人必須先覺醒,回歸心靈,繼而修行,
經歷過「認識自己,管理自己,培養良好的習慣」三個階段,
繼而選擇好的導師和同道中人,學習嚴謹的思考方法,
學習內省和自我批判,最後才能夠「創造自己」。
從經濟學的角度來看,這些做法就是在「投資自己」!
放下不必要的煩惱,做心靈喜歡的事,
選擇一條屬於自己的人生道路,這就是一種活在當下的方式。。
凡是開始進入「創造自己」階段的修行者,
一定是完美主義者,每天都有進步,每天都有成就,
百尺竿頭,更進一步,「苟日新,日日新,又日新」。
由於已經知悉個人自由的領域,
接受了命運、遺傳和業力的局限,
所以不再恐懼生存環境的制肘,
不再全盤接受傳統文化和習俗的規範。
他們都會感覺到青春不再,所以人生餘下的時間彌足珍貴,
不能夠再浪費,必須珍惜,好好運用。
Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceble.
To waste your time is to waste your life,
but to master your time is to master your life
and make the most of it.
( Alan Lakein )
What really matters is
what you do with what you have.
( H. G. Wells )
God gave us the gift of life;
it is up to us to give ourselves
the gift of living well.
( Voltaire )
Each player must accept the cards
life deals him or her: but once
they are in hand, he or she alone
must decide how to play the cards
in order to win the game.
( Voltaire )
We educate ourselves so that we can
make a noble use of our leisure.
( Aristotle )
The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly.
Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.
To put it more accurately, it is not so much that
you use your mind wrongly──you usually don’t
use it at all. It uses you. All the things that truly
matter── beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace──
arise from beyond the mind…
( Eckhart Tolle )
道不遠人,
「真和誠」是愚夫愚婦和販夫走卒都可以明白,
是他們一生都可以修行的「道」;
俗語說「仗義每多屠狗輩」足以證明這一點。
人一旦具備「真和誠」,虛偽自然遠離。
至於「愛和智慧」就肯定比較複雜和抽象,
只有上智者才可以明白箇中奧妙。
Jordan Peterson on The Necessity of Virtue
2010-10-13 Hancock Lecture
☆ Create yourself ( George Bernard Shaw )
「創造自己」從來都不是一件容易的事,
因為必須具備至少四種能力:
1. [可以從青少年期開始培育的] 自學能力,
包括學習方法、思考方法和記憶方法。
2. [可以從青少年期開始培育的] 表達能力,
包括語言 [和/或] 文字的表達能力。
3. [可以從青少年期開始培育的] 興趣和熱忱。
至於如果發掘個人的興趣,
可能需要運用心理測驗或者中國傳統的紫微斗數。
4. [來自前生努力的] 天賦才華。
天賦才華極有可能來自多世的努力,
所以欠缺足夠天賦才華的人不必灰心,
應該學習退而求其次,在今生盡自己的努力。
只有具備這四種能力中至少兩種的人,
才有資格邁向「創意」的路途!
擁有天賦才華的人,當然應該對自己有進一步的要求。
Fulfillment is a continual lifelong process.
We are all we have and we are what we choose
to become. It is who one becomes that defines
his achievement in life. So ask ourselves what
we want to be. Make ourselves authentic and
sincere. Make a greater man of one’s self.
Continually upgrade one’s soul. Strive to
become the best person one can possibly be.
Look into the mirror and tell ourselves
that we are going to be the architect of
ourselves and our lives, and see a person
worthy of our respect and admiration!
( Jason Ling )
If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.
( Henry David Thoreau )
The only person you are destined to become
is the person you decide to be.
( Ralph Waldo Emerson )
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
( Jean-Paul Sartre )
Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself
and surpassing itself; if all it does is
maintain itself, then living is only not dying.
( Simone de Beauvoir )
從一個不完美的人的角度來看,從有限的人生來看,
「苟日新,日日新,又日新」是一種創造,
「擇善固執」是一種創造,「自我實現」當然也是一種創造。
兩者都能夠令你增添自尊,知足和感恩,
並且「每天愛自己多一些」!
「治心之道,曰毋利而思義,毋詐而主誠。
義則一義,誠則一誠。誠一也,然有分焉,
毋以義與利辨,以義與義辨。
毋以誠與詐辨,以誠與誠辨。……
心,靈物也,不用則常存,
小用之則小成,大用之則大成,變用之則至神。
不可使如止水,水止則不清;
不可使如凝膠,凝膠則不并。」
《潛書。辨儒》(清。唐甄)
註:并,同並,兼容並蓄的意思。
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning is a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor…
Welcome and entertain them all.
