天地一沙鷗（一）
中華妹
細草微風岸。危檣獨夜舟。
星垂平野闊。月涌大江流。
名豈文章著。官應老病休。
飄飄何所似？天地一沙鷗。 〜杜甫〜
九十七年七月九日，見王老師逐段地研究英文版的《奇蹟課程》，擇其要譯，突顯法義。再度想起了二十多年前讀過的《天地一沙鷗》（Jonathan Livingston Seagull）。
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull”（海鷗岳納珊．李文斯頓），是六零年代，美國一位飛行員理察．巴哈（Richard Bach），獨自散步於加州海灘時，清楚「聽見」的一個名字。返家後，他有如神來之筆，立刻開始撰寫這個能講話、並有不凡經歷的海鷗故事。但僅疾書了十餘頁，靈感突然枯竭，直至數年後，午夜夢迴，才忽然又靈思泉湧地完成了這部世界名著。
七零年，被拍成電影的《天地一沙鷗》，曾獲得了奧斯卡的最佳攝影金像獎；如今，大意還節錄在台灣小六的國語課本裡。當年，與多數的讀者一樣，原以為這只是本勵志的好書，熟知接觸了「如來禪」後，始驚覺它欲表述的正是「如來禪」。所不同的是，作者用「飛行」譬喻吾人追求的「真理」，「完速」申說「圓覺」，「大海鷗」形容無盡的「大法身」，「練習」則指「靈修」等等。
子夜就寢前，有感老師的好學精勤，從書架上找出了這本幾無生字的原文書，擬予仿修一番。未料清晨五時，即被一小女孩輕拉衣袖喚醒，隨即完成了初稿。非敢與老師所究相較，若能藉此童書版的《如來禪》一消閣下溽暑，已屬甚幸。
第一部 出蛹
縛住我們的是自己，能解脫的也是自己。
1. 庸碌度日，終其一生。
It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.（旭日在微波蕩漾的海面上，灑下了萬縷金光。）
A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.（離岸一哩處，一艘小船正撒著網補魚，等候早餐的鷗群叫聲劃破了寂靜的天空，直到引來成千的同伴，你爭我奪、互不相讓地搶奪零星的食物。忙碌的一天，又正式開始了。）
2. 智者唯一，不隨逐流。
But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing…（但海鷗岳納珊．李文斯頓，離他們遠遠地，獨自在一角練習飛行……）
Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight－how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.（對大多數的海鷗而言，除了最簡單的飛行技術—讓自己飛到食物所在地，再飛回岸邊外，是不屑再多學一點的。因為他們認為，「掠食」而非「飛行」，才是最重要的。岳納珊．李文斯頓，這隻與眾不同的海鷗，卻愛「飛行」勝過一切！）
3. 特立獨行，忍受孤寂。
This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spend whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting…（然而，他發現這種想法，讓自己變得極為突兀、不受歡迎。甚至在整天獨自試飛了好幾百回的低空迴旋後，連他的父母都感到驚慌了……）
4. 求法若渴，廢寢忘食。
“Why, Jon, why?” his mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you are bone and feathers.”（「你究竟在幹什麼呢，岳兒？跟其他的海鷗一個樣兒，有這麼困難嗎？」他的母親不解地問，「為什麼你不把『低空迴旋』，留給擅飛的鵜鶘和信天翁？為什麼你總是不愛吃東西呢？孩子，你看你都瘦得剩皮包骨了！」）
“I don’t mind being bone and feathers, mon. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.（媽媽，我不在乎變成皮包骨。我只是想弄清楚自己的飛行能力，我只是想真正地弄清楚而已！）
5. 和光同塵，難忘初衷。
“See here, Jonathan,” said his father, not unkindly “Winter isn’t far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can’t eat a glide, you know. Don’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat.”（「岳兒呀，冬天就要來了，漁船將會變得很少，海面上的游魚也會潛入深處，如果你真的要研究，就快研究『如何取得食物』吧！你知道，『飛行』固然不錯，但畢竟不能當飯吃。別忘了你學飛，就是為了『吃』呀！」他的父親也慈藹地勸告著。）
Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work.（不忍拂逆父母的苦口婆心，岳納珊乖巧地順從了雙親的意思。往後的幾天裡，他表現得很好，盡量和其他的海鷗一樣，尖聲嘶叫，在碼頭邊和漁船上空跟同胞們蠻幹、掠食，對著丁點兒大的臭魚爛蝦和麵包碎屑俯衝。但過不了多久，他內心又滴咕了，因為這種生活，實在是與他的本性相差太遠了呀！）
It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!（「唉，多沒意義！」他故意將一條費盡千辛萬苦才搶到的鯷魚，扔給一隻緊追在後、饑餓不堪的老海鷗，「如果把這些時間用來飛行多好，要學的可多著呢！」）
