生命中的两难之局

此段摘自《个人与群体事件的本质》第五章“经验的运作机制”,第八三三节

只有当人们找不到赖以生存的目标时，他们才会为“一种事业”而死。而当世界看起来毫无意义的时候，有些人就会通过与其死亡有关的事件来做出某种声明。

我们不久就会回头来讨论这种“事业”，以及它与一个人觉得人生有无意义的关系。

让我们暂且来考虑一个非常简单的行动。举例来说，你想穿过房间去拿一份报纸。那个目的是够简单直接的了。即使你并未有意识地觉察到所涉及的内在机制，那个目的也以适当的方式自动驱动你的身体。你不会去想象有障碍物挡道，譬如说由意外、命运或设计而放在道上的额外家具之类。你在正确的方向走一条简单的直路。那个行动有意义，因为那是你想要做的事。

不过，有些目的可不是这么容易描述的了，那是心理上的意图，是不易归类的渴望。人体验到高度感性的抱负、欲望及好恶——而同时他对自己、自己的感觉以及这个世界抱有理性的信念。这些理性信念是训练的结果，因为你按照被教导的方式去运用心智。

一个人也许渴望成名，甚至也具备某些他想要发挥的能力，而那的确能带给他想要的名声。这样一个人也许还相信财富或名望会导致不快、放荡或在其他方面带来灾祸。在此他有一个清晰的目标——去发挥才能以获得名声，但也有另一个颇为相反而清晰的目标——避免出名。

有些人想要娶妻生子，也具有做父母的极佳条件。可是，这些人中有的也许深信爱是错的，或性是令人堕落的，或孩子意味着青春的结束。于是，这种人可能会发现自己莫名其妙就与异性中断了一个良好的关系，或强迫对方与其分手。这里又有两个清楚的目的，而它们彼此对立。

那些相信生命有终极意义的人能承受这种压力，往往这种两难之局以及其他类似的问题都以足够恰当的方式得到解决。至于那些相信生命本身没什么意义的人，失望、矛盾与无力感就可能开始对其人格造成不幸的侵蚀。这种人开始想象在他们的路上会有障碍，就像任何一个想走到房间尽头的桌边的人，也可能想象实质的障碍物被突然放在他与桌子之间一样。

People die for "a cause" only when they have found no cause to live by. And when it seems that the world is devoid of meaning, then some people will make a certain kind of statement through the circumstances connected with their own deaths.

We will shortly return to a discussion of such "causes," and their relationship with the person's feeling that life has or does not have a meaning.

For now, consider a very simple act. You want to walk across the room and pick up a paper, for example. That purpose is simple and direct enough. It automatically propels your body in the proper fashions, even though you are not consciously aware of the inner mechanisms involved.You do not imagine the existence of blocks or impediments in your way, in the form of additional furniture placed in your path by accident, fate, or design. You make a simple straight path in the proper direction. The act has meaning because it is something you want to do.

There are purposes not nearly as easy to describe, however, intents of a psychological nature, yearnings toward satisfactions not so easily categorized. Man experiences ambitions, desires, likes and dislikes of a highly emotional nature — and at the same time he has intellectual beliefs about himself, his feelings, and the world. These are the result of training, for you use your mind as you have been taught.

One person may desire fame, and even possess certain abilities that he or she wants to use, and that will indeed lead to that claim. Such a person may also believe that fortune or fame leads to unhappiness, licentiousness, or in some other way brings about disastrous conditions. Here we have a clear purpose to use abilities and receive acclaim. We also have another quite opposing clear purpose: to avoid fame.

There are people who want children and mates, and have those excellent qualities that would serve them well as parents. Some of those same individuals may be convinced that love is wrong, however, or that sex is debasing, or that children mean the end of youth. Such persons may then find themselves breaking off good relationships with those of the other sex for no apparent reason, or forcing the other party to break with them. Here again we have two clear purposes, but they oppose each other.

Those who believe in the ultimate meaning of their lives can withstand such pressures, and often such dilemmas, and others like them, are resolved in an adequate-enough fashion. Disappointments, conflicts, and feelings of powerlessness can begin to make unfortunate inroads in the personalities of those who believe that life itself has little meaning.Such people begin to imagine impediments in their paths as surely as anyone would who imagined that physical barriers were suddenly put up between them and a table they wanted to reach at the end of the room.

——摘自《个人与群体事件的本质》（The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events）Laujenny 校译

《赛斯说●第五十五期》

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