />
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. </div><p></p><p>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)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYuho1ZPg9sDtc_sX7oWzJKWSoCPcgGAU5rgSw5JTBDRkdM8MoVavWfAel-_4GYQ-98aNJ9ZNTegFJCUdCHfLBrI-VXbtfkvRa271xAbvgqUqqMC2WDEw0b_6pm7BgyKWEmd0pCS0tppef/s1600/pondmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYuho1ZPg9sDtc_sX7oWzJKWSoCPcgGAU5rgSw5JTBDRkdM8MoVavWfAel-_4GYQ-98aNJ9ZNTegFJCUdCHfLBrI-VXbtfkvRa271xAbvgqUqqMC2WDEw0b_6pm7BgyKWEmd0pCS0tppef/s400/pondmap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<p>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。<br />
</p><p>底下是google map 的地圖:<br />
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=zh-tw&geocode=&q=Walden+Pond,+Concord&sll=42.493841,-71.001488&sspn=0.031137,0.055189&g=Walden+Pond,+MA,+United+States&brcurrent=3,0x0:0x0,0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=%E6%B2%83%E7%88%BE%E7%99%BB%E6%B1%A0&ll=42.438702,-71.340128&spn=0.015583,0.027595&z=14&output=embed"></iframe><br />
<small><a href="http://maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=zh-tw&geocode=&q=Walden+Pond,+Concord&sll=42.493841,-71.001488&sspn=0.031137,0.055189&g=Walden+Pond,+MA,+United+States&brcurrent=3,0x0:0x0,0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=%E6%B2%83%E7%88%BE%E7%99%BB%E6%B1%A0&ll=42.438702,-71.340128&spn=0.015583,0.027595&z=14" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">檢視較大的地圖</a></small><br />
</p>梭羅所繪地圖翻轉180度後如下:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWdheoukej9KEyUNO8X7dicOAEqCDcRTA86oUbf1zO5wJGRrbLEad2y9aU8LGl7CM1UMUZc1aFZk8CiVw-0hOLCK1W2v7TEvYy50biniqNLOy9tROYEzdZzrsPgmb9OdMXeekhUkrHZmt/s1600/rpondmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWdheoukej9KEyUNO8X7dicOAEqCDcRTA86oUbf1zO5wJGRrbLEad2y9aU8LGl7CM1UMUZc1aFZk8CiVw-0hOLCK1W2v7TEvYy50biniqNLOy9tROYEzdZzrsPgmb9OdMXeekhUkrHZmt/s400/rpondmap.jpg" /></a></div><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwarp452.blogspot.com%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:21px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-91888241909993067192010-12-29T11:57:00.046+08:002010-12-31T11:04:19.220+08:00हरिवंश<span style="font-family: 'courier new';"><br />
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.</span><br />
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<i>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。</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'courier new';"><p>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:</p></span><br />
<i>(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。</i><br />
<i>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。</i><br />
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<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><i>Free in this world, as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chain.</i><br />
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</i></div><div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><i>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.</i></div><span style="font-family: 'courier new';"><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'courier new';"><p>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。</p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';">Like some other preachers, I have added my texts - derived from the Chinese and Hindoo scriptures – long after my discourse was written . </span><br />
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<p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-37966188067012741882010-12-27T22:23:00.011+08:002010-12-27T23:00:29.154+08:00帝寶豪宅<span style="font-family: courier new;"><br />
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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? <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2665975579512508412&postID=3796618806701274188" name="12"></a>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. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2665975579512508412&postID=3796618806701274188" name="13"></a>Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's <i>morning </i>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.</span><br />
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日本三大隨筆之一的《徒然草》提到:<br />
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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。<br />
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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。<br />
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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。<br />
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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。<br />
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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。<br />
