勇气是一种内在的力量,使人能够面对恐惧、挑战和困难,并采取行动去克服它们。勇气是一种非常珍贵的品质,它可以帮助我们面对各种挑战和困难。无论是在工作上、学习上还是生活中,勇气都可以成为我们取得成功的关键因素。
A father was worried about his son, who was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided to call on a Buddhist monk to train his boy.
一位父亲很为儿子担心,虽然儿子已经16岁了,却一点儿勇气都没有。于是,父亲决定去拜访一位禅师,请他训练自己的儿子。
The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father,“You should leave your son alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months. However, you can't come to see him during this period.”
禅师对男孩的父亲说:“你应该把你儿子单独留在这里。不出三个月,我会让他成为一个真正的男子汉。不过,在这段时间,你不能来看他。”
Three months later, the boy's father returned. The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an experienced boxer.
三个月后,男孩的父亲又来见禅师。禅师安排这个男孩和一位经验丰富的拳师进行拳术比赛。
Each time the fighter struck the boy, he fell down, but at once the boy stood up; and each time a punch knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked,“What do you think of your child?”
拳师每次一出手,男孩都被击倒在地上,但男孩又马上站起来;每次被击倒,他就又站起来。几个回合后,禅师问道:“你认为你的孩子怎么样?”
“What a shame!”the boy's father said,“I never thought he would be so easily knocked down. I needn't have him left here any longer.”
“真丢人!”男孩的父亲说,“我根本没想到他是这样的不堪一击。我不让他再留在这里了。”
“I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he falls down; he stands up again instead of crying? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have.”
“很遗憾,你只看到了这一点。难道你没看到他每次倒下后是重新站起来,而不是哭泣吗?这才是你想要他拥有的那种勇气。”
One of my patients, a successful businessman, tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way. Happiness was "having the cookie." If you had the cookie, things were good. If you didn't have the cookie, life wasn't worth a damn. Unfortunately, the cookie kept changing. Some of the time it was money, sometimes power, sometimes sex. At other times, it was the new car, the biggest contract, the most prestigious address. A year and a half after his diagnosis of prostate cancer he sits shaking his head ruefully. "It's like I stopped learning how to live after I was a kid. When I give my son a cookie, he is happy. If I take the cookie away or it breaks, he is unhappy. But he is two and a half and I am forty-three. It's taken me this long to understand that the cookie will never make me happy for long. The minute you have the cookie it starts to crumble or you start to worry about it crumbling or about someone trying to take it away from you. You know, you have to give up a lot of things to take care of the cookie, to keep it from crumbling and be sure that no one takes it away from you. You may not even get a chance to eat it because you are so busy just trying not to lose it. Having the cookie is not what life is about."
My patient laughs and says cancer has changed him. For the first time he is happy. No matter if his business is doing well or not, no matter if he wins or loses at golf. "Two years ago, cancer asked me, 'Okay, what's important? What is really important?' Well, life is important. Life. Life any way you can have it, life with the cookie, life without the cookie. Happiness does not have anything to do with the cookie; it has to do with being alive. Before, who made the time?" He pauses thoughtfully. "Damn, I guess life is the cookie."
我有一位病人,他是一个成功的商人,告诉我,在他患癌症之前,凡事如果没有确定下来他就忧心忡忡。对他而言,幸福是“拥有小甜饼”。如果你拥有了小甜饼,一切都一帆风顺。如果你没有小甜饼,生活就一文不值。不幸的是,小甜饼总是不断变换着,有时是金钱,有时是权力,有时是欲望。在其他时候,它是一辆新车、一份数额最大的合同、或者一个享有声望的通讯地址。在他被诊断出患有前列腺癌的一年半之后,他坐在那里,悲天悯人地摇着头,说:“长大以后,我好像就不知道怎样生活了。当我给我儿子一个小甜饼时,他心花怒放。如果我拿走甜饼或者是小甜饼碎了,他就闷闷不乐。不同的是,他只有两岁半,而我已经43了。我花了这么长的时间才明白小甜饼并不能使我长久感到幸福。从你拥有小甜饼的那一刻,它就开始破碎,或者你就开始担心它会破碎,抑或你开始担心别人拿走它。为了守护你的小甜饼,为了防止它破碎或者确定别人不会从你手中夺走它,你不得不放弃许多东西。你忙于不让自己失去它,甚至没有时间享受它。拥有小甜饼并不是生活的全部内容。”
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours or minutes.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
无论是否准备好,总有一天它都会走到尽头。
那里没有日出,没有白天,没有小时和分钟。
你收集的所有东西,不管你珍惜或忘记与否,它们都将流入他人手中。
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
不管是你得到的或是你欠别人的,可你的财产、名誉和权势也都会变成和你毫不相干的东西。
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
你的怨恨、愤慨、挫折和妒忌最终也将消失。
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will all expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
因此,你的希望、抱负、计划以及行动日程表也将全部结束。
当初看得比较重的成功得失也会消失。
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.
你来自何方,住在穷人区还是富人区也都不重要了。
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Your gender, skin color, ethnicity will be irrelevant.
你昔日的漂亮与辉煌也都不重要了,你的性别、肤色、种族地位也将消失。
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
因此,什么重要呢?怎么衡量你有生之年的价值呢?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.
重要的不是你买了什么,而是你创造了什么;
不是你得到了什么,而是你给予了什么。
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
重要的不是你成功了,而是你生命的意义。
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
重要的不是你学到了什么,而是你传授了什么。
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
重要的是每个行动之中都有正直和勇气的气概,伟大的同情心和牺牲精神,并且鼓励他人遵从榜样。
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
重要的不是你的能力,而是你的性格。
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you re gone.
重要的不是你认识多少人,而是在你离开后,别人会认为是个永远的损失。
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.
重要的不是你想念谁,而是爱你的人想念你。
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
重要的是别人会记你多长时间,谁记着你,为什么记着你。
Living a life that matters doesn t happen by accident.
生命中重要的是平安无事。
It s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
那不是环境的问题,而是选择的问题。
Choose to live a life that matters.
选择有意义的人生吧!