保罗柯艾略答中国读者十问

                
                


        柯艾略先生的中文官方微博近日发起了一项读者问题征集活动。许多热心读者参与其中，提出了问题并参与投票，在此小助Yan表示非常感谢！现将柯艾略先生的回答公布于下(英文部分是他的原文)：

问题1：你对中国传统哲学是否感兴趣，有否研究，未来有没有可能将中国哲学写入作品？

        我去过中国，去过南京、北京和上海。这是一次很有意思的经历，我见识了你们的文化，从中国功夫到其他的方方面面。关于中国文学，中国留给世界许多经典文学作品，像老子，孙子，孔子。你们的经典文学至今一直在影响世界。如果你去我的网络社区看一下，你会发现我使用许多中国式的态度对待生活，我将这些写入Twitter和Facebook。最近我还读了一本关于“气”的书。顺便说一句，我还读过易经，道德经呢！我是中国经典文学的爱好者。

（本问题新华社记者采访时也提出了，所以采用同一回答。原文为音频故不另外给出。采访报道也将在近日登载，请各位亲爱的读者稍加耐心等待。）

问题2：金庸老先生曾经评价说您是浪漫主义作家，请问您知道金庸先生吗？或是读过中国的武侠小说吗？

        我觉得金庸先生也是个浪漫主义作家，他的小说能将武学的魅力尽数展现。什么是浪漫主义呢？我认为这是一门艺术，能将人的行为以优雅和激情表现出来的艺术。用西方人的一句老话来说就是：“爱情和战争有着同样的游戏规则。”可惜我没有机会读到许多金庸先生的作品，但我知道他，敬仰他，也期待着他的书能有更多更好的译作供我畅享。

2］I also think that Mr. JIN Yong (Louis Cha Leung Yung) is a romantic writer, because he is able to show all the beauty of martial arts in his books. What is romanticism? It is the art of showing that everything we do with elegance and enthusiasm. There is an old saying in the West: "War and love have the same rules". Unfortunately I still did not have a chance to read much about Mr. Yong, but I know his works, and I am an admirer waiting for a good translation to be able to really dive deep in his texts.

问题3：你认识Nichkhun吗？知道Khuntoria吗？

        我是在Twitter上认识了尼坤，然后通过他发现了他的演唱组合2PM。我曾在Youtube上看过一些视频，从此爱上了他们的歌。我还下载了一些，其中“I will be back”和“Only you”是我的最爱。在那之后，尼坤和我就经常交流，我还差一点就飞去法国看2PM的演唱会。他们是很有天赋的音乐家，他们的音乐能直达心灵。对于Khuntoria我并不熟悉。

3] I discovered Nichkun in Twitter. And through Nichkun I discovered his band, 2PM. I watched several clippings in Youtube, and I felt in love with their songs. I downloaded some of them, being my favorites "I will be back" and "Only you". Since then, Nichkun and I have been in constant contact, and I almost travelled to France to watch 2PM concert. They are very talented musicians, and they speak to my heart. That said, I am not familiar with Kunthoria.

问题4：人们该怎样在生活中保持平衡？

        我不会在生活中寻找平衡。让我用大自然来举例，自然中满是冲突：夏对冬，日对夜，顽石对微风……如果你看见一颗星星，那是由于它一直在爆炸中，那也是为什么它的光如此绚丽。因此，与其寻找平衡，我更倾向于接受“矛盾”是人生的一部分，并学着如何与它们和平共处。

4] I am not looking for balance in my life. I use nature as an example, there is always confrontation: winter x summer, night x day, wind x rocks, etc. If you look a star, it is always exploding, and that's why its light is so beautiful. So, instead of looking for balance, I tend to accept contradictions as part of my life, and I learned how to live with them.

问题5：当你面对一个人生抉择，而你又无法判断它正确与否时，你会怎么做？

        第一步我会做的是，更多地聆听第六感而不是理性。如果选择错了，我总还可以去改——因为我在不断前进。事实上，我经常翻阅中国的《三十六计》 ，它们对我选择正确方向非常有帮助。

5] I will take the first step, listening more to my intuition that to my reason. If my steps are wrong, I can always correct them - because I am moving ahead. In fact, I used to read regularly the 36 Chinese stratagems and they are very useful in helping me to correct my trajectory.

问题6：我发现自己依然挣扎在“思考”和“行动”之间。所有内心的疑问和担忧都妨碍我采取行动。我不知道自己的决定对不对，甚至不知道自己想要的到底是什么。如果失败了怎么办？如果我发现追求的东西并不如我所想该怎么办？有没有办法让这些乱七八糟的念头消失，让人们能够坚定不疑地去做？

