题注:看见横刀君讨论人生的下法,其实,很简单,好好地活过,就会宁静地离去。罗素说:“就是使你所关心的事情逐步地变得更广泛和跳出个人圈子,直至自我之墙逐渐远离,这样,你的生活就会日益汇合于人类全体的生活之中。”换句俗话说,就是摆脱自恋。自尊自重自爱,与自恋不是一回事。再或者说,自恋很正常,过于自恋就有害。在发我自己的照片的同时,我越来越喜欢发一些网上下载的别的女人的照片,有人抗议我说我没注意版权问题,其实,在这个已经荒无人烟的虚拟小地方,发一些本来就来自公共空间的东西,有什么版权问题呀,无非是我越来越把大家的美与我个人的美当一个整体了。我会老去,我已经在老去,然而有那么多年轻女人在成长起来,她们的美,就是我的美。我们都属于人类全体的生活。
把罗素那篇文章再次转发于此。
How to grow old
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.
An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will be not unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do, and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
——Bertrand Russell
怎样做老人
一些老年人被死亡的恐惧所折磨。青年们有这种感觉是有理由的。青年人有理由害怕在战场上阵亡,当想到他们被骗走了生活所能提供的最好的东西时,有理由感到伤心。但是作为一个老年人,他经历过人类的忧伤和喜悦,而且完成了他份内要做的所有工作,怕死就有点儿卑鄙和不光彩了。克服这一点的最好方法——至少在我看来是这样——就是使你所关心的事情逐步地变得更广泛和跳出个人圈子,直至自我之墙逐渐远离,这样,你的生活就会日益汇合于人类全体的生活之中。
个人的存在应该象一条河流——开始很小,狭窄地处在河的两岸之内;以后汹涌奔腾,经过巨石,越过瀑布。渐渐地河面变得宽阔,两岸后撤,河水流动更为平静;最终,滔滔不绝汇入大海,并且毫无痛苦地失去独自的存在。上了年纪而能这样看待生活的人,就不会遭受死亡恐惧的痛苦,因为他所关怀的事物将继续下去。同时,如果疲倦随着生命力的衰退而增长,由此而有休息的想法也并不令人讨厌。明知别人将继续我未竟的事业,可我倒愿意工作不息,死而后已,同时想到凡是可能做到的事我都已做了而心满意足。
[此贴子已经被作者于2016-5-30 14:23:48编辑过]
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