“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything—anger, anxiety, or possessions—we cannot be free.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
「放開，我們才有自由，而自由是快樂的唯一條件。如果，在我們心中，我們仍然抓住任何東西 – 憤怒、焦慮或佔有物 – 我們是不可能自由的。」 ~ 一行禪師
By Dr. Amy Johnson
作者: 艾美‧強森博士
Imagine there is a river running through you.
想像有一條河貫穿你流過去。
Your entire experience of life flows through you, down that river. Everything you think, feel, and do passes through, powered by the current of the river.
你的整個人生歷程貫穿你流過去，流到河的下游。你所有的念頭、感覺和行為都被河水的水流帶過去。
Your emotions, your opinions, your sense of identity … your habits, diagnoses, and choices … they aren’t still or solid, sitting somewhere. They are brought to life, felt, and then they drift away. They are in constant motion, naturally replaced with a revolving stream of new experience.
你的情緒、你的意見、你認知的身份… 你的習慣、判斷和選擇…. 它們並非靜止不動或堅固地停留在某個地方。它們被賦予生命、被感覺，然後漂流遠去。它們處在恆動的狀態下，很自然地被川流不息的新經驗所取代。
You aren’t responsible for what flows down the river.
你無需對順著河水流下去的任何東西負責。
The particular thoughts and feelings that show up aren’t yours. You didn’t put them there and, in most cases, you didn’t choose them. They are simply part of the flow of life.
那些浮現出來的特定念頭和感覺並不是你的。你並沒有將它們擱置在那裏，而且在大多數的情況下，你也並沒有撿選它們。它們不過是你生命河流的一部份。
Your thoughts and feelings don’t come from the world outside the river; they can’t. What flows down the river is born of the river. What that means, in human terms (since this is a metaphor for how human life works, after all) is that what you feel originates within you. Life out there—your relationships, job, body, health, or any circumstance at all—cannot create or dictate your experience. Your experience begins and ends within you.
你的念頭和感覺並非來自河流之外的地方，這是不可能的。所有順流而下的東西都是來自河流本身。這個意思是，用人類的話來說就是(畢竟這是對人類生活方式的一種比喻)，你的感覺起源於你的內在。生活中發生的事 – 感情、工作、身體、健康或其他任何狀況 – 無法創造或決定你的經驗。你的經驗起於你的內在，終於你的內在。
You (what you call me) are not the contents of the river. You are what remains when all has passed through. The contents of the river are in perpetual flux. You are what never changes.
你 (你所謂的「我」) 並不是河流中的內容物。你是所有一切流過去之後留下來的「那個」。河流的內容物不斷在汰舊換新，而你是永遠不變的。
It’s an incredible design! Can you get a feel for who you are? For the fleeting and safe nature of your experience?
這是個很神奇的設計! 你能感覺到你 是誰嗎? 你能感覺到那稍縱即逝但很安全的每個經驗特質嗎?
You are awareness of life itself. The things you witness don’t stick. This means there is nothing to avoid, fear, change, or chase away. The current takes care of that for you, endlessly updating your experience in each and every moment.
你是感知生命的意識本身。你所感知的東西並不會停留。也就是沒有任何東西需要你去逃避、害怕、改變或追逐的。河水的水流會為你處理好這一切，時刻不斷地更新你的經驗。
If this is an accurate metaphor for human life, why do we feel so stuck at times? Why does our experience look so repetitive, and why do our issues appear to linger and weigh us down?
如果這是對人生的一個貼切的比喻，那為什麼我們有時會覺得像陷入泥沼一般無法脫身? 為什麼我們的經驗看來如此反覆? 又為什麼我們的問題似乎揮之不去，讓我們心情沈重?
It’s simple: we misunderstand the design.
很簡單: 我們誤解了那個設計。
No one told you life worked this way, so you identify with and latch onto what flows down the river. You say things like I had this thought. I don’t like this feeling. I should be different. I can’t believe I did/said/thought/felt that.
沒有人告訴你人生是怎麼一回事，於是你就認同並附著在河水中順流而下的東西。你總是說 - 我 有這個想法，我 不喜歡這個感覺，我 應該不一樣，我不相信我 那樣做了/ 說了/ 想了/ 覺得。
It’s happening within you, after all.