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<p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-63169346310335691092010-07-28T10:11:00.016+08:002010-11-28T03:46:40.971+08:00角色扮演<p><br /></p><p><br />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<br />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." )<br /><br />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<br />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<br />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<br />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。<br /><br />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<br />陶潛,蘇軾;可以是奧瑪珈音,Emily Dickinson,達賴六世倉央嘉措....<br />但是最重要的,我可以跟他們看同一個星空,喝同樣的醇酒。<br /></p><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><br />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)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-61981593824093228372010-05-30T11:47:00.005+08:002010-05-30T12:32:44.749+08:00瞎子摸象<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />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. </span><br /><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><br /><p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-58584091788538938952010-05-07T11:15:00.012+08:002010-06-09T11:13:38.081+08:00最甜的生活<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.</span> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold;">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."</span> 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, <span style="font-weight: bold;">if you are restricted in your range by poverty,</span> if you cannot buy books and newspapers, for instance, <span style="font-weight: bold;">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. </span><span>You are defended from being a trifler.</span> 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. </span><br /><p><br />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。』<br /></p><br /><p>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。</p><p><br /></p><p>『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?</p><p>我得何食何處食,今實苦臥何處臥;<br />此等諸尋導悲泣,無家有學應調伏。</p><p>食物衣服有時得,少許滿足應知量;<br />護持此等村慎行,雖受污辱無麤語。</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:courier new;">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.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family:courier new;">Receiving food & cloth at appropriate times, he should have a sense of enough for the sake of contentment.</span><a style="font-family: courier new;" class="noteTag" href="http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.16.than.html#fn-3" id="fnt-3" name="fnt-3"></a> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Guarded in regard to these things going restrained into a village, even when harassed he shouldn't say a harsh word.<br /></span></p><p><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-91001098801678599862010-05-06T09:06:00.026+08:002010-12-08T10:28:35.572+08:00曹洞宗與相對論<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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? </span><br /><br /><br /><p>安可先生和曹洞宗曾經有這麼一段淵源:<br /><br />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<br />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<br />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<br />山上洗溫泉。<br /></p>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<br />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<br />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<br />什麼籌碼,藉由這些去掌握自己的一生。<br /><br /><p>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<br />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<br />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<br />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<br />你怎麼創造,因為人生就是一連串無常的活動,這才是「真相」。<br /></p><br /><p>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。<br /></p><p><br />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<span style="font-weight: bold;">假設</span>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<span>假設的真實性</span>。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。</p><br /><p><br />王中之王是誰?聖中之聖是誰?<br />何謂愚人?何謂智者?<br />如何離開垢穢?怎樣獲證涅槃?<br />何人沉溺在生死海裡?誰能逍遙於解脫國中? <br /></p><br /><p>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。」<br /></p><p><br />《註》:<br />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。<br /><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-5198749038512856852010-05-03T10:21:00.010+08:002010-12-08T10:32:07.471+08:00五蘊即世間<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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? </span><a style="font-family: courier new;" name="4"></a><span style="font-family:courier new;">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; <span style="font-weight: bold;">explore your own higher latitudes</span> — 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, <span style="font-weight: bold;">be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.</span> 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 </span><i style="font-family: courier new;">self-respect</i><span style="font-family:courier new;">, 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.</span><a style="font-family: courier new;" name="9"></a><span style="font-family:courier new;">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.<br /><br /></span><a name="10"></a> <blockquote>"Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.<br />Plus habet hic vitae, plus habet ille viæ."<span style=""><a href="http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden18.html#notes"></a></span> <p> Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.<br />I have more of God, they more of the road.</p> </blockquote><br /><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><p>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?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-51473464471352928842010-04-29T11:35:00.029+08:002010-05-05T11:15:18.082+08:00春天的恕道 (下)<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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.