《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 50 (108):冥思
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being—and a normal one, at that? The thoughts came up as usual—OK, so it will be—and then the attendant emotions rose, too. I began feeling frustrated and judgmental about myself, lonely and angry. But then a fierce response boiled up from somewhere in the deepest caverns of my heart, and I told myself, "I will not judge you for these thoughts."
今天早上，經過一個鐘頭左右的苦悶思考後，我嘗試帶着一種新的想法回到禪坐中——悲憫。我請求自己的心，能否讓靈魂更寬厚地看待自己的腦袋運作。不該認爲自己是個失敗者，或許我該承認自己只是人類而已——一個正常人類。想法一如往常地出現——好，就這樣吧——而後伴隨而來的情感亦浮現出來。我開始感到挫折，苛刻地評判自己，孤單而憤怒。然後，一個猛烈的回答從我內心深處翻滾而出，我告訴自己：“我不會爲了這些想法去評判你。”My mind tried to protest, said, "Yeah, but you're such a failure, you're such a loser, you'll never amount to anything..."
我的大腦試圖抗議：“是的，你是如此失敗，你是輸家，你永遠都成功不了……”But suddenly it was like a lion was roaring from within my chest, drowning all this claptrap out. A voice bellowed in me like nothing I had ever heard before. It was so internally, eternally loud that I actually clamped my hand over my mouth because I was afraid that if I opened my mouth and let this sound out, it would shake the foundations of buildings as far away as Detroit.
但突然間，我心中發出一陣獅吼，淹沒這些無聊的話語。一種前所未有的聲音在我內心怒吼。如此發自內心、如此永恆不歇的響亮怒吼，竟使我擡手矇住嘴巴，害怕自己張開嘴吼出來，使建築物連根拔起，遠達底特律。
And this is what it roared:
吼聲是這樣的：YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW STRONG MY LOVE IS!!!!!!!!!
你無法想象我的愛有多強烈！！！！！The chattering, negative thoughts in my mind scattered in the wind of this statement like birds and jackrabbits and antelopes—they hightailed it out of there, terrified. Silence followed. An intense, vibrating, awed silence. The lion in the giant savannah of my heart surveyed his newly quiet kingdom with satisfaction. He licked his great chops once, closed his yellow eyes and went back to sleep.
我腦子裏那些喋喋不休的消極想法，在這句話當中，頃刻煙消雲散，有如飛鳥、野兔、羚羊般沒命地逃竄而去。一陣強烈、振動、肅然的寂靜。我心中草原的那頭獅子，心滿意足地審視再次沉靜的王國。它舔了舔大肉塊，閉上黃色的眼睛，再度沉睡。And then, in that regal silence, finally—I began to meditate on (and with) God. Eat, Pray, Love
而後，在這樣威嚴的寂靜中，終於——我開始對神（並同他）展開冥思。