然而，這一切都發生在你的裏面。
You, like all people, miss the fact that your experience isn’t you. It isn’t serious. It’s life taking temporary form, expressing itself through you. Then flowing downstream making way for new and different temporary expressions.
你，就像所有人一樣，不知道你的經驗並不是你。事態並不嚴重。人生只是透過你來呈現一種短暫的面貌，然後流過去的河水又騰出空間給新生成的其他不同的短暫面貌。
Your well-being and your essential nature are ultimately unaffected by what washes over you. But when you don’t realize that, you innocently get in the way of the natural flow. We all do.
你的福祉和你的本質根本不會被沖刷過去的河水所影響。但是如果你不了解這一點，你會不知情地擋在這個天然的水道上。我們都是如此。
When what’s flowing through you looks personal and stable, of course you try to fix or change it. You jump in the river that is flowing and recycling perfectly on its own. You stand in the flow with your bucket, scooping up water that was trying to flow downstream. You carry that bucket around, showing everyone proof of your problems.
當流經的河水看起來很貼近又牢不可破時，當然你會想去修正或改變它。你跳入完全自動流轉的河水裏。你拿著一個水桶站在水流中，撈起正要順勢而下的河水。你拿著水桶像物證一樣到處向人展示你的問題。
“See!” you say. “It’s right here in my bucket!” You replay what you did yesterday and fixate on fears and worries about what will happen tomorrow. When it looks like life out there can hurt us, or like what flows through us can hurt us, we’re filled with anxiety about what might show up next. Then we wonder why change feels so hard.
「看吧!」你說，「它就在我的水桶裏!」。你重播昨天做過的事，又不放過對明天未知的恐懼和擔憂。當發生的事看起來有傷害性，或流經的東西看似會傷人，我們就會對未知產生焦慮，同時我們又會問為什麼改變如此困難。
“There must be a problem with me,” we conclude. We’re broken. There is a problem in our design.
「我一定有問題，」於是我們下這種結論。我們是有缺陷的。人生的設計有問題。
But make no mistake—you and the design of life are perfect. The only problem is your innocent misunderstanding of the source of your experience. The innocent misunderstanding (shared with virtually everyone on earth) of how the river operates.
但不要搞錯了 – 你和人生的設計是完美的。唯一的問題是你無辜錯認了你經驗的源頭，並無辜誤解了河流運作的方式 (和地球上其他人一樣)。
Seeing through these misunderstandings changes everything. When people catch a glimpse of the resilient, health-affirming design of life, they uncover the well-being that has always been there.
把這個誤解看明白了就會改變一切。一旦人們窺探到生命的韌性和它健康式的設計時，他們就會發現幸福其實一直都在他們身邊。
It no longer makes sense to say that you “have” a habit, trait, or issue. You experience thoughts, feelings, and behaviors but they don’t have to linger or leave a mark. They aren’t personal.
如此一來，當你說你「有」某種習慣、特質或問題時，這種說法便不再成立。你經歷 了念頭、感覺和行為，但它們不必徘徊不去或留下痕跡。它們並不屬於你個人的。
When I was caught up in bulimia several years ago, binging and purging, I was furiously treading water in that river. ‘Furiously’ because that looked like the only way to survive.
幾年前當我患上暴食症大吃大吐時，我激烈地在河水中踐踏。「激烈」- 因為那似乎是我度過難關的唯一方法。
Everything looked important, personal, and meaningful. What I ate, when I ate, how life appeared within and around me.
所有的事都看起來都很要緊、很切身，意義重大，包括我吃什麼、我什麼時候吃、我的周遭生活如何，我有什麼感覺等等。
I was trying to keep from drowning in my own anxieties and destructive habits. Flailing about, trying to force change in my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors was all I knew to do.
我努力不要被自己的焦慮和惡習所淹沒。我奮力掙扎，一味試圖強迫自己改變我的想法、感覺和行為。
I didn’t realize that life as I knew it was being created within me, moment to moment. Life wasn’t happening to me. I wasn’t feeling the effects of my past or my weight or some mental flaw I possessed.
我當時並不了解我所謂的人生，其實是時時刻刻在我心裏 創造出來的。人生並非發生在 我身上。我感受到的並不是我的過去、我的體重或我的一些心理缺失產生的結果。
I didn’t realize it was possible to watch the river from its banks. That my experience didn’t brand me with diagnoses and labels that meant something deep or stable about me.
