英語演講稿：只需專注10分鐘

we live in an incredibly busy world. the pace of life is often frantic, our minds are always busy, and we're always doing something.

so with that in mind, i'd like you just to take a moment to think, when did you last take any time to do nothing? just 10 minutes, undisturbed? and when i say nothing, i do mean nothing. so that's no emailing, texting, no internet, no tv, no chatting, no eating, no reading, not even sitting there reminiscing about the past or planning for the future. simply doing nothing. i see a lot of very blank faces. (laughter) my thinking is, you probably have to go a long way back.

and this is an extraordinary thing, right? we're talking about our mind. the mind, our most valuable and precious resource, through which we experience every single moment of our life, the mind that we rely upon to be happy, content, emotionally stable as individuals, and at the same time to be kind and thoughtful and considerate in our relationships with others. this is the same mind that we depend upon to be focused, creative, spontaneous, and to perform at our very best in everything that we do. and yet, we don't take any time out to look after it. in fact, we spend more time looking after our cars, our clothes and our hair than we — okay, maybe not our hair, but you see where i'm going.

the result, of course, is that we get stressed. you know, the mind whizzes away like a washing machine going round and round, lots of difficult, confusing emotions, and we don't really know how to deal with that, and the sad fact is that we are so distracted that we're no longer present in the world in which we live. we miss out on the things that are most important to us, and the crazy thing is that everybody just assumes, well, that's the way life is, so we've just kind of got to get on with it. that's really not how it has to be.

so i was about 11 when i went along to my first meditation class. and trust me, it had all the stereotypes that you can imagine, the sitting cross-legged on the floor, the incense, the herbal tea, the vegetarians, the whole deal, but my mom was going and i was intrigued, so i went along with her. i'd also seen a few kung fu movies, and secretly i kind of thought i might be able to learn how to fly, but i was very young at the time. now as i was there, i guess, like a lot of people, i assumed that it was just an aspirin for the mind. you get stressed, you do some meditation. i hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature, until i was about 20, when a number of things happened in my life in quite quick succession, really serious things which just flipped my life upside down and all of a sudden i was inundated with thoughts, inundated with difficult emotions that i didn't know how to cope with. every time i sort of pushed one down, another one would just sort of pop back up again. it was a really very stressful time.

i guess we all deal with stress in different ways. some people will bury themselves in work, grateful for the distraction. others will turn to their friends, their family, looking for support. some people hit the bottle, start taking medication. my own way of dealing with it was to become a monk. so i quit my degree, i headed off to the himalayas, i became a monk, and i started studying meditation.

people often ask me what i learned from that time. well, obviously it changed things. let's face it, becoming a celibate monk is going to change a number of things. but it was more than that. it taught me -- it gave me a greater appreciation, an understanding for the present moment. by that i mean not being lost in thought, not being distracted, not being overwhelmed by difficult emotions, but instead learning how to be in the here and now, how to be mindful, how to be present.

i think the present moment is so underrated. it sounds so ordinary, and yet we spend so little time in the present moment that it's anything but ordinary. there was a research paper that came out of harvard, just recently, that said on average our minds are lost in thought almost 47 percent of the time. forty-seven percent. at the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness. now we're not here for that long anyway, but to spend almost half of our life lost in thought and potentially quite unhappy, dunno, it just kind of seems tragic, actually, especially when there's something we can do about it, when there's a positive, practical, achievable, scientifically proven technique which allows our mind to be more healthy, to be more mindful and less distracted. and the beauty of it is that even though it need only take about 10 minutes a day, it impacts our entire life. but we need to know how to do it. we need an exercise. we need a framework to learn how to be more mindful. that's essentially what meditation is. it's familiarizing ourselves with the present moment. but we also need to know how to approach it in the right way to get the best from it. and that's what these are for, in case you've been wondering, because most people assume that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind, but actually it's quite different from that. it's more about stepping back, seeing the thought clearly, witnessing it coming and going, emotions coming and going without judgment, but with a relaxed, focused mind.

so for example, right now, if i focus too much on the balls, then there's no way that i can relax and talk to you at the same time. equally, if i relax too much talking to you, then there's no way i can focus on the balls. i'm going to drop them. now in life, and in meditation, there'll be times when the focus becomes a little bit too intense, and life starts to feel a bit like this. it's a very uncomfortable way to live life, when you get this tight and stressed. at other times, we might take our foot off the gas a little bit too much, and things just become a sort of little bit like this. of course in meditation — (snores) — we're going to end up falling asleep. so we're looking for a balance, a focused relaxation where we can allow thoughts to come and go without all the usual involvement.