It wasn’t long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning.（不久後，岳納珊再度成了獨行俠，他飛到遠遠的海上，饑渴交迫，但歡喜無比地繼續探索飛行。）
The subject was speed, and in a week’s practice he learned more about speed than the fastest gull alive…（「高速」，是他的眼前的目標。才過了一個禮拜，他已經飛得比任何一隻海鷗都快了……）
6. 打擊連連，苦其心志。
Time after time it happened. Careful as he was, working at the very peak of his ability, he lost control at high speed…Jonathan Seagull exploded in midair and smashed down into a brick-hard sea…（不過，意外終於發生了！像往常一樣，岳納珊小心翼翼地在「巔峰速度」下飛行，但這次他竟然失速了……他的身體如同在空中炸了開來，隨即粉身碎骨似地撞跌在如磚硬的海面上……）
7. 無明暫勝，學必有用。
As he sank low into the water, a strange hollow voice sounded within him. There’s no way around it. I am a seagull. I am limited by my nature. If I were meant to learn so much about flying, I’d have chart for brains. If I were meant to fly at speed, I’d have a falcon’s short wings, and live on mice instead of fish. My father was right. I must forget this foolishness. I must fly home to the Flock and be content as I am, as a poor limited seagull.（當他沉入水底之際，一個陌生、空洞的聲音忽而在心中響起：「這是行不通的！我只是隻海鷗，天生受限，不可能擺脫命運的束縛！如果我註定可以學那麼多，腦中就會隨時現出『萬能航圖』；如果我註定能高速飛行，就會擁有『獵鷹的短翅』，靠老鼠而非漁蝦為生了。父親是對的，我必須忘掉這些荒謬可笑的企圖，回到鷗群，認份地做隻能力有限、可憐的海鷗！」）
The voice faded, and Jonathan agreed. The place for a seagull at night is on shore, and from this moment forth, he vowed, he would be a normal seagull. It would make everyone happier.（聲音又消失了，岳納珊完全同意這樣的結論。海鷗本來就不能在夜空中飛行！從這一刻起，他發誓要做隻「正常」的海鷗。並且，這還會使大家都高興，何樂而不為呢？）
He pushed wearily away from the dark water and flew toward the land, grateful for what he had learned about worksaving low-altitude flying…（他掙扎地從漆黑的海面上起身，飛向陸地。慶幸曾經學過的「省力低旋」，此時派上了大用……）
8. 進退平常，真心再起。
He felt better for his decision to be just another one of the flock. There would be no ties now to the force that had driven him to learn, there would be no more challenge and no more failure. And it was pretty, just to stop thinking, and fly through the dark, toward the lights above the beach.（下了做「正常」海鷗的決定後，他舒坦多了。束縛解除！再也沒有驅使他學習的動力，當然，也不會有接踵而至的「挑戰」和「失敗」了！輕輕鬆鬆，現在，什麼可都別想！在夜空中朝著灘頭美麗的燈火飛去，啊—這是件多麼悠閒暢快又賞心悅目的事呀！）
Dark! The hollow voice cracked in alarm. Seagulls never fly in the dark!（「黑夜！」空洞的聲音又警嚎般地響起了，「海鷗是從不在黑夜飛行的！」）
Jonathan was not alert to listen. It’s pretty, he thought. The moon and the lights twinkling on the water, throwing out little beacon-trails through the night, and all so peaceful and still…Get down…There in the night, a hundred feet in the air, Jonathan Livingston Seagull－blinked. His pain, his resolutions, vanished…（岳納珊並未聽進去這「警告」。「好美呀！」他想，「月亮和燈火映在水面上，如同條條拖曳著亮光的燈塔尾巴，一切是那麼地寧靜可人……下去吧！」……就在那夜裡，一百呎的空中，海鷗岳納珊．李文斯頓霎著雙眼，他的痛苦，屈服的決心全部又消失了……）