<br /><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><p><br />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。<span><span style="font-family:courier new;">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。</span></span></p><p><br />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。</p><p>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。<br /></p><br /><p>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。</p><p>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)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p></span>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-41582489996688789092010-04-29T09:36:00.005+08:002010-04-29T10:24:20.812+08:00黃金年代<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />"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. </span> <p><span style="font-family:courier new;"> "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?"</span><a name="8"></a> </p> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">"The Golden Age was first created, which without any avenger<br />Spontaneously without law cherished fidelity and rectitude.<br />Punishment and fear were not; nor were threatening words read<br />On suspended brass; nor did the suppliant crowd fear<br />The words of their judge; but were safe without an avenger.<br />Not yet the pine felled on its mountains had descended<br />To the liquid waves that it might see a foreign world,<br />And mortals knew no shores but their own.<br /><b>. . . . . . .</b><br /> <small><small><small><small><small><small><small> </small></small></small></small></small></small></small><br />There was eternal spring, and placid zephyrs with warm<br />Blasts soothed the flowers born without seed." <br /> <br /> <span><span id="Zoom">奧維德 </span></span>Ovid (43 B.C.-7 A.D.) Roman poet<br /><br /></blockquote><br /><p>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?”</p><p><br /></p><br /><p>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。</p><br /><br /><p>古印度的韋達經典記載<span style="font-weight: bold;">金器年代</span>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。</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-24811237858514310432010-04-26T10:07:00.009+08:002010-04-26T11:19:30.584+08:00春天的恕道 (上)<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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.<br /><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><p>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。<br /><br /> 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。<br /><br />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?<br /><br /></p><p> 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。<br /></p><p><br />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。</p><p><br /></p><p> 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)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-34306209549127709622010-04-15T11:47:00.011+08:002010-04-21T13:56:51.467+08:00時 運<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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.<br /><p><br />梭羅說,<span style="font-weight: bold;">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。<br /></span></p><br /></span>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。<br /><br /><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;">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!</p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;">《時 運》並序 <span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p> </span></p> <p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"><span style="font-size:85%;">時運,遊暮春也。春服既成,景物斯和,偶景獨遊,欣慨交心。 <span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p> </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;">其一<span lang="EN-US"><br /> 邁邁時運,穆穆良朝。<br /> 襲我春服,薄言東郊。 (春天來時,應買件新衣服穿。)<br /> 山滌餘靄,宇曖微霄。<br /> 有風自南,翼彼新苗。 <o:p> </o:p> </span></p> <p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;">其二<span lang="EN-US"><br /> 洋洋平潭,乃漱乃濯。<br /> 邈邈遐景,載欣載矚。<br /> 人亦有言,稱心易足。<br /> 揮茲一觴,陶然自樂。 <o:p> </o:p> </span></p> <p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;">其三<span lang="EN-US"><br /> 延目中流,悠想清沂。<br /> 童冠齊業,閑詠以歸。<br /> 我愛其掙,寤寐交揮。<br /> 但恨殊世,邈不可追。 <o:p> </o:p> </span></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 1.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5px;"> <br />其四<span lang="EN-US"><br /> 斯晨斯夕,言息其廬。<br /> 花藥分列,林竹翳如。<br /> 清琴橫床,濁酒半壺。<br /> 黃唐莫逮,慨獨在余。<br /><br /></p><br /><br /><br /></span>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-72762192431210581482010-04-12T11:27:00.006+08:002010-04-12T12:34:57.217+08:00人間四月天<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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. </span><br /><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><p><br />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。</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-8973980547018319212010-03-31T12:24:00.011+08:002010-04-08T20:58:45.577+08:00蕃薯及 Ground Nut<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:courier new;" ><br />Digging one day for fishworms, I discovered the ground-nut (<i>Apios tuberosa</i>) 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 <i>totem</i> 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. <a name="1"></a>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.<br /><br /></span><br /><p>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。</p><br /><p>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。