幸福

所以让我们来谈谈我们为什么要做这个播客。

So let's talk about why we're doing this podcast.

这实际上是一场关于高度实用的哲学的讨论。

This really is a discussion of highly practical philosophy.

我们通常所理解的哲学是不切实际的。

Philosophy, as we normally think of it, is impractical.

它被供奉在高高的祭坛上。

It's something that's put up on a pedestal.

它是在很久以前用华丽的语言写成的，非常抽象、晦涩难懂，其中一些内容对我们来说像是陈词滥调，而另一些则显得难以企及。

It's something that was written a long time ago in fancy language, very abstract, very obtuse, and perhaps some of it feels like truisms to us and some of it feels unapproachable.

但事实上，只要一个人活得足够久，就会成为哲学家，因为你开始试图解决生活中那些重大的问题。

But really for anyone, if you live long enough, you become a philosopher because you start trying to solve the big problems in your life.

而这些重大问题，都是那些古老的问题。

And the big problems are the old ones.

它们是我们从一开始就试图解决的问题。

They're the ones that we've been trying to solve since the beginning.

我怎样才能保持快乐？

How do I stay happy?

我怎样才能变得健康？

How do I become healthy?

我怎样才能变得富有？

How do I become wealthy?

我怎样才能养育出我想要的家庭？

How do I raise the family that I want?

所以这个播客关注的是我们自己验证过并切实有效的实用哲学。

So what this podcast is about is the practical philosophy that we have confirmed for ourselves and that has worked for us.

一只猴子能做到的，另一只也能做到。

What one monkey can do, another can.

如果有人学到了一些有趣的东西，让他们更快乐、更健康或更富有，那我也能做到。

If this person learned something interesting that made them happier, healthier or wealthier, then I can do it too.

这就是我们在这里关注的重点。

That's what we focus on here.

这是一种关于健康、财富和幸福的实用哲学。

It's the practical philosophy of health, wealth, and happiness.

在我看来，如果要用一个词来概括，那就是健康——财务健康、心理健康、身体健康。

It seems to me if you were gonna sum it up in one word, it would just be health, financial health, mental health, physical health.

健康就是一种良好的状态。

Health is just a state of being well.

让我们先关注财务上的健康状态，这样我们就不会每天担惊受怕，这正是我们最初的起点。

So let us get to the state of health in our finances so we're not fearful day to day, and that's where we started.

我们花了很多时间在这上面。

We spent a lot of time on that.

让我们达到身体健康的状态，不再受病痛、疾病和成瘾的折磨。

Let's get to the place in physical health where we are not suffering from afflictions, disease, and addictions.

让我们达到心理健康的状态，内心相对平静，对自己感到满足。

And let's get to the state of mental health where we're relatively at peace and quite content with ourselves.

尽管你当然可以在没有财务健康的情况下获得幸福和心理健康，但事实上，在现代社会，我们大多数人明白，财务上的富裕能带给我们自由。

Even though you can certainly achieve happiness and mental health without financial health, the truth is in modern society, most of us understand that financial wealth can give us freedom.

它能给我们时间。

It can give us time.

它能给我们平静。

It can give us peace.

你无法用金钱买来幸福，但你可以用金钱摆脱常见的不幸根源。

You're not gonna buy your way to happiness, but you will buy your way out of common causes of unhappiness.

在过去，通往平静的一种方式是出家为僧。

In olden times, one of the routes to finding peace was you would become a monk.

你会放弃各种事物。

You would renounce things.

你会放弃性欲。

You would renounce sex.

你会放弃金钱。

You would renounce money.

你会放弃住所。

You would renounce shelter.

你会放下执念，独自走进森林。

You would renounce attachments and you would go off in the woods.

三十年后，当你终于接受了自己不会再拥有这些东西的事实，或许才能找到一些平静。

And after thirty years when you'd finally gotten over the fact that you weren't gonna have these things, then you might find some peace.

事实上，他们中的大多数人可能从未真正放下过。

And the truth is most of them probably never got over it.

世界上有很多僧人，但真正开悟的人却不多。

Lots of monks out there, not a lot of enlightened people.

我想那是奥修说的。

I think it was Osho.

他说，每次我遇到一个妓女，她都想谈论上帝。

He said, every time I meet a prostitute, she wants to talk about God.

每次我遇到一个神父，他都想谈论性。

And every time I meet a priest, he wants to talk about sex.

你所否认自己的任何东西，都会成为你新的牢笼。

Whatever it is that you deny yourself will become your new prison.

如果你渴望物质上的舒适，只要你知道该怎么做并且有能力，在现代社会中实现它实际上会比放弃它更容易、更快。

If you have a desire for material comfort, it's actually gonna be easier and faster to fulfill it in modern society if you know what you're doing and are capable than it will be for you to renounce it.

放弃它可能需要一辈子，而且即使如此也可能无法成功，但你可以在不到一生的时间里赚到钱并获得物质上的成功。

It'll take a lifetime to renounce it and maybe then it won't work, but you can make some money and be materially successful in less than a lifetime.

你可以不靠它达到目标，而且可能还会获得更持久的满足，但那是在困难模式下玩。

You can get there without it and probably have a more lasting form without it but that's playing on hard mode.

