許多人類的痛苦都源於人類自身，源於成年人受幼年時錯誤成長軌跡的影響而情感不成熟。這樣的人沒有能力盡責地工作，盡責地愛，而是變得貪婪自私、焦慮沮喪、滿懷敵意、缺乏安全感。——Dr. Leon J. Saul
聆聽美文
SUFFERING IS SELF-MANUFACTURED
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 specie.
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: 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 readiness to fight or to flee. Flight carries them into alcoholism and other mental disorders. Fight impels them to crime, cruelty, 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 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 co-operation, 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 people 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 specie.
This I believe on the evidence of science and through personal observation and experience.
美麗譯文
我認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過盛衰週期，即出生、成長、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週期，這包括要茁壯成長，長成一個真正成熟的個體。
松樹筆直而挺拔，除非有後天的不良影響將其扭曲。人類也是一樣。成年男女都具備成為忠誠伴侶和慈愛父母的本性與特點，那就是樂於盡責地工作，樂於獻出盡責的愛——這一發現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體，都能對家庭、對朋友乃至對整個世界充滿愛心、負起責任、多做貢獻，那人類所面臨的許多困難都可迎刃而解。
然而，幼年時受到的不良影響扭曲了許多人的成長。這些人在成年以後失去了部分人格，雖然他們意識到出了問題，卻不知道問題在哪裡。他們自卑而又焦慮，灰心喪氣，缺乏安全感。內心的折磨使他們像受到傷害或威脅的野獸，要麼選擇爭鬥，要麼選擇逃逸。選擇逃避的人用酒精來麻醉自己，甚至落到精神錯亂的地步；選擇爭鬥的人變得殘暴，或犯下罪行，或掀起戰亂。
暴力一觸即發，人類自相殘殺——這就是人類社會面臨的基本問題，因為暴力和殘殺演變為戰爭，威脅到了全人類的生存。
人類作出爭鬥或逃避的反應使其在遠古時代得以在洞穴或叢林中生存。時至今日，隨著社會的發展，惡劣的自然環境與兇猛的野獸對人類生存不再構成多大威脅。人類甚至學會了戰勝疾病，地球上現有人口的衣食與住房也很充足。除非宇宙有什麼不測，否則人類的生存只面臨著一個嚴重的威脅：那就是人類內心深處那爭鬥或逃避的心態。這種隨時準備與敵人作殊死搏鬥的叢林法則在現在看來就好像人體器官中的闌尾，是退化落後的。它干擾了人與自然文明相處這一更有效的新方式。用爭鬥或逃避這一原始做法來解決問題是懵懂孩童的行為。後發展起來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現。在孩童的世界裡，爭鬥可能是迫不得已，而成年人若想達到目標，採用成熟的方式會更加有效。也許，有足夠多的人成熟了，戰爭才會停止。
適應這個社會，確保人類的生存，這就是我們面臨的基本問題。解決問題的基本方法就是：讓人們明白怎樣的人才是身心真正成熟的人，然後朝這個目標努力，還要幫助孩子們成熟起來。
許多人類的痛苦都源於人類自身，源於成年人受幼年時錯誤成長軌跡的影響而情感不成熟。這樣的人沒有能力盡責地工作，盡責地愛，而是變得貪婪自私、焦慮沮喪、滿懷敵意、缺乏安全感。成熟是個人乃至全人類從瘋狂與殘殺走向內心平靜與滿足的途徑。
以上是我通過科學的實證觀察與自己的親身體驗所感受到的——它就是我的信仰。
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