英文原文
How a Hobby Can Boost Your Motivation and Change Your Life We’ve all hit a low motivational point in our lives at one time or another. I am completely aware of that feeling of having nothing to fight for. In those reoccurring periods of despondency, I couldn’t find a reason to get myself out of bed. It’s funny that I got the life-changing question at a job interview. It was a stressful situation, and the hiring manager made it even more overwhelming when he looked at me straight in the eyes and asked: “What motivates you in life?” I can’t remember what I answered, but I do remember the devastation I felt from the true answer I found in me: “Nothing, nothing motivates me.” That was the turning point. Lots and lots of meditations later, I realized where all that frustration was coming from: I didn’t have a single thing that made me happy. Why was I so incomplete? I couldn’t get a job that made me feel useful, and all my friendships were superficial. I’ll spare you from the details of my reasoning process. I didn’t read, I didn’t write, I wasn’t trying to learn anything, I didn’t have a special someone in my life, and I didn’t have a hobby. A HOBBY! The sole thought of it made me burst in laughter. I’d never had a hobby. I basically had nothing to lose, so I decided I would give this idea a try. Picking a hobby was all I needed to do, and that’s how I ended up making endless reading lists. I found different reasons why I needed a hobby: It helps people express their creativity. I had an office job at the moment, and I was a total slave of routine. I needed that ‘escape’ activity that left me alone with my thoughts. I was already meditating every day, but I couldn’t call that a hobby... it was more like a responsibility for me. And, to be honest, it was making me even more miserable: I knew I needed a and I knew I didn’t have the courage to leave my job. A hobby like gardening, jewelry making, painting, knitting, or anything else related to creating would allow me to keep touch with the inner artist. That special activity clarifies the mind. It doesn’t matter what hobby I would pick. My options included reading, yoga, piano playing, running, or walking—all these activities have a meditative effect on the thoughts. The entire awareness is focused on the thing we are doing, and we can shut out every negative thought that was present before. In a way, when the hobby merges action and awareness, it becomes meditation in motion. Most hobbies have a social aspect. They give us the opportunity to interact with people who share our interests, so we develop connections that are not shallow at all. Let me tell you a secret: I have great communication with the people I met through Goodreads. We can Skype for hours and we never run out of topics. All discussions related to the activity I picked made me feel appreciated as part of something greater. That leads me to the next point: The hobby is a confidence-booster. When I realized I was good at something (other than my boring job), I started valuing myself as a person much more than before. In a way, I individualized myself in a non-egocentric way. When I opened the first page of War and Peace, I was hopelessly intimidated. When I finished it, I felt like my life was changed. Not because I read such an overwhelming book, but because I gained new perspectives through it. There is one word that conveys such an accomplishment: growth. Stress? No more! Trust me; I know how hard life gets sometimes. I’m the master of loss and heartache, but I realize that stress is an inseparable part of our existence. When people are immersed in a hobby, though, they find a simple relief. It’s like getting in a safe zone where stress has no access. When I return to my daily activities after a reading session, they no longer seem that problematic. When I was choosing my hobby, I knew it had to challenge me. I needed to pick something I always liked, but this activity was not supposed to be easy to conquer. Reading came as the natural response to my quest. It’s an activity that progressively gets more challenging, and it allows me to keep discovering new dimensions of the world that surrounds us. From Huxley to Orwell to Eco, I want to read everything! That’s what makes this hobby so motivating: the more progress I make, the greater challenges I need to face. From this point, I understand why I laughed at my realization that I needed a hobby: It was a subconscious reaction initiated by my fear of change and failure. I could find millions of excuses: I don’t have enough time for this. I’ll never make it through Tolstoy. I’m too busy looking for an actual job. I’m not smart enough to face Proust. At the end of the day, excuses don’t matter. I realized I needed to take action to make my life better, and that’s exactly what I did. Everything started with a reading list, which kept getting more and more extensive. Things didn’t stop with listing books I’ve read, though. This hobby helped me make friends, it made me a more confident person, and it eventually led me to inner harmony. From Hobby to Realization I don’t usually tell people how I met my partner. Mostly because I’m afraid the story is too much of a cliché. But, now is the right moment to share it: We met at a bookstore, buying the same book. Ironically enough, it was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. He asked if he could add me as a friend on Goodreads, so we could share impressions. After the first 100 pages, I wrote an impression: I can literally feel my stomach dropping. I’m already crushed. He responded, and we had an arrangement for a coffee within hours. Everything was so spontaneous that I’m still surprised how I showed zero anxiety on the first ‘date’. We were madly in love from the first moment we met. This brings us to the lesson: * Passivity, inertia, excuses... we don’t need that stuff in our lives. What we need is an activity that makes our mind focused on something other than stress. A hobby. * I won’t lie: a hobby takes commitment. It’s not something you do in your free time; it’s something you make free time for. The first thing I did was an action plan. After I took the first step, nothing could stop me. * The hobby gives us a chance to open up to the world. Meet new people, see new places, learn new things, and become braver. We just need to grab that opportunity and stay spontaneous. When things get hopeless, I remind myself there’s a new reading challenge in front of me. The hobby is not a distraction; it’s a reminder that regardless of the struggles in our lives, we always have a spark that can brighten our days. With progressive steps and daily emergence in the hobby of choice, we can transfer that enthusiasm to every other activity we undertake. Suddenly, we will start feeling complete.