身体健康当然是所有事情的基础。

Physical health of course is the foundation of everything.

如果你没有身体健康，你就什么都没有。

If you don't have your physical health you have nothing.

我还喜欢孔子的另一句名言：病人只想要一件事，健康的人却想要一万件事。

Another great Confucius saying that I liked was that a sick man only wants one thing, a healthy man wants 10,000 things.

当你生病、低落时，你所有的其他欲望都会消失。

When you're sick, when you're down, all your other desires run away.

如果没有能力起身并正常活动，你就无法变成那个充满欲望的机器。

Without the ability to get up and function, you can't turn into this desiring machine that you are.

身体健康实际上是最重要的，但我在这方面的发言最少，因为我对此缺乏具体而独特的见解。

Physical health is actually the most important, but I speak the least on that topic because I have the least specific and unique knowledge.

在这方面，我还没有实现自我实现。

I'm not self actualized in that regard.

我的健康状况还不错，体型也还可以，饮食也过得去。

I'm in okay health, okay shape, and I have an okay diet.

我明白很多相关的理论，但如果我不是这个领域的卓越典范，我就觉得向你们传授这些理论是在欺骗。

I understand a lot of the theory of it, but I would feel fraudulent giving you that theory unless I were a paragon of excellence in that domain.

而在我看来，在财富方面，我自我实现得更多。

Whereas I think in wealth, I'm much more self actualized.

在平和方面，我从一个大部分时间不快乐的人，变成了一个非常快乐的人。

And on the peace side, I've gone from being a mostly unhappy person to being a very happy person.

我认为这是有意识的。

And that I think was deliberate.

这是经过练习的。

It was practiced.

这是基于努力的。

It was effort based.

这是通过领悟实现的，我取得了进展。

It was through realizations, and I made progress.

所以我有机会告诉你对我有用的方法。

So I have a chance to tell you what worked for me.

幸福是一个含义非常丰富的词。

Happiness is an extremely loaded term.

它对不同的人意味着完全不同的东西。

It means completely different things to different people.

由于每个人对幸福是什么以及如何获得幸福都有强烈的先入之见，因此很难讨论这个问题。

And it's difficult to talk about because everybody has strong preconceived notions of what happiness is and how they would get to it.

我会把幸福、愉悦、平静、喜悦和极乐混为一谈。

I'm going to conflate happiness and pleasure and peace and joy and bliss.

我会把它们搞混。

I'm gonna mix them up.

我并不是故意这样做的，但与此同时，这也不是数学。

I'm not doing so deliberately, but at the same time, this is not math.

我们无法清晰地界定这些词语。

We cannot clearly bound these words.

它们在不同语境下对不同的人意味着不同的东西。

They mean different things in different contexts to different people.

所以，让我们试着理解我所说的精神，而不是纠结于具体的词语和细节。

So let's just try and get into the spirit of what I'm saying rather than get hung up on specific words and details.

我认为这极其重要。

I think that's extremely important.

当一些人谈论幸福时，他们实际上指的是愉悦的刺激，比如我吃了一顿美味的饭，因此我感到快乐。

When some people are talking about happiness, they're really talking about pleasure thrills, like, I had a really good meal, therefore, I'm happy.

另一些人谈论的是一种普遍的满足与安康状态。

Other people are talking about a general state of contentment and well-being.

还有一些人指的是类似佛陀所达到的开悟状态。

Other people are referring to enlightenment like a Buddha would have reached.

许多人会认为，幸福并不存在，或者追求幸福反而适得其反，痛苦正源于对幸福的追逐。

Many people will take the point of view that there's no such thing as happiness or happiness is counterproductive or misery comes from pursuing happiness.

这种观点很有道理，我们稍后会深入探讨。

And there's a lot of truth to this, and we'll get into it.

但与此同时，我有时会说，获得幸福的方法是这样做。

But at the same time, sometimes I'll say the way to be happy is x.

于是人们会问：你不是刚说过幸福是痛苦的根源吗？

And people will say, well, didn't you just say that happiness is a cause of misery?

这并不是数学。

This is not mathematics.

你不能把各种算法机械地拼接在一起。

You cannot link algorithms together.

这更像是一首诗。

This is more like poetry.

如果你读了同一位诗人写的五十首诗，然后试图逐字分析、把一首诗里的词和另一首诗对应起来，看看是否合理，那你其实完全误解了诗意。

If you read 50 different poems from a poet and then you try to map them out analytically and refer words from one poem to another and see if that made sense, you missed the point.

不要固着于这些词语。

Don't fixate on the words.

甚至不要固着于这些句子。

Don't even fixate on the sentences.

思考整体的思维过程和信息。

Ponder the overall thought process and message.

提升你生活中幸福感的第一步，是意识到你有能力做到。

The first step towards increasing the level of happiness in your life is realizing that you can.

很多人在这里会陷入困境。

This is where a lot of people get tripped up.

对绝大多数人来说，他们幸福感的相当一部分——实际上可能比他们想象的还要多——是掌握在自己手中的。

For the vast majority of people, some amount of their happiness, in fact, probably a lot more than they think is in their control.

