埃克哈特|《宁静在说话》之“引言(2)”

节选自埃克哈特.托利的《宁静在说话》之引言(1) ——翻译 游由 录音 无事无菲

引言

这不是一本要你从头读到尾，然后束之高阁的书。与它生活在一起。经常拿起这本书。而且，更重要的是，经常放下它。或更多时候是捧着它而不是阅读它。很多读者在读完一小条之后会很自然地想要停下来，暂停一下，思考它，然后变得安静。每一次停止阅读总是比继续阅读更有帮助也更加重要。允许这本书完成它的工作，将你从那古老的丛林，也就是你的重复的、受限的思维中唤醒。

这本书的形式可以被看作是从前记录的灵性教导 - 古印度的经文 - 的最古老形式的现代复兴。这些经文是对真相的强有力的指示，它们以格言或短句的形式存在，辅以很少的概念上的阐述。《吠陀经》和《奥义书》就是以经文形式记录下来的早期的关于神性的教导，记录的都是佛陀说的话。如果把耶稣所说的箴言和譬喻从后人叙事性的上下文中摘取出来，也可以被看作是经文。而在那本古代中国人关于智慧的书《道德经》中所包含的深奥的教导也同样以经文的形式存在。

经文的优点就在于它的简洁扼要。它不鼓励任何不必要的思考。它没有说出来的，那个它所指向的，比它所说出来的要重要得多。

原文

This is not a book to be read from cover to cover and then put away. Live with it.Pick it up frequently. And, more importantly, put it down frequently. Or spend more time holding it than reading it.

Many readers will feel naturally inclined to stop reading after each entry, to pause, reflect, become still. It is always more helpful and more important to stop reading than to continue reading. Allow the book to do its work, to awaken you from the old groves of your repetitive and conditioned thinking.The form of this book can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings, the sutras of ancient India. Sutras are powerful pointers to the truth in the form of aphorisms or short sayings with little conceptual elaboration. The Vedas and Upanishads are the early sacred teachings recorded in the form of sutras, as are the words of the Buddha. The sayings and parables of Jesus, too, when taken out of their narrative context could be regarded as sutras as well as the profound teachings contained in the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese book of wisdom.

The advantage of the sutra form lies in its brevity. It does not engage the thinking mind more than is necessary. What it doesn't say, but only points to, is more important than what it says.