9. 大願涵蓋前願。
He closed his eyes to slits against the wind and rejoiced…His vows of a moment before were forgotten, swept away in that great swift wind. Yet he felt guiltless, breaking the promises he had made himself. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.（盡情狂飆中，他的雙眼瞇成了兩條細縫，欣喜得不能自己……頃刻前的誓言，已被吹到九霄雲外去了。他並不覺得愧疚，因為這樣的誓言，僅會套住「平庸」的海鷗而已。對一個在「學程」上已出類拔萃的海鷗而言，是不必愚昧地死守這「束縛住自己」的承諾。）
10. 越挫越勇，超越以往。
…He couldn’t stop; he didn’t know yet even how to turn at that speed. Collision would be instant death. And so he shut his eyes.（……他無法停下來，甚至不知如何在高速下轉彎。一碰撞，立即送命！因此，他閉上了雙眼。）
It happened that morning, then, just after sunrise, that Jonathan Livingston Seagull fired directly through the center of Brekfast Flock, ticking off two hundred tweleve miles per hour, eyes closed, in a great roaring shriek of wind and feathers. The Gull of Fortune smiled upon him this once, and no one was killed…He thought was triumph. Termial velocity…It was a breakthrough, the greatest single moment in the history of the Flock, and in that moment a new age opened for Jonathan Gull…（晨曦來臨時，岳納珊閉著眼睛，以兩百一十二英哩的時速，對準覓食的鷗群中央飛去，風聲鳥聲一片嘈雜。這次，幸運之神眷顧了他，竟然沒有人身亡……成功了！終極速度！這是空前的突破，海鷗史上最偉大的時刻！它為海鷗岳納珊，開啟了一個新的紀元……）
11. 朝聞道夕可死也！重生。
When they hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough, they’ll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!（「當大家聽到這樣的『突破』時，會多麼地欣喜若狂呀！」他想，「現在，人生總算充滿了意義。生活該有崇高的目標，絕不只是重複地穿梭在漁船間掠食，日復一日，直到老死而已。我們可以超越『無明』，發現自己是傑出、有智慧、和能力的生靈。我們可以『自由自在，不受拘束』！我們可以學習『飛行』，讓自己『永恆解脫』！」）
The years ahead hummed and glowed with promise…（我們的前途，光明無量……）
12. 尋求解脫，曲高和寡。
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull,”said the Elder, “ Stand to the Center for Shame in the sight of your fellow gulls!”（ 「岳納珊．李文斯頓，」長老威嚴地命令，「站到中間來！讓大家看看你那不知羞恥的嘴臉！」）
He felt like being hit with a board. His knees went weak, his feathers sagged, there was roaring in his ears. Centered for shame? Impossible! The Breakthrough! They can’t understand! They’re wrong, they’re wrong…（他雙腿發軟、亂羽萎頓、雷鳴不已，像挨了一記悶棍般地在心中吶喊：「『公審』？不可能的！那是『突破』呀！他們不瞭解！他們搞錯了，他們搞錯了……」
To be centered for shame meaned that he would be cast out of gull society, banished to a solitary life on the Far Cliffs.（『公審』，意謂著最悲慘的『終生驅逐』！他將被放逐到『遠嚴』，去孤獨過日了。）
13. 無盡辛酸誰人知？
“…one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can.”（「有一天，海鷗岳納珊．李文斯頓，你終究會瞭解『莽撞不負責任』的代價！生命是不可知的未知數，探討什麼呢？！我們被生到這個世界上來，就是為了『吃』，只有『吃』，才能讓我們盡可能地活得久！」）
