何苦受苦?——赛斯谈“受苦”（之二）

你已教会自己只觉察并追随自己意识的某些部分，所以，在思想上你将某些主题认作是禁忌，其中就包括对死亡与痛苦的想法。那么，对一个将适者生存及物竞天择奉为圭臬的物种来说，任何一点点的痛或受苦、或死亡的想法都成了不光彩的事儿，在生物上是可耻、懦弱的，几近疯狂的。必须不惜一切代价去追求生命——不是因为生命天生有意义，却是因为它是唯一的游戏，而它充其量也不过是个碰运气的游戏。你只能活一次，而这一次还处处被疾病、灾难及战争的威胁所包围——如果你能逃脱这种极端的环境，留给你的仍然是这样的生命——它不过是无生命的元素暂时进入了一种注定要终结的意识及活力的结果。

You have taught yourselves to be aware of and to follow only certain portions of your own consciousnesses, so that mentally you consider certain subjects taboo. Thoughts of death and  suffering are among those. In a species geared above all to the survival of the fittest, and the competition among species, then any touch of  suffering or pain, or thoughts of death, become dishonorable, biologically shameful, cowardly, nearly insane. Life is to be pursued at  all costs--not because it is innately meaningful, but because it is the  only game going, and it is a game of chance at best. One life is all you  have, and that one is everywhere beset by the threat of illness,disaster, and war --and if you escape such drastic circumstances, then you are still left with a life that is the result of no more than lifeless elements briefly coming into a consciousness and vitality that is bound to end.

在这个框架里，即使爱与兴奋的情绪也被视为只是神经元放电、或化学物质相互反应的不稳定活动。光是这些信念就会带来痛苦。在你们的时代建立的所有科学，宣扬的信念都与人类内心的知识背道而驰。你们已经注意到了，科学否定了情感的真实。科学不只是否定了情感经验的有效性，而且还如此坚定地相信，知识只能从外面、从观察自然的表象中获得。

In that framework, even the emotions of love and exaltation are seen as no more than the erratic activity of neurons firing, or of chemicals reacting to chemicals. Those beliefs alone  bring on suffering. All of science, in your time, has been set up to  promote beliefs that run in direct contradiction to the knowledge of  man's heart. Science has, you have noted, denied emotional truth. It is  not simply that science denies the validity of emotional experience, but  that it has believed so firmly that knowledge can only be acquired from  the outside, from observing the exterior of nature.

我谈到了生命的质量，说真的，至少在许多世纪之前，如果说男人和女人可能死得早些，却也过着更充实、更令人满意的生活——而在那方面我不想被误解。

I spoke about the quality of life, and it is true to say that in at least many centuries past, if men and women may have died earlier, they also lived lives of fuller, more satisfying quality-- and I do not want to  be misinterpreted in that direction.

现在，宗教在某些方面也真的美化了受苦，将之提升为主要的美德之一——而有时候它又贬低受苦，将病人视为被恶魔附身，或视疯子为非人。所以，这里涉及了许多问题。

Now, it is also true that in some of its aspects religion has glorified  suffering, elevated it to be one of the prime virtues--and it has  degraded it at other times, seeing the ill as possessed by devils, or seeing the insane as less than human. So there are many issues involved.

可是，科学将身体视为一个机器，它提倡这样的观念：意识是困在一个机械模型里，而人类的痛苦就是由此机械地造成的——你只需给机器一些更好的零件，一切就都没问题了。当然，科学也如魔法般运作，所以在某些情况下，对科学的信仰本身就像是创造了奇迹，比如说，新的心脏会给一个人新的心。

Science, however, seeing the body as a mechanism, has promoted the idea that consciousness is trapped within a mechanical model, that man's suffering is mechanically caused in that regard: You simply give the machine some better parts and all will be well. Science also operates as magic, of course, so on some occasions the belief in science itself will seemingly-work miracles: The new heart will give a man new heart, for example.

疾病被用作人类动机的一部分。我的意思是，没有什么人类动机不可以在某些时候涉及疾病，因为疾病常常是一种达到预期目的的手段——一个人可能认为要实现什么，非用此法不可。

Illness is used as a part of man's motivations. What I mean is that there is no human motivation that may not at some time be involved with illness, for often it is a means to a desired end--a method of achieving something a person thinks may not be achieved otherwise.

一个人可能用疾病来取得成功，也可能用疾病来获得失败。一个人也许用疾病作为表现骄傲或谦逊、寻求关注或逃避关注的方法。疾病往往是另一种表达模式，但科学从来没有提及疾病也许有其目的，或有很多目的。但我并不是说那些目的本身必然是贬义的。疾病往往是被误导的企图，一个人企图由此获得他认为重要的东西。疾病可以是荣誉或耻辱的徽章——但毫无疑问，当你看着人类的画面时，在某种程度上，而且到一个重要的程度，受苦不只有其目的和用处，却还为了某些理由而被积极地追求着。

One man might use it to achieve success. One might use it to achieve failure. A person might use it as a means of showing pride or humility, of looking for attention or escaping it. Illness is often another mode of expression, but nowhere does science mention that illness might have its purpose, or its groups of purposes, and I do not mean that the purposes themselves are necessarily derogatory. Illnesses are often misguided attempts to attain something the person thinks important. Sickness can be a badge of honor or dishonor--but there can be no question, when you look at the human picture, that to a certain extent, but an important one, suffering not only has its purposes and uses, but is actively sought for one reason or another.

大多数人并不寻求受苦的极端经验，但在那些极端限度之内，有许多不同程度的刺激可被认为是痛苦的，且是被积极追求的。当然，人类参与体育运动就是一个现成的例子。有社会的奖励，且有望获得惊人的身体成就，这些将运动员引入普通人认为最痛苦的活动里。人们爬山，在追求这类目标的过程中，心甘情愿地承受很大的痛苦。

Most people do not seek out suffering's extreme experience, but within those extremes there are multitudinous degrees of stimuli that could be considered painful, that are actively sought. Man's involvement in sports is an instant example, of course, where society's rewards and the promise of spectacular bodily achievement lead athletes into activities that would be considered most painful by the ordinary individual. People climb mountains, willingly undergoing a good bit of suffering in the pursuit of such goals.

我不希望这些看起来过于简单，但我们必须从这种讨论的某个地方开始……这远远不是疾病的整个故事，但就今晚的长篇大论而言，已经足够了。如果你可以的话，鼓励你的好太太学你的榜样，下定决心不再担忧。这该是第一诫。

I do not want any of this to appear too simplistic, but we must begin somewhere in this kind of discussion. . . . This is far from the entire story of illness, but it is enough for this evening's saga. When you can, encourage your fine wife to follow your example in determining not to worry. It should be the first commandment.

——摘译自《梦、进化与价值完成》