【埃克哈特·托利】死亡与不生不灭

译文按个人理解稍微调整过。form是形相，佛学里书说的执着于形相，对应英文里的便是form。有的地方的翻译依然得不达意。哪个理解更利于自己的便用哪个理解吧。

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

当你走进一个没有被人类驯化或者感染的森林，你不但在你的周遭发现丰盛的生命，你还会在每一步遇到倾倒的树木、败坏的树干、腐烂的叶子等分解的东西。不管你走到哪里，你都会看到生命，也会看到死亡。

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's only the metamorphosis of life forms. 

然而，靠近仔细观察，你会发现正在分解的树干和腐烂的树叶不但在孕育生命，但它们本身就生机蓬勃。微生物在忙着，分子也忙着重组自身。因此，死亡无处可寻。只有各种生命形式的蝶变。

What can you learn from this?

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

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

你从中可以获悉什么？

死亡不是跟生命相对应。生命没跟什么相对应。对应死亡的是出生。生命永恒。

历代的圣人和诗人都认识到人类造梦般的存在状态，它看起来如此坚固、真实和短暂却又随时消融。

在你临终之际，你的生命故事也许会像即将结束的梦一样呈现在你面前。然而，即便在梦里，必定有些本质是真实的。梦得以发生的意识必定存在。否则，梦也不发生。

That consciousness ,does the body create it? Or does consciousness create the dream of body, the dream of somebody? Why did most of those who went through a near death experience lose their fear of death? 

这意识，是肉身创造了它吗？还是意识创造了肉身这个梦境、一个人的梦境？为何大多数有过濒死体验的人不再对死亡心生恐惧？

Reflect upon this.

Of course, you know you're 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. 

反思这一点。

当然，你知道死亡无可避免，但直到你首次看见别人的死去为止，死亡于你只是头脑上的一个概念。通过疾病缠身、或发生在你或跟你关系紧密的人身上的事故、或你所爱的人去世，随着你意识到你终有一天也会逝去，死亡便来到你的生命。

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 dis-identification, however, slide from your own physical and psychological form, the me. When you see and accept the impermanent nature of all life forms, the strange sense of peace comes upon you. Through facing death,your consciousness is free to some extent from identification with form. This is why in some Buddhist traditions, the monks regularly visit the mortuary to sit and meditate among the dead bodies. 

大多数人恐惧地回避死亡，但如果你不退缩，正视你的肉身转瞬即逝、随时都可能消亡的事实。然而，对物质和心理的形相的执着被剥离后，某种程度的不着相（dis-identification）便会生起。之所以为何在一些佛学的传统里，僧侣们定期去停尸房，在遗体中间坐着冥想。

There is still a widespread denial of death in western culture. Even old people try not to speak or think about, 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 depths. 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.

在西方文化里，依然普遍否认死亡。即便是年老的人也尽量避免谈论和思考死亡，人的遗体都被藏起来。否认死亡的文化必定会流于浅薄，只关心事物的外在形相。当死亡被否认，生命就失去了深度。除了你的名字和形相之外，知晓“你是谁”的和那超越的维度，这些可能性都从我们生命中消失，因为死亡是进入那向度的入口。

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

人们往往对终结都感到不自在，因为每个结束都是一场小小的死去。之所以为何在很多语言里，“道别（goodbye）”这个词都是指再见。

 Whenever an experience comes to an end,the gathering of friends, the 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. 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. 

当某些经历即将终结，如朋友聚会、假期、子女离开家里等，你便经历了一场小小的死去——在你意识里以那份经历塑造的形相消融了。通常这种消融的感觉会留下一种大多数人都极力抗拒去感知、去正视的空虚感。如果你可以学会接受、甚至欣然迎接你生命中的各种终结，你也许会发现一开始让你感到不自在的空虚感转化为内在非常平和的开豁感。

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

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. 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.

在日常生活中以这种方式正视死亡，你便打开了自己，面向生命。大多数人觉得他们的身份、他们的自我感是他们不想失去的非常珍贵的东西。之所以为何他们如此恐惧死亡。“我”可能会不复存在——这似乎很可怕，不可想象，但你把珍贵的“我”跟你的名相及与之挂钩的故事相混淆了。那个“我”仅仅是意识场暂时的形态。

As long as that form identities 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. 

只要你所知道的只有那身份认同，你便没有意识最珍贵的是你自己的本质（essence）。你内心深处的“我是”——也就是“意识”本身——它是你内在永恒的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? 

凡是你生活中发生的重大损失，如失去财产、家园、亲密关系、名望、工作或某种身体机能，你内在的某些东西死去了。你感到你的自我感被削弱了，还可能感到茫然迷失——没有了这些，那我是谁？

When a form that you had unconsciously identified with this 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. When this happens, don't deny or ignore the pain or the sadness that you feel, except that it is there. 

当你无意识地认同某些形相是你的一部分，这形相离开你或消融会是非常痛苦的事。 可以这么说，这种消融感会在你的存在结构中留下一个空洞。当发生此事，不要否认或无视你感到的痛苦和悲伤，接受 它们

Beware of your mind's tendency to construct 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 place.You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it.

