乔布斯传之节选四

Cinderella

from Chapter Four

Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.

Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the great achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom.

Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western world as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things—that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.

Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual advisor urged me to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was correct. I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next door.

reason0731

重归美国之于我，远比去印度带来的文化冲击强烈。印度乡间人民倾向于用直觉而非如我等用理智。再者，他们的直觉开发程度遥遥领先于世界上其他国家。以我之见，直觉很强大，甚至大过理智。这也在很大程度上影响了我的工作。
    西方人的理性思想并非与生俱来，人们不断的学习积累才造就西方文明这一丰功伟绩。印度村子里，没人学过理性。但他们学的其他东西，在某些方面和理性同样有价值，那就是直觉和经验智慧的力量。
    在印度乡村生活了七个月后回来，我发现了西方社会就如同对理性思维的包容一般疯狂。假如你只坐着观察，那你能看到的只是你思想的焦躁不安。若你试图平复心境，那只会弄巧成拙；久而久之，待自然平静下来，你就会在心里腾出空间聆听更加微妙的东西－－你的直觉已然发迹，所见之物愈发通透，你也可以更好地融入现实中。让思维滑翔，视野无限延伸。你能看见以往所不能看见的东西。这是一种修行，你必须不断实践。
    禅对我的一生有深远影响。彼时我想过去日本永平寺修行，但我的精神导师力劝我待在这里。他说：彼处有的东西，此处也一定有。很显然他是对的。我悟出禅的真谛：若你有心游遍全世界去找一个老师，那你一定能在身边找到一个。