宁静在说话（第九章：死亡与永恒）

第九章：死亡与永恒

Death and the Eternal

When you walk though a forest that has not been tamed and
interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life around you, but you
will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and
decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as
well as life. 

穿越一座尚未为人类所开发与干扰的森林，你看见的将不只是周遭丰沛的生命，同时也会有倒木和枯干，举步之间，处处皆是腐叶与正在分解的物质。无论你往哪边看去，都会看到生命，同时也发现死亡。

 

Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the
decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but
are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are
rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to be found anywhere. There is only the
metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this? 

然而，若是上前仔细检查，你将发现那些分解中的树干及腐叶，不仅带来新的生命，它们本身也充满了生气。微生物正努力工作，分子们也正自我重组中。所以，哪里都找不到死亡，只有生命形态的不同变态。你，从这一切学到了什么？

 

Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite.
The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.  

生命的相对并非死亡，生命是没有对立面的。死亡的相对是诞生，生命是永恒的。

 

Sages and poets throughout the ages have recognized the
dreamlike quality of human existence–seemingly so solid and real and yet so
fleeting that it could dissolve at any moment.

自古以来的圣贤哲人与诗人墨客，都曾道破人的存在有着如梦似幻的特质，它看起来如此地坚固与真实，却又如此地短暂，能于转瞬间烟消云散。

 

At the hour of your death, the story of your life may,
indeed, appear to you like a dream that is coming to an end. Yet even in a
dream there must be an essence that is real. There must be a consciousness in
which the dream happens; otherwise, it would not be. 

濒于死亡之时，你一生的故事确实有可能感觉像梦一般地即将结束。然而即使在梦中，也必须有真实不虚的本质，必得有觉识的存在，梦才能于其中发生；否则，哪里会有梦呢？

 

That consciousness – does the body create it or does
consciousness create the dream of body, the dream of somebody? 

究竟是身体创造了这觉识？或是觉识梦见了身体、觉识梦见了有某个人？

 

Why have most of those who went through a near-death
experience lost their fear of death? Reflect upon this.  

为何大部分具有濒死经验的人，不再恐惧死亡？为什么？请仔细想想看！

 

Of course you know you are going to die, but that remains a
mere mental concept until you meet death “in person” for the first time:
through a serious illness or an accident that happens to you or someone close
to you, or through the passing away of a loved one, death enters your life as
the awareness of your own mortality. 

你当然知道自己正在迈向死亡，但那都仅只是心理上的一个概念，直到有一天你“亲身”与死亡相遇，也许是你或你身边的人得了重病或发生意外，也许是挚爱的人辞世，你才觉知到自己也不免一死，这时死亡便进入了你的生命。

 

Most people turn away from it in fear, but if you do not
flinch and face the fact that your body is fleeting and could dissolve at any
moment, there is some degree of disidentification, however slight, from your
own physical and psychological form, the “me.” When you see and accept the
impermanent nature of all life forms, a strange sense of peace comes upon you. 

大多数人在面对死亡时，会因恐惧而别过头去，但如果你不退缩，勇敢地面对肉体是暂时的，极可能在任何一刻消失，那么，你多少会对自己生理与心理上那表相的“我”，有某种程度的“认同解构”。当你了解并接受所有生命形态都是无常的，一种奇异的内在和平感便降临了。

 

Through facing death, your consciousness is freed to some
extent from identification with form. This is why in some Buddhist traditions,
the monks regularly visit the morgue to sit and meditate among the dead
bodies. 

藉由面对死亡，你的觉识将在某种程度上，摆脱了对于表相的认同。所以，在有些佛教传统中，僧侣才会定期造访停尸之处，并在尸体之间打坐与禅修。

 

There is still a widespread denial of death in Western
cultures. Even old people try not to speak or think about it, and dead bodies
are hidden away. A culture that denies death inevitably becomes shallow and
superficial, concerned only with the external form of things. When death is
denied, life loses its depth. The possibility of knowing who we are beyond name
and form, the dimension of the transcendent, disappears from our lives because
death is the opening into that dimension.  

在西方文化之中，还是普遍存在着对于死亡的否定，即使是老人也避讳去谈论或思考死亡，死去的躯体更被远远地藏了起来。一个不承认死亡的文化，必然会变得肤浅与迷信，变得只在意事物的表相。否定了死亡，生命将失去它的深度，我们将失去了解那名称与表相之后的自己究竟是谁的可能性，我们更失去了解那超越一般人类心智经验的境界的机会，因为死亡就是通往那里的一扇门。

 

People tend to be uncomfortable with endings, because every
ending is a little death. That’s why in many languages, the word for “good-bye”
means “see you again.” 

人们对于各种“结束”总是感到不自在，因为每个结束都是一次小的死亡。这就是为何在许多不同的语言之中，“再见”这个字的意思是指“下次再见到你”的原因。

 

Whenever an experience comes to an end–a gathering of
friends, a vacation, your children leaving home–you die a little death. A
“form” that appeared in your consciousness as that experience dissolves. Often
this leaves behind a feeling of emptiness that most people try hard not to
feel, not to face.

