乐悲

Optimism vs. Pessimism

一位居士打电话说：“堪布，我最近一直感觉情绪低落，十分悲观，我想换一个好点的环境，可能对我的情绪会有所帮助的。”

A layperson recently called me and said: “Khenpo, I am feeling quite low these days. Everything looks downright gloomy to me. I am thinking of moving to a better place; perhaps it will help ease my pessimistic mood.”

听了他的话，我想起一个故事：一位父亲为自己的两个儿子分别起名乐观和悲观，乐观和悲观从小在同一个环境中长大，却分别拥有两种不同的情绪。乐观不论遭遇何种艰难都十分快乐，悲观即使一帆风顺也时刻心绪沉重。父亲因自己为儿子起名的不公而自责，为了补偿悲观，他将乐观放在了一堆牛粪当中，而将悲观放在了一堆珍宝玩具当中。

What he said reminded me of a story: Once a father gave names to his two sons; one was called Optimism and the other Pessimism. The two sons grew up in the same environment, yet their temperaments were very different. Optimism was always merry under whatever difficult circumstances; Pessimism, on the other hand, always carried a heavy heart, even when everything was going smoothly. The father blamed himself for having unjustly named his sons and, in an attempt to make up with Pessimism, put Optimism in a pile of cow dung while placing Pessimism among many delightful things and fancy toys.

过了一段时间，父亲去观察自己的两个儿子，乐观出人意料地在牛粪中玩得十分开心，他告诉父亲：“既然您让我在这里，牛粪中一定有什么宝贝，我正在想办法把它找出来。”令父亲大失所望的是，可怜的悲观却伤心地坐在一堆珍宝中，很多玩具因为他的愤懑而被摔坏。

After a while the father went to check on his two sons. To his utter surprise, Optimism was having a fun time playing among the cow dung. He told his father: “Since you sent me here, I figured there must be something precious hiding among the dung, and I have been trying ways to find it.” Whereas to the father’s grave disappointment, he found Pessimism was sitting sadly among the collection of fancy items and had smashed many toys in bitter frustration.

父亲终于明白了，想扭转人的情绪，依靠外境是于事无补的，要从悲观转为乐观，只有调整自己的内心。

The father finally came to see that there is no way to turn around someone’s mood by relying on external circumstances. The only way to change pessimism into optimism is by tuning one’s own mind.

世间不如意事十有八九，叔本华曾说：“人生幸福的事情很少，痛苦的事情却很多。”如果我们不能正视这些痛苦，将之转为道用，而一味地责怨外境，妄想通过改变外境而改变自己的心态，简直是痴人说梦。

Life is never perfect. According to Schopenhauer, happiness is simply a rare thing in the world, while suffering is real and plentiful. We’d better learn to look at miseries squarely and transform them into ways to achieve spiritual growth. Otherwise, we will forever blame external conditions and fantasize that by changing them, we can bring changes to our mood also. That is nothing short of an idiot’s daydream.

哲学家爱默生也说过：“生活的乐趣取决于生活者本身，而不是取决于工作或地点。”快乐和悲哀并不会随外境而转，如果您遭遇到痛苦，静下来调服内心比改变外境会更有意义。

The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson says: “The pleasure of life is according to the man who lives it, and not according to the work or the place.” External circumstances have no power to shift happiness or sadness. When we are confronted with misery, it is more meaningful to reflect on our own mind than to try to manipulate our surroundings.

壬午年六月二十四日　
2002年8月2日　　

24th of June, Year of RenWu
ugust 2, 2002