所以第一步并不容易，你可能会在这个问题上纠结很久，许多人深信幸福无法被培养或改变，因此轻视它。

So the first step is not easy and you might be stuck on this for a long time and many people are where they deep down believe that happiness cannot be developed or changed and so they devalue it.

他们说：‘我不想快乐。’

They say, well I don't want to be happy.

基因可能解释了力量、运动表现和智力等特质的一半或更多。

Genetics may account for half or more than half of things like strength, athletic performance, and intelligence.

但你的基因设定点只占其中一半左右。

But your genetic set point is only about half of it.

而幸福或总体满足感比其他方面更具可塑性。

And happiness or general contentment is much more malleable than the other things.

仅靠锻炼，我很难显著改变我的运动表现。

It's very hard for me to change my athletic performance purely through working out.

我在基因上会受到更多限制。

I'm gonna be genetically much more limited.

但我觉得，就我的情绪、性格和对生活的态度而言，我是一个平和的人吗？

But I think in terms of my mood and temperament and my outlook on life, am I a peaceful person or not?

我有多容易生气？

How angry do I get?

这些方面要更具可塑性。

These things are much more malleable.

所以幸福是一种技能，就像营养和健身一样。

So happiness is a skill like nutrition and fitness.

这是一种你可以识别并培养的技能，随着不断练习，你会越来越擅长，并逐步获得成果。

It is a skill that you identify and develop until you get better and better at it and slowly gives you results.

它不是上帝赐予你、让你无法改变的东西。

It is not something that has God given to you and you're stuck.

尽管如果你天生就处于较高的水平，那当然应该继续保持。

Although if you start with a high setting, then by all means, keep it.

这是一种可以学习和培养的技能。

It is a skill that can be learned and developed.

欲望是你与自己签订的一份合同，承诺在得到想要的东西之前都保持不快乐。

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

你开始感到不安，因为你渴望某样东西，于是拼命努力去获得它，而在此期间你却过得痛苦不堪。

You start becoming disturbed because you want something, and then you work really hard to get that thing and you're miserable in the meantime.

但当你最终得到它时，你实际上又回到了拥有它之前的状态。

And then when you get that thing, you actually revert to the state you were in before you had that thing.

这并不是说你会达到某种永恒的幸福巅峰并一直停留在那里。

It's not like you get to some blissful peak level that you stay on.

有一种错觉，认为外界存在某种东西能让我永远快乐和满足。

There's this delusion that there's something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever.

这完全是种幻觉。

That is a complete delusion.

没有任何一件事能实现这一点。

No one thing seems to do that.

我们稍后可以谈谈觉悟，它似乎确实朝向一种永久性的解决方案。

We can talk later about enlightenment, and that does seem to head in that direction of a permanent solution.

但我们暂时还不探讨这个。

But we're not gonna explore that just yet.

我们现在只讨论常识性的幸福。

We're just talking about common sense happiness.

并没有单一的永久性解决方案。

There's no single permanent solution to it.

相反，这是一种理解的过程。

Rather, it is a process of understanding.

这是一种自我发现的过程。

It is a process of self discovery.

这是一个训练自己并洞察某些真理的过程。

It's a process of training yourself and seeing certain truths.

如果获得物质就能永久让我们快乐，那么原始人应该会非常痛苦，而我们现在都应该欣喜若狂。

If obtaining things were to permanently make us happy, then the caveman would have been miserable and we should all be deliriously happy right now.

所以显然，每个人的净幸福感并没有上升。

So obviously, net happiness per person is not going up.

甚至可能正在下降。

It might even be going down.

现代性可能比过去带来了更多的不快乐。

Modernity probably brings more unhappiness than past times.

因此，幸福是回归到当下无所缺失的状态。

So happiness is returning to that state where nothing is missing in this moment.

在我所在的地方，周围都是很多聪明的高成就者，一个常见的抱怨是，幸福是给愚蠢的人或懒惰的人的。

A common complaint where I'm from, where I'm surrounded by lots of smart overachievers, is that happiness is for stupid people or happiness is for lazy people.

很多时候，企业家会说，我不想幸福，我想成功。

A lot of times entrepreneurs will say, I don't wanna be happy because I wanna be successful.

如果我太幸福了，也许我会失去动力，不再努力工作，也就不会再成功了。

If I'm too happy, perhaps I will lose my desire and I will no longer work hard and I will no longer be successful.

和所有事情一样，这其中确实有一些道理。

And like everything else, there is some truth to this.

一般来说，你越聪明，就越能看穿日常生活中看似轻松或安全的表象。

Generally, the more intelligent you are, the more you can see behind the facade of everyday life being easy or safe.

你能看到所有潜藏的风险、弊端和即将降临的灾难。

You can see all the risks and the downsides and the calamities that await us.

你能看穿许多被宣传为对你或对社会有益的事物背后的冷漠与操纵。

You can see the cynicism and the manipulation behind so many things that are portrayed as being good for you or good for society.

你自然会变得愤世嫉俗，并通过愤世嫉俗来彰显自己的智慧。

You naturally become cynical and you signal your intelligence through cynicism.

