Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy
发布时间 来源
Episode 设置
摘要
http://www.ted.com Buddhist roshi Joan Halifax works with people at the last stage of life (in hospice and on death row). She shares what she's learned about compassion in the face of death and dying, and a deep insight into the nature of empathy.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.
GPT-4正在为你翻译摘要中......
中英文字稿 
I want to address the issue of compassion. Compassion has many faces. Some of them are fierce, some of them are wrathful. Some of them are tender, some of them are wise. Align that the Dalai Lama once said, he said, love and compassion are necessities. They are not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. And I would suggest it is not only humanity that won't survive, but it is all species on the planet, as we've heard today. It is the big cats and it's the plankton.
我想谈谈同情这个问题。同情有多种面貌。有些是严厉的，有些则是愤怒的。有些是温柔的，有些则是智慧的。正如达赖喇嘛曾说过的，他说爱和同情是必需品，而不是奢侈品。没有它们，人类无法生存。我认为不仅仅是人类无法生存，正如我们今天所听到的，地球上的所有物种也都会面临生存危机。无论是大型猫科动物还是浮游生物。
Two weeks ago I was in Bangalore in India. I was so privileged to be able to teach in a hospice on the outskirts of Bangalore. And early in the morning I went into the ward. In that hospice there were 31 men and women who were actively dying. And I walked up to the bedside of an old woman who was breathing very rapidly, fragile, obviously in the latter phase of active dying. I looked into her face. I looked into the face of her son sitting next to her. And his face was just rivet with grief and confusion.
两周前，我在印度的班加罗尔。我非常有幸能够在班加罗尔郊区的一家临终关怀医院进行教学。清晨，我走进病房。在那里有31位即将离世的男女人士。我走到一位快速呼吸且非常虚弱的老妇人床边，她显然处于生命的最后阶段。我仔细看着她的脸，又转头看着坐在她身边的儿子。他的脸上充满了悲伤和困惑。
And I remembered, aligned from the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic. What is the most wondrous thing in the world, Yudhisthara? And Yudhisthara replied, the most wondrous thing in the world is that all around us, people can be dying and we don't realize it can happen to us. I looked up, tending those 31 dying people were young women from villages around Bangalore. I looked into the face of one of these women and I saw in her face the strength that arises when natural compassion is really present.
我想起了《摩诃婆罗多》这部伟大的印度史诗中的一个情节。问：世界上最奇妙的事情是什么，犹提希特拉？犹提希特拉回答说，世界上最奇妙的事情是，尽管我们周围的人都在死去，但我们仍然没有意识到这事也可能发生在我们自己身上。我抬头望去，看见有31位临终病人，身边照料他们的是来自班加罗尔附近村庄的年轻女性。我看着其中一位女性的脸，从她的表情中我看到了当自然的同情心真正存在时所产生的力量。
I watched her hands and she bathed an old man. My gaze went to another young woman and she wiped the face of another dying person. And it reminded me of something that I had just been present for. Every year or so I have the privilege of taking clinicians into the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. We run clinics in these very remote regions where there is no medical care whatsoever.
我看到她的手在给一位老人洗澡。我又看向另一位年轻女子，她正在擦拭一位临终者的脸。这让我想起了我刚刚经历过的事情。每年我都会带领一批临床医生进入喜马拉雅山和青藏高原。在这些非常偏远没有医疗服务的地区，我们开展诊所活动。
And in the first day at Simeon Code in Humbla, with far western Nepal, the most impoverished region of Nepal, an old man came in, clutching a bundle of rags. And he walked in and somebody said something to him, we realized he was deaf. And we looked into the rags and there was this pair of eyes. The rags were unwrapped from a little girl whose body was massively burned. Again, the eyes enhanced of avalokiteshvara.
在尼泊尔西部最贫困的地区，有个叫Humbla的地方，我的第一天是在Simeon Code过的。一个老人走了进来，手里紧紧抱着一捆破布。有人和他说了话，这时我们才意识到他是聋的。我们仔细看了看那捆破布，露出了一双眼睛。破布里裹着的是一个严重烧伤的小女孩。然而，她的眼神让人联想到观世音菩萨的目光，充满了无限的慈悲。
It was the young women, the health aides, who cleaned the wounds of this baby and dressed the wounds. I know those hands and eyes. They touched me as well. They touched me at that time. They have touched me throughout my 68 years. They touched me when I was four and I lost my eyesight and was partially paralyzed. And my family brought in a woman whose mother had been a slave to take care of me.
