I want to address the issue of compassion. Compassion has many faces. Some of them are fierce; some of them are wrathful; some of them are tender; some of them are wise. A line that the Dalai Lama once said, he said, "Love and compassion are necessities. They are not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." And I would suggest, it is not only humanity that won't survive, but it is all species on the planet, as we've heard today. It is the big cats, and it's the plankton.
我想探讨慈悲心这个话题 慈悲心有很多形态 有些是激烈的;有些是忿怒的 有些是温和的, 有些是智慧的 达赖喇嘛曾说过 他说:“爱与慈悲是必需品 它们不是奢侈品 没有它们 人性无法留存。” 我想说的是 不仅人性难以保全 我们今天所知道的 地球上所有的物种都是 不论是大型猫科动物 还是浮游生物
Two weeks ago, I was in Bangalore in India. I was so privileged to be able to teach in a hospice on the outskirts of Bangalore. And early in the morning, I went into the ward. In that hospice, there were 31 men and women who were actively dying. And I walked up to the bedside of an old woman who was breathing very rapidly, fragile, obviously in the latter phase of active dying. I looked into her face. I looked into the face of her son sitting next to her, and his face was just riven with grief and confusion.
两周前,我在印度的班加罗尔 我很荣幸的 在班加罗尔的郊区 一个安养院教授临终关怀 每天很早 我就去病房 在那家安养院 有31个人 处在濒死状态 我走到 一个老年妇女的床前 她的呼吸非常急促而微弱 很明显 她处于濒死的末期 我看着她的脸 看着坐在她旁边 她儿子的脸 他的脸 溢满了悲伤和困惑
And I remembered a line from the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic: "What is the most wondrous thing in the world, Yudhisthira?" And Yudhisthira replied, "The most wondrous thing in the world is that all around us people can be dying and we don't realize it can happen to us." I looked up. Tending those 31 dying people were young women from villages around Bangalore. I looked into the face of one of these women, and I saw in her face the strength that arises when natural compassion is really present. I watched her hands as she bathed an old man.
我记得 摩诃婆罗多 伟大的印度史诗里有这么一段话: “尤帝士提尔,什么是这世上最美妙的事情?” 尤帝士提尔答道 “世上最美妙的事情 就是我们所有人 都将死去 而我们对此 却一无所知。” 我仰起头 照顾这31个濒死者的 是来自 班加罗尔周边村子的年轻女性 我看着她们的脸 在她们的脸上 我看到 慈悲显现时升起的力量 我看着她的手 她在给一个老年男人沐浴
My gaze went to another young woman as she wiped the face of another dying person. And it reminded me of something that I had just been present for. Every year or so, I have the privilege of taking clinicians into the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. And we run clinics in these very remote regions where there's no medical care whatsoever.
我转头望向另一个年轻女子 她在擦拭 另一位临死的人的脸 这让我想起 我刚刚演讲提到的那些内容 差不多每一年 我由此荣幸身负使命 进入喜马拉雅地区和西藏高原 我们在每一个遥远的区域 开设诊所 那里没有医疗护理此类
And on the first day at Simikot in Humla, far west of Nepal, the most impoverished region of Nepal, an old man came in clutching a bundle of rags. And he walked in, and somebody said something to him, we realized he was deaf, and we looked into the rags, and there was this pair of eyes. The rags were unwrapped from a little girl whose body was massively burned. Again, the eyes and hands of Avalokiteshvara. It was the young women, the health aids, who cleaned the wounds of this baby and dressed the wounds.
我们在胡姆拉的Simikot的头一天 在尼泊尔的最西端 全国最贫困的地区 一个抱着一堆破烂布片的老人 走进来 他进了门,有人招呼他 然后我们发现他是耳聋 我们看看那堆布片 里头露出一双眼睛来 打开裹着的布片 是一个 重度烧伤的女孩 再一次 观世音的 眼睛和慈悲之手显现 也就是那些年轻女性,援助者 清理孩子的伤口 并包扎上
I know those hands and eyes; they touched me as well. They touched me at that time. They have touched me throughout my 68 years. They touched me when I was four and I lost my eyesight and was partially paralyzed. And my family brought in a woman whose mother had been a slave to take care of me. And that woman did not have sentimental compassion. She had phenomenal strength. And it was really her strength, I believe, that became the kind of mudra and imprimatur that has been a guiding light in my life.
