Wisdom in life 12: Suffering is

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(文末附有机器翻译)
Li Yinhe's Oral Autobiography is the audiobook I have been listening to lately via Himalaya. She described how, at the age of 14, she was sent to a labour camp in the desert of Inner Mongolia, where she had to work extremely hard every day and was given only a minimum of bread to eat. This was in the 1960s. The country was poor and young people were encouraged to go to the remote mountainous regions or to the countryside to gain strength through hard physical labour. The land in the desert region was barren, and of course, a year of hard labour yielded almost nothing, which was an extremely desperate circumstance. Barrenness prevailed not only in the physical world but also in the spirit world. No books, no movies, no entertainment, nothing! Nevertheless, Li spent three years there. Of the several hundred young people there, 10% went crazy or sank into depression. But Li persevered even though she was starved and physically and mentally exhausted. After this torturous experience, she realised that she had become much stronger and invincible. Nothing would defeat her anymore except death.

Li's experience helps me realise that suffering is counterintuitive. When we suffer, the obvious thing to do is to withdraw and close ourselves off from suffering, creating this little piece of armour to distract us from suffering.

However, the opposite is true: we should open ourselves directly to suffering and feel it with our full consciousness. With complete acceptance and full awareness, we will experience the suffering extra hard.

Through this alone, we will be able to dissolve suffering. Most suffering only occurs when we resist suffering, which is counterintuitive and indeed difficult to imagine. When we understand this truth and know the logical progression of suffering, we can practice it in everyday life, especially when we are in a moment of deep suffering. This counterintuitive truth is difficult for most people to grasp. However, spiritual people in various religions have long mastered this rule. It is a classic technique that spiritual masters, gurus and yogis have used for thousands of years. From time to time, they intentionally make themselves suffer, for example, by lying down on a bed of nails or sitting on a hard rock in a cave somewhere and meditating. This creates a lot of suffering. They also fast regularly to cleanse their bodies thoroughly. By doing these seemingly painful things, they realise their humility so that they can rediscover the beauty in ordinary, simple food and experience true happiness in the humdrum of everyday life. This purifies them spiritually and ultimately makes them happy and satisfied because they have gone through great sufferings.

This is also why spirituality is so counterintuitive and unattainable for the ordinary majority. Most people want to achieve just the opposite. They want to surround themselves with a comfortable environment where everything is perfect and idealistic. In this situation, people become soft and weak. And even the slightest excitement will make them suffer tremendously. On the other hand, a person who lives in a cave for 10 years can endure enormous suffering without any problems because he has trained himself to do so. These kinds of strong men with a super-hard inner core are called stoics. Their way of life and their way of thinking are called stoicism. In today's generally comfortable urban environment, everyone needs some training in stoicism so that we can realise the taste of true happiness and contentment.

生活的智慧12：苦难是反直觉的

李银河的《口述自传》是我最近通过喜马拉雅听的有声书。她描述了在14岁时，她被送到内蒙古沙漠中的一个劳改营，在那里，她每天都要做极其艰苦的工作，只得到最低限度的面包吃。这是1960年代的事。当时国家很穷，人们鼓励年轻人到偏远山区或农村去，通过艰苦的体力劳动获得锻炼。沙漠地区的土地很贫瘠，当然，一年的辛苦劳动几乎一无所获，这是一种极其绝望的情境。贫瘠不仅在是物质现实，在精神世界更是如此。没有书籍，没有电影，没有娱乐，什么都没有！这就是她当时的生活。尽管如此，李银河还是在那里度过了三年时光。在那里的几百个年轻人中，10%的人都发疯或陷入抑郁。但是，尽管她饥肠辘辘，身心俱疲，但还是坚持了下来。经过这种极端磨人的经历，她意识到自己已经变得更加强大，不可战胜。除了死亡，再也没有什么事情能打倒她。
李银河的经历帮助我认识到，痛苦是反直觉的。当我们受苦时，显而易见的举动就是退缩，把自己与苦难隔绝开来，制造一块儿盔甲来转移我们对苦难的注意力。
然而，事实恰恰相反：我们应该直接向痛苦敞开自己，用我们的全部意识来感受它。有了完全的接受和完全的觉知，我们就会加倍强烈地彻底经受痛苦。
仅仅通过这一点，就能化解痛苦。大多数苦难只有在我们抗拒苦难时才会发生，这与直觉相反，确实很难想象。当我们理解了这个真理，知道了苦难的逻辑发展，我们就可以在日常生活中实践它，特别是当我们处于深重苦难的时刻。这个反直觉的真理对大多数人来说是难以掌握的。然而，各种宗教中的灵性人士早就掌握了这一规则。这是几千年来灵性大师、精神领袖和瑜伽名士使用的经典技巧。他们经常刻意让自己受苦，例如，躺在钉子床上或坐在某个山洞里的硬石头上打坐。这就造成了大量的痛苦。他们还定期禁食，以彻底清洁他们的身体。通过做这些看似痛苦的事情，他们实现了自己的谦卑，这样他们就能在普通、简单的食物中重新发现美，并在平淡的日常生活中体验真正的幸福。这在精神上净化了他们，并最终使他们感到幸福和满足，因为他们经历了巨大的痛苦。

这也是为什么灵性对普通的大多数人来说是如此的反直觉和难以实现。大多数人想实现的目标正好相反。他们想把自己包围在一个舒适的环境中，在那里一切都很完美，很理想化。在这种情况下，人们会变得柔软脆弱。即使是最轻微的刺激也会使他们遭受巨大的痛苦。另一方面，一个在山洞里生活了10年的人可以忍受巨大的痛苦而没有任何问题，因为他已经训练自己承受痛苦的能力。这类具有超级坚硬内核的强者被称为“忍者”。他们的生活方式和思维方式被称为“忍术”。在今天普遍舒适的城市环境中，每个人都需要接受一些忍术的训练，以便我们能够感受真正的幸福和满足的味道。

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