这是那些年轻的女士们，也就是健康护理员，清理并包扎了这个婴儿的伤口。我认识这些手和眼神。它们曾经触碰过我。在我68年的人生中，它们一直在触碰我。当我四岁时失去视力并部分瘫痪，那时它们也触碰过我。我的家人请来了一位曾是奴隶的女性的女儿来照顾我。
And that woman did not have sentimental compassion. She had phenomenal strength. And it was really her strength. I believe that became the kind of mood or imprimature that has been a guiding light in my life. So we can ask, what is compassion comprised of? And there are various facets and there's, you know, referential and non-referential compassion.
那位女士并不是充满感情的同情，她拥有非凡的力量。而且这确实是她自身的力量。我相信，这种力量成为了我生命中的一种引导力量。所以我们可以问，同情心是由什么组成的呢？其实同情有很多层面，有特定对象的同情和无特定对象的同情。
But first, compassion is comprised of that capacity to see clearly into the nature of suffering. It is that ability to really stand strong and to recognize also that I'm not separate from this suffering. But that is not enough because compassion, which activates the motor cortex, means that we aspire. We actually aspire to transform suffering. And if we're so blessed, we engage in activities that transform suffering.
首先，慈悲包含了清晰洞察痛苦本质的能力。这是一种能够坚定地站立，同时也能认识到我与这种痛苦并不分离的能力。但这还不够，因为慈悲会激活大脑的运动皮层，这意味着我们内心会产生愿望，希望真正去改变痛苦的现状。如果我们足够幸运，我们会参与到能够改变痛苦的活动中。
But compassion has another component. And that component is really essential. That component is that we cannot be attached to outcome. Now, I worked with dying people for over 40 years. I had the privilege of working on death row and in maximum security for six years. And I realized so clearly in bringing my own life experience from working with dying people and training caregivers, that any attachment to outcome would distort deeply my own capacity to be fully present to the whole catastrophe.
但同情还有另一个组成部分，这个部分其实非常重要，那就是我们不能对结果抱有执念。我与临终病人共事已经超过40年了，也有幸在死囚区和最高安全级别监狱工作了六年。在与临终病人合作并培训护理人员的过程中，我深刻地意识到，如果对结果抱有任何执念，会极大地影响到我真正全身心投入去面对生命中的各种灾难的能力。
And when I worked in the prison system, it was so clear to me this, that many of us in this room, and almost all of the men that I worked with on death row, the seeds of their own compassion had never been murdered, that compassion is actually an inherent human quality. It is there within every human being. But the conditions for compassion to be activated, to be aroused, are particular conditions.
当我在监狱系统工作时，我很清楚地意识到，在我们这个房间的许多人，以及我在死囚牢房工作时接触到的几乎所有犯人，他们心中的同情心之种并未真正消亡。其实，同情心是一种与生俱来的品质，每个人心中都存在。但激发和唤起同情心需要特定的条件。
I had that condition to a certain extent from my own childhood illness, Eve Ensler, whom you'll hear later, has had that condition activated amazingly in her, through the various waters of suffering that she has been through. And what is fascinating is that compassion has enemies. And those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.
从某种程度上来说，我自己也因为童年时的疾病有过这种情况。稍后你会听到的伊芙·恩斯勒，在经历过各种痛苦后，这种情况在她身上被惊人地激活了。令人惊讶的是，悲悯是有敌人的，而这些敌人是像怜悯、道德愤怒和恐惧这样的情绪。
And you know, we have a society, a world that is paralyzed by fear. And in that paralysis, of course, our capacity for compassion is also paralyzed. The very word terror is global. The very feeling of terror is global. So our work in a certain way is to address this imago, this kind of archetype that has pervaded the psyche of our entire globe. Now we know from neuroscience that compassion has some very extraordinary qualities. A person who is cultivating compassion, when they are in the presence of suffering, they feel that suffering a lot more than many other people do. However, they return to baseline a lot sooner. This is called resilience. Many of us think that compassion drains us, but I promise you, it is something that truly enlivens us.
你知道，我们的社会和世界正被恐惧所麻痹。在这种麻痹状态下，我们的同情心也被抑制了。"恐怖"这个词本身就是全球性的，恐惧的感觉也是全球性的。因此，我们的某种工作就是要处理这种弥漫在全球心灵中的形象和原型。现在我们从神经科学中了解到，同情心具有一些非常特殊的特性。一个培养同情心的人，在面对痛苦时，他们感受到的痛苦比许多人要多得多。然而，他们恢复到正常状态的速度也更快。这被称为"恢复力"。很多人认为同情心会耗尽我们的能量，但我向你保证，它实际上是真正能使我们充满活力的东西。
Another thing about compassion is that it really enhances what is called neural integration. It hooks up all parts of the brain. Another, which has been discovered by various researchers at every and at Davis and so on, is that compassion enhances our immune system. Hey, we live in a very noxious world. Most of us are shrinking in the face of psychosocial and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the generation of compassion, actually mobilizes our immunity. You know, if compassion is so good for us, I have a question.