我认识那些手和眼睛 它们也曾经抚慰过我 它们在过去抚慰过我 在我68年生命中抚慰了我 在我四岁失去视力 几乎瘫痪的时候 它们抚慰了我 我的家人带来 一个女人,她的母亲曾经是个奴隶 她照顾我 这个女人 并没有感性的慈悲心 她有的是非凡的力量 我相信,是她的力量 成为一种启发与指引 是我生命中的指明灯
So we can ask: What is compassion comprised of? And there are various facets. And there's referential and non-referential compassion. But first, compassion is comprised of that capacity to see clearly into the nature of suffering. It is that ability to really stand strong and to recognize also that I'm not separate from this suffering. But that is not enough, because compassion, which activates the motor cortex, means that we aspire, we actually aspire to transform suffering. And if we're so blessed, we engage in activities that transform suffering. But compassion has another component, and that component is really essential. That component is that we cannot be attached to outcome.
我们问道: 慈悲是什么构成的? 答案包含很多方面 有指代性的和非指代性的 但首先,慈悲是 透彻观照 苦难之存在的 能力构成 这种能力 让我们保持坚强 并让我们意识到 我是这苦难的一部分 但这不够 因为慈悲心 激发运动皮质层 也就是说我们受到激励 被激励着去化解苦难 如果我们足够幸运的话 我们从事的活动 能化解苦难 但慈悲心有另一个组成部分 这个部分非常重要 这就是 我们不应该耽于结果
Now I worked with dying people for over 40 years. I had the privilege of working on death row in a maximum security [prison] for six years. And I realized so clearly in bringing my own life experience, from working with dying people and training caregivers, that any attachment to outcome would distort deeply my own capacity to be fully present to the whole catastrophe.
如今,我已为 临死的人们工作了40余年 我曾有幸 在最大限度安全保证下 为死刑犯工作了六个年头 我清楚的认识到 在我的个人生活经历中 为临死之人工作 以及培训护理者的个人生活中 任何耽于结果的感情 只会深深影响 我自己的 面对大苦难的能力
And when I worked in the prison system, it was so clear to me, this: that many of us in this room, and almost all of the men that I worked with on death row, the seeds of their own compassion had never been watered. That compassion is actually an inherent human quality. It is there within every human being. But the conditions for compassion to be activated, to be aroused, are particular conditions. I had that condition, to a certain extent, from my own childhood illness. Eve Ensler, whom you'll hear later, has had that condition activated amazingly in her through the various waters of suffering that she has been through.
在我为监狱系统工作时 我很清楚: 这个屋子里 很多人 还有几乎所有与我一起为死刑犯共事过的人 他们的慈悲之火种从未被扑灭 这种慈悲 是人类内在的特质 存在于每个人之中 但慈悲 被触发 被鼓励的条件 都是特殊情况 某种程度上,我是 深深受幼时疾患的影响 伊娃・恩斯勒,一会儿她会演讲 她是受她 经历过的 汪洋般的苦难 所激发的
And what is fascinating is that compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear. And you know, we have a society, a world, that is paralyzed by fear. And in that paralysis, of course, our capacity for compassion is also paralyzed. The very word terror is global. The very feeling of terror is global. So our work, in a certain way, is to address this imago, this kind of archetype that has pervaded the psyche of our entire globe.
神奇的是 慈悲是有敌人的 那些敌人是怜悯 道德公愤 恐惧 你知道,我们的社会,这个世界 已经在恐惧中麻痹 当然在这麻痹之中 我们的慈悲心 也受到麻痹 恐怖 是全球性的 这种恐怖感是全球性的 某种程度上我们的工作 是要阐明这种意象 这种原型 这已经毒害了 整个世界的心灵
Now we know from neuroscience that compassion has some very extraordinary qualities. For example: A person who is cultivating compassion, when they are in the presence of suffering, they feel that suffering a lot more than many other people do. However, they return to baseline a lot sooner. This is called resilience. Many of us think that compassion drains us, but I promise you it is something that truly enlivens us.
我们从神经科学得知 慈悲 有些非凡的特性 比如: 一个人正在修习慈悲 当他们身处苦难存在之处 他们觉得 比别人受难更多 然而 他们能很快恢复常态 这是弹性 很多人认为慈悲会让自己枯竭 但我保证 它是真正启发我们的东西
Another thing about compassion is that it really enhances what's called neural integration. It hooks up all parts of the brain. Another, which has been discovered by various researchers at Emory and at Davis and so on, is that compassion enhances our immune system. Hey, we live in a very noxious world. (Laughter) Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the generation of compassion, actually mobilizes our immunity.
