第750期:英语美文-生之旅的内在目的

 

英语美文-人生之旅的内在目的

THE INNER PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE'S JOURNEY

活在当下，是很多人一生追求的境界。活在当下，可以让你全身心感受，体味生命的状态，活在当下的人，能看到生命的真谛，拥有真正的智慧。于是有人就提问：活在当下和为未来奋斗是否冲突？《当下的力量》的作者埃克哈特·托利，就这个问题，有着非常独特，极有深度的见解。他认为，我们所有人终其一生有两种人生目标，一种是外在想要达成的目标，一种是内在追求的精神目标，在下面这段文字中，他就将如何使这两种状态平衡做了很好的阐述。

这段话，让我不由得想起“致良知”这三个极具威力的字。作者文中所提的 ”inner purpose”和我们中文中的“良知”颇有相似之处。每个人自一出生，自带 “良知”，但是我们在追求外物，即作者所说的“outer purpose”的时候，会不时忘记，甚至偏离自己的 “良知”， 所以，在我们追求外在的人生目标时，保持自己的“良知”或是 “inner purpose” 是显得极为重要的。不少人在追求到外在的目标时，却遗忘，甚至泯灭自己的“良知”，正如《当下的力量》作者所说，忘记了自己的”inner purpose”,这样的人生是不完整的，反之也是一样的。

New Words:

reconcile vt. 使一致；使和解；调停，调解；使顺从

consciousness n. 意识；知觉；觉悟；感觉

horizontal adj. 水平的；地平线的； n. 水平线，水平面；

dimension n. 方面;[数] 维；尺寸；次元；

Being n. 存在；生物；身心；在文中指当下这一刻

I can see the truth of what you are saying, but I still think that we must have purpose on our life's journey; otherwise we just drift, and purpose means future, doesn't it? How do we reconcile that with living in the present?

我明白你所说的真实性。可是我认为我们的人生、之旅必须有目的，否则只有随波逐流了。目的就意谓着未来对不对？如何把人生的目的和活在当下两者做一个折中？

When you are on a journey, it is certainly helpful to know where you are going or at least the general direction in which you are moving, but don't forget: the only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. Your life's journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose.

旅行的时候知道你的目的地，或者至少有个大方向当然有用。不过你别忘了：你在这一刻所迈出的一步，才是旅途中彻底真实的一件事。这一步是你所有的一切。你的人生之旅有内外两个目的。

The outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination, to accomplish what you set out to do, to achieve this or that, which, of course, implies future. But if your destination, or the steps you are going to take in the future, take up so much of your attention that they become more important to you than the step you are taking now, then you completely miss the journey's inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how. It has nothing to do with future but everything to do with the quality of your consciousness at this moment.

外在的目的，就是抵达你的目标或目的地，去完成你设定要做的，去成就这个或那个。这其中当然隐含着未来。可是如果你的目的地或是未来要采取的步骤，占用了你太多的关注与精力，甚至比你现在的步骤还要重要，那么你就完全错失了人生之旅的内在目的了。而内在之旅与你要去哪里或者做什么毫无关系。却关系着你的如何做。它与未来无关，却关系着你当下的意识品质。

The outer purpose belongs to the horizontal dimension of space and time; the inner purpose concerns a deepening of your Being in the vertical¹ dimension of the timeless Now. Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.

外在目的属于时空的平行向度；内在目的却有关无时间性当下的垂直向度里，你本体的纵深。

外在之旅也许包含了百万个步骤；内在之旅却只有一步：你当下迈出的这一步。

As you become more deeply aware of this one step, you realize that it already contains within itself all the other steps as well as the destination. This one step then becomes transformed into an expression of perfection, an act of great beauty and quality. It will have taken you into Being, and the light of Being will shine through it. This is both the purpose and the fulfillment of your inner journey, the journey into yourself.

你对当前这一步的觉知逐渐深入的时候，你就能体会出这一步里同时包含了那一百万步和目的地。如此一来，这一步便被转变成一个完美的化身，一个兼具大美和品质的行动。它将把你带进本体，而本体之光也将穿越它。这就是你内在之旅——自我之旅的目的和实现。

1 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。