朋友聚会、假期、孩子要离家了，无论何时，事情每到了尾声，你也小小地“死”了一次。你的觉识之中会生起一个“感受”，而那通常是一种“空虚”的感觉，大多数人都努力不去感觉它，不去面对它。

 

If you can learn to accept and even welcome the endings in
your life, you may find that the feeling of emptiness that initially felt
uncomfortable turns into a sense of inner spaciousness that is deeply
peaceful. 

如果你可以学着去接受，甚或迎接生命的结束，你或许将发现那原本让你不自在的“空虚”感觉，已转化成一种深沉平静、内在宽广无垠的感受。

 

By learning to die daily in this way, you open yourself to
Life. 

每天学着这样死去，你对生命就开放了。

 

Most people feel that their identity, their sense of self,
is something incredibly precious that they don’t want to lose. That is why they
have such fear of death.

大多数人认为自己的身份、自我感，是及其珍贵且不能失去的东西，因此，他们对死亡是如此地恐惧。

 

It seems unimaginable and frightening that “I” could cease
to exist. But you confuse that precious “I” with your name and form and a story
associated with it. That “I” is no more than a temporary formation in the field
of consciousness.

“我”的存在终止了，这似乎无法想象，又让人害怕。其实，你把那珍贵的“我”与我的名字、我的形相身体和我的故事搞混了。那个“我”充其量不过就是觉识场上一个暂时的构成罢了！

 

As long as that form identity is all you know, you are not
aware that this preciousness is your own essence, your innermost sense of I Am,
which is consciousness itself. It is the eternal in you–and that’s the only
thing you cannot lose.  

如果你所知道的只是对这些对外在形相的认同，那你就尚未觉察到，最珍贵的其实是你的本体，是你内心深处“我本是”的存在感，也就是觉识本身。它是你内在的永恒，也是你唯一不会失去的东西。

 

Whenever any kind of deep loss occurs in your life – such
as loss of possessions, your home, a close relationship; or loss of your
reputation, job, or physical abilities – something inside you dies. You feel
diminished in your sense of who you are. There may also be a certain
disorientation. “Without this...who am I?”

生命中如果发生了严重的损失，例如失去财产、你的家、一段亲密关系；或者失去你的名声、工作或身体功能等，你内在某些东西也会死去。你的自我感会缩小，甚至还会有些迷茫：“没有了这些......我是谁？”

 

When a form that you had unconsciously identified with as
part of yourself leaves you or dissolves, that can be extremely painful. It
leaves a hole, so to speak, in the fabric of your existence. 

那个在你无觉识的状况下被认定为自己的一部分的有形的我，如果弃你而去，或化为乌有，会造成极大的痛苦，好像是在你的存在结构上，留下了一个空洞。

 

When this happens, don’t deny or ignore the pain or the
sadness that you feel. Accept that it is there. Beware of your mind’s tendency
to construct a story around that loss in which you are assigned the role of
victim. Fear, anger, resentment, or self-pity are the emotions that go with
that role. Then become aware of what lies behind those emotions as well as
behind the mind-made story: that hole, that empty space. Can you face and
accept that strange sense of emptiness? If you do, you may find that it is no
longer a fearful. You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it. 

当它发生了，请不要否定或忽略你所感受到的痛苦或悲伤，接纳这一切，谨防心智据此损失构出一个故事，一个你在其中扮演受害者角色的故事，恐惧、生气、怨恨或自卑，都将伴随此角色而来。请觉察在这些情绪与由心智所打造的故事背后隐藏了什么：那个空洞，那个什么都没有的空间。你能够面对并接纳那“空”所带来的奇异感受吗？如果你真的可以，你就会有可能发现那“空”不再是个令人害怕的地方，甚至能惊讶地发现从那之中所散发出的平静安祥。

 

Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God,
the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the
dissolving form. That is why the most sacred thing in life is death. That is
why the peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance
of death. 

无论死亡何时发生，无论生命形体何时消失，神--那无形、无相且未显化的状态，将透过形体消散后留下的开放空间发出光芒。那就是为何生命中最神圣的事情就是死亡，那也是为何神的祥和，可以透过沉思和接纳死亡，来到你面前。

 

How short-lived every human experience is, how fleeting our
lives. Is there anything that is not subject to birth and death, anything that
is eternal? 

人的经历是如此短暂，生命转瞬即逝，有什么是不受限于生死的？有什么是永恒的？

 

Consider this: if there were only one color, let us say
blue, and the entire

world and everything in it were blue, then there would be
no blue. There needs to be something that is not blue so that blue can be
recognized; otherwise, it would not “stand out,” would not exist. 

想想看，如果世上只有一种颜色，假设是蓝色，整个世界与其中所有一切都是蓝色，那蓝色就不再是蓝色了。必须要有某样不是蓝色的东西，蓝色才能被衬托出来；否则，它将无法“显现”，无法存在。

 

In the same way, does it not require something that is not
fleeting and impermanent for the fleetingness of all things to be recognized?
In other words: if everything, including yourself, were impermanent, would you
even know it? Does the fact that you are aware of and can witness the
short-lived nature of all forms, including your own, not mean that there is
something in you that is not subject to decay? 

