【菩提好聲音 #37】你在跟著什麼感覺走？What Feeling Are You Following?

Our concepts depend on our understanding of the world, which is built entirely upon our senses.我們的觀念，取決於我們對世界的認識，而我們的認識又以感覺為基礎。Usually, we habitually identify with our feelings, treating whatever we perceive as the sole reality. But are our senses truly that trustworthy? In fact, human perception is deeply flawed.通常，我們總是習慣性地認同自己的感覺，將我們所能覺知的事物和現象當做是唯一的真實。那麼，我們的感覺是不是真的那麼值得信賴呢？事實上，人的感覺是有問題的。First, our senses are incredibly dull. In a noisy environment, faint sounds are drowned out. In the dark, even the most beautiful scenery becomes invisible to our eyes.首先，我們的感覺非常遲鈍。在嘈雜環境裡，微小的聲音會被淹沒。在黑暗中，即便是最亮麗的色彩、最優美的風景也形同虛設。Without scientific instruments, our scope of perception is extremely limited: we need microscopes for the tiny, and telescopes for the distant. In a sense, we are not much different from the blind men feeling the elephant.如果不藉助於科學的儀器，人類所能覺知的範圍極其有限：太小的東西我們看不到，需要顯微鏡；太遠的東西我們看不到，需要望遠鏡……在某種意義上，我們和盲人摸象故事中的盲人並沒有太大區別。Relying solely on our naked eyes and senses, we only perceive a tiny, fragmented portion of the universe, completely ignoring the immense whole and the ultimate truth behind it.僅憑我們的肉眼，僅憑我們的感官，我們能看到、能感覺的不過是大千世界所呈現的非常微小的局部，卻忽略了它們背後更為巨大的整體和真相。Second, our senses are inherently deceptive. Since ancient times, humans believed that the moon naturally waxes and wanes. But has the moon ever changed its shape?其次，我們的感覺帶有錯亂性。自古以來，人們一直以為月有陰晴圓缺。可是，月亮何嘗有過陰晴圓缺呢？The Earth we live on rotates at a breakneck speed every single moment—"sitting still, we travel eighty thousand miles a day"—yet none of us can feel it.我們所生活的地球，每時每刻都在飛快地自轉，所謂「坐地日行八萬里」，可是我們誰也感覺不到。Stars in the sky look small enough to grasp, yet astronomers tell us many are vastly larger than Earth. Some of the stars we "see" tonight have already ceased to exist; their light simply took hundreds of light-years to reach us.天上的星辰在我們看來，小得似乎可以抓在手中，但天文學家卻告訴我們，它們中的許多，比我們的地球要大得多。而其中的一部分，在我們看到的時候，早已不再存在，因為它們所散發的光芒，需要幾十甚至幾百光年才能抵達我們的視線範圍。When we sit in a boat, the riverbanks seem to move; when a pen is placed in water, it appears bent due to the refraction of light.當我們坐在輪船中，感覺兩岸青山在緩緩地移動，實際上是船的前進造成了我們的錯覺；當一支筆插在水中的時候，看起來像是彎的，那是水的折射欺騙了我們的眼睛……If we simply follow such perceptions and trust them without reservation, where will our lives ultimately lead?如果跟著這樣的感覺，並且毫無保留地信任它，我們的人生會走向哪裡？