Assaulted by a Question

 "What is it about life that there always seems

to be something missing?" --- Epictetus

The ten thousand forms of human suffering are but the transformations of a single dark force. Endlessly it displays itself, and yet it remains unknown! At times its existence may be suspected. Surmount any of life's difficulties and another one takes its place. Overcome that problem, and a new problem arises. Human suffering is truly the most elusive of shape-shifters.

  In its plasticity, suffering bears a curious resemblance to matter. Like matter, it can be neither created nor destroyed. Efforts to eradicate it succeed only in changing its form. We free ourselves from anxiety but now feel bored. We are no longer lonely but now suffer from conflicts with others. Within these transformations, the magnitude of suffering remains constant. Consequently, no matter what we do to find fulfillment, we still find that our world is "out of joint," that something is lacking. The law guiding these changes is, "The Conservation of Suffering Principle."

  The good news is that a level of consciousness exists beyond the force-field of the conservation of suffering. Those who have been there have called it, "the still point of a turning world." The Japanese philosopher Nishita described this state of awareness when he wrote, "My joy and my sorrow do not touch my peace." This book is a practical guide to help you get there.

  Our journey will be along a path few know exist. It emerges out of the unique evolution and present crisis of Western thought and civilization. Here is a route from existentialism -- which many cultural historians consider the final stop on the long train ride of Western thought -- to a higher level of understanding about life. This book is essentially a roughly drawn map of the Western route to Eastern wisdom.

  This path is a via negativa. It is not "negative" in the sense of bad or antagonistic. What makes it a negative route is that we do not proceed directly to that which we desire -- freedom, immortality, bliss, peace of mind, higher consciousness, and so on. Ours is a journey in quite the opposite direction, into the dark side of everyday life. Dante learned from his guide, Virgil, that the exit from hell is to be found at its very center. Paradoxically, to be free, the two of them had to proceed deeper into hell. Likewise, our path to freedom involves a descent into our interior "heart of darkness." We descend into these depths with penetrating questions. The result is illuminating insights that convert suffering into Self-knowledge.

  Apart from the insights they generate, penetrating questions are invaluable for another reason. A question like Epictetus', "Why is there always something missing?" -- which is really an intimation of The Conservation of Suffering Principle -- delivers us from a deadening complacency. It renews our spirit by propelling us on a detective adventure, an adventure more philosophical, and dangerous, than any other and far more uncanny.

  Why uncanny? In a typical detective story the sleuth knows what is missing. But he lacks knowledge of its whereabouts, who has stolen it, and so on. Here, on the other hand, the something that is missing was first reported missing about 2,500 years ago in Greece, and we still do not even know what it is! Yet it is vital that we find it. To refuse the assignment is to resign ourselves to what Thoreau called, "a life of quiet desperation." We shall soon discover that all other mysteries pale before this most perplexing of life's mysteries, the enigma of human suffering.

Man's guiding star is his belief that changes can make him happier. He dreams, "My life will improve after I move into the new house, receive a promotion, retire from work. Or after I have something to eat, buy a car, win the contract. Or after my children are grown, the new president takes office, the snow melts, the heat wave ends, we win the war..."

  Endless are the images of freedom and fulfillment that captivate us, feeding our hope that tomorrow can be better than today. We are easily mesmerized by the advertiser's siren song, "It's new and improved!" If our faith lies in the new and improved, we have not yet grasped The Conservation of Suffering Principle.

  You may protest, "It's obvious that changes do make a difference! If I win the lottery, I won't have to work for my demanding boss. If I move, I'll be free of my noisy neighbors. Progress is possible!" Yes, a change improves our lives in a relative sense, by ending a particular hardship. But here is the rub. We satisfy a desire, or overcome a difficulty, and almost immediately the familiar hunger for "we know not what" returns.

  This hunger does not linger, for a mental image soon appears and declares: "I'm really what you're looking for!" Hopeful, we search for what corresponds to the image. Our search might lead us to the distant corners of the globe, or perhaps no further than the inner recesses of our kitchen refrigerator. We obtain our desideratum, but immediately our lack returns. Our imagination then cooks up a new magical image.

  The cycle of frustrated hunger begins in childhood. The joyous excitement of Christmas Eve is followed by "Okay. What's next?" after we open the presents. In school, we long to be free of exams. But when summer arrives, we are pursued by the demon of boredom. We grow up, and drunk with love's promise, we are soon sobered by family responsibilities. We look forward to retirement, but when it arrives...