中文翻译
爱好如何激发动力并改变人生 我们都曾在生活中经历过动力低落的时刻。我完全理解那种感觉——似乎没有什么值得为之奋斗。在那些反复出现的沮丧时期，我甚至找不到起床的理由。 有趣的是，我在一次工作面试中遇到了这个改变人生的问题。那是一个充满压力的情境，当招聘经理直视我的眼睛问道“生活中什么激励着你”时，情况变得更加令人难以承受。 我不记得自己回答了些什么，但我确实记得从内心找到的真实答案带来的毁灭感“没有，没有什么激励着我”。 那是一个转折点。经过大量冥想后，我意识到所有挫败感的来源：我没有一件能让自己快乐的事情。 为什么我如此不完整？我找不到一份让我感到有用的工作，所有的友谊都很肤浅。我就不详细描述我的推理过程了。我不读书，不写作，不尝试学习任何东西，生活中没有特别的人，也没有爱好。 爱好！光是想到这个词就让我大笑起来。我从未有过爱好。基本上我没有什么可失去的，所以我决定尝试这个想法。选择爱好是我需要做的一切，这就是我最终制定无尽阅读清单的方式。 我找到了需要爱好的不同理由： 它帮助人们表达创造力。 当时我有一份办公室工作，完全是例行公事的奴隶。我需要那种能让我独处思考的“逃避”活动。 我已经每天冥想，但我不能称之为爱好……对我来说更像是一种责任。而且，说实话，这让我更加痛苦：我知道我需要，也知道我没有勇气辞职。像园艺、珠宝制作、绘画、编织或任何其他与创造相关的爱好，能让我与内心的艺术家保持联系。 这种特殊活动能澄清思维。 无论我选择什么爱好都不重要。我的选择包括阅读、瑜伽、弹钢琴、跑步或散步——所有这些活动都对思维有冥想效果。整个意识都集中在我们正在做的事情上，我们可以屏蔽之前存在的每一个负面想法。在某种程度上，当爱好融合行动和意识时，它就变成了动态冥想。 大多数爱好都有社交方面。 它们给我们机会与分享兴趣的人互动，所以我们建立的联系一点也不肤浅。让我告诉你一个秘密：我与通过Goodreads认识的人有很好的交流。我们可以Skype几个小时，话题从不枯竭。所有与我选择的活动相关的讨论都让我感到自己是更伟大事物的一部分，这让我感到被重视。这引出了下一点： 爱好是信心的助推器。 当我意识到自己擅长某件事（除了无聊的工作之外）时，我开始比以前更重视自己作为一个人的价值。在某种程度上，我以一种非自我中心的方式个性化了自己。当我打开《战争与和平》的第一页时，我感到绝望的恐惧。当我读完它时，我感觉自己的生活改变了。不是因为我读了这样一本令人震撼的书，而是因为我通过它获得了新的视角。有一个词传达了这样的成就：成长。 压力？不再有！ 相信我；我知道生活有时多么艰难。我是失落和心碎的大师，但我意识到压力是我们存在中不可分割的一部分。然而，当人们沉浸于爱好时，他们找到了简单的解脱。就像进入一个压力无法进入的安全区。当我阅读后回到日常活动时，它们似乎不再那么成问题。 当我选择爱好时，我知道它必须挑战我。我需要选择一些我一直喜欢的东西，但这个活动不应该容易征服。 阅读成为我探索的自然回应。这是一种逐渐变得更加具有挑战性的活动，它让我不断发现周围世界的新维度。从赫胥黎到奥威尔到艾柯，我想读一切！这就是这个爱好如此激励人的原因：我取得的进步越多，我需要面对的挑战就越大。 从这一点，我理解为什么我嘲笑自己需要爱好的认识：这是由我对改变和失败的恐惧引发的潜意识反应。我可以找到无数借口： 我没有足够的时间做这个。 我永远读不完托尔斯泰。 我太忙于找实际工作。 我不够聪明面对普鲁斯特。 归根结底，借口不重要。我意识到我需要采取行动让生活变得更好，这正是我做的。 一切都从阅读清单开始，它变得越来越广泛。然而，事情并没有止步于列出我读过的书。这个爱好帮助我交朋友，让我成为一个更自信的人，最终引导我走向内心的和谐。 从爱好到领悟 我通常不告诉别人我是如何遇到我的伴侣的。主要是因为我担心这个故事太老套。但现在正是分享的时刻：我们在书店相遇，买同一本书。讽刺的是，那是石黑一雄的《别让我走》。 他问是否可以在Goodreads上加我为好友，这样我们可以分享感想。