美国国家公共电台 NPR When Was The Last Time You Did Absolutely Nothing?

When Was The Last Time You Did Absolutely Nothing?

GUY RAZ, HOST:

It's the TED¹ Radio Hour from NPR. I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, ideas about slowing down, how to do it in a world that seems to be constantly speeding up. And that was a question Andy Puddicombe had in his 20s when he quit school and decided² to become a Buddhist³ monk⁴. And when he spoke⁵ on the TED stage, Andy explained what happens when you don't give your mind a few moments every day to take it just a little slower.

(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)

ANDY PUDDICOMBE: The result, of course, is that we get stressed. You know, the mind whizzes away like a washing machine going round and round, lots of difficult, confusing emotions. And we miss out on the things that are most important to us. And the crazy thing is that everybody just assumes, well, that's the way life is so we just kind of got to get on with it, but that's really not how it has to be. So I was about 11 when I went along to my first meditation⁶ class. As I was there, you know, I guess, like a lot of people, I assumed that it was just an aspirin⁷ for the mind. You get stressed, you do some meditation - hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature until I was about 20 when a number of things happened in my life, in quite quick succession, really serious things, which just flipped⁸ my life upside down.

And all of a sudden, I was inundated⁹ with thoughts, inundated with difficult emotions that I didn't know how to cope with. Every time I sort of pushed one down, another one would just sort of pop back up again. It was a really, very stressful time. I guess we all deal with stress in different ways. My own way of dealing¹⁰ with it was to become a monk. So I quit my degree. I headed off to the Himalayas. I became a monk, and I started studying meditation. It taught me - it gave me a greater appreciation¹¹ and understanding for the present moment. I think the present moment is so underrated. There was a research paper that came out of Harvard just recently that said on average our minds are lost in thought almost 47 percent of the time - 47 percent. At the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness.

Now, we're not here for that long anyway, but to spend almost half of our life lost in thought and potentially quite unhappy - don't know. Is it just me? It kind of seems tragic¹², actually, especially when there's something we can do about it, when there's a positive, practical, achievable, scientifically proven technique which allows our mind to be more healthy, to be more mindful and less distracted. Now, what usually happens when we're learning to be mindful is that we get distracted by a thought. Let's say this is an anxious thought. So everything's going fine and then we see the anxious thought and it's like, oh, I didn't realize I was worried about that. You go back to it, repeat it. Oh, I am worried. Oh, I really am worried. Wow, there's so much anxiety. And before we know it, right, we're anxious about feeling anxious.

You know, this is crazy. We do this all the time, even on an every day kind of level. If you think about the last time - I don't know - you had a wobbly tooth. You know it's wobbly, and you know that it hurts, but what do you do every 20-30 seconds? I don't know (ph). It does hurt. And we reinforce the storyline, right? And we just keep telling ourselves, and we do it all the time. And it's only in learning to watch the mind in this way that we can start to let go of those storylines and patterns of mind. But when you sit down and you watch the mind in this way, you might see many different patterns. You might find a mind that's really sort of restless and - the whole time.

You know, don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated¹³ in your body when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. You might find a mind that's very sort of dull and boring, and it's just almost mechanical. It just sort of seems - it's as if you're just sort of getting up, going to work, eat, sleep, get up. Or it might just be that one little nagging¹⁴ thought that just goes round and round and round your mind. Whatever it is, meditation offers the opportunity, the potential, to step back and to get a different perspective, to see that things aren't always as they appear. You know, we can't change every little thing that happens to us in life, but we can change the way that we experience it. Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RAZ: That's Andy Puddicombe. By the way, he co-founded a meditation app. It's called Headspace, and you can see his entire talk at ted.com.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

4 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

7 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

8 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

9 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

12 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

13 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

14 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》