Treat each guest honorably.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because
each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
( Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi )
人世間的所有「創意」creativity 都是去蕪存菁,
新的內涵必然來自一般人習慣了而不自覺的蕪,
如果有人說他的創意是和菁決裂,破繭而出
那麼他的所謂創意一定是垃圾,因為菁不會是繭。
創意所需要的是「品味、判斷和勇氣」,缺一不可。
擺脫了「我 ego」的大部份弱點,開始重視「心靈 soul」,
但依然以「我 ego」為生命重心的人,
例如大部份的藝術家,一生人都以個人的喜好和創作為目標,
外面的世界似乎與他們只有在藝術方面才發生關係。
By believing passionately in something that still
does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent
is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
( Franz Kafka )
Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
( Judy Garland )
回歸「心靈 soul」是「創造自己」的第一步,
而「創造自己」是人類所有創意中對個人最重要的事情,
而只有重視「心靈 soul」的人,在創造自己之餘,
亦努力以赴,創造出比個人生命更長久的東西。
The wise unearths his soul,
cherishes his unique individuality,
understands humility towards truth,
strives to become a better person,
and creates something that lasts.
( Jason Ling )
重視「心靈 soul」的人,追求愛和智慧的人,
明白人不能夠脫離群體而獨立,
所以每一個人進一步的成長必然是和「公益」有關,
就是和有緣者及後來者「分享心路歷程和智慧」,
就是「服務社會,非以役人,乃役於人」。
Leave a legacy to the world.
Reach out to serve the community.
Be a light for those who live in darkness.
Help mankind reach its potential.
For love/wisdom is the foundation of life.
One cannot pursue one’s own highest good without
at the same time necessarily promoting the good
of others. A life based on narrow self-interest
cannot be esteemed by any honorable measurement.
Seeking the very best in ourselves means actively
caring for the welfare of other human beings.
( Sharon Lebell )
所謂「創造自己」,首先要懂得拒絕平庸,
因為平庸代表自己在同類人之中覺得安全。
其次就是學習「自我批判」,成為一種習慣。
苟能如此,自然會每天都有進步,
日積月累之下,自然能夠超越以往的自己,
英文稱之為 transcendence。
Transcendence constitutes self-hood.
( Martin Heidegger )
Life isn’t about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.
( George Bernard Shaw )
Life is not accumulation,
it is about contribution.
( Stephen Covey )
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to
the whole community and as long as I live,
it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,
for the harder I work the more I live.
( George Bernard Shaw )
This is the miracle that happens every time
to those who really love:
the more they give, the more they possess.
( Rainer Maria Rilke )
世界上有極少數具有強烈「宗教精神」的人,
當為眾生服務的時候,會覺得自己非常充實和快樂,
因為他們將「自利」和「他利」兩者美妙地合而為一,
所以他們服務眾生時,既滿足了自己的欲望,
盡了自己做人的責任,亦令到別人也快樂。
對這些具有強烈「宗教精神」的人來說,
「服務社會」等於創造自己,亦等於認識自己:
For it is in giving that we receive.
( Francis of Assisi )
The best way to find yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of others.
( Mahatma Gandhi )
Whatever good things we build end up building us.
( Jim Rohn )
例如張載名言所指示的
「為天地立心,為生民立命,為往聖繼絕學,為萬世開太平。」
其實就是「服務整體人類的精神文明」,和有緣人分享智慧。
「一個人一生裡做的事情,對人類永遠有功勞,
永遠謀利於大家,這個才叫事業,如大禹治水。
其他的上到皇帝,下至乞丐,都不是事業,那是職業。」
( 南懷瑾 )
Nurture your mind with great thoughts,
for you will never go any higher than your think.
( Benjamin Disraeli )
The purpose of life is to be defeated
by greater and greater things.
( Rainer Maria Rilke )
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
( Socrates )
We are all in various stages of growing up.
If we want to live an authentic and
meaningful life, we need to make friends
with sincere and wise people,
place the search for truth above our ego,
enjoy solitude at least once in a week,
master the art of disappointing others,
value our time and avoid squandering it
on people who hate thinking, and spend
our time and talents only on the needy.
We should regard the understanding,
defining and making the most of ourselves
as a continual lifelong endeavor,
try to establish our faith in the process
and build our lives around our faith.
If we strive to do these things,
we are beautiful in our imperfections.
( Jason Ling )
茲再舉兩個例子說明這個「我 I 的三元論」的用途:
一般來說,「積極進取」似乎是相當容易理解的一種行為,
然而當我們釐清「我」ego 和「心靈」soul 的分別之後,
就會發現「我」ego 的「積極進取」,以「成功」為目標,
以擁有物質的多少為目標,以擁有抽象的名氣為目標,
以擁有權力的大小為目標;
而「心靈」soul 的「積極進取」,則以創造為目標,
以服務為目標,以「苟日新,日日新,又日新」為目標。
「心靈」所追求的是「成就」,不是「成功」!
兩者的「積極進取」在意義上竟然可以有如此大的分別,
可見釐清「我」ego 和「心靈」soul 這兩個不同的概念,
在哲學思考和說理兩方面,都有其實用的價值。
當我們覺得快樂時,這個快樂究竟是屬於那一個「我 I」?
或者這個快樂究竟是如何分佈?
「身體」body,「我」ego 和「心靈」soul 各佔多少?
別人口裡說的快樂和我們心目中的快樂相同嗎?
如果不同的話,不同在甚麼地方?
所謂「及時行樂」可以如何分析?
Creativity and the Pursuit of Excellence