大悲湖

By surveying, carpentry, and day-labor of various other kinds in the village in the meanwhile, for I have as many trades as fingers, I had earned $13.34. The expense of food for eight months, namely, from July 4th to March 1st, the time when these estimates were made, though I lived there more than two years — not counting potatoes, a little green corn, and some peas, which I had raised, nor considering the value of what was on hand at the last date — was

Rice ................ $1.73½
Molasses ............. 1.73 Cheapest form of the saccharine.
Rye meal ............. 1.04¾
Indian meal .......... 0.99¾ Cheaper than rye.
Pork ................. 0.22

All experiments which failed:

Flour ................ 0.88 Costs more than Indian meal,
both money and trouble.
Sugar ................ 0.80
Lard ................. 0.65
Apples ............... 0.25
Dried apple .......... 0.22
Sweet potatoes ....... 0.10
One pumpkin .......... 0.06
One watermelon ....... 0.02
Salt ................. 0.03

Yes, I did eat $8.74, all told; but I should not thus unblushingly publish my guilt, if I did not know that most of my readers were equally guilty with myself, and that their deeds would look no better in print. The next year I sometimes caught a mess of fish for my dinner, and once I went so far as to slaughter a woodchuck which ravaged my bean-field — effect his transmigration, as a Tartar would say — and devour him, partly for experiment's sake; but though it afforded me a momentary enjoyment, notwithstanding a musky flavor, I saw that the longest use would not make that a good practice, however it might seem to have your woodchucks ready dressed by the village butcher.

Clothing and some incidental expenses within the same dates, though little can be inferred from this item, amounted to
$8.40¾
Oil and some household utensils ....... 2.00

So that all the pecuniary outgoes, excepting for washing and mending, which for the most part were done out of the house, and their bills have not yet been received — and these are all and more than all the ways by which money necessarily goes out in this part of the world — were


House ................................ $28.12½
Farm one year ........................ 14.72½
Food eight months .................... 8.74
Clothing, etc., eight months ......... 8.40¾
Oil, etc., eight months .............. 2.00
In all ............................... $61.99¾

I address myself now to those of my readers who have a living to get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold

$23.44
Earned by day-labor .................. 13.34
In all ........................... $36.78,

which subtracted from the sum of the outgoes leaves a balance of $25.21¾ on the one side — this being very nearly the means with which I started, and the measure of expenses to be incurred — and on the other, beside the leisure and independence and health thus secured, a comfortable house for me as long as I choose to occupy it.

These statistics, however accidental and therefore uninstructive they may appear, as they have a certain completeness, have a certain value also. Nothing was given me of which I have not rendered some account. It appears from the above estimate, that my food alone cost me in money about twenty-seven cents a week. It was, for nearly two years after this, rye and Indian meal without yeast, potatoes, rice, a very little salt pork, molasses, and salt; and my drink, water. It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who love so well the philosophy of India. To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always had done, and I trust shall have opportunities to do again, it was frequently to the detriment of my domestic arrangements. But the dining out, being, as I have stated, a constant element, does not in the least affect a comparative statement like this.

簡單的說，梭羅在1845年7月4日到1846年3月1日，8個月的期間，共花掉了將近62美元。他的農作物賣了23.44元，作散工賺了13.34元，一共是$36.78。透支的25元，差不多是他原本預估要發生的。當時一美元相當於今日100美元，所以梭羅渡了8個月的假所花的代價為2,500美元，每個月大約新台幣壹萬元。當然這還包括他自己蓋的湖濱小屋。我因為住在父母親的房子，所以花費應該可以更省。

2008年，520的早上，外頭飄著毛毛細雨，雖是五月天，卻微有涼意。我一個人騎了我的川崎125（相當於梭羅所失去的栗色馬）來到大貝湖，真的是一時心血來潮，因為起床後無心看書。可能由於開始工作讓心變得有些散亂，不聽使喚。大貝湖其實是一個人工湖，湖面面積103公頃，由於遊客不多，非常清幽，甚至比天然的湖泊還有韻味；如果華爾騰湖是「神之滴」(God's Drop)，那大貝湖就是「人之滴」。大貝湖本只是曹公圳的一條支流，用來供應農田灌溉用水。後因太平洋戰爭爆發，日軍乃將之改為蓄水池，供應工業用水。之後又由自來水公司經營擴張，乃有今日之規模。