读完前100页后，我写了一条感想：我真的能感觉到胃在下沉。我已经崩溃了。他回复了，几小时内我们就安排了喝咖啡。一切都是如此自发，我仍然惊讶于在第一次“约会”时我表现出零焦虑。我们从见面的第一刻起就疯狂相爱。 这给我们带来了教训： * 被动、惰性、借口……我们生活中不需要这些东西。我们需要的是让思维专注于压力之外的活动。一个爱好。 * 我不会说谎：爱好需要承诺。这不是你在空闲时间做的事情；这是你为之创造空闲时间的事情。我做的第一件事是制定行动计划。迈出第一步后，没有什么能阻止我。 * 爱好给我们机会向世界敞开。认识新朋友，看到新地方，学习新事物，变得更勇敢。我们只需要抓住机会并保持自发。 当事情变得无望时，我提醒自己面前有新的阅读挑战。爱好不是分心；它提醒我们，无论生活中的挣扎如何，我们总有一束可以照亮我们日子的火花。 通过渐进步骤和每天沉浸在选择的爱好中，我们可以将这种热情转移到我们从事的每一项其他活动中。突然之间，我们将开始感到完整。
文章概要
本文以个人经历为基础，探讨了爱好如何成为改变人生的关键动力。作者从缺乏动力、感到生活空虚的状态出发，通过选择阅读作为爱好，发现了爱好的多重益处：表达创造力、澄清思维、提供社交机会、增强信心、缓解压力。文章强调爱好不是消遣，而是需要承诺的活动，它能帮助人们克服惰性和借口，带来成长、人际关系改善和内心和谐。结合关键词“Buddhist insights on finding new hobbies and interests”，本文从世俗角度展示了寻找新爱好的积极影响，为佛教视角下的兴趣培养提供了现实案例。
高德明老师的评价
1. 用12岁初中生可以听懂的语音来重复翻译的内容 这篇文章讲的是一个大人以前觉得生活没意思，连起床都不想。后来他发现是因为自己没有爱好，就是没有特别喜欢做的事情。于是他开始读书，结果发现读书让他变开心了，还能交到朋友，觉得自己很棒，压力也小了。就像我们玩游戏或者画画时，会忘记烦恼一样，爱好能让我们生活变得更有趣、更完整。 2. 佛学的各个宗派视角评价，突出《显密圆通成佛心要集》的视角 从佛学显宗和大乘视角看，本文描述的爱好实践与“善巧方便”理念高度契合。作者通过阅读这一“动中禅”，实现了专注力的提升和烦恼的暂时止息，这体现了大乘佛教“对治烦恼”的修行原则。《显密圆通成佛心要集》强调“事理圆融”，本文中爱好作为“事”的层面，与内心成长这一“理”的层面相互促进，展现了世俗活动与修行目标的统一。准提法的“日常用心”理念在此得到印证——任何正当爱好都可成为修心的载体，关键在于保持觉知。从净土宗看，爱好培养的专注类似“一心不乱”的练习；从禅宗看，阅读时的“忘我”状态接近“无住生心”；从唯识宗看，爱好帮助转化第八识中的消极种子。显宗普遍认可这种以善法对治烦恼的方式，而准提法更强调在动态生活中保持咒语持诵与日常活动的融合，本文案例可视为准提法“生活即修行”的现代诠释。 3. 在修行实践上可以应用的和可以解决人们的十个问题。 本文案例在修行实践上可启发以下应用：第一，将爱好作为培养专注力的训练场，类似准提法中的“事修”；第二，通过爱好建立积极人际关系，实践大乘“利他”精神；第三，以爱好对治懈怠，激发精进心；第四，在爱好中体验“无我”的喜悦，减少执着；第五，通过爱好挑战自我，培养忍辱和毅力；第六，以爱好为媒介学习新知，增长智慧；第七，在爱好中创造美好，实践“庄严佛土”；第八，通过爱好调节情绪，保持内心平和；第九，将爱好成果回向众生，积累福德；第十，以爱好为起点，逐步深入佛法修学。 可以解决人们的十个问题包括：一、生活缺乏动力和目标感；二、被日常压力困扰难以解脱；三、社交关系肤浅缺乏深度连接；四、自我价值感低下缺乏自信；五、思维散乱无法专注；六、创造力被压抑无法表达；七、恐惧改变安于现状；八、借口太多行动力不足；九、内心孤独感强烈；十、生命意义感缺失。通过如准提法般将修行融入爱好，人们能在世俗活动中体验佛法的妙用，实现显宗所倡导的“世间出世间不二”。