英国新闻听力 旅行中的善行给人的启示（在线收听）

Some years ago I was travelling in northern India when my group stopped at a roadside chai shop.

早上好，几年前我在印度北部旅行，我们的团队在一个路边茶馆停下了。

After a few weeks in India I find I stop paying attention to the beggars who hover around more affluent people.

在印度呆了几周后，我发现自己不再注意那些包围在富人周围的乞讨者。

I must admit they become a nuisance and I start to ignore them.

我必须承认他们已经让人讨厌，我开始忽略他们。

My friend bought an extra cup of chai for a woman I hadn't even noticed, who was crouching at the edge of the sitting area.

我的朋友多买了一杯茶，送给我根本没有注意到的一位妇女，她当时正蜷缩在休息处的边缘上。

She was skeletal, dressed in rags and bowed gratefully as my friend gave her the drink.

她皮包骨头，穿着破烂，恭敬地弯腰接过朋友送给她的茶。

We carried on chatting, but from the corner of my eye I noticed that the woman's hands were shaking violently,

我们继续聊起来，但从眼睛的余光中我注意到这名妇女的双手抖得厉害，

and she was weeping as the chai spilt before she could drink it.

茶水往外溅开，让她无法喝着，她便抽泣着。

I thought, 'She needs a hand,' so I crouched down beside her, took her cup and held it to her lips.

我在想，“她需要帮助”，所以我就蹲在她旁边，拿过她的杯子送到她嘴边。

As she sipped the warm tea I fed her and looked up gratefully, my perspective shifted.

她喝了我喂她的热茶，感激地看着我，我只好不看着她。

I was no longer separate, set apart by the silent power of money.

我已不再置身事外，被金钱无声的力量所隔离。

In that moment we were intimately connected: two human beings, one suffering and the other surprised to find himself helping.

在那一刻我们亲密地建立关联：两个人，一个在受苦，一个吃惊地发现自己能提供帮助。

The disconnection I can feel from beggars matches the distance I often feel from images of disasters, like this week's earthquake in Nepal.

我从乞讨者身上感觉的隔离感与我经常从灾难图片中感受到的距离感很相似，比如本周的尼泊尔地震。

After the initial shock they too become a mildly troubling backdrop to normal life.

在最初的震撼后，这些灾难也会变成日常生活中平凡又令人不安的背景。

I might give something; I might not. But I've never forgotten the woman at the chai stop because when I helped her drink my world expanded.

我可能会捐赠些什么，也可能不会。但我从未忘记茶馆遇到的那个妇女，因为当我帮助她时候，我的世界变大了。

I glimpsed, for a moment that my separateness was an illusion.

我只是瞥了一眼，当时我的置身事外是一种错觉，

It had grown alongside the illusions that education and relative affluence make me special;

这种置身事外感伴随着这样一种错觉而变得强烈，即教育和相对的富足让我与众不同，

and that the things I look to for security can somehow hold off my own mortality and vulnerability.

我凭之寻找安全的东西在某种程度上能让死亡和脆弱远离我。

This week Buddhists celebrate Buddha Day or Wesak, which marks the Buddha's birth in Nepal, south of the main earthquake region, and his Enlightenment.

本周在尼泊尔地震地区的南部，佛教徒们庆祝佛陀日即卫塞节，也就是佛陀的诞生日，也庆祝佛的觉悟。

His awareness of suffering sent him on a quest that culminated spiritual awakening when he experienced a final shattering of illusions.

佛意识到苦难，这让他去寻求，在经历了幻觉最终的破灭后，他实现了精神觉醒。

He understood, at the deepest levels of his consciousness,

在最深层的意识中他明白了自我中心是如何束缚着他，

how self-centeredness had cocooned him, as it cocoons every human being, and was the ultimate source of his inner distress.

也束缚着每位众生，最终也是他内心痛苦的根源，

Its absence was an overwhelming liberation.

而剥去这种自我中心则是巨大的解放。

Natural disasters call to us with the vehemence of reality.

自然灾难以强烈的现实召唤我们，

They challenge us to turn towards what's happening and open our hearts to the powerful responses that comes when selfishness falls away:

逼着我们面对所发生的一切，让我们的自私退场，

compassion and the desire to connect, to help and to give.

开放内心，以同情和帮助的欲望做出强有力的回应，让我们前去帮助和给予。