Suffering Is Self-Manufactured
by Leon J Saul
I believe the immediate purpose of life is to live, to survive. All known forms of life go through life cycles. The basic plan is birth, maturing, mating, reproducing, death. Thus, the immediate purpose of human life is for each individual to fulfill his life cycle. This involves proper maturing into the fully developed adult of the species. The pine tree grows straight unless harmful influences warp it. So does the human being.
It is a finding of the greatest significance that the mature man and woman have the nature and characteristics of the good spouse and parent, namely the ability to enjoy, responsible, working, and loving. If the world consisted primarily of mature persons—loving, responsible, productive toward family, friends, and the world—most of our human problems would be resolved.
But most people have suffered in childhood from influences which have warped their development. Hence, as adults, they have not realized their full and proper nature. They feel something is wrong without knowing what it is. They feel inferior, frustrated, insecure, and anxious. And they react to these inner feelings just as any animal reacts to any hurt or threat: by a readiness to fight or to flee. Flight carries them into alcoholism and other mental disorders. Fight impels them to crime, cruelty, and war. This readiness to violence, this inhumanity of man to man, is the basic problem of human life, for in the form of war, it now threatens to extinguish us.
Without the fight/flight reaction, man would never have survived the cave and the jungle. But now, through social living, man has made himself relatively safe from the elements and the wild beasts. He is even learning to protect himself against disease. He can produce adequate food, clothing, and shelter for the present population of the Earth. Barring a possible astronomical accident, he now faces no serious threat to his existence, except one: the fight/flight reaction within himself.
This jungle readiness to hurt and to kill is now a vestigial hangover, like the appendix, which interferes with the new and more powerful means of coping with nature through civilization. Trying to solve every problem by fighting or fleeing is the primitive method still central for the immature child. The later method—understanding and cooperation—requires the mature capacities of the adult. In an infantile world, fighting may be forced upon one. Then it is more effective if handled maturely for mature goals. Probably war will cease only when enough persons are mature.
The basic problem is social adaptation and biologic survival. The basic solution is for people to understand the nature of their own biological, emotional maturity, to work toward it to help the children in their development toward it. Human suffering is mostly made by man himself. It is primarily the result of the failure of adults, because of improper child rearing, to mature emotionally. Hence, instead of enjoying their capacities for responsible work and love, they are grasping, egocentric, insecure, frustrated, anxious, and hostile.
Maturity is the path from madness and murder to inner peace and satisfying living for each individual and for the human species. This I believe on the evidence of science and through personal observation and experience.
痛苦源于自身
利昂•J•索爾博士
我認(rèn)為生命最首要的目的就是生活——活著。一切已知的生命形式都要經(jīng)過(guò)盛衰周期,即出生、成長(zhǎng)、交配、繁衍、直至死亡。
正因如此,人生的首要目的就是要走完生命的一個(gè)周期,這包括要茁壯成長(zhǎng),長(zhǎng)成一個(gè)真正成熟的個(gè)體。
松樹(shù)筆直而挺拔,除非有后天的不良影響將其扭曲。人類(lèi)也是一樣。成年男女都具備成為忠誠(chéng)伴侶和慈愛(ài)父母的本性與特點(diǎn),那就是樂(lè)于盡責(zé)地工作,樂(lè)于獻(xiàn)出盡責(zé)的愛(ài)——這一發(fā)現(xiàn)具有非常重要的意義。
如果世上所有的人都是真正成熟的個(gè)體,都能對(duì)家庭、對(duì)朋友乃至對(duì)整個(gè)世界充滿(mǎn)愛(ài)心、負(fù)起責(zé)任、多做貢獻(xiàn),那人類(lèi)所面臨的許多困難都可迎刃而解。
然而,幼年時(shí)受到的不良影響扭曲了許多人的成長(zhǎng)。這些人在成年以后失去了部分人格,雖然他們意識(shí)到出了問(wèn)題,卻不知道問(wèn)題在哪里。他們自卑而又焦慮,灰心喪氣,缺乏安全感。內(nèi)心的折磨使他們像受到傷害或威脅的野獸,要么選擇爭(zhēng)斗,要么選擇逃逸。選擇逃避的人用酒精來(lái)麻醉自己,甚至落到精神錯(cuò)亂的地步;選擇爭(zhēng)斗的人變得殘暴,或犯下罪行,或掀起戰(zhàn)亂。
暴力一觸即發(fā),人類(lèi)自相殘殺——這就是人類(lèi)社會(huì)面臨的基本問(wèn)題,因?yàn)楸┝蜌垰⒀葑優(yōu)閼?zhàn)爭(zhēng),威脅到了全人類(lèi)的生存。
人類(lèi)作出爭(zhēng)斗或逃避的反應(yīng)使其在遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代得以在洞穴或叢林中生存。時(shí)至今日,隨著社會(huì)的發(fā)展,惡劣的自然環(huán)境與兇猛的野獸對(duì)人類(lèi)生存不再構(gòu)成多大威脅。人類(lèi)甚至學(xué)會(huì)了戰(zhàn)勝疾病,地球上現(xiàn)有人口的衣食與住房也很充足。除非宇宙有什么不測(cè),否則人類(lèi)的生存只面臨著一個(gè)嚴(yán)重的威脅:那就是人類(lèi)內(nèi)心深處那爭(zhēng)斗或逃避的心態(tài)。這種隨時(shí)準(zhǔn)備與敵人作殊死搏斗的叢林法則在現(xiàn)在看來(lái)就好像人體器官中的闌尾,是退化落后的。它干擾了人與自然文明相處這一更有效的新方式。用爭(zhēng)斗或逃避這一原始做法來(lái)解決問(wèn)題是懵懂孩童的行為。后發(fā)展起來(lái)的一種理解與合作的新方法則需要成年人成熟的心智才能實(shí)現(xiàn)。在孩童的世界里,爭(zhēng)斗可能是迫不得已,而成年人若想達(dá)到目標(biāo),采用成熟的方式會(huì)更加有效。也許,有足夠多的人成熟了,戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)才會(huì)停止。
適應(yīng)這個(gè)社會(huì),確保人類(lèi)的生存,這就是我們面臨的基本問(wèn)題。解決問(wèn)題的基本方法就是:讓人們明白怎樣的人才是身心真正成熟的人,然后朝這個(gè)目標(biāo)努力,還要幫助孩子們成熟起來(lái)。
許多人類(lèi)的痛苦都源于人類(lèi)自身,源于成年人受幼年時(shí)錯(cuò)誤成長(zhǎng)軌跡的影響而情感不成熟。這樣的人沒(méi)有能力盡責(zé)地工作,盡責(zé)地愛(ài),而是變得貪婪自私、焦慮沮喪、滿(mǎn)懷敵意、缺乏安全感。成熟是個(gè)人乃至全人類(lèi)從瘋狂與殘殺走向內(nèi)心平靜與滿(mǎn)足的途徑。
以上是我通過(guò)科學(xué)的實(shí)證觀(guān)察與自己的親身體驗(yàn)所感受到的——它就是我的信仰。
附注:
利昂•J•索爾博士:獲有哥倫比亞大學(xué)和哈佛大學(xué)的學(xué)位,現(xiàn)為賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院臨床精神病學(xué)教授。
編者按:
暴風(fēng)雨不會(huì)永不停息,任何不適也并非難以容忍。只要勇敢地面對(duì)困難、失望而不沮喪,成功而不驕傲,那我們的人生之戰(zhàn)便取得了一半的勝利。