另一个特性是 它可以增强神经整合 它使脑部的每个部分都联接起来 另外,埃默里和戴维斯 和其他一些研究者 发现了 慈悲会增强免疫力 嗨 我们生活在充满毒素的世界 (笑声) 我们很多人 经历这个世界上的心理社会性的或肉体上的毒害 于是渐渐凋零 但慈悲,慈悲的产物 却可以 促进免疫能力
You know, if compassion is so good for us, I have a question. Why don't we train our children in compassion? (Applause) If compassion is so good for us, why don't we train our health care providers in compassion so that they can do what they're supposed to do, which is to really transform suffering? And if compassion is so good for us, why don't we vote on compassion? Why don't we vote for people in our government based on compassion, so that we can have a more caring world? In Buddhism, we say, "it takes a strong back and a soft front." It takes tremendous strength of the back to uphold yourself in the midst of conditions. And that is the mental quality of equanimity.
如你所知,如果慈悲是有益的 我有个问题 为什么我们不以慈悲 教育我们的后代? (鼓掌) 如果慈悲有益 为什么我们不以慈悲培训保健服务的提供者 这样他们各尽其职 去真正化解痛苦? 如果慈悲有益 为什么我们不为慈悲投上一票? 为什么我们不投票给政府里 以慈悲为政的人 这样我们可以有一个 更关爱的世界 佛教里 我们说“强健于背而怀柔于胸” 强大的力量 才能在各种状况下支撑你 这是精神上的禅定
But it also takes a soft front -- the capacity to really be open to the world as it is, to have an undefended heart. And the archetype of this in Buddhism is Avalokiteshvara, Kuan-Yin. It's a female archetype: she who perceives the cries of suffering in the world. She stands with 10,000 arms, and in every hand, there is an instrument of liberation, and in the palm of every hand, there are eyes, and these are the eyes of wisdom. I say that, for thousands of years, women have lived, exemplified, met in intimacy, the archetype of Avalokitesvara, of Kuan-Yin, she who perceives the cries of suffering in the world.
但你也需要有个温柔的心 以如实地接受和拥抱这个世界 不去设防 这在佛教中的原型 就是千手观音 这是个女性原型 她感知 整个世界苦难的哭喊 她有一万个手臂 每个手上 都持有一件法器 每个手掌上都是眼睛 它们都是慧眼 我说,在上千年的时间长河里 女性与观音 有着密切的关系 她们是在世的观音 是观音的具现 观音感知 世上苦难的哭喊
Women have manifested for thousands of years the strength arising from compassion in an unfiltered, unmediated way in perceiving suffering as it is. They have infused societies with kindness, and we have really felt that as woman after woman has stood on this stage in the past day and a half. And they have actualized compassion through direct action. Jody Williams called it: It's good to meditate. I'm sorry, you've got to do a little bit of that, Jody. Step back, give your mother a break, okay.
女性已经在数千年里 体现这种来自慈悲的力量 并且是一种自然直接的方式 去如实地 感知苦难 她们让世界充满善 我们也确实 在这一天半的时间里 通过演讲过的每一个女性 感受到了这一点 她们通过直接行动 具化了慈悲 茱蒂·威廉斯说: 冥思有益 不好意思,你是不是该这么做做了,茱蒂 等等,让我喘口气再说
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But the other side of the equation is you've got to come out of your cave. You have to come into the world like Asanga did, who was looking to realize Maitreya Buddha after 12 years sitting in the cave. He said, "I'm out of here." He's going down the path. He sees something in the path. He looks, it's a dog, he drops to his knees. He sees that the dog has this big wound on its leg. The wound is just filled with maggots. He puts out his tongue in order to remove the maggots, so as not to harm them. And at that moment, the dog transformed into the Buddha of love and kindness.
但是公式的另一半 是你必须走出自己的洞穴 融入这个世界 如同无著(印度古代高僧) 它跟着弥勒菩萨修行 在洞穴里坐了12年 他说“我得走出这里” 他走到小路上 看见了路上有什么 他定睛一看,是条狗,他跪了下来 看见狗的腿上有个大伤口 里头化脓生蛆 他用舌头 弄出蛆 以免伤害到它们 那一刻 狗幻化成 爱与善的佛
I believe that women and girls today have to partner in a powerful way with men -- with their fathers, with their sons, with their brothers, with the plumbers, the road builders, the caregivers, the doctors, the lawyers, with our president, and with all beings. The women in this room are lotuses in a sea of fire. May we actualize that capacity for women everywhere.
我相信 今天的女人和女孩子 要和男性成为伙伴 和她们的父亲 她们的儿子,兄弟 和水管工,修路工人 和护理人员,医生,律师 和我们的总统 和所有一切 这个屋子里的女性 是浴火而生的莲花 让我们愿女性的力量 在世界每一个角落实现
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(鼓掌)