非常聪明的人常常只用纯粹的愤世嫉俗观点来表达自己。

Very smart people will often communicate in purely cynical observations.

不想快乐是可以的，但我们将一起探讨：你是否可以在不显著降低动力和智力的情况下，提升自己的幸福感。

It's okay to not want to be happy, but we're gonna explore together whether you can increase your happiness level without significantly lowering your drive and without significantly lowering your intellect.

那么我们先来看第一个：我不快乐，因为我聪明。

So let's take the first one, which is I'm not happy because I'm smart.

部分正确。

Partially true.

你感到不快乐，部分原因是因为你知道得太多。

You are unhappy partially because you know too much.

你接触了太多东西。

You've been exposed to too much.

你理解得太深了，但这并不意味着你不能逆转这种状态，同时保留你的智慧。

You understand too much, But that doesn't mean that you can't undo it and retain your intelligence.

你不是因为不快乐才聪明，别把因果搞反了。

You're not smart because you're unhappy, so don't get it backwards.

但没错，你不快乐是因为你聪明。

But, yes, you're unhappy because you're smart.

这意味着你要付出更多努力才能快乐。

It means that it's gonna take more work for you to be happy.

但好消息是，聪明人擅长发现真相。

But the good news is smart people are good at figuring out the truth.

事实证明，你越是深入探究某些深层真相，就会越自然地变得自由和平静，而这种平静本身就会带来幸福。

And it turns out, the more you dig into certain deep truths, the naturally freer and more peaceful you will become, and that peace will itself lead to happiness.

你这么聪明，为什么还不快乐？

If you're so smart, why aren't you happy?

我完全相信这是真的。

I absolutely believe that is true.

在我们这个社会中，心智高度发达的美妙之处在于，你可以用它换取几乎任何东西。

The beauty in being mentally high functioning in our society is that you can trade it for almost anything.

如果你聪明，你就能找到在自己的基因限制内保持健康的方法。

If you're smart, you can figure out how to be healthy within your genetic constraints.

如果你聪明，你就能在你所处的环境限制下，找到变富的方法。

If you're smart, you can figure out how to be wealthy within your local environmental constraints.

如果你聪明，你就能在你的生理限制内，找到获得幸福的方法。

If you're smart, you can figure out how to be happy within your biological constraints.

但你的生理限制比你想象的要大得多。那些曾经喝醉、使用致幻剂、深度冥想，或通过呼吸和催眠技术体验过意识改变状态的人，都会在短暂时间内变成更快乐的自己。

But your biological constraints are a lot larger than you might think For people who have ever gotten drunk, been on psychedelics, meditated deeply, experienced altered states of mind through breathing and hypnotic techniques, they turn into versions of themselves that are much happier for brief periods of time.

当然，其中一些是虚假的快乐驱动的幸福，但其中也有一定的真实性，否则你不会渴望那种状态。

Now some of this is a fake pleasure driven happiness, of course, but there's some truth to it as well or you wouldn't desire that state.

所以，从某种意义上说，这能让你看到自己作为人类所拥有的情绪波动范围。

So in a sense, it can show you the dynamic range that you have as a human.

你能够进入某些更幸福状态的能力，实际上相当大。

The ability that you have to go into certain states where you're happier is actually quite large.

那么，你该如何持续地引导自己朝这个方向前进，而不是仅仅通过让大脑陷入麻木和沉默来短暂造访那种状态？

So how do you nudge yourself in that direction on a perpetual basis as opposed to just visiting there by essentially stunning your mind into submission and silence?

除了‘我太聪明了，不需要这样’之外，另一个反对意见是：我不想因此降低我的生产力。

Besides I'm too smart for it, the other objection is I don't want it to lower my productivity.

我不希望自己的欲望或工作动力减少。

I don't wanna have less desire or less work ethic.

这一点确实是事实。

Fact check on that is true.

你越快乐、越满足、越平静，就越不太想去外面改变世界。

The more happy you are, the more content and peaceful you are, thus less likely you wanna run out there and change the world.

但与此同时，不快乐是非常低效的。

But at the same time, being unhappy is very inefficient.

平静的人脑海中不会有杂乱的思绪。

The peaceful person doesn't have extraneous thoughts going through their head.

如果你是一个充满驱动力却不快乐的人，你的大脑会24小时不停运转。

If you are a driven unhappy person, your mind will be on twenty four seven.

这会带来什么后果？

What are the consequences of this?

你的睡眠质量会差很多。

Your sleep is much worse.

你更容易做出反应，变得愤怒，并陷入一个需要自己爬出来的困境。

You're much more likely to react, to become angry, and dig yourself into a hole that you then have to dig yourself out of.

你的决定会充满情绪化和冲动。

Your decisions are going to be emotional and impetuous.

你更可能陷入忙碌的陷阱，总是忙个不停，从一件事赶往另一件事，因为你无法在心理上分清优先级。

You're much more likely to be in the busy trap where you're busy all the time running from one thing to another because you can't mentally prioritize.

在做判断时，你无法获得内心的平静。

You don't have peace of mind when it comes time to make judgments.

你的脑海中有太多思绪在交织。

You have too many threads going through your head.

