累了自己，更累了自然（上） Exhausting the Self, Exhausting Nature (Part I)

Our perspectives directly determine our values, which in turn shape our behaviors and lifestyles.观念直接决定了我们的价值取向，也直接影响着我们的行为和生活方式。Survival is inseparable from essential material conditions, but how should we pursue profit? From the perspective of the Dharma, immediate interests and long-term interests are one; personal interests and social interests are also one.生存离不开必要的物质条件，但我们应当怎样追求利益呢？从佛法观点来看，现实利益和长远利益是一体的，自身利益和社会利益也是一体的。Regrettably, people today rarely realize this. This is closely linked to the prevalence of materialism.遗憾的是，现在的人很少能意识到这一点。这与唯物主义的盛行是分不开的。If one believes that life is merely a hundred-year fragment ending in total extinction, their goals naturally cannot be long-term, and immediate profit becomes paramount.既然人生是断灭的，至多也不过百年而已，所谓的人生目标自然不可能更长远，眼前的利益也自然高于一切。This shortsightedness leads people to seek any shortcut to wealth, without considering the consequences of these short-term actions.这种急功近利的思想，使得人们寻找一切可能致富的捷径，丝毫不考虑这些短期行为将带来什么样的后果。While rural areas achieved wealth through rapid industrialization, we must ask: how much farmland was occupied? How many rivers were polluted? Experts predict that if current trends continue, China may have no tillable land left in 200 years.在农民们富起来的同时，被占用的耕地有多少？被污染的河流有多少？据有关专家预测，按照现有发展趋势，中国200年后就将无地可耕。If rural wealth came at the cost of land, what is the price of urban prosperity? To satisfy our expanding material desires, how many resources have been pointlessly consumed?如果说农村致富是以丧失土地为代价，那么，都市繁荣又是以什么换取的呢？为了满足我们日益膨胀的物欲，多少资源被无谓地消耗了？Take packaging as an example: how many forests are devoured each year just for wrapping materials? How much waste is generated?仅以包装为例，每年用于包装的材料要吞噬多少森林？要制造多少垃圾？We turn useful resources into useless garbage simply to stimulate consumer desire. Have we considered that promoting consumption is, in fact, encouraging waste—the wasting of our dwindling natural resources!我们将有用的资源变成无用的垃圾，仅仅是为了刺激一下人们的消费欲。我们是否想过，带动消费的同时，就是在鼓励我们浪费——浪费所剩无多的自然资源！Under the rules of a market economy, success is measured by creating opportunities for sales and prosperity by driving consumption.在市场经济的准则下，企业的成功在于能否制造商机，商业的繁荣在于能否带动消费。All this has fundamentally changed our habits. Frugality was a virtue advocated by our ancestors for millennia, but today, we have easily discarded this tradition.这一切，使我们的生活习惯发生了彻底变化。节俭是祖先们千百年来倡导的美德，但在今天，我们轻易地丢弃了这个传统。