周末写了博文《有一种美丽叫孤独》。搁笔，思绪仍停留在对孤独的思考。在英语里, “Aloneness”和 “Loneliness”是两个不同的词，和两个不同的哲学概念。前者指“寂然独立”，后者是我们常言的“孤独”。而在中文里，“孤独”有着双重的意思，就语境和内容而定。而我感悟到的那种有着孤独之美的心境更接近于“寂然独立”之美（Aloneness），是积极的，而不是被动，抑郁的孤独。

或许是天意，开始读Jiddu Krishnamurti的《The Book of Life：》（《生命之书：365天的静心冥想》）。这位慈悲与智慧化身的人类导师，他的言论和著作无法归属于哪种宗教，既非东方也非西方，而是属于全世界。

就在我对孤独之美的思考时，上帝把这本书放到我的面前，如一场及时的沐浴心灵之雨：

1。《十二月一日篇》的标题为《寂然独立之中自有美》（Alone has great beauty）

I do not know if you have ever been lonely; when you suddenly realize that you have no relationship with anybody—not an intellectual realization but a factual realization...and you are completely isolated. Every form of thought and emotion is blocked; you cannot turn anywhere; there is nobody to turn to; the gods, the angels, have all gone beyond the clouds and, as the clouds vanish they have also vanished; you are completely lonely—I will not use the word alone.

Alone has quiet a different meaning; alone has beauty. To be alone means something entirely different. And you must be alone. When man frees himself from the social structure of greed, envy, ambition, arrogance, achievement, status—then he frees himself from those, then he is completely alone. That is quite a different thing. Then there is great beauty, the feeling of great energy.

 我不知道你有没有过完全落单的经历，你突然发现你跟这个世界上任何人都失去了关联 － 你完全被孤立了。你内心的思想和情绪被完全阻隔；你无处可走，无处可投；神灵和天使也从云端消失了，你感到彻头彻尾的孤独。

    但“寂然独立”有着不同的含意；寂然独立之中蕴涵着美。人必需活在寂然独立的状态。人如果能超脱社会结构里的贪婪，嫉妒，野心，傲慢，成就或是地位，当它从这些东西里解脱出来时，他就能达寂然独立之境遇。这种状态与孤独截然不同，其间有活跃的能量和深刻的美感。

2。《十二月二日篇》的标题为《“寂然独立”不是“孤独”》（Aloneness is not loneliness）

。。。The state of the religious mind can be understood only when we begin to understand what beauty is; and the understanding of beauty must be approached through total aloneness. Only when the mind is completely alone can it know what is beauty, and not in any other state.

     Aloneness is obviously not isolation, and it is not uniqueness. To be unique is merely to be exceptional in some way, whereas to be completely alone demands extraordinary sensitivity, intelligence, understanding. To be completely alone implies that the mind is free of eve ry kind of influence and is therefore uncontaminated by society; and it must be alone to understand what is religion—which is to find out for oneself whether there is something immortal, beyond time.

。。。只有当我们了解了什么是美，才能认识什么是真正的宗教；若想了解美，你就必需保持寂然独立。只有当心处在彻底空寂的状态时，才能明白什么是美。

寂然独立显然不是孤独，也不是一种特殊的状态。特殊感仅来自于某种程度的卓越性，而寂然独立需要高度的感受力，理解力和智慧。寂然独立意味着身心已解除了所有形式的影响，因此免受社会的洗染。若想了解什么是真正的宗教，就必须独立于物外，去为自己发现那个超越时间的不朽的境界。

     在思考的过程中读到这位先贤的文字，我感到身心的一种释然。这是继读西蒙；薇依《神恩与负重》后，让我长久的思考有所归依的另一本书，也是让我的灵魂升华的一本书。

     若玫，有一种美的心境叫“寂然独立”（Alongness).

              -2011.11.14, 芝加哥