If there were no morals-who would you be? What would you act like? What would you talk like? What would you think like? Would you really be any different?
如果没有了任何的道德标准,你会是谁?会做什么,说什么,想什么,你会与现在有什么不同呢?
Our morals are rules laid down for us by a society called a religion or a society called a church or a school. Some will even say that these laws were laid down for us by the divine-in whatever form we see the divine. Regardless of their origin, they tell us what is wrong and what is right and we are taught that we have within us a conscience which will tell us when we have violated one of these rules by making us feel guilty. And so we have a direction and whether we land on the "bad" side of these rules or the "good" side of these rules, we do it by conforming our mind, heart and behavior to what it takes to fit into that identity. Once conformed, we could say, "I'm a bad dude" or "I think I'm a pretty good person." So, essentially what we have said is that we learn to rely on one of these two categories (or one of the gradations between them) as identity. They define us. But these are external constructs that very often do not even truly touch the deepest inner regions of the psyche.
事实上,我们的道德标准通常是由教堂或者学校等宗教和社会团体来定义的,有些人甚至认为这是神赐的准则。这些道德标准,不知源自哪里,一味的告诉我们什么是对什么是错,告诉我们一旦违反了某项规则,内心的良知自然会让我们感到羞愧。于是我们被指引着把自己的想法、意愿、行为与道德标准的“好”与“坏”去衡量,一旦符合,我们便知道了自己是好人还是坏人。所以,基本上我们只需要在“好”与“坏”这两个类别里(或者某个中间地带)找到自己的定位,由它们来评判自己。可是,这些外部构想大部分时候并不能触及到我们的内心深处。
So, how do we even begin to define ourselves without the use of these external stratagems? We go to the deeper inner regions of the psyche where they do not exist. And how, you will I'm certain ask, does one do that?
那么,不去理会这些肤浅的伎俩,我们又该如何来定义自己呢?所谓“内心深处”的地方并不是真实存在,就算存在,我们又能做些什么?
We begin by refusing to repress material in our everyday lives. We begin by staying conscious in a given moment about what's going on inside of us-and allowing it to stay in the forefront of our minds so that we can see it and feel it and even dialogue with it. In so doing we are treating the energy of emotion, thought and sensation as valid, instead of invalidating it immediately by sending it to its room in the unconscious.
首先,我们不能再在日常的生活中压抑自己。我们要保持清醒,时刻关注内心的动态并让它停留在意识前沿,这样我们才能看到它,感觉到它,甚至与它对话。通过这样的方式把转瞬即逝的情绪、想法和感觉转化为有用的力量,而不是让它们在无意间消失。