《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 65 (145):勇敢的人
I love all these people, automatically and unconditionally. I even love the pain-in-the-ass ones. I can see through their neuroses and recognize that they're just horribly afraid of what they're going to face when they go into silence and meditation for seven days. I love the Indi-an man who comes to me in outrage, reporting that there's a four-inch statue of the Indian god Ganesh in his room which has one foot missing. He's furious, thinks this is a terrible omen and wants that statue removed—ideally by a Brahman priest, during a "traditionally ap-propriate" cleansing ceremony. I comfort him and listen to his anger, then send my teenage tomboy friend Tulsi over to the guy's room to get rid of the statue while he's at lunch. The next day I pass the man a note, telling him that I hope he's feeling better now that the broken statue is gone, and reminding him that I'm here if he needs anything else whatsoever; he re-wards me with a giant, relieved smile. He's just afraid. The French woman who has a near panic attack about her wheat allergies—she's afraid, too. The Argentinean man who wants a special meeting with the entire staff of the Hatha Yoga department in order to be counseled on how to sit properly during meditation so his ankle doesn't hurt; he's just afraid. They're all afraid. They're going into silence, deep into their own minds and souls. Even for an experi-enced meditator, nothing is more unknown than this territory. Anything can happen in there. They'll be guided during this retreat by a wonderful woman, a monk in her fifties, whose every gesture and word is the embodiment of compassion, but they're still afraid because—as lov-ing as this monk may be—she cannot go with them where they are going. Nobody can.
我自動自發、無條件地喜歡這些人。我甚至喜歡那些討厭鬼。我能看穿他們的神經質，知道他們只是恐懼七天的靜修禪坐開始時即將面對的事情。我喜歡氣沖沖地跑來找我的印度男子，說他房間裏有一尊十三釐米高的象頭神雕像缺一條腿。他怒氣沖天，認爲這是凶兆，要人移走雕像——最好由婆羅門祭司舉行“合乎傳統”的法會。我安慰他，聽他的責罵，而後派我的野丫頭朋友圖絲去那人的房間，趁他吃午飯時移走雕像。隔天我遞給他一張紙條，說雕像移除後，但願現在他感覺好些，我讓他知道若有其他需求時請來找我；他賞給我一個放心的笑容。他只是恐懼罷了。對小麥過敏而驚惶失措的法國女人，她也是恐懼。有位阿根廷男人，想召集整個陰陽瑜伽部門來建議不傷腳踝的禪坐姿勢，他也是恐懼。他們都只是恐懼。他們即將靜坐，進入自己的心靈。即使對老練的禪坐者來說，這也仍是未知的領域。任何事都可能發生。靜修期間，他們將由一個了不起的女子引導，這位五十多歲的女僧，其一言一行都是慈悲的化身，可是他們依然恐懼，因爲——這位女僧儘管慈愛——她卻無法陪同他們前往他們要去的地方。誰也不能。As the retreat was beginning, I happened to get a letter in the mail from a friend of mine in America who is a wildlife filmmaker for National Geographic. He told me he'd just been to a fancy dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, honoring members of the Explorers' Club. He said it was amazing to be in the presence of such incredibly courageous people, all of whom have risked their lives so many times to discover the world's most remote and dangerous mountain ranges, canyons, rivers, ocean depths, ice fields and volcanoes. He said that so many of them were missing bits of themselves—toes and noses and fingers lost over the years to sharks, frostbite and other dangers.
靜修開始時，我碰巧接到美國一位朋友寄來的信；他的工作是爲《國家地理雜誌》拍攝野生動物影片。他說自己剛去紐約的華道夫—亞斯托里亞（Waldorf-Astoria）飯店參加爲探險傢俱樂部（Explorers'sClub）成員所舉辦的晚宴。他說面對這些勇敢無比的人，讓人驚歎。這些人都曾多次冒着生命危險，去探勘世界上最偏遠、最險峻的山脈、峽谷、河川、海底、冰原和火山。他說許多人少了身上某些部位——多年來因鯊魚、凍瘡和種種危險而失去的腳趾、鼻子、手指。He wrote, "You have never seen so many brave people gathered in one place at the same time."
他寫道“你從沒看過這麼多勇敢的人同時聚在同一個地方。”
I thought to myself, You ain't seen nothin', Mike. Eat, Pray, Love
我心想，“你什麼都沒看見呵，麥克。”