同样地，不也必须有某些并非短暂、不持久的东西，才能让人们认清万事万物皆是无常的？换句话说，如果所有的一切，包括你自己，都是瞬间即逝的，你还能知道这些吗？你从万物无常的本质，从你自己身上所觉知到的、所见证到的真理，不正意味着你内在存在着某些东西，是永不衰去的吗？

 

When you are twenty, you are aware of your body as strong
and vigorous; sixty years later, you are aware of your body as weakened and
old. Your thinking too may have changed from when you were twenty, but the
awareness that knows that your body is young or old or that your thinking has
changed has undergone no change. That awareness is the eternal in
you–consciousness itself. It is the formless One Life. Can you lose It? No,
because you are It.  

二十岁时，你觉得自己身强体壮、精力充沛；六十年后，你觉得自己既衰老且虚弱。你的想法可能也和身体一样，自二十岁以来改变了许多，但是那觉知到身体是年轻或衰老，觉知到想法已改变的觉性本身，却从未改变，那觉性是你内在的永恒，是觉识本身。它是无形、无相的宇宙共同生命，你会失去它吗？不会，因为你就是它。

 

Some people become deeply peaceful and almost luminous just
before they die, as if something is shining through the dissolving form. 

有些人临终前十分平静安祥，甚至透着光彩，好似有什么东西从他那即将消逝的形体里照射出来。

 

Sometimes it happens that very ill or old people become
almost transparent, so to speak, in the last few weeks, months, or even years
of their lives. As they look at you, you may see a light shining through their
eyes. There is no psychological suffering left. They have surrendered and so
the person, the mind-made egoic “me,” has already dissolved. They have “died
before they died” and found the deep inner peace that is the realization of the
deathless within themselves.  

有时，在一些重症患者或老人身上，也可看到他们在生命的最后数周、数月，甚至数年之间，变得清透。当他们凝视着你，你可能会看见他们眼中闪耀着光芒。那里没有了精神上的痛苦，他们已然臣服了，而那个心智小我也已然消失不见。他们在“死前先死过”了，并找到了内心深处的和平，了悟了他们自己内在是永恒不朽的。

 

To every accident and disaster there is a potentially
redemptive dimension that we are usually unaware of. 

每件意外与灾难，都存在着一个可能的救赎，我们却经常未能察觉。

 

The tremendous shock of totally unexpected, imminent death
can have the effect of forcing your consciousness completely out of identification
with form. In the last few moments before physical death, and as you die, you
then experience yourself as consciousness free of form. Suddenly, there is no
more fear, just peace and a knowing that “all is well” and that death is only a
form dissolving. Death is then recognized as ultimately illusory–as illusory as
the form you had identified with as yourself. 

突如其来的死亡所带来的震撼，将迫使你的意识脱离对形相的认同。肉体死亡前的最后时刻，以及死亡的那一刻，你将体验到自己不再是那躯壳，而是意识本身。刹那间，再也没有恐惧，只有平静以及知道“一切安好”，知道了死亡只是形体的消失。死亡于是被认出来它终究是虚幻不实的，就像你曾认同过的形体一样虚幻不实。

 

Death is not an anomaly or the most dreadful of all events
as modern culture would have you believe, but the most natural thing in the
world, inseparable from and just as natural as its other polarity–birth. Remind
yourself of this when you sit with a dying person. 

死亡并不像现代文明要你相信的那样，是违反常态，或是人生中最可怕的事。其实，它是世上最自然不过的一件事，与它所对应的“生”同样自然，而且密不可分。当你坐在濒死之人身旁，请记得这点。

 

It is a great privilege and a sacred act to be present at a
person’s death as a witness and companion. 

见证并陪伴他人步向死亡，是神圣的行为，更是莫大的恩典。

 

When you sit with a dying person, do not deny any aspect of
that experience. Do not deny what is happening and do not deny your feelings.
The recognition that there is nothing you can do may make you feel helpless,
sad, or angry. Accept what you feel. Then go one step further: accept that
there is nothing you can do, and accept it completely. You are not in control.
Deeply surrender to every aspect of that experience, your feelings as well as
any pain or discomfort the dying person may be experiencing. Your surrendered
state of consciousness and the stillness that comes with it will greatly assist
the dying person and ease their transition. If words are called for, they will
come out of the stillness within you. But they will be secondary.

当你坐在濒死之人身旁，不要对这经历有任何否定，不要否定正在发生的事情，也不要否定你的感觉。发现自己帮不上忙，或许让你感到无助、难过或生气，但你要接纳这样的感受，然后更进一步地，接纳自己的无能为力，彻底全然地接纳。事情不受你主导，深深地臣服于眼前的一切与你的感觉，以及臣服于那濒死之人可能经历的任何痛苦或不适。寂照伴随着你已臣服的觉识状态，将会对临终者助益良多，而使得这段死亡的转化过程更容易一些。若有必要说话，那也必发自你内心深处的寂照，但那不是最重要的。

 

With the stillness comes the benediction: peace.  

随着寂照而来的是祝祷的恩赐--内在深邃的平静。