評論
打印
Now, this was a first for me. And since this is the first time I have introduced that loaded word—GOD—into my book, and since this is a word which will appear many times again throughout these pages, it seems only fair that I pause here for a moment to explain exactly what I mean when I say that word, just so people can decide right away how offended they need to get.
這對我來說可是頭一遭。既然我首次把這個(gè)沉重的字眼——神——引進(jìn)本書，既然這個(gè)字眼將在本書中重復(fù)出現(xiàn)多次，請容我在此停頓片刻，原原本本地解說我提及這個(gè)字眼時(shí)意指為何，以便讓大家能立刻決定自己會被觸怒的程度。
Saving for later the argument about whether God exists at all (no—here's a better idea: let's skip that argument completely), let me first explain why I use the word God, when I could just as easily use the words Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu or Zeus. Alternatively, I could call God "That," which is how the ancient Sanskrit scriptures say it, and which I think comes close to the all-inclusive and unspeakable entity I have sometimes experienced. But that "That" feels impersonal to me—a thing, not a being—and I myself cannot pray to a That. I need a proper name, in order to fully sense a personal attendance. For this same reason, when I pray, I do not address my prayers to The Universe, The Great Void, The Force, The Supreme Self, The Whole, The Creator, The Light, The Higher Power, or even the most poet-ic manifestation of God’s name, taken, I believe, from the Gnostic gospels: "The Shadow of the Turning."
把神是否存在的論點(diǎn)留待稍后（不 ——我有個(gè)更好的主意：干脆跳過這一點(diǎn) ），容我先行說明使用“神”這個(gè)字的原因，而我原本是可以使用“耶和華”“阿拉”“濕婆”“梵天”“毗濕奴 ”或“宙斯”等這些名稱的。或者我可以把神稱為“那東西 ”，在古梵語經(jīng)文中正是如此稱呼，而我認(rèn)為這很接近自己時(shí)而體驗(yàn)到的那種無所不包、不可名狀的實(shí)體。然而“那東西”讓我覺得沒有人味——一種非人的東西——而就我個(gè)人而言 ，我是無法對一個(gè)“東西”祈禱的。我需要一個(gè)確切的名稱，以便能完全感覺到一種隨侍在側(cè)、屬人的氣質(zhì)。同理，在我祈禱時(shí)，禱詞的對象并非“宇宙”“太虛”“原力”“至高者”“全靈”“造物主”“靈光”“大能”，或選自諾斯底福音書（Gnosticgospels）、我認(rèn)為最富詩意的神名：“峰回路轉(zhuǎn)的陰影”。
I have nothing against any of these terms. I feel they are all equal because they are all equally adequate and inadequate descriptions of the indescribable. But we each do need a functional name for this indescribability, and "God" is the name that feels the most warm to me, so that’s what I use. I should also confess that I generally refer to God as "Him," which doesn't bother me because, to my mind, it's just a convenient personalizing pronoun, not a precise anatomical description or a cause for revolution. Of course, I don’t mind if people call God "Her," and I understand the urge to do so. Again—to me, these are both equal terms, equally adequate and inadequate. Though I do think the capitalization of either pronoun is a nice touch, a small politeness in the presence of the divine.
我并不反對使用這些詞。我覺得它們一律平等，因?yàn)槠浼冗m用、亦不適用于描述無可名狀的東西。不過我們每個(gè)人都需要一個(gè)功能性的名稱，來指稱這無可名狀之對象。而“神 ”這個(gè)名稱，讓我覺得最溫暖，于是我用它。我也得承認(rèn)，基本上我把神稱作“他”（Him），這對我并不費(fèi)事，在我腦海里，這只是一種方便的個(gè)人化代詞，并非某種確切的解剖學(xué)描述或革命的理由。當(dāng)然，若有人稱作“她”Her，我也不介意，我能了解想這么稱呼的沖動。我還是要說，這兩者對我來說都是平等的詞兒，既恰當(dāng)，也不恰當(dāng)。不過，我認(rèn)為兩個(gè)代詞大寫是不錯(cuò)的表示，是對神的存在略表敬意。
