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痛苦、收穫、生命競賽 Pain, Gain and the Race of Life

Pain, Gain and the Race of Life 痛苦、收穫、生命競賽
This summer, the world is looking towards London to celebrate its athletes. For them, the saying ‘no pain, no gain’ is part of their path to excellence. For the rest of us, we might be left wondering whether all this pain is necessary. Wouldn’t life be much easier if we only had gain? 今年夏天，全球都期待倫敦為它的運動員慶祝。對這些運動健兒來說，“沒有痛苦，哪有收穫”(”no pain, no gain”)的說法是取得卓越成績的必經之路。至於我們或會質疑，是否有需要承受這一切痛苦？假如沒有痛苦只有收穫，生活不是會好過一點嗎？
Nobody wants pain and crises, but in life, it is inevitable that we will go through such experiences. They are a general part of life – there is no life without pain. In fact, from a Buddhist perspective there is a lot of truth in the saying ‘no pain, no gain’, though maybe not exactly in terms of how it is usually understood. 沒有人希望承受痛苦和面對危機，但這些都是生命中無法避免的經驗。痛苦和危機是生命的一部份，有生命便有痛苦。事實上，從佛教徒的觀點來看，“沒有痛苦，哪有收穫”的講法蘊藏很多真理，儘管這些真理與一般理解的不同。

 
How to make it work for you  如何運用它
If we know how to use our wisdom in dealing with the pain and difficulties we go through, such experiences can help us develop greater understanding and inner wealth. 如果我們知道如何運用智慧去處理我們經歷的痛苦和困難，這些經驗可以幫助我們加強理解力，並開發內在財富。
1. Accept that pain is a natural part of life: From time to time we will go through pain, emotional turmoil and crises, simply because all of these are part and parcel of our human existence. 1.  接受痛苦是生命的一部分：我們不時會經歷痛苦、情緒波動和危機，這一切都是人類生存的重要部分。
Therefore, understanding that however hard we might try we cannot exactly avoid such experiences, we might as well accept them and learn something from them. However hard we might try to avoid the inevitable, when we accept and attempt to understand painful experiences, we can learn and grow. 因此，既然明白到無論我們如何努力嘗試，仍然不能避免這些經歷，我們倒不如接受它們，並從中學習。無論我們多努力嘗試避免那些無可避免的事情，當我們接受並嘗試了解痛苦的經歷，便可以學習和成長。
2. Pain and joy are – like light and darkness – two sides of the same medal. They are interdependent and inseparably connected to each other. When painting a picture or taking a photograph, if there is no light and no darkness, there is no picture and there is no painting. It is the very contrast of light and darkness that brings out the beauty and the colour. 2.  痛苦和歡樂就好比光和黑暗，亦好比獎牌的兩面。兩者相互依存，不可分開。無論繪畫或拍照，假如沒有光暗，就沒有影像或圖像。圖畫照片的美感和色彩，正是通過光暗對比表現出來。
Similarly, since we do have a life, there is no point in saying that we want a life without problems and crises. That would be just like saying that we would like to have a picture without light and darkness. To take this train of thought further, from that perspective even life itself seems to be dependent on death, too. There is no life without death – and the opposite is equally true. 同樣地，由於我們有生命，奢望生命沒有困難和危機是沒有意義的。這就好像説希望一張照片沒有光暗一樣。從這個觀點進一步思考，生命本身似乎亦依賴死亡。有生必有死，反之亦然。
This kind of understanding can really help us appreciate this experience called life – and appreciate the opportunities that we have to help ourselves and help others. 這樣的理解可以真正幫助我們領會這種稱為生命的經驗，並對我們有幫助自己和他人的機會心存感激。

 
3. Wake up, wise up: Whenever we face any form of crisis and apply our wisdom to it, pain has the ability to make us aware of our physical and mental state – like a kind of wake-up call. Even though we might not be exactly happy about the pain, we can then find a way of appreciating the experience. Rather than focusing exclusively on getting rid of the pain as quickly as possible we are able to extract something meaningful from those feelings. 3.  醒覺、領悟：當我們面對任何形式的危機並以智慧對治時，痛苦可以讓我們察覺自己的身心狀況，就好像鬧鐘喚醒我們一樣。雖然我們不大可能因為痛苦而感到喜悦，但可以找方法去欣賞這些經驗。與其專注於盡快消除痛苦，我們倒不如從這些感受中提取一些有意義的東西。
We all have a mind, and there is no mind without wisdom. Let us use our wisdom meaningfully, to see the nature of life, rather than using it to try to see a painting without light or shade. 我們都有心，而且是有智慧的心。我們應該有意義地運用智慧，去領會生命的本質，而不是用它來看一幅沒有光或影的圖畫。

 
However in order to bring out our inherent wisdom, we really have to allow ourselves a moment to contemplate. By extracting anything that is helpful for our minds, we can help ourselves and help others. We don’t need to move mountains. It’s so simple – all we have to do is share our experience. 為了帶出與生俱來的智慧，我們要給自己一些時間靜思。藉着提取一些對心有幫助的東西，我們可以助人自助。我們不需要移山，只需與他人分享經驗，就是這樣簡單。

 
When we embrace pain as part of the mosaic of our life experiences, we gain a new perspective on life and the world – and get ahead together in the race of life. 當我們接受痛苦是生命各種經歷的一部份，便會對生命和世界改觀，在生命的競賽中一起取得更多優勢。