[愛與智慧的世界]
生活在「愛與智慧世界」的人和生活在「名利權世界」的人，
對「甚麼是浪費光陰」有不同的想法。
In my solitude I have pondered much
on the incomprehensible subjects of
space, eternity, life and death.
( Alfred Russel Wallace )
生活在「愛與智慧的世界」的人知道，
由於人生無常，所以必須在死亡之前，
珍惜和善用屬於個人的時間。
當人一旦開始思考到「意義」的問題，
就會重視時間的「質」多於時間的「量」，
會考慮如何善用餘生，
如何向自己的心靈交代，死而無憾。
舉世盡從名利權裡老，誰人肯向死前思？
對死亡的思考至少要從三十歲就開始蘊釀，
因為退休之後，往往思考力已經下降，
不是沒有能力思考，就是傾向於盡量逃避思考，
被迫接受「名利權世界」的人的處理方式：
認為在死前玩到夠，就是最好的解決方法。
Sooner or later,
I hate to break it to you,
you’re gonna die,
so how do you fill in the space
between here and there？
It’s yours. Seize your space.
( Margaret Atwood )
「名利權世界」有的只不過是野心，而野心未必是理想；
理想必然存在於「愛與智慧的世界」。
只有回歸心靈，只有經過批判，才能產生理想。
每天起床時，我們都應該思考生命的短暫和無常，
然後決定是繼續埋葬理想，還是立即行動。
One day you will wake up and there wont be
any more time to do the things you wanted.
Do it now.
( Paulo Coelho )
如果不是害人無數，恐怕被報復的人，
怎會明白雖然別人的生命不可貴，但自己的生命十分可貴？
如果不是曾經面對死亡，從鬼門關前走回來的人，
怎會明白自己的生命十分可貴？
但明白生命可貴的人往往會害怕死亡，
認為死亡代表一切的消失，所以對他們來說，
「活著既是快樂，但也附帶著揮之不去的恐懼」！
如果不是行走在心靈道路上，克服了對死亡的恐懼的人，
怎可能明白「活著就是快樂」。
When you arise in the morning,
think of what a precious privilege
it is to be alive ─
to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
( Marcus Aurelius )
行走在心靈道路上的人，甚至看到細緻和更抽象的空間，
因為人類的世界既有「外在的空間」，也有「內在的空間」。
例如對事件「反應的空間」：
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
( Viktor E. Frankl )
例如能夠將渺小化成力量的「思想空間」：
Through space the universe encompasses
and swallows me up like an atom;
through thought I comprehend the world.
( Blaise Pascal )
例如「人與人之間的空間」，
包括家庭、朋友、人與人之間的關懷：
Love is space and time measured by the heart.
( Marcel Proust )
We need to give each other the space to grow,
to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity.
We need to give each other space so that
we may both give and receive such
beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity,
joy, healing, and inclusion.
( Max de Pree )
所以我們只需要花時間向自己及別人闡釋重要的思想，
不需要浪費時間向任何人解釋「我是怎麼樣的人」。
原因是「明白你、喜歡你和盲目地喜歡你」的三種人，
都不需要你的解釋，
而「不明白你、不喜歡你和盲目地不喜歡你」的三種人，
不會相信你的解釋。
只有在父母和子女之間，才會有人際關係中不平衡的付出，
但行走在心靈道路上的人，遲早都需要花時間思考自己的生命。
So much of my sense of who I am is tied to
mothering. When they left home, I fell into a
huge, empty, black hole. Your children are grown
and your career has slowed down ─ all the stuff
that took up so much attention is gone, and
you’re left with expansive time and space.
You have to reimagine who you are and
what life is about.
( Jessica Lange )
其次，在「自我批判」及「去蕪存菁」的過程之中，
我們不但創造了「進步的空間」，也同時產生「創意的空間」。
If your ego starts out,
‘I am important, I am big, I am special,’
you’re in for some disappointments
when you look around at
what we’ve discovered about the universe.
No, you’re not big. No, you’re not.
You’re small in time and in space.
And you have this frail vessel called
the human body that’s limited on Earth.
( Neil deGrasse Tyson )
例如在人類精神文明之中創造「永恆的空間」：
My question … was the simplest of questions,
lying in the soul of every man
from the foolish child to the wisest elder:
it was a question without an answer to which
one cannot live, as I had found by experience.
It was: “What will come of
what I am doing today or shall do tomorrow？
What will come of my whole life？”
Differently expressed, the question is:
“Why should I live, why wish for anything,
or do anything？”
It can also be expressed thus:
“Is there any meaning in my life that the
inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy？”
( Leo Tolstoy )
而所謂「永恆的空間」只有兩種：
1. 尋找真理，包括科學真理及人文真理。
人文真理就是張載的「為天地立心，為生民立命」的抱負，
to be the guardian of the human soul！
2. 為人類建設優秀的制度。
就是張載的「為萬世開太平」。
The most important thing in this life is
to build a self-sustaining system in which
future generations can continue to prosper.
Either we strive after that Utopia,
strive to create our future or
we will destroy ourselves with our greed.
( Jason Ling )
開拓「永恆的空間」所需要的，
就是「真、誠、愛、智慧」及「愚公移山」的精神，
讓一代又一代熱愛真理的人接力，薪火相傳！
所以從「愛與智慧世界」的角度來看，
Time is life’s most precious commodity,
because it takes time to love,
to strive for wisdom [e.g. listen, reflect, think],
to search for personal meaning,
to play, dream, laugh and cry.
生活在「名利權世界」的人其實是在浪費生命。
二千年前的羅馬哲學家 Seneca 早就看洞悉這個道理：
It is not that we have a short time to live,
but that we waste a lot of it.
Life is long enough, and a sufficiently
generous amount has been given to us
for the highest achievements
if it were all well invested.
But when it is wasted in heedless luxury
and spent on no good activity,
we are forced at last by death’s final constraint
to realize that it has passed away
before we knew it was passing.
So it is: we are not given a short life
but we make it short,
and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it…
Life is long if you know how to use it.
( Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, 4 BC–AD 65)