苦难守恒定律

“为什么生活中似乎总是缺少点什么？” ——埃皮克提图

人类遭受苦难的形式又千万种，但都只是一种黑色力量势力在进行演绎，这种黑色势力一直展现自己，但仍不为人所知。人们有时怀疑它的存在，战胜了生活中任何一种苦难却又有另一种苦难取代它的位置。克服了那个问题却又有新的问题出现。人类苦难的确是最难捉摸的变形物。

  从其可塑性来看，苦难与物质有奇特的相似性，犹如物质，苦难既不能创造也无法毁灭，人们尽力根除它，但最终也只是改变它的形式而已。我们将自己从焦虑中解救出来，但现在又感觉无聊烦闷，我们不再遭受孤单的折磨，但现在又为与他人的冲突头疼。在这些转变中，苦难的力度一直保持不变。因此，在我们寻求满足感的过程中，无论我们做什么，我们仍然发现世界是“混乱”的，总缺少点什么。指导这些变化的定律是“苦难守恒定律”。

  令人欣慰的是在苦难守恒的力场之外存在着意识，曾涉足于那的人将其称作“旋转世界的静止点”。日本哲学家Nishita是这样描述这种意识形态的：“我的欢乐和悲伤都无法触及我的平和。”这本书是帮助你到达那里的实用向导。

  我们将沿着一条几乎无人知晓的路线旅行，这条路线源于西方思想和文明的独特演变和当前危机：这条路线以存在主义为出发点，将通往对生活的更好诠释。许多文化历史学家认为存在主义是西方思想在搭上长途火车后到达的终点。这本书本质上是一幅通往东方智慧的西方路线草图。

  这条路径是消极的，说它消极并不是说它糟糕或敌对，它之所以是一条消极路线是因为我们无法直接朝着我们想要的事物前进——自由，永生，幸福，心境的平和，更高的觉悟，等等。我们却朝完全相反的方向旅行，迈入日常生活的黑暗面，但丁从他的导师维吉尔那学到地狱的出口在其正中心。矛盾的是，为了自由，他们俩不得不继续向地狱前进。同样，我们自由之路也要落入我们内在的“黑暗之心”，我们带着尖锐的问题抵达，最终的结果阐明了一种领悟，它使苦难变成了自我认识。

  除了随之所产生的领悟，尖锐的问题极其宝贵的原因还有一个。就像埃皮克提图所提出的那个问题。 “为什么总缺少点什么！”——这其中真正孕育着苦难守恒定律——它也把我们从盲目的自满中拯救出来。它鞭策我们在这条侦查性的冒险旅程中不断前进，因此我们精神大振。这种冒险比起其他一切都更富哲理性，更具危险性，同时也更加神秘。

为什么神秘呢？在一个典型侦查故事中，侦探知道被偷了什么东西，但是他不知道这个东西的下落，不知道是行窃者是谁，等等。另外，早在2500多年前古希腊就报道过这一东西的失踪，而且到现在我们都不知道到底是什么东西。但重要的是我们得找到它。假如我们拒绝这项任务，我们就是在屈从于梭罗所提出的：“平静而又绝望的一生。”然后，我们马上又会发现在生活中这一最令人困惑的神秘面前所有其他的神秘都黯然失色了，这就是人类苦难的神秘。

人类最为崇尚信仰是改变能够让人更快乐。他在睡梦中呓语：“假如我搬入了新家，假如我工作上升职了，假如我工作退休了，抑或是假如我有东西吃，我买了车，谈妥了一个合同；抑或是假如我的孩子们长大了，新总统上任了，雪融化了，热潮散去了，我们赢了这场战争，我的生活会因此而得到改善。”

自由和成就感对我们的诱惑力永远不会停止，同时寄予我们希望，让我们相信明天会比今天更好。我们很容易被广告商的广告词：“又新又更好！”假如我们的信念在于追求新事物和改变的话，我们就还没领会苦难守恒定律。

你可能会抗议道：“改变确实可以改善现状，这是显而易见的。假如我中了一期彩票，我就可以不必为我那要求极为苛刻的老板干活了。假如我搬家了，我就可以免遭隔壁邻居的噪音侵扰了。改善的可能性是有的！”对，一次改变可以结束一段困境，从而可以相对地改善我们的生活，但是问题的关键就在于此。我们的欲望得到满足，困难得以解决，但是那种熟悉的渴望的感觉又卷土重来，虽然我们自己也不知道究竟是渴望什么。

这种渴望不会是挥之不去的，因为我们的内心出现了一个影像并且宣称：“我就是你所找寻的！”我们欣喜若狂，顺着这个声音去搜寻，我们的搜寻可能将我们引导到世界上某些遥远的角落，也可能就在眼前厨房冰箱的储藏柜里。我们得到了我们想要的，但是很快我们又感觉缺少了什么，然后我们的想象力又给我们捏造了一个新的影像。

其实这种循环的受挫的渴望在童年就开始了，圣诞节前夜在我们打开礼物之后，我们先是欣喜若狂，然后便在想：“下一份圣诞节礼物将会是什么？”在学校，我们渴望脱离考试的苦海，但是当暑假来临时，我们又被“无聊”这个恶魔缠绕着。我们长大了，陶醉在爱情的山盟海誓中，我们很快又被家庭的责任困扰着。我们盼望退休，但是当它真正来到时……

苦难守恒定律（外文资料翻译）