灵魂暗夜

灵魂暗夜

本文原文出自右列网址：http:///index.php?id=121

作者：伯特.海宁格

  

 I want to say something about spirituality…

…the search for spiritual enlightenment often reflects the desire to reach the peak of experience. The peak is a very lonely place, a very lonely place. Few people can stand it for a long while. But once they have climbed to the peak, they are afraid to go back all the way down. To get to the peak required such great effort, they worry about what they will do at the bottom. So they remain halfway between the peak and the bottom - having nothing of either.

 我想要谈一谈关于灵性…

 寻求精神上的开悟，所反映的常常是想达致高峰经验的渴望。顶峰是一个非常、非常寂寞的地方。很少人能长久忍受它。但一旦他们攀爬至顶峰，他们会害怕接下来只能一路往下。为了到达顶峰需要非常巨大的努力，他们担忧着若掉到了最底部该怎么办的好。所以他们就保持在顶峰与底部的半途中--却两边都到不了。

The greatest spiritual achievement is the most humble one. When I see people who are doing meditations for a very long time, waiting for the enlightenment, I wonder: What are they contributing to humankind? The answer comes back: Nothing.

 最伟大的精神成就实际上是最谦卑的。当我看到人们长时间的冥想，等着要开悟，我纳闷着：他们对人类的帮助是什么呢？我得到的答案是：什么都没有。

I once spoke to a Zen master in Germany who very often went to Kyoto in Japan to participate in Zen sessions. They had a session for 10 days, meditating every day, 10 hours or more, some even 16 hours a day. He said they were full of energy afterwards. I asked what they did with that energy. He responded, "Well they go to town and enjoy themselves with geishas." I asked if that was the extent of the achievement of a session. I thought it strange, very strange.

 有一次我跟一位德国的禅师聊天，他常去日本东京参禅。他们有一个十天的课程，每天冥想，差不多10小时或更长，有时甚至一天达16小时之久。他说冥想之后他们会充满能量。我便问他们拿这能量干嘛呢。他答道：「这个嘛，他们会到城里找艺妓享乐。」我又问这是否也算在参禅成就的范围内呢。我觉得这很诡异，非常诡异。

Zen had originally been conceived as a way for warriors to learn how to fight effectively. In that context, Zen had meaning. Without it, the meditation has no meaning.

 禅原是战士们学习如何有效地进行战斗之道。在这样的脉络下，禅才有意义。缺了这脉络，冥想便无任何意义。

When compared with a mother who raises five children... The mother's task is truly spiritual, humble, human, at the bottom.

...  与一位抚养五个孩子的母亲相比...一个终生都在冥想的和尚有什么力量可言呢？母亲的工作才是真正精神性的，谦卑的，有人性的，就保持在最底部。

I have also observed that when people take a spiritual path and become esoterics, they often refuse to care for a child or they abandon their wife. They refuse to stand up for ordinary human achievements and responsibilities that cost something. They lift off the ground to a so- called spiritual level. But they are self-centred. They may speak about losing their ego, but what are they meditating on? On their ego, of course. And what about their wish for enlightenment? What do they want it for? For their ego, of course. There is a great deception in all this.

 我也观察到当人们走上一条精神的道路而变得隐秘难解时，他们常拒绝去关心孩子或者他们会抛弃他们的妻子。他们拒绝付出一些代价去支持凡常人类的成就与责任。他们升举至所谓的精神层次而不脚踏实地。然而他们是自我中心的。他们或许会谈论一些关于失去自我之事，但他们在冥想什么呢？当然还是他们的自我。而他们渴望的开悟又是什么呢？他们想要拿这开悟来干嘛呢？当然，为的还是他们的自我。所有这一切都含有很大的欺骗成份。

Now there is another spiritual path: the dark night of the soul. In Spain , St. John of the Cross was teaching about the dark night of the soul. This is spiritual training and it takes a long time. You can't exercise it or will it. It happens to you. The dark night happens to you. Once it does, you no longer know where to go. Everything is dark, and you feel desolate, without direction. But you are strong enough to hold on. And after a while, you experience the dark night of the soul.

 然而，确有另一种精神上的道途：即灵魂的暗夜。在西班牙，圣十字若望教导有关灵魂的暗夜。这是一种精神训练且费时甚长。你无法演练它或促成它。它只是发生在你身上。灵魂的暗夜发生在你身上。一旦它发生了，你再也不知道该去哪里。每一件事都是黑暗的，你感到孤寂隔绝，毫无方向。但你够强壮足以坚持下去。那么过了一会儿后，你会体验到灵魂的暗夜。

The dark night has three parts. First, there is the dark night of the senses, in which you no longer are looking for what pleases the eye or the ear or any other sense. This is not because you might despise it in any way, as that would be a response on a different level. No, this is because you are connected with something deeper, a place where it is very still, very quiet. At this level, you no longer need to look outside or to listen for anything. This is a very big place.

 暗夜包括三个部分。首先发生的是所有感官的暗夜，在这种情况中，你无法再寻求视听或任何其它感官上的愉悦。并不是因为你可能以任何方式看不起它们，而是因为那是出自不同层次的响应。你是因为连结到一个更深的所在，此处是不动的止息的，非常的宁静。在这层次，你不需要再往外看或听任何事。这是一个非常广阔的所在。

In other words, the spiritual path requires cleansing, especially cleansing of all intention to reach "higher achievements." You remain at the bottom all the time.

 换言之，这种精神之道需要净化，特别是需要净化想到达「更高成就」的所有意图。你总是保持在最底部。

The second part of this night is very difficult. It is the dark night of the spirit. This means you forgo your wish to know. You don't ask questions such as: "Why?" What is this?" "What is that?" "What happens afterwards?" No, you stay quite separate from this need to know.

暗夜的第二个部分非常的艰困。它是精神上的暗夜。这意味着你放弃了你想知道的愿望。你不再问诸如「为什么？」「这是什么？」「那是什么？」「后来又发生了什么呢？」的问题。不，你不问，你与这些想要知道的需求保持着相当疏离。

 There is yet one more part: the dark night of the will. You no longer want to achieve something. If you have a plan, for instance, you want to learn family constellations and you attend many courses, this is a good thing perhaps. But if you have a plan to change the world through them, you are cut off from the real source. If you let go of these grand plans - if you don't want to heal other people or make the world a better place, if you just stay with yourself - then another way opens up to you. You may have an impulse to take just one small step, and by following this impulse, you discover more than all of the plans in the world would have gotten you. Now you are suddenly in connection with something else, you are tuned into something greater.

 还有一个部分：意志的暗夜。你不再想要达成什么事。例如，你若有个计划，你想学习家族排列而且你参加许多课程，这或许是件好事。但你若有个计划想藉由它们改变世界，你就连结不到真正的根源，你被切断了。如果你放下了这些堂皇盛大的计划(你不再想要疗愈其它人或是想把世界改造成一个更好的地方，你若能只是与自己同在)，那个时候，另一条道路就向你打开了。你或许会有一个只想跨一小步的冲动，而跟随这冲动，你所发现的东西，超过了这世上所有可能捕获你的计划。现在，你突然之间连结上了某种其它的东西，你的频率被调进某种更伟大的事物中。