你没有足够的时间来专心做出这些判断。

You don't have time to devote to making those judgments.

所以这之间存在一种权衡。

So there's a trade off.

如果你明天就成为佛陀，你不太可能像埃隆·马斯克那样发射火箭上月球。

If you become the Buddha tomorrow, it's unlikely you'll also launch rockets to the moon like Elon Musk.

但另一方面，有足够多成功的乐观主义者、科学家和创新者，尤其是随着他们年龄增长，你会发现快乐的人并不一定就是无效的。

But on the other hand, there are enough successful optimistic leaders, scientists, and innovators, especially as they get older, that you see it's not necessarily the case that happy people have to be ineffective.

当我生活中变得更加快乐时，我实际上变得更有成效了。

As I became much happier in my life, I actually became much more effective.

我能够与那些早年我会因各种成见而保持距离的人建立关系。

I was able to form relationships with people that earlier in my life, I would have kept at a distance, whatever preconceived notion.

我现在能更清晰地做决定，因为我能看到长期的结果会是什么。

I can make decisions much more clearly now because of see what the long term outcome is gonna be.

我直奔主题。

And I cut straight to the chase.

我不再试图争取这里或那里多出20%的让步，因为我知道这长远来看会让我不快乐。

I don't try and negotiate an extra 20% here or there because I know that that's gonna make me unhappy long term.

这会让对方也不开心，还会让交易变得不稳定。

It's gonna make the other person unhappy, and it'll make the deal less stable.

所以我实际上更有效率了，尽管我工作得没那么辛苦，因为我做出了更好的决定。

So I've actually been more productive even though I've worked less hard because I've made better decisions.

在现代，你所做决策的质量至关重要，因为我们所有人都处于杠杆之中。

In the modern age, the quality of a decision you make is everything because we're all leveraged.

你可以通过代码、社群、媒体、资本、劳动力等方式获得杠杆效应。

You can be leveraged through code, community, media, capital, labor, etcetera.

如果你是个聪明人，如今你所做的每一个决定，都会以某种方式被放大。

If you're a smart person, every decision you make these days, you're leveraging it in some way.

因此，你的决策质量比任何其他事情都更重要。

And so the quality of your decision making is more important than anything else.

如果沃伦·巴菲特做出正确决策的概率是85%，而他的竞争对手只有65%到70%，那么巴菲特将赢得一切。

If Warren Buffett makes the right decision 85% of the time and his competitors make it right 65 or 70% of the time, Buffett's gonna win everything.

这就是他力量的来源——优秀的决策能力。

That's the source of his strength, good decision making.

他每年只做一两个决策，最多两个。

He makes one decision a year, two at most.

大多数时候，他都在读书、深思、阅读、打桥牌、旅行、打高尔夫等。

Most of the time he's sitting around reading books, thinking hard, reading s ones, playing bridge, traveling, golfing, etcetera.

显然，努力工作并不是解决方案。

Obviously, hard work is not the solution.

良好的决策和高杠杆才是解决方案。

Good decision making and high leverage is a solution.

保持平和的心态，成为一个更快乐的人，减少对即时愉悦的依赖，总体上更加冷静，这将让你拥有更好的心态来做更明智的决策。

Having a peaceful mind, being a happier person, relying less on momentary pleasure and being calmer in general will allow you to have the frame of mind where you make better decisions.

只要这种有效性的提升大于驱动力的下降，你的整体状况就会更好。

It will actually increase your effectiveness as long as the increase in effectiveness is higher than the reduction in drive, you're well off.

最后我想说，你是想通过最拼命地工作成为世界上最好的人，还是想成为那个以最少努力成为世界上最好的人？

Finally, would say, do you want to be the best in the world by working the hardest, or do you wanna be the best in the world who worked the least for it?

对吧？

Right?

那个最聪明地工作的人？

Who worked the most intelligently for it?

如果你是一个全知全能的存在，想象一下你暂时是宇宙的上帝，那么只需轻轻推动一只蝴蝶，或打个响指，你就能精确预知此后所有粒子的碰撞方式。

If you were an omniscient, omnipotent being, imagine you were the universal god for a moment, then just by pushing a butterfly in one direction or just by snapping your fingers, you would know exactly how the particles would collide from there on out.

这将改变宇宙中的一切。

That would change everything in the universe.

你可以完成任何事情。

You could get anything done.

全知就是全能。

Omniscience is omnipotence.

知识就是力量。

Knowledge is power.

通过纯粹的知识，我们可以获得幸福，而这种幸福实际上会提升我们的决策能力。

Through pure knowledge, we can achieve happiness, and that happiness will actually increase our decision making capability.

它会给我们更多时间阅读，让我们更了解自己和他人的运作方式，使我们更有效率，提升我们的判断力，并应增加我们的收入和实现财务自由所需的回报。

It'll give us more time to read, it'll make us more knowledgeable about how we and other people operate, it will make us more effective, it will increase our judgment, and it should increase our earnings and the returns that we need to be financially free.

在某种深层意义上，所有的快乐都会在另一侧带来相应的痛苦和对失去的恐惧。

In some very deep level, all pleasure creates its own offsetting pain and fear of loss on the other side.