要警觉你的头脑围绕这些丧失来构建故事的倾向。在这些故事里，头脑会让你扮演受者，于是，与受害者角色匹配各种情绪便会生起，如恐惧、愤怒、怨恨和自怜等。除了觉察到头脑编造的故事背后有什么之外，也去觉察这些情绪背后有什么——是空洞、虚空的空间。你可以正视和接受这奇怪的虚空的感觉吗？如果你可接受这种感觉，你也许会发现它不再让人感到恐惧，会惊讶于从那里散发出来的平静。

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. 

凡是死亡发生时，凡是任何的生命形相消融时，神，无形无相，从消融的形相的开口中透出光来。这就是为何在生命中死亡是最崇敬的事。

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? 

Consider this.

人类的各种经历都是多么短暂！我们的生命是多么转瞬即逝！是否有什么不受限于出生和死亡？有什么是永恒的？

思考这一点。

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. 

如果只有一种颜色，譬如说只有蓝色，整个世界的所有事物都是蓝色，那么，便没有蓝色。必须有些非蓝色的东西才可以让蓝色被辨认出来。不然，蓝色不会突显出来，它不会存在。

In the same way, does it not require something that is not fleeting and impermanent for the fleeting of all things to be recognised? 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's something in you that is not subject to decay. 

同理，那不需要一些恒常的东西来让转瞬即逝的东西被辨认出来吗？换言之，若一切事物——包括你自己——都是无常的，你还可以知道（你是无常的吗）？

你意识到或见证了万物形相的转瞬即逝（包括你自己），那不就意味着有些东西不受限于衰败吗？

When you're 20, you're aware of your body as strong and vigorous. 60 years later, you are aware of your body is weakened and old. Your thinking, too, may have changed from when you were 20. But the awareness that knows that your body is young or old ,or that your thinking has changed, has undergone no change. 

当你20岁的时候，你知道你很强壮，精力充沛。60年之后，你觉察到你的身体衰老。从你20岁开始，你的思想也可能发生了变化。但觉察到你的身体年轻或衰老、觉察到你的思想变了，这“觉察”从来没变过。

That awareness is the eternal in your consciousness itself. It is the formless one life.Can you lose it? No, because you are it. 

在你的意识本身里，这“觉察”是恒常不朽的。这是无形无相的合一生命。你会失去“祂”吗？不，因为你就是“祂”。

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

有些人在临终时变得非常平静，几近像发光一般，好像有什么东西透过他们正在消融的形相发出光来。有时重病的人或老人在他们生命最后的几周、几个月或甚至几年里，可以这么说，他们变得几乎透明。当他们看着你，你也许看到他们眼里闪闪发光。心理上的痛苦已经消弭。他们已臣服，所以，头脑制造的小我已消融。他们在肉体死亡前已死去，发现了内在深沉的平静，也即是意识到他们的内在无所谓的死亡。

To every accident and disaster,there is a potentially redemptive dimension that we are usually unaware of. 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's no more fear, just peace and in 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.

在每一场意外和灾难都潜藏着我们通常没觉察到的救赎。突如其来的死亡带来的巨大冲击会迫使你的意识在肉身死亡前的最后一刻完全脱离对形相的认同。随着死亡，你会经验到自己是一种没有形相的意识。突然间，不再有恐惧，只有和平。知晓一切都安好，死亡只是形相的消融，于是，死亡被认出是最终极的幻相，如同你认同于那些“你之所以为你”的形相一样，都是幻相。

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 earth.

deny your feelings. 

死亡不是异常现象，也不是像现代文明想让你相信的那样——它最可怕的事，而是这个世界上最自然的事，跟地球的另一个极性密不可分，也如同地球另一个极性一样自然。

Remind yourself of this when you sit with a dying person.It is a great privilege and a sacred act to be present at a person's death as a witness and companion. When you sit with the dying person，do not deny any aspect of that experience, do not deny what is happening, and do not deny what you feel.

当你和一个垂死的人坐在一起时，提醒自己这一点

作为见证，临在地陪伴在一个垂死的人身边是一种很大的殊荣（殊胜）。

当你和一个垂死的人坐在一起，不要否认这段经验的任何方面、不要否认正在发生的事情、不要否认你的感受。

The recognition that there's nothing you can do may make you feel helpless, sad or angry. Accept what you feel. Then go one step further, accept that there's nothing you can do and accept it completely. You're not in control. Deeply surrendered to every aspect of that experience,

 your feelings, as well as any pain or discomfort to 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. With the stillness comes the benediction-peace.

意识到你的无能为力，可能会让你感到无助、悲伤或愤怒。接纳你的感觉，然后再往前走一步。接受你无能为力，全然接受这个事实。你无法控制。深深屈服于那段经验的每一个面向：你的感觉、以及可能对垂死的人生起的任何痛苦或不适。你臣服的意识状态和随之而来的

寂静将极大地帮助垂死的人，并缓解他们的转化。

如果有什么需要说的，言语会从你内在的寂静中出来，但它们都是次要的。伴随寂静而来的是祝福——平和。