        我将引用《牧羊少年奇幻之旅》 一书中炼金术士和牧羊少年的一段对话来回答这个问题：

        “为什么我们必须倾听我们的心？”那一天当他们正在扎营的时候，男孩问。
        “因为，你的心在哪里，你的宝藏也在那里。”
        “可是我的心好乱，”男孩说，”它有它自己的梦想，它也很情绪化，尤其当它想到某个沙漠女人时，就会变得非常激动。”
        “嗯，很好，你的心是活生生的。继续去听它在告诉你什么。”
        “我的心真是不可靠，”当他们停下来让马休息时，男孩告诉炼金术士，”它告诉我不要再继续走下去了。”
        “这是可以想见的，”炼金术士回答说，”事实上它很害怕在追求梦想的时候，你也许会失去所有你已经赢得的东西。”
        “那我为什么还要去听我的心在说什么？”
        “因为你永远都无法教它安静下来，即使你假装没听见它在说什么，它还是会存在于你的灵魂当中，不断地诉说你对生活和世界的看法。”
        “你的意思是说，就算它再不可靠，我还是都得听它在说什么？”
        “不可靠是由于你的措手不及。若你够了解你的心，就不会发生这样的事。只要你了解它的梦想和希望，就会知道该怎么处理它们。你绝不可能逃离开自己的心，所以你最好还是听听它在说什么，这样你就不必害怕会遭遇措手不及的状况。”
        “我的心很害怕它会受伤。”男孩对炼金术士说，那是在某个晚上，当他们两人坐在沙地里，遥望着无月的天空时。
        “告诉你的心，害怕比起伤害本身更糟。而且没有一颗心会因为追求梦想而受伤，因为追寻过程中的每一个片刻，都是和神与永恒的邂逅。”

6] I am going to quote a dialogue between the alchemist and the shepperd boy, in my book "The alchemist"

“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.
“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”
“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.”
“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.”
“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”
“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”
“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”
“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. ”
“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”
“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.
“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams,

问题7：我经常想，为什么很多事情都没有一个或对或错的做法和判断，很难把握做事的度，有时候怎么做好像也没有错却也不会做得好。不知道老爹怎么看待这件事情。

        对我来说，只有一条金科玉律：“己所不欲，勿施于人。”如果你遵循这条法则，你就能够判别什么是对的，什么是错的。世上没有绝对的真理，但我们都生活在同一个社会中，我们必须以自己希望被尊敬的方式去尊敬这个集体。

7] for me, there is only one golden rule: don't do to your neighbor what you don't want your neighbor doing to you. If you follow this rule, you will be able to distinguish what is right and what is wrong. There are no ultimate truths, but there is a society that we live in, and we must respect our community the way that we want to be respected.

问题8：人该怎样控制坏脾气，使大家都感到舒服？

        如果你试图讨好所有人，当然别人都会开心，除了你自己之外。所以，控制你的情绪，别去攻击别人，但也请铭记在心，你无法让所有人都满意。

8] If you try to please everybody, everybody will be happy, except you. So control your temper and don't hit people, but understand that you can't please everybody.

问题9：我对未来很迷茫，也没有去改善的动力，只是每天消磨时间。即使我知道有些事情很重要，我都不努力去做。希望成功，但又害怕挫折没有动力。我该如何找到动力？

        我也会与自己过不去，但我对此持乐观态度。人们越来越多地认识到快乐既是自由，而自由意味着能够“轻装上阵”，不要试图占有很多东西，因为它们可能最终会占有你。
        我记得曾想在法国购买一座城堡，也确实看了一些。但是有一天，我意识到，如果我买了城堡，就会为了打理它而没有时间做其他事。因此最终我买了一座小磨房，它极易打理，这样我就有时间去爬山，散步，过我想过的日子。简言之：负担越少，过得越自由。我在学生时代曾三次被拘精神病院（如我在《韦罗尼卡决定去死》中描述的），因为我感到自己无用，不再积极主动。
        所以我给你的建议是：仔细内省一下，找出你与真正的自我丧失联系的那一刻。鼓起勇气，接受真正的自己，然后去实现自我。记住要对你自身的矛盾感到高兴。

9 ] I am always struggling with myself, but I am very optimistic in this sense. People are realizing more and more that happiness is freedom, and freedom is to be able to “travel light”, not possessing a lot of things, because at the end of the day, the things start to possess you. I remember that I considered buying a castle here in France: I went to see some. One day I realized that if I buy a castle, I cannot think about anything but taking care of it. Therefore, I bought a small watermill, so to keep it is very easy, and I have time to go to the mountains, to walk, do spend my life in the way that I would like. In short: the less you have to keep, the more you have in freedom. Three times I was locked in an asylum when I was a teenager (which I describe in my book Veronika decides to die), because I felt useless and I stop acting.
So my only suggestion to you is: start listening to your heart, and spot the moment that you lost this important connection with yourself. Then start taking the risks of accepting yourself as you are, and move on. Be happy with your contradictions.


问题10：如果你对自己感到失望，没有信心该怎么办？

        我会坐下来耐心等待。这种感觉迟早会消失的。与其尝试通过“忙碌”来证明自己很重要，我情愿耐心等待。假如我看不到未来的路，那就是因为我让尘土一时蒙了眼。在我等待的时候，风或者雨水会冲走尘埃，我就能继续前进了。

10] I will sit and wait. This feeling will go away sooner or later. Instead of trying to "occupy” my time to make myself believe that I am useful, I will be patient. If I can't see the road ahead, it is because the dust in my eyes. While I wait, the wind or the rain will clean this dust, and I will be able to walk again.

（欢迎转载，但请附作者和本文联接，谢谢配合！）