我最近发了一条推文，说在富足的时代，为追求快乐而追求快乐会导致成瘾。

I had a tweet recently where it said, in an age of abundance, pursuing pleasure for its own sake creates addiction.

我正在升级一句古老的宫本武藏的名言。

I was upgrading an old Miyamoto Musashi line.

不要为了享乐而追求享乐。

Do not pursue pleasure for its own sake.

武藏是一位日本剑客。

Musashi, he's a Japanese swordsman.

在他那个时代，追求享乐可能意味着完全不同的东西。

In his time, when you pursued pleasure, it might mean a very different thing.

他没有无限量的加工食品。

He didn't have unlimited processed food.

他没有随时可得的互联网色情、大麻或酒精。

He didn't have Internet pornography, marijuana, or alcohol available on demand.

现在我们处于丰裕时代，如果我们直接为了享乐而追求愉悦，很容易陷入成瘾，而这种成瘾很难摆脱。

Now that we're in age of abundance, if we pursue pleasurable things directly for their own sake, we land into addiction very easily, which is hard to get out of.

我认为现代人的困境，其实是孤立的个体脱离了族群、宗教和文化网络，试图对抗那些被武器化的东西——酒精、毒品、色情、加工食品、新闻媒体、互联网和社交媒体、电子游戏。

I think the modern struggle is really about alone individuals disconnected from their tribe, disconnected from their religions, disconnected from their cultural networks, trying to stand up to all these things that have been weaponized, alcohol, drugs, pornography, processed foods, news media, Internet, social media, video games.

有了这些东西，你基本上可以进行虚假的游戏和虚假的工作。

With these things, you can basically engage in fake play and fake work.

以前你需要去和朋友社交，现在你只需和一群陌生人喝醉就行，既简单又舒服。

Before, you would have to go socialize with your friends, now you just get drunk with a bunch of strangers and it's easy and good.

以前你需要去寻找伴侣，发生性关系，生孩子并抚养家庭。

Before, you would have had to go find a mate and have sex and create children and raise a family.

现在你只需看大量色情内容即可。

Now you just watch a lot of porn.

以前你可能需要去爬树、打猎，获取一点天然的甜味。

Before, you might have needed to go climb trees and hunt and get fruit for a little bit of natural sweetness.

现在你可以随便买你想吃的任何冰淇淋。

Now you can just buy all the gelato that you want.

现代的挣扎不仅在于对抗这些被武器化的事物——它们给你微小的愉悦，却让你麻木，并让你体验到失去和缺席它们时的痛苦。

The modern struggle not only is trying to stand up to these things that are weaponized, that are giving you small doses of pleasure, but desensitizing you and exposing you to the misery of their loss and their absence.

如果你经常饮酒或服用某种药物，试试以下的思想实验。

If you drink alcohol or if you take some kind of drug regularly, try the following thought experiment.

你最期待哪些活动？

What events do you most look forward to?

我打赌，这些活动正是你能做这些事情的时候。

I will bet you they are the events where you get to do these things.

所以，如果你喝酒，你会期待晚餐时间，或者期待即将到来的派对，那时你可以和朋友一起去酒吧。

So if you drink alcohol, you look forward to dinner time or you look forward to that party that's coming up when you get to go out with your friends to the bar.

为了看清这一切有多虚假，下次你去的时候，干脆完全不喝酒，也不用任何药物。

To see how artificial it is, resolve the next one you go to, you're not going to drink at all or you're not gonna do the drug.

然后问问自己：我有多期待那个活动？

And now ask yourself, how much am I looking forward to that event?

你会发现，一点也不期待。

You'll find not at all.

这就产生了一个困境。

This creates a conundrum.

如果我放弃这些可能导致成瘾、让我麻木，或因失去它们而带来痛苦的人工快乐来源，那我会感到痛苦，因为我无法和任何人社交。

If I give up these sources of artificial pleasure that can lead to addiction and desensitize me or just bring misery down on me later by missing them, then I'm miserable because I don't get to socialize with anybody.

我没有乐趣。

I don't have fun.

我不出去。

I don't go out.

戒除成瘾非常困难，不仅仅是因为你必须克服生理上的依赖，还因为你必须将生活方式转变为没有这种物质时也能感到快乐的状态。

Breaking addictions is very hard, not just because you have to break the physical addiction, but because you then also have to change your lifestyle to the lifestyle that you would be happy without that substance.

例如，如果我想喝酒是因为可以和朋友聚会、社交，而且我经常这么做，很快我就会和一群其实清醒时根本不会交往的朋友混在一起。

For example, if I want to drink because I get to hang out with friends and be social, and I do that enough, and pretty soon I'm hanging out with a whole bunch of friends that I actually would not hang out with sober.

清醒时，我无法忍受这些人。

I can't tolerate these people sober.

清醒时，我无法忍受这些话题。

I can't tolerate these topics sober.

清醒时，我无法忍受这些场所。

I can't tolerate these venues sober.

只有喝醉时我才能做到。

I can only do it drunk.

那如果我不喝酒了，会发生什么？

Well, if I stop drinking, then what happens?

我得把这些朋友都甩掉。

I have to get rid of these friends.