now, what usually happens when we're learning to be mindful is that we get distracted by a thought. let's say this is an anxious thought. so everything's going fine, and then we see the anxious thought, and it's like, "oh, didn't realize i was worried about that." you go back to it, repeat it. "oh, i am worried. oh, i really am worried. wow, there's so much anxiety." and before we know it, right, we're anxious about feeling anxious. you know, this is crazy. we do this all the time, even on an everyday level. if you think about the last time, i dunno, you had a wobbly tooth. you know it's wobbly, and you know that it hurts. but what do you do every 20, 30 seconds? (mumbling) it does hurt. and we reinforce the storyline, right? and we just keep telling ourselves, and we do it all the time. and it's only in learning to watch the mind in this way that we can start to let go of those storylines and patterns of mind. but when you sit down and you watch the mind in this way, you might see many different patterns. you might find a mind that's really restless and -- the whole time. don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated in your body when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. you might find a mind that's very dull and boring, and it's just, almost mechanical, it just seems it's as if you're getting up, going to work, eat, sleep, get up, work. or it might just be that one little nagging thought that just goes round and round and round your mind. well, whatever it is, meditation offers the opportunity, the potential to step back and to get a different perspective, to see that things aren't always as they appear. we can't change every little thing that happens to us in life, but we can change the way that we experience it. that's the potential of meditation, of mindfulness. you don't have to burn any incense, and you definitely don't have to sit on the floor. all you need to do is to take 10 minutes out a day to step back, to familiarize yourself with the present moment so that you get to experience a greater sense of focus, calm and clarity in your life.

thank you very much. (applause)

譯文：我們生活在一個異常紛雜的世界。生活的步調時常快得瘋狂，我們的頭腦(心靈)一直忙碌運轉著，而我們每時每刻都在做著事情。

記住這點的同時，我希望你們能拿出一小會兒時間，來想想，上一次自己什麼都不做是什麼時候? 僅僅10分鐘，毫無干擾地? 當我說什麼都不做，就是什麼都不做。沒有電子郵件、簡訊，沒有網際網路，沒有電視、聊天、食物、閱讀，甚至不包括坐著回想過去或者思考將來。只是什麼都不做。我看到你們中很多茫然的臉。(笑聲) 我的想法是，你們很可能要往後退很大一步。

而這是一件很離奇的事情，對吧? 我們說的是我們的大腦(心靈)。大腦(心靈)，對我們來說最珍貴的東西，我們通過它來體驗生活中的每一個時刻，全靠它(心靈) 我們作為一個個體，能感到幸福、滿足、情感穩定，同時在我們與他人的關係中變得善良與體貼。靠著這個大腦(心靈) 我們能夠專注、有創意、自覺，並在我們做的所有事情中發揮自己的才能。然而，我們沒有花哪怕一點時間來關心它。事實上，相較而言，我們更關心自己的汽車衣服和頭髮的時間都要更多 ---好吧，也許不包括我們的頭髮，但你們懂我想要說的。

而結果，當然是我們感到壓力。你們知道的，大腦(心靈)總是像一台洗衣機般颼颼運轉反反覆覆，許多複雜、令人困惑的感情，而我們卻不真的知道怎么來應對，可悲的事實是我們如此分心以至於我們不再處在自己當下生活的這個世界。我們錯過了對我們而言最重要的事情，而瘋狂的是每個人都只是以為，喔，這就是生活，我們不得不這么過。但生活真的不必須成為這樣子。

當我去上我第一節冥想課的時候我只有11歲。相信我，課里有所有你能想到的關於冥想的成見，盤腿坐在地板上，焚香，藥茶，素食主義者，全部東西，但我媽媽當時參加了，而我也感興趣，所以我跟她一起去了。我還看了幾部功夫電影，私下裡我想我或許能學會怎么飛起來，但我那時實在非常年輕。我想，當我在那裡的時候，像很多人一樣，我假定那只是一顆給大腦(心靈)的阿司匹林。當感到壓力的時候，你就冥想一會。我不曾真的考慮那本質上會是一種阻礙，直到我大約20歲，一些事情在我的人生中接連地發生，那是一些把我的生活整個顛倒的事情而突然之間我被各種思緒淹沒了，淹沒在我不知道如何應付的複雜感情里。每當我快要解決其中一個的時候，另一個會又一次的冒出來。那真的是一段非常難熬的時間。

我想我們應對壓力都有不同的方式。有些人會把自己埋頭到工作中，用以分心不去想。另一些人則會從朋友和家庭中尋求幫助。還有些人酗酒，或開始使用藥品。我自己當時的方式則是成為一名僧侶。因此我退了學，去了喜馬拉雅山，我成為了一名僧侶，並開始學習冥想。