我不知道我是大可以待在岸上觀看河水的，我的經驗並沒有在我身上烙下深刻或持久的判斷和標籤印記。
Labels and diagnoses describe some of the thoughts and behaviors we experience at a particular point in time, from particular states of mind. They describe the contents of any given bucket of water taken from the river.
標籤和判斷代表的是我們在一時的心境下經歷的念頭和行為。它們是裝在桶子裏從河水撈起來的東西。
“This one is murky.” “This one is clear.” Those are labels that describe the water in a bucket in one given moment. They don’t describe water, or the river, as a whole. They are a snapshot.
「這個水很混濁」，「 這個水很清澈」。這些都是我們一時用來形容桶子裏的水的標籤，但它們並不代表整個河水。它們只是一時的快照。
“Obsessed about food today,” “Felt peaceful and wise,” “Felt scared and hopeless.” Those are natural, impersonal, human snapshots of experience that we innocently take way too seriously. We label ourselves with what’s moving through us, but if it’s moving through, how much sense do those labels really make?
「今天嘴很饞」，「感覺很平靜理智」，「覺得害怕絕望」。這些都是很自然非個人化的人生經驗快照，而我們卻看得非常嚴重。我們將流通過我們身上的東西貼上標籤，但這些標籤無非只是經過，它們具有很重大的意義嗎?
Fresh, new water is always coming. We simply need to look upstream rather than downstream to see that there is nothing to fix.
新的河水總是會到來。我們只要看上游的水而不是下游的水，就知道沒有什麼需要解決的。
As I explored this river and how human experience really works, I noticed one day that life felt lighter. I was no longer carrying buckets around.
當我對河水和人生的經驗做這樣的探討時，我發現有一天我的人生感覺比較輕鬆了。我不再拿著水桶到處招搖。
I became naturally less tangled in the flow of life. The past—whether it’s five years or five seconds ago—does not exist. It’s amazing how much easier life flows when you aren’t taking stock of the past or preparing for the future. When you aren’t trying to control or change what shows up.
我很自然地不再和生命的河水糾纏不清。過去 – 不管它是五年還是五秒以前 – 已經不存在了。令人驚奇的是，當我們不再數算過去或盤算未來，人生變得容易很多，因為我們不再想控制或改變眼前的事。
There is enormous hope for everyone—our incredible design ensures it. Anything that burdens you can wash away to reveal the health and well-being that is within you right now.
生命這種神奇的設計為每個人帶來無窮的希望。當你將身上的重擔沖刷下來，你便會看到此刻你所擁有的健康和幸福。
**While many are able to heal solely through understanding their design, for others, this may only be part of the process, and they may benefit from other forms of professional help. All healing journeys are unique. What's important is that you find and do what's best for you.
**很多人僅僅在了解生命的設計之後便會豁然而癒，但對有些人這可能只是療程的一部份，他們也許需要尋求專業的協助。每個療癒過程都是獨特的。重要的是你要找到和採取對你最合適的方法。
* Judy H 譯 *
文章來源 / Source of post:
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/freeing-yourself-from-problems-and-habits/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Amy Johnson
Dr. Amy Johnson is the author of several books, including The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit. She is also the creator of The Little School of Big Change, an online school that helps people find lasting freedom from habits and anxiety. Please go here to get a free sneak preview of the school.
關於艾美‧強森
艾美‧強森博士出版了好幾本著作 ，包括【小小書大改變 : 戒除習慣不費力】。 她也是「小學校大改變」的創辦人，一個幫助人們擺脫習性和焦慮的網路學校。可以點擊這裏來免費一窺課程內容。
相關文章 / You may also like:
創造的力量 / The Power To Create
你今天過得好嗎? / Measuring the Quality of Your Day with a To-Be List (Not Just a To-Do List)
(視頻) 人生是一首音樂 / Life as Music (Alan Watts 艾倫•沃茲)
「無所事事」的力量 / Let Go of Shoulds and Stress and Let Yourself Do Nothing
歡迎用臉書 追蹤新內容
Follow us on Facebook
⏬ 分享出去吧! 也許有人正需要它 Share to benefit someone ⏬