我得把这些活动都放弃。

I have to get rid of these activities.

我得找到全新的活动和全新的朋友。

I have to find brand new activities and brand new friends.

这非常困难，而且在社会上也不被接受。

This is very hard and very socially unacceptable.

这些虚假的关系和虚假的活动，全靠酒精维系着。

These fake relationships and these fake activities were just being held together by the alcohol.

我很久以前就意识到，总是期待假期和周末其实是个问题，因为它说明了两件事。

I realized a while back that it's actually a problem to really look forward to holidays and to weekends because it indicates two things.

第一，它剥夺了日常生活的乐趣，因为你活在了未来。

One is it takes the joy out of the everyday because now you're living in the future.

你其余的时间都在受苦。

You're suffering the rest of the time.

第二点是，这意味着你接受了一种大部分时间都在受苦的生活方式。

And the second is it means you have accepted a way of life in which most of your time is spent suffering.

让我们谈谈平静，然后讨论真相，以及它们如何与幸福相关联。

Let's talk about peace and then we'll talk about truth and how these all relate to happiness.

很多时候，当我告诉你想要快乐时，我实际上是在说你想找到平静。

A lot of times when I'm saying you wanna be happy, what I'm actually saying is you wanna find peace.

我们说‘内心平静’，但我们真正想要的是摆脱内心的纷扰。

We say peace of mind, but what we really want is peace from mind.

最强烈的愉悦时刻——无论是吸毒、高潮、冲浪时找到最佳状态、和别人一起大笑，还是欣赏壮丽的日落——在所有这些时刻，你的思绪都会安静下来。

The moments of greatest pleasure, whether from doing a drug or having an orgasm or you're kite surfing and you find the edge or you're laughing with somebody or you're looking at some incredible sunset, What happens in all of these is the mind goes quiet.

你的思绪平静了。

The mind calms down.

你内心那个不断对自己说话的声音，会暂时沉默。

That voice in your head where you're talking to yourself goes silent for a moment.

然后你会进入一种敬畏、美丽、喜悦或快乐的感觉。

And then you go into a sense of awe or beauty or bliss or joy or pleasure.

我们所有人都在追求这种状态。

All of us seek this.

我们所有人都在追逐它。

All of us chase it.

深究之下，我们真正寻找的是从思维中获得平静。

Deep down, what we're actually looking for is peace from our mind.

我并不是把思维当作敌人。

I'm not making the mind out to be an enemy.

思维是一种非常有用的工具。

The mind is a very useful tool.

但不知何时，它变成了一种无法控制的工具。

But somewhere along the way, it became an uncontrollable tool.

它变成了主人，而不仅仅是仆人。

It became a master rather than just a servant.

我们的大脑进化得倾向于多疑、恐惧和愤怒。

Our mind is evolved to be paranoid, fearful, and angry.

我们是地球上最多疑、最易怒的生物。

We are the most paranoid and angry creatures to ever walk this earth.

人类是食物链顶端的顶级捕食者。

Human beings are apex predators at the top of the food chain.

我们杀死了、征服了或驯化了地球上所有其他物种，而这一切都是通过恐惧、暴力，当然还有合作实现的。

We killed, subjugated, or domesticated every other species on this planet, and we did it through fear and violence and, of course, cooperation.

但我们已经杀死了所有其他生物。

But we've killed everything else.

我们已经驯服了所有其他生物。

We've tamed everything else.

我们因为足够害怕，所以去战斗、杀死并占有它们。

We were scared enough to go fight it, kill it, and own it.

自然是残酷的。

Nature is brutal.

打开任何一部自然纪录片，你都会看到a吃b，b吃c，c吃d，d吃e，大自然充满血腥与爪牙。

Turn on any nature documentary, and you'll see a eats b, b eats c, c eats d, d eats e, and nature is red in tooth and claw.

我们源自暴力与鲜血。

We are derived from violence and blood.

现代社会安全得多。

Modern society is a lot safer.

是的。

Yes.

保持警惕和多疑仍然有道理。

It still makes sense to be careful and to be paranoid.

偶尔生气仍有道理，但不必一直如此。

It still makes sense occasionally to get angry, but not all the time.

不必像我们天生倾向的那样频繁。

Not as much as we're hardwired to do.

现代社会更安全、更和平，因此适当降低警觉是可以的。

Modern society is safer and more peaceful, so it's okay to dial it down.

威胁水平并没有我们的基因所认为的那么高。

The threat level is not as high as our genes think it is.

如果一千年前你和朋友在森林里行走，听到灌木丛中有老虎的响动，假设十次中有九次是兔子，一次是老虎。

If you were walking through the woods a thousand years ago with a friend and you thought you heard a tiger rustling in the bushes, Let's say nine out of 10 times it's a rabbit, one out of 10 times it's a tiger.

乐观的人九次遇到的是兔子，但第十次就被吃掉了。

Well, the person who's an optimist catches a rabbit nine out of 10 times, it gets eaten the tenth.

悲观的人每次都能活下来。

The person who's a pessimist stays alive every time.

悲观主义在我们的进化本性中得到奖励，但我们生活在一个安全得多的时代。

Pessimism is rewarded in our evolved nature, but we live in much safer times.