5月23日一早，政府又派人來對街的巷子裡敲打路面，依照我父親的說法是國民黨的白色恐怖幽靈又在蠢蠢欲動了。但這應該是綠色執政的高雄市政府幹的好事，不能把帳算在國民黨頭上。梭羅能夠把一切過手的東西都多多少少作成記錄「Nothing was given me of which I have not rendered some account.」, 他是這麼說來著。我曾經試過多次都失敗了。但是希望有一天我也能像他一樣，口袋空空一個多月，依然還能過活。莊子曾經說過這麼一個故事：

　　子輿和子桑是好朋友。有一次連續下了十天的雨，子輿就說：「我看子桑必定是餓壞了！」於是就包了些飯菜過去看他。果然在門外就聽到子桑在哭爸哭母。子輿進了他家，問道：「哪Aㄚ奶？」回說：「我想攏無為何我會落到這款地步。甘講我的父母會希望我沒錢嗎？天和地哪會管我有窮嘸？按怎想嘛想無是ㄚ哪卡會這慘。可能著是命吧！」

五月下旬，台灣就進入了梅雨季。六月初高雄連續下了一個禮拜的雨，雖然處於M型化社會中比較沒有多餘的那一塊，所幸我並沒有餓到肚子。雨停後，小狗卻因天氣潮濕得了皮膚病一直沒有好轉。蹓狗的同好中有人告訴我可以帶去泡泡海水自然就會好。我想這倒是去海邊一個不錯的理由，於是挑了一個早晨載著小狗到西子灣坐渡輪去旗津，一直玩到將近中午，喝了杯咖啡，學著齊天大聖在如來佛的掌中撒了泡尿，才又搭船回來。

不偏不倚的良心之見

The next year I did better still, for I spaded up all the land which I required, about a third of an acre, and I learned from the experience of both years, not being in the least awed by many celebrated works on husbandry, Arthur Young among the rest, that if one would live simply and eat only the crop which he raised, and raise no more than he ate, and not exchange it for an insufficient quantity of more luxurious and expensive things, he would need to cultivate only a few rods of ground, and that it would be cheaper to spade up that than to use oxen to plow it, and to select a fresh spot from time to time than to manure the old, and he could do all his necessary farm work as it were with his left hand at odd hours in the summer; and thus he would not be tied to an ox, or horse, or cow, or pig, as at present. I desire to speak impartially on this point, and as one not interested in the success or failure of the present economical and social arrangements. I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment. Beside being better off than they already, if my house had been burned or my crops had failed, I should have been nearly as well off as before.


由於對當今一般人所認同的成功或失敗不感興趣，我因而比任何一位高雄市民來得獨立；我既不被一間房子給拖住，也不為一份工作而虧待自己的靈魂。尤其我想東西的速度有如孫悟空的筋斗雲，日遊四海，所以就算高雄市由國民黨執政，我還是能過的和現在一樣好。

Windows 7

As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.

9/26(2009)，與朋友到里港一遊，回程時繞到旗山老街吃暗頓。吃飽之後，走進小7，發現微軟的 Windows 7竟然就放在架上賣(應該只是廣告)。真不知在這條老街上有誰會用到這種作業系統，因為我們還看到一家賣錄音帶的商店。

一直以來，微軟作業系統所謂的新功能就很少是正面的；總是在怕遭淘汰的情況下才去增加使用者需要的功能。這個公司從20年前就開始賺錢，但是到現在也沒有因為產品的任何進步而能讓地球被少砍一棵樹。朋友拿了一支智慧型手機給我；它的智慧就在於幫使用者管理行程及待辦事項。但我實在沒有什麼重要行程可記。我相信有不少人花了錢買了這種手機，結果都是在記別人的行程，看看別人有沒有攤。有了電子郵件之後，人們反而不寫信了；只剩下垃圾信，但是實體信箱內的廣告傳單還是沒有少。人們不寫信的原因大概是因為寄出去太容易，怕麻煩收到信的人回信，心裡不安。使用即時通及噗浪或推特，多半不是在作什麼嚴肅的事，但是卻會使我們對馬上要去做的事更不專心，反正終有一天會噗出一個台灣國來。目的並沒有任何進展，手段方法及工具卻變的比任何時期都強大。Windows 7不就號稱是史上最強大的作業系統！

