勞保年金制度

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, comparatively 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.


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。

房屋無法遮蔽我們的過失，唯有戒水才能清淨有情的塵垢

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. 

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。

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：