所以我们必须找到超越它的方法。

So we have to find ways past that.

我们必须找到通往和平的途径。

We have to find ways towards peace.

另一方面，现代生活在其他方面更加繁忙。

Modern life, on the other hand, is more hectic in other ways.

我们所面临的压力源更具长期性。

The sources of stress that we have are more chronic.

让我们先定义一下什么是压力。

Let's define stress for a moment.

从生理上讲，压力就是某物同时想出现在两个地方。

Physically, stress is when something wants to be in two places at one time.

如果我拿一根铁梁，在两端向相反方向施加压力，就会在梁内产生应力，因为一部分想往北，另一部分想往南。

If I take an iron beam and apply pressure to both ends in different directions, I'm creating stress in the beam because one part wants to be north, the other part wants to be south.

这会在梁上产生应力。

That creates stress on the beam.

在人身上，压力就是当我们无法决定什么更重要，于是同时想要两件互不相容的事情。

In a person, stress is when we can't decide what's important, so then you want two things at once that are mutually incompatible.

我现在想放松，但又得完成一些工作。

I want to relax right now, but I need to get some work done.

我正承受着压力。

I'm under stress.

我需要去参加那个派对，但我也得去上班。

I need to go to that party, but I also need to go to work.

但当你真正放弃某件事时，它就不再构成压力了。

But when you truly give up on something, it's actually no longer stressful.

当你接受某件事完全超出你的控制时，为它焦虑就没有意义了。

When you accept that something is completely out of your control, there's no point in being stressed about it.

因此，这暗示你对它仍有一定的控制权。

So it does imply that you have some level of control over it.

大脑会不断通过一些情境为你制造压力，在这些情境中，你的焦虑或愤怒程度远超环境实际所需。

The mind is constantly creating stress for you through situations where it's being more paranoid or more angry than is actually warranted for your environment.

我们希望从思绪中找到平静。

We want to find peace from mind.

我们需要一些工具，帮助我们不关闭大脑，因为你无法压抑大脑。

We want to have tools that allow us to not turn off the mind because you can't suppress the mind.

如果我对你说，别想一头白象，你刚才就已经想到了一头白象。

If I say to you, don't think of a white elephant, you just thought of a white elephant.

所以你不能强迫大脑去做任何事。

So you can't force the mind into anything.

但当大脑自己平静下来并自然消散时。

But where the mind on its own calms down and naturally goes away.

那你要怎么做呢？

And how do you do that?

你如何才能拥有一颗更平静的心？

How do you end up with a more peaceful mind?

因为一颗更平静的心自然会造就一个更快乐的人。

Because a more peaceful mind automatically creates a happier person.

我喜欢的一句话是：平静就是安歇中的幸福。

One phrase I like is that peace is happiness at rest.

幸福就是运动中的平静。

Happiness is peace in motion.

一个平静的人在做活动时，会因那个活动而感到快乐。

A peaceful person doing an activity will end up happy doing that activity.

一个快乐的人只是坐在那里，也会感到平静。

A happy person just sitting there will be peaceful.

所以，真正的目标其实并不是幸福，尽管我们会经常使用这个词。

So the goal actually is not happiness even though we'll use that term a lot.

真正的目标其实是平静。

The goal is actually peace.

那么问题来了，你该如何达到平静？

So the question is how do you get to peace?

达到平静的第一个问题是，任何活动都无法让你获得平静，因为平静本质上是一种非活动状态。

The first problem with getting to peace is that no activity will get you to peace because peace is fundamentally inactivity.

平静是一种一切安好的感觉。

Peace is a sense that everything is fine.

如果一切安好，你就不会通过身体活动去改变它，因此你在身体上是平静的。

And if everything is fine, you're not making physical activity to change it, so you're physically at peace.

你也不会通过心理活动去试图改变它，因为那样会产生心理压力，你会希望心理上处于不同于你当前所处的状态。

And you're not making mental activity to try and change it either because that'll create mental stress, because you'll want to mentally be somewhere other than you actually are.

因此，平静本身并不是可以直接达成的一种状态。

So peace itself is not a thing that can be directly achieved.

你无法通过努力去追求平静。

You cannot work towards peace.

你可以努力追求的是理解。

What you can work towards is understanding.

我认为这是一种古老的宗教说法，它说上帝的名字就是真理。

I think this is an old religious saying, but it says the name of God is truth.

这基本上意味着，当你理解某些事情、学习某些事情、确信某些事情，并且这些成为你内心深处的一部分时，你自然会成为一个更平静的人。

And what that's basically saying is that when you understand certain things, when you learn certain things, when you're convinced of certain things, and when they become a deep part of you, then you naturally become a more peaceful person.

我之前发过一条推文，说的是：你越接近真理，内心就越安静。

One of the tweets that I put out a while back was, the closer you get to the truth, the more silent you are inside.

我们本能地知道这一点。

We intuitively know this.

当一个人喋喋不休时，比如派对上那个说个不停的人，或者宫廷小丑，你知道他们内心并不平静。

When someone is blabbing too much, that person who talks too much at the party, the court jester, you know they're not at peace inside.