山寨機

It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fitness in a man's building his own house that there is in a bird's building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

在網路上買了種植小麥草的培養盒，盒裡有小石子及種子。這種小麥草是用來幫寵物清除胃腸的毛髮的。我拆了一盒放在陽台上，卻在還沒發芽前就被不知道那裡來的小鳥吃掉了。一開始我還不知道是怎麼回事，只見盒內的種子都不見了，石子則有很多散在盒外。然後才想到應該是小鳥鑽到陽台來，在挑種子吃時把石子撥出來了。陽台是有鐵窗圍著的，所以小鳥應該不會很大。

陳玉峰先生節省到生活所需只要過去的五分之一就可以。他認為拼經濟是最大的錯誤；從每個人開始做起，生活只要現在所需的一半就足夠，明明煮三個馬鈴薯就夠，你煮五個就是錯。可是這樣的說法誰聽得進去。觀光客來不就是要他們買越多越好？我的父母親去澳門深圳旅遊，回來母親跟我說大陸現在好進步，我們台灣實在不能比，他們那個表演真厲害，小孩子身體可以彎來彎去，疊到好幾層樓高的地方。我跟她說那不叫進步，只有落後的國家才會叫小孩作那種表演。我母親才說，台灣的父母親才捨不得讓小孩去學那些。我的父親帶了一支山寨版的鑽石機回來。他已經快70歲，有時連手機響了都不知要接。可是卻買了一支連我都不會用的智慧型手機。他說這一台在台灣買正版的要一兩萬，他那一支只要兩三千。真不知是何種心態。但是現在這樣的老人家應該不少。如果可以，我父親大概也會學學台灣首富去討個嫩妻吧！
我一直很嚮往美國在拓荒時期的生活。一個男人，一輛馬車，載著老婆孩子，到一個新世界開始新生活。他們一開始可能只是在山坡下挖個地洞，作為最初的遮蔽處。梭羅說的好，最可以入畫的不是那些豪宅大廈，而是窮人的小木屋和村舍；使這些屋子有看頭的，不是它們的外表，而是住在裡頭的人的生活。如果每個人都能像鳥一樣築自己的巢，而不是靠建築師，設計師及營造商來蓋房子，那這個世界就不會這麼醜陋，而是處處寫生的材料。世間最動容的詩篇不會是在室內寫就，悅耳的鳴聲也不會來自洞窟的鳥叫。

雜阿含經

I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as straight and much stronger than sawed ones. Each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time. My days in the woods were not very long ones; yet I usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the newspaper in which it was wrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green pine boughs which I had cut off, and to my bread was imparted some of their fragrance, for my hands were covered with a thick coat of pitch. Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better acquainted with it. Sometimes a rambler in the wood was attracted by the sound of my axe, and we chatted pleasantly over the chips which I had made.


2008年3月21日，星期五，我在筆記本上寫下這段文字：

卷39 第827經

重點整理

• 修不淨觀斷貪欲。
• 修慈心斷瞋恚。
• 修無常想斷我慢。
• 修安那般那念斷覺想。

經過了一年的時間，2009年5月1日，也是星期五，我則寫下這個：

放空自己，包括好幾個部分：

1. 想要寫信給誰給誰，都可以不用。
2. 眼睛老花，以後看書寫字很吃力，就不要再看。
3. 想把電腦學好，這輩子不可能。
4. 手上的兩台電腦，一台筆記型，一台桌上型，可以用到死都不用再換。
5. 人生最重要的就是要放空自己！
6. 有能力的話，就讀讀《法句經》和《雜阿含經》。
7. 再有能力的話，就讀讀 《Walden》.
8. 再有能力的話，就讀讀 《Programming Abstractions in C》.
9. 要精進，精進，再精進，不放逸。
10. 學習安那般那念。
11. 只用減法，不用加法；減法即修行之法。
    

到現在為止都沒有什麼問題。

2010年，我多加了一條：

12. 學習寂止禪修(奢摩他)及內觀禪修(毗鉢舍那)。