追尋生命的意義

最新 02-16

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He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. —— Nietzche.

懂得為何而活的人，幾乎能受得住任何痛苦。——尼采

每一個遭受過重大苦難的人，都曾或多或少失去過繼續活在這世上的勇氣和動力。有些人選擇自殺，而有些人選擇活下去，這是為什麼？

Viktor Frankl

1944年，一位精神醫學家Viktor Frankl(維克多?弗蘭克爾)和家人一起被德國納粹軍送進波蘭臭名昭著的奧斯維辛集中營(Auschwitz Concentration Camp)，也就是110萬猶太人曾被殘忍殺害的地方。在漫長的牢獄生涯中，Frankl失去了父母和哥哥，並飽受饑寒凌虐。而最終他憑藉自己的智慧和堅強的意志力，盼來了被釋放的那一天。

Man』s Search for Meaning

1946年，出獄後的Frankl博士出版了Man』s Search for Meaning《活出生命的意義》，書中他詳述了在集中營里慘絕人寰的遭遇，並創立了「意義治療法」(Logotheraphy- Logo在希臘語中意思是meaning)，從而幫助治療遭受精神創傷的患者們。

此書一經出版，就迅速成為了當時的暢銷書，但對此Frankl的感言是：

「

I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time:If hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.

我壓根沒有以暢銷書作者的身份去看待這本書，也沒有把它作為一種成就。就我個人而言，更願意把這本書看作對我們這個時期困境的一種表達：如果數以千萬計的讀者去購買一本標題是有關生活意義問題的書，那說明這個問題一定是當下最急需解決的。

本期分享

Man』s search for meaning

Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, or a quest for power, but a quest for meaning.

生活並非只是簡單地祈求快樂，或者爭權奪利，人們活著是為了尋找生命的意義。

Frankle提出，生存意義的源頭可以來自三個方面：未完成的使命（比如：工作、承諾和計劃）、牽掛的一份愛（比如親人、愛人或關心的人）、不可避免的苦難（對待痛苦的態度和勇氣）。

在集中營里，每個被奴役的猶太人都生活在無止境的黑暗中。他們一年到頭只穿同一件衣服，一天只吃一碗只有幾粒米的稀粥；他們常年受病痛折磨，體力不支動作慢還得受到鞭打和刑罰；他們沒有身份，沒有名字，每個人都只是一個行走的號碼而已。

「

Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife』s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness.

有時，我看著天，星星開始褪去，清晨的粉紅色光線在一片黑雲的後面擴散。但是，我的意識仍然停留在我的妻子的畫面上，以一種不可思議的準確性想像著她的樣子。

「

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life i saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

突然我驚呆了：我平生第一次看見了真理，它被一些詩人譜成歌曲，並被許多思想家稱作是最後的智慧。這一真理是：愛是人可以立志追求的、最終的、最高的目標。於是我理解了人的詩歌、人的思想和信仰揭示的偉大秘密所蘊含的意義：人的救贖是通過愛或被愛來實現的。

This intensification of inner life helped the prisoner find a refuge from the emptiness, desolation and spiritual poverty of his existence, by letting him escape into the past.

這一內心生活的強化有助於囚徒通過回憶過去來迴避生活的空虛、凄涼和精神貧困。

如果集中營的人不能做出最後的努力，他將喪失作為個體、作為思想的、有內心自由和個人價值觀的個體情感。於是他們的生存將降低到動物的水平，像一群牛羊一樣被驅趕著，沒有自己的思想和意志。

對待苦難生活的積極態度

Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.

生活就像在牙科診所。你總認為最可怕的還在後面，但它已經過去了。

「

One could make a victory of past experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners.

人們可以從過去的經歷中獲得勝利，把生活轉化為一種內心的勝利。否則，人們就可能對這些挑戰置之不理，無所事事地活下去，像大多數的囚徒一樣。

「

An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art or nature. But there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man』s attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.

一種積極的生活將賦予人們在創造性的工作中實現價值的機會，而一種消極的享樂生活將給他帶來體驗美、藝術或自然等方面的滿足。但是，在既沒有創造也沒有享受的生活中同樣也有目的，它只有一種高道德行為的可能性——即，人對於他自己存在的態度。如果生活中確實存在著意義，那這一意義也必然存在於痛苦之中。

「

The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest.

悲觀主義者通常像這種人，他帶著害怕和悲傷看著他的日曆，由於他每天撕去一張，隨著一天天的過去，日曆變得越來越薄。而不同的是，積極處理問題的人，每天從日曆上撕去一張，並將其整齊仔細地排列起來，並在背面寫下一些日記。當他有一天驕傲地回首過去，他是怎樣充實愉快地過好了每一天啊。

對生命的責任

人不應該問別人生命意義是什麼，相反，他應該認識到，被詢問的應當是他自己。每個人都應追問生命的意義；並且，每個人只有通過承擔他自己的生活時才能向生命作出回答；他只有通過成為負責任的人時才能對生活做出反應。

「

Man』s search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health.

人對於意義的尋求可能引起內在的緊張而非內在的平靜。然而，這些緊張是精神健康不可缺少的前提條件。

「

What a man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

人所需要的實際上不是一種無焦慮的狀態，而是為了一個有價值的目標所做的努力和鬥爭，一種自由選擇的任務。他所需要的不是不惜一切代價地排遣焦慮，而是呼喚一種等待他完成使命的潛在意義。

喜歡上一期奇葩大會中劉可樂小姑娘說的一句話：

「痛苦本身沒有什麼意義，我們對痛苦的反思和反擊才是價值所在」。