名著精讀:《悉達多》 戈文達(3)
"Why have you told me this about the stone?" he asked hesitantly after a pause.
"I did it without any specific intention. Or perhaps what I meant was, that love this very stone, and the river, and all these things we are looking at and from which we can learn. I can love a stone, Govinda, and also a tree or a piece of bark. This are things, and things can be loved. But I cannot love words. Therefore, teachings are no good for me, they have no hardness, no softness, no colours, no edges, no smell, no taste, they have nothing but words. Perhaps it are these which keep you from finding peace, perhaps it are the many words. Because salvation and virtue as well, Sansara and Nirvana as well, are mere words, Govinda. There is no thing which would be Nirvana; there is just the word Nirvana."
Quoth Govinda: "Not just a word, my friend, is Nirvana. It is a thought."
Siddhartha continued: "A thought, it might be so. I must confess to you, my dear: I don't differentiate much between thoughts and words. To be honest, I also have no high opinion of thoughts. I have a better opinion of things. Here on this ferry-boat, for instance, a man has been my predecessor and teacher, a holy man, who has for many years simply believed in the river, nothing else. He had noticed that the river's spoke to him, he learned from it, it educated and taught him, the river seemed to be a god to him, for many years he did not know that every wind, every cloud, every bird, every beetle was just as divine and knows just as much and can teach just as much as the worshipped river. But when this holy man went into the forests, he knew everything, knew more than you and me, without teachers, without books, only because he had believed in the river."
Govinda said: "But is that what you call `things', actually something real, something which has existence? Isn't it just a deception of the Maja, just an image and illusion? Your stone, your tree, your river-- are they actually a reality?"
"This too," spoke Siddhartha, "I do not care very much about. Let the things be illusions or not, after all I would then also be an illusion, and thus they are always like me. This is what makes them so dear and worthy of veneration for me: they are like me. Therefore, I can love them. And this is now a teaching you will laugh about: love, oh Govinda, seems to me to be the most important thing of all. To thoroughly understand the world, to explain it, to despise it, may be the thing great thinkers do. But I'm only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect."
"This I understand," spoke Govinda. "But this very thing was discovered by the exalted one to be a deception. He commands benevolence, clemency, sympathy, tolerance, but not love; he forbade us to tie our heart in love to earthly things."
“你幹嗎給我講這些關於石頭的話？”他停了停才遲疑地問。
“沒什麼目的。或許我就是想說，我喜歡石頭、河水以及所有我們能仔細觀察並向之學習的東西。我可以愛一塊石頭，戈文達，也可以愛一棵樹或一樹樹皮。這些都是東西，東西是可以愛的。但是，我不能愛話語。因此，學說對於我算不了什麼，它們沒有硬度，沒有柔軟，沒有色彩，沒有棱角，沒有氣味，沒有味道，只有話語。或許就是這些妨礙你得到安寧，或許就是這許多話語。因爲獲救與美德，輪迴與涅槃，也僅僅是話語，戈文達。世上並沒有涅槃這東西，只有涅槃這個詞。”
戈文達說：“朋友，涅槃不只是一個詞。它是一種思想。”
席特哈爾塔繼續說：“一種思想，可以這麼說吧。我得向你承認，親愛的，我不大分得清思想和話語。坦白地說，我對思想也不大看重。我更看重事物。例如，在這隻渡船上原來有一個人，是我的前輩和師長，一個聖潔的人，多年裏他都是單純地信仰河水，別的什麼也不信。他發覺，河水的聲音是在跟他說話，於是他向它學，讓它教導和指點自己，他覺得這條河是個神。有很多年他並不知道，每一陣風，每一朵雲，每一隻鳥，每一隻甲蟲，也同樣神聖，也能像這條可敬的河一樣教導他。可是，在這位聖賢進入森林之後，他就知道了一切，比你和我知道得更多，不要老師，不用書本，只因爲他信仰河水。”
戈文達說：“可是，你所說的‘事物’是真實的、實在的東西嗎？它會不會只是瑪雅的幻覺，只是幻影和假相呢？你的石頭，你的樹，你的河——它們是現實嗎？”
席特哈爾塔說：“我對這點沒怎麼在意。別管這些東西是不是假相吧，我自己其實就是假相，它們始終都像我一樣。這便是它們令我喜愛和值得我敬重之處：它們都像我一樣。因此，我能夠愛它們。而這也是一種你可能會笑話的學說：戈文達，我覺得愛是一切事物中最重要的。看透這個世界，解釋它，蔑視它，那大概是大思想家的事。而我所關心的只是能夠愛這個世界，不蔑視它，不憎恨它以及我自己，能夠懷着愛心、欽佩與敬畏來觀察它以及我自己和所有生物。”
“這點我理解，”戈文達說，“但活佛恰恰認爲這是虛僞。他要求善良、仁慈、同情和寬容，卻沒有愛；他不許我們的心受世俗之愛束縛。”