人們常會問我從這段經歷里學到了什麼。嗯，很顯然它改變了很多事情。面對這個事實，成為一名修行禁慾的僧侶能夠改變很多事情。但不僅如此這個經歷還教會我---使得我更能感悟“現在”，對於“現在”這個時刻的有了更深的理解。我指的是不迷失于思緒中，不被分心，不被各種複雜的感情弄得不知所措，相反地，我學會了如何感悟此地與此時，如何變得專心，如何活在“現在”。

我認為“現在”這個時刻是被嚴重低估了。它聽起來如此平常，所以我們只花那么少時間來對待“現在”，但是這個詞絕對不“平凡”。就在最近，哈佛有一個調查的結果顯示，我們的大腦(心靈)平均有將近47%的時間是迷失在各種思緒中。百分之47。同時，這種持續的“大腦(心靈)徘徊” 也是導致人類不幸福的直接原因。雖然不管怎樣我們不會在此地待多長時間，但耗費大半人生迷失在思考中並因此可能變得非常不幸福，我不知道，這真的聽起來太可悲了尤其是當我們能有所為，改變這個現狀的時候，當有一種積極的、實際的、能做到、而且經過科學驗證的技巧存在它可以讓我們的大腦變得更加健康，更加專注並且更少分神。它的妙處在於這只需要每天10分鐘，它可以對我們的整個人生造成巨大的影響。但我們需要知道怎么做到。我們需要一些練習。我們需要一個架構來學習如何變得專注。這就是冥想的本質。它使我們熟悉"現在"。但我們也需要知道如何做到用正確的方法來從中獲得最多益處。而這就是冥想的作用，以防你們可能有點迷惑，因為大多數人覺得冥想是關於停止思考，擺脫感情，以某種方式控制大腦(心靈)，但實際上冥想不是這樣的。它更多的是後退一步，看清自己的思緒，看見思緒來來去去，看見感情來來去去不加辨別，但以一种放松而專注的狀態。

打個比方，現在，如果我太集中於這些球，那么我就無法能夠放鬆並同時與你們說話。同樣地，如果我太過於放鬆地跟你們說話，那我將無法專注在球上。我將會把球掉到地上。而在生活里，在冥想中，有些時候專注變得有點過於緊張，而生活開始變得有點像這樣。當你變得這樣緊張，你將活的非常難受。在其他時候，我們或許會把腳放得離油門有點過遠(過於放鬆)，而這將變得像這樣。而在冥想中——(鼾聲)—— 我們最後就會睡著。因此我們要尋找一個平衡點，一種專注的放鬆在這種狀態下我們能讓思緒自由來去遠離塵世的煩擾。

現在，當我們學會專注通常會發生就是是我們被一個想法打擾。比如說這是一個焦慮的思緒。比如所以事情都一切順利，然後我們發現了焦急的思緒，它就像："喔，我居然沒意識到我的煩惱"。你關注它，並且重複它。“喔，我很擔心。喔，我真的很擔心。哇，有這么多的焦慮。” 和之前我們意識到它相比，對吧，我們為焦慮的感覺而焦慮。你知道，這很不正常。我們總是在想這些，甚至在日常生活的狀態下。如果你想想最後一次，我不知道，你有一顆鬆動的牙。你知道它是一顆鬆動的牙，並且你知道它很痛。但你每20，30 秒就關注它一下嗎? (嘴裡喃喃)真的很痛。我們加重了痛苦，對吧? 我們只不斷告訴自己，我們總是這樣。只有學會以隨其自然方式處理思維(心靈) 學習讓這些事情和思維模式來去自如。但當你坐下來，以這種方式看思維(心靈)，您可能會看到許多不同的模式。您可能會發現是真的不安分的心- 所有時刻。不要感到驚訝，如果你覺得你有點焦慮當你坐下來什麼也不做，感覺就像，你的頭腦焦慮。您可能會發現是很枯燥和無聊的頭腦(心靈)，它只是幾乎機械重複，這好像你起床，去工作、吃飯、睡覺、起床、工作。或者它可能只是一個微小揮之不去的思緒不停的在你頭腦中轉。嗯，無論它是什麼，冥想提供了一個機會，提供了退一步的潛力獲得看事物的不同角度，看到事情不總是它們外在表象的那樣。我們不能改變每一件生活中、發生在我們身上小事但我們可以改變我們感受它的方式。這就是冥想、專注力的潛力。你不需要燒香你不一定要坐在地板上。您需要做的一切就是每天花10 分鐘思緒中退一步，熟悉自己所處的“現在” 這樣，你可以在生活里體驗更多的專注、平靜和清澈。

非常感謝。(掌聲)

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