关于同情心的另一个方面是，它确实能增强被称为神经整合的东西。它能够将大脑的各个部分连接起来。此外，不同研究者在多个地方的研究发现，同情心还能增强我们的免疫系统。我们生活在一个充满有害物质的世界里。大多数人在面对社会心理和物理上的毒素时感到无力。但是，同情心的培养实际上能够激发我们的免疫力。如果同情心对我们有这么多好处，我有一个问题。
Why don't we train our children in compassion? If compassion is so good for us, why don't we train our healthcare providers in compassion so that they can do what they're supposed to do, which is to really transform suffering? And if compassion is so good for us, why don't we vote on compassion? Why don't we vote for people in our governments based on compassion so that we can have a more caring world?
为什么我们不在孩子小的时候就教他们学会同情呢？如果同情心对我们有这么多好处，为什么不在医护人员的培训中加入同情心的培训呢？这样他们才能真正实现减轻痛苦的职责。如果同情心这么有益，为什么我们不基于同情心去投票呢？为什么不选出那些能够让世界变得更有爱的人来担任政府职务呢？
In Buddhism, we say it takes a strong back and a soft front. It takes tremendous strength of the back to uphold yourself in the midst of conditions. And that is the mental quality of equanimity. But it also takes a soft front, the capacity to really be open to the world as it is, to have an undefended heart. And the archetype of this in Buddhism is Avalokiteshvarakwanyen, it's a female archetype. She who perceives the cries of suffering in the world. She stands with 10,000 arms. And in every hand there is an instrument of liberation. And in the palm of every hand there are eyes, and these are the eyes of wisdom.
在佛教中，我们常说需要"强壮的后背和柔软的前胸"。这意味着需要强大的背部力量来在各种环境中保持自我，这种力量就是内心的平静与稳定。然而，也需要一个柔软的前胸，能够真正敞开心扉去接受这个世界本来的样子，而不是防卫心重。在佛教中，这种精神的化身是观世音菩萨，一个女性形象。她感知世界的苦难，用她的十万双手帮助众生解脱。每只手掌心都有智慧之眼，象征着洞察与智慧。
I say that for thousands of years women have lived, exemplified, met in intimacy the archetype of Avalokiteshvarakwanyen. She who perceives the cries of suffering in the world. Women have manifested for thousands of years the strength arising from compassion in an unfiltered, unmediated way in perceiving suffering as it is. They have infused societies with kindness. And we have really felt that as woman after woman has stood on this stage in the past day and a half. And they have actualized compassion through direct action.
我想说，几千年来，女性一直生活在观音菩萨的原型下，她们真正理解到这种源自内心的慈悲，感受到世间的痛苦。女性通过直接感知这些苦难，展现了纯粹而强大的同情心。她们把善良融入到社会中。在过去的一天半时间里，我们真的感受到了这一点，因为一个又一个女性站在这个舞台上，以实际行动体现了她们的慈悲心。
Jody Williams called it. It's good to meditate. I'm sorry. You've got to do a little bit of that, Jody. And I'll step back. Give your mother a break, okay? But the other side of the equation is you've got to come out of your cave. You have to come into the world like Asanga did who was looking to realize my tray of Buddha after 12 years. Sitting in the cave he said, I'm out of here. He's going down the path. He sees something in the path. He looks at the dog. He drops to his knees. He sees that the dog has his big wound on his leg. The wound is just filled with maggots. He puts out his tongue in order to remove the maggots so it's not to harm them.
乔迪·威廉姆斯说得对，冥想是件好事。我很抱歉，你确实需要做一点冥想，乔迪。我会退一步，让你妈妈休息一下，好吗？但另一方面，你需要走出自己的洞穴，走入这个世界。就像阿桑伽一样，他花了12年时间冥想着要实现弥勒佛。在洞穴中，他说：“我要离开这里。”于是他沿着小路走去，看到了什么。他看到了一只狗，他跪下来，看到狗的腿上有个大伤口，里面布满了蛆虫。他伸出舌头，小心翼翼地准备把蛆虫移走，好不伤害它们。
And at that moment the dog transformed into the Buddha of loving kindness. I believe that women and girls today have to partner in a powerful way with men, with their fathers, with their sons, with their brothers, with the plumbers, the road builders, the caregivers, the doctors, the lawyers, with our president and with all beings. The women in this room are notices in a sea of fire. May we actualize that capacity for women everywhere. Thank you. Thank you.
在那一刻，那只狗变成了慈爱的佛陀。我相信，如今女性和女孩必须与男性、她们的父亲、儿子、兄弟、管道工、道路建筑工人、护理人员、医生、律师、我们的总统以及所有的人携手合作，形成一种强有力的伙伴关系。在这个房间里的女性就像在火海中的引导者。愿我们能够实现这种能力，让全球的女性都受益。谢谢大家。谢谢。