</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-54367516540887986362010-03-23T12:36:00.024+08:002010-03-24T11:19:16.855+08:00柴山的龍目井<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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! (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:courier new;" >below:</span><span style="font-family:courier new;"> The Northern River Otter, </span><i style="font-family: courier new;">Lontra canadensis</i><span style="font-family:courier new;">) He grows to be four feet long, as big as a small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse of him. </span><img style="border: 1px solid; width: 331px; height: 300px; font-family: courier new;" alt="Northern River Otters" src="http://thoreau.eserver.org/otters.jpg" align="right" hspace="10" vspace="10" /><span style="font-family:courier new;">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.<br /><br /></span><span id="ctl00_MainContentPlaceholder_ctl01_ctl00_lblEntry"></span><a href="http://allanhschmidt1935.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%2132C3824B079AE090%21422.entry">Discover Thoreau’s white pine by Brister’s Spring<br /></a><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><p>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<a href="http://www.prowang.idv.tw/small%20mountain/c/cai%20shan_15/cai%20shan_15.htm">龍巖冽泉</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-59612101189729788162010-03-19T09:52:00.014+08:002010-03-19T15:36:40.729+08:00我們的神殿<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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.<br /><br /></span><br /><p><br />林肯曾經說過,一個人40歲以後的相貌應該由自己負責。("<i>Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40.</i>")<br /><br />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。<br /><br />《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)<br /><br />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。<br /></p><p><br />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。<br /></p><br /><p></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-62145998802371120942010-03-16T11:03:00.014+08:002010-06-15T22:44:50.539+08:00精進不放逸<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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.<br /><br /><p><br />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。<br /></p><br />《法句經》有:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">不誦為言垢,不勤為家垢,不嚴為色垢,放逸為事垢。</span><br /><br />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。<br /><br /><br />《增一阿含》有:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(66, 33, 0);">猶如山河</span>、<span style="color: rgb(66, 33, 0);">石壁</span>、<span style="color: rgb(66, 33, 0);">百草</span>、<span style="color: rgb(66, 33, 0);">五穀,皆依於地而得長大。然復此地最尊</span>、<span style="color: rgb(66, 33, 0);">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。</span><br /><br /><p><br />37道品中的四正勤的內容為:<br /><br />1. 勤於防護眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意六入處。任何欲念令不生起。<br />2. 已生起者,速速將之斷絕。<br />3. 勤於修習七覺支,令善法增廣。<br />4. 修習不淨觀、多修習,令已生之善法不退。</p><p><br /></p><p>《經集.大品》精勤經有:</p><p style="font-family: courier new;">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.</p><p>溪流既已風乾,血液如何不因我的精勤凝結?<br />當血液稀薄時,膽汁及惡痰亦隨之乾涸。<br />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。<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-30284272166407883242010-03-13T11:23:00.011+08:002010-03-15T20:37:44.191+08:00人之所以異於禽獸者<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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. </span><a style="font-family: courier new;" name="6"></a><span style="font-family:courier new;">This creature succeeded by other means than temperance and purity. <span style="font-weight: bold;">"That in which men differ from brute beasts," says Mencius,</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-family:courier new;">"is</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully."</span> </span><span style="font-family:courier new;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">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。」</span> <br /><br /> 《孟子》-- 離婁下<br /><br /><p><br />從這段孟子的話看來,他所指的<span style="font-weight: bold;">異於禽獸者</span>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。<br /></p><p><br />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。<br /></p><p><br />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?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665975579512508412.post-32578485893733214482010-03-12T11:00:00.011+08:002010-03-12T12:13:58.503+08:00雜阿含13經<span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />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 <span style="font-weight: bold;">the devotion to sensual savors</span>; 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.<br /></span><br /><br /><雜阿含13經>有:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">若眾生於色不味者,則不染於色;以眾生於色味故,則有染著。<br /><br /><br /></span>菩提比丘長老根據南傳相對經文的英譯為:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >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. </span><br /><p><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">愛味(gratification)</span>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<span style="font-weight: bold;">愛味</span>。</p><p>梭羅在此則用了其他的字眼。<span style="font-weight: bold;">愛味</span>是為 <span style="font-weight: bold;">sensual savors;染著</span>為 <span style="font-weight: bold;">devotion</span>。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。<br /><br /></p>王安可http://www.blogger.com/profile/09381086792264367075noreply@blogger.com0