A seagull never speaks back to the Council Flock, but it was Jonathan’s voice raised. “Irresponsiblity? My brothers!” he cried. “Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live－to learn, to discover, to be free! Give me one chance, let me show you what I’ve found…”（「受審」的海鷗是絕對不許回嘴的，但岳納珊此刻卻悲愴地扯著嗓門大喊：「『莽撞不負責任？』我的同胞呀，誰會比一隻發現『生命更高意義』、且僅守不渝的海鷗更負責任？一千年來，我們一直在追逐、強奪爛魚頭，好不容易到了今天，才終於發現了活下去的理由—學習並發現『自己無限的大身』，得到『真正永恆的解脫』！請給我一個機會吧！讓我証明給你們看……）
The Flock might as well have been stone.（群鷗們充耳不聞，恍若頃刻間全成了化石！）
“The Brotherhood is broken,” the gulls intoned together, and with one accord they solemnly closed their ears and turned their backs upon him…（「兄弟之情，到此為止！」大家異口同聲、嚴厲地宣達後，掉頭就走……）
14. 無怨無悔，心無罣礙。
What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone; he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid. Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.（過去，他希望整個鷗群得到的東西，現在獨得了。雖然傷心，但不後悔所付出的代價。岳納珊並悟到，沒有崇高目標，死氣沉沉、恐懼和憤怒，是同胞們普遍短命的原因。如今，他因為發現生命的目標，沒有了這些罣礙；而沒有了這些罣礙，所以不再顛倒度日，生命變得更美好、更無止盡了！）
15. 成就引導，回歸心鄉。
They came in the evening, then, and found Jonathan gliding peaceful and alone through his beloved sky. The two gulls that appeared at his wings were pure as starlight, and the glow from them was gentle and friendly in the high night air…（一天傍晚，當岳納珊正獨自在他深愛的天空中，寧靜翱翔時，兩隻身如星光般剔透，散發著溫柔、友善光芒的海鷗，飄然出現在他的翼尖……）
“We are form your flock, Jonathan. We are your brothers.” The words were strong and calm. “We’ve come to take you higher, to take you home.（「我們是你的兄弟，跟你是同一國的，」他們堅定沉穩地說，「我們來帶你飛到更高的地方，回歸心鄉。」）
16. 更上層樓，不斷超越。
“ Home I have none, Flock I have none. I am Outcast. And we fly now at the peak of the Great Mountain Wind. Beyond a few hundred feet, I can lift this old body no higher.”（「不，我根本沒有家，也沒有親友，是個被唾棄驅逐的異類！而且，我們現在已經在『大山風』頂了，這副臭皮囊不可能飛得更高了！」）
“But you can, Jonathan. For you have learned. One school is finished, and the time has come for another to begin.”（「岳納珊，可以的，因為你已經學會了！前一個學程結束，該跨向下個學程了！」）
As it had shined across him all his life, so understanding lighted that monent for Jonathan Seagull. They were right. He could fly higher, and it was time to go home.（ 岳納珊一生聰敏智慧，此刻，「諒解」再度寂照了他的心扉。他們說得對，他的確可以飛得更高，回歸「心鄉」的時刻到了。）
He gave one last long look across the sky, aross the magnificent silver land where he had learned so much.（依依不捨地，他掃視了這片天空、和這塊他曾學得好多本領的美麗銀色大地好一會兒。）
“I am ready,” he said at last.（最後下定決心地說：「好，我準備好了！」）
生之悠悠。所謂何來？
乘風破浪。得遇故知。
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