悠游度过一天的24小时：第七章 控制思绪

CHAPTER VII Controlling The Mind

第七章 控制思绪

People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The control of the thinking machine is perfectly possible. And since nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent. This idea is one of the oldest platitudes, but it is a platitude whose profound truth and urgency most people live and die without realising. People complain of the lack of power to concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they choose.

有人说：“人无法左右自己的思绪。”事实绝非如此，控制这架思维机器是完全可能的。既然千思万绪都来自我们的大脑，喜怒哀乐都源自我们的思维，显然，控制这个神秘大脑中的思维是极其重要的。这虽是说过无数次的陈词滥调，但大多数人一生都没有意识到这种想法的深远含义和紧迫性。人们抱怨自己总是不能集中注意力，却不知道如果他们愿意，是能够获得这种能力的。

And without the power to concentrate—that is to say, without the power to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience—true life is impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence.

不能集中注意力，即不能给大脑发号施令并使它服从，就没有真正的生活。对意志的控制是我们作为一个完整的存在体的首要条件。

Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as you will require no extraneous aid? It is for this portion of the art and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office.

因此，在我看来，一天的第一要务应该是让大脑步入正轨。你从内到外照顾自己的身体；你冒着巨大风险，把皮肤上的毛发刮掉；你和一大群人打交道，从牛奶工到杀猪的屠夫，就为了让你的胃运转灵便。何不花一点工夫在“大脑”这部更为精密的机器上呢？尤其是你不需要任何外在帮助的时候。我为你保留了走出家门到抵达公司之前的这段时间来琢磨这部分生活的艺术和窍门。

What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in the train, and in the crowded street again? Precisely. Nothing simpler! No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the affair is not easy.

“什么？我要在大街上、月台上和列车内锻炼心智？然后从车站出来到拥挤的街道上继续锻炼？”正是。这最简单不过了，不需要任何工具，甚至一本书都不需要。然而，这事并不容易。

When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards before your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking round the corner with another subject.

离开家门时，集中精神想某件事（开始无论想什么都无妨）。可能走了不过十码的距离，你的思绪就在你眼皮底下悄悄溜开，跑到其他事情上逗留去了。

Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the station you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not despair. Continue. Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by any chance fail if you persevere. It is idle to pretend that your mind is incapable of concentration. Do you not remember that morning when you received a disquieting letter which demanded a very carefully-worded answer? How you kept your mind steadily on the subject of the answer, without a second's intermission, until you reached your off ice; whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the answer? That was a case in which you were roused by circumstances to such a degree of vitality that you were able to dominate your mind like a tyrant. You would have no trif ling. You insisted that its work should be done, and its work was done.

你要揪住它的脖子，把它领回来。这样在你到车站前，你就会把它拽回来差不多四十次了。不要灰心，继续，坚持住，你会成功的。如果你坚持，就绝不会失败。借口自己精力无法集中，是懒惰的表现。你可记得有天早上收到一封令你忐忑不安的来信，你必须要字斟句酌地回复？到达办公室之前，你一刻不停地琢磨那封信，一进办公室，就立即坐下写了回函，你是怎样做到的？这个例子说明，某些情形下，你精力非常集中，能像一位专制的君王完全把控自己的思绪，可以排除一切杂念。你坚信能控制自己的思绪，结果就如愿以偿了。

By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no secret—save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over your mind (which is not the highest part of you) every hour of the day, and in no matter what place. The exercise is a very convenient one. If you got into your morning train with a pair of dumb-bells for your muscles or an encyclopaedia in ten volumes for your learning, you would probably excite remark. But as you walk in the street, or sit in the corner of the compartment behind a pipe, or "strap-hang" on the Subterranean, who is to know that you are engaged in the most important of daily acts? What asinine boor can laugh at you?

通过每日不断地训练自己集中精力（这并无诀窍，除了持之以恒），你就可以时时刻刻、随时随地随意统治自己的思绪（它并不是你最高、最权威的部分）。这种训练很方便。如果你早上上车时，为锻炼肌肉带着一对哑铃或为学习带着十卷本的百科全书，很可能会引人议论。但当你走在街上，坐在地铁车厢某个管道后面的角落里，或站在地铁里抓着吊环，谁知道你在进行一天最重要的活动？哪个蠢蛋会嘲笑你？

I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It is the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But still, you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate on something useful. I suggest—it is only a suggestion—a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius1 or Epictetus2.

我不在意你集中精力想什么，只要你集中精力就够了；关键在于约束那个思维机器。尽管如此，你最好还是一箭双雕，全神贯注于有用的事情。我建议凝神思索马可.奥勒利乌斯或爱比克泰德作品里的某些章节，当然这只是个建议。

Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more "actual," more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, and nonsense) than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter—and so short they are, the chapters!—in the evening and concentrate on it the next morning. You will see.

我请求你千万不要听到他们的名字就避而远之。就我知道的而言，除了马可.奥勒利乌斯或爱比克泰德之外，没有谁的作品是如此“实际”，充满常识、适合你我这样的凡人（我们都讨厌装模作样、故弄玄虚和废话连篇）。晚间读一章——每章篇幅如此之短，读数章！——翌日早上集中思考所读的内容，你就会赞同我所说的了。

Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. I can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to yourself: "This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh chapter. He had begun to interest me faintly. But what he says about thinking in trains, and concentration, and so on, is not for me. It may be well enough for some folks, but it isn't in my line."

是的，我的朋友，想掩饰真相是毫无用处的。我能听到你脑子里的想法，就像在我耳边响起的电话铃声一样清晰，你在对自己说：“这家伙一直讲到第七章都还有道理，我刚开始有点兴趣，但他所说的在火车上思考、集中精力之类的话，不是讲给我听的。可能对有些人来说还有用，但我可无法办到。”

It is for you, I passionately repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you are the very man I am aiming at.

那是讲给你听的，我热切地重申一遍；事实上，我就是特别针对你讲的。

Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. It is the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed men who have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand. Try it. Get your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half the evils of life—especially worry, that miserable, avoidable, shameful disease—worry!

如果拒绝这条建议，你就拒绝了曾听到过的最宝贵的建议。这不是我的建议，是最明智、最务实、最冷静的世人早就提出的建议。我只是转述而已，尝试一下，控制自己的思绪。看看这个方法如何去除你生命中一半的灾祸，特别是忧虑，这可悲的、无耻的但可避免的恶疾——忧虑！

(1)马可•奥勒利乌斯（121—180），在161—180年间统治罗马帝国，是罗马帝国五贤帝时代最后一个皇帝，也被认为是一位新斯多葛学派哲学家。

(2)爱比克泰德（约55—约135），古罗马新斯多葛学派哲学家。