《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 7 (13):我需要精神導師大綱

The other notable thing that was happening during that time was the newfound adventure of spiritual discipline. Aided and abetted, of course, by the introduction into my life of an actual living Indian Guru—for whom I will always have David to thank. I'd been introduced to my Guru the first night I ever went to David's apartment. I kind of fell in love with them both at the same time. I walked into David's apartment and saw this picture on his dresser of a radiantly beautiful Indian woman and I asked, "Who's that?"

這段期間發生了另一件值得注意的事，是新獲得的靈脩體驗。當然是藉助於介入我生命的一位印度導師——這我永遠得感謝大衛。第一次去大衛的公寓，我就見到導師的面。我多少有點同時愛上他們倆。我走進大衛的公寓，看見衣櫃上的相片，是個光彩奪目的印度女子，我問：“她是誰？”

He said, "That is my spiritual teacher."

他說：“是我的精神導師。”

My heart skipped a beat and then flat-out tripped over itself and fell on its face. Then my heart stood up, brushed itself off, took a deep breath and announced: "I want a spiritual teacher." I literally mean that it was my heart who said this, speaking through my mouth. I felt this weird division in myself, and my mind stepped out of my body for a moment, spun around to face my heart in astonishment and silently asked, "You DO?"

我的心砰砰跳，絆了一下，撲倒在地。然後我的心站起來，拍拍身子，深呼吸，宣告：“我要一位精神導師。”我確切的意思是，我的心透過我的嘴巴這麼說。我奇妙地感覺自身一分爲二，我的大腦離開我的身體片刻，吃驚地繞到心的面前，問道：“你確定？”

"Yes," replied my heart. "I do."

“是的，”我的心答道：“我確定。”

Then my mind asked my heart, a tad sarcastically: "Since WHEN?"

然後我的大腦問我的心，帶點挖苦的語氣：“從什麼時候開始的？”

But I already knew the answer: Since that night on the bathroom floor.

但我已知道答案：從浴室地板的那天晚上開始的。

My God, but I wanted a spiritual teacher. I immediately began constructing a fantasy of what it would be like to have one. I imagined that this radiantly beautiful Indian woman would come to my apartment a few evenings a week and we would sit and drink tea and talk about divinity, and she would give me reading assignments and explain the significance of the strange sensations I was feeling during meditation . . .

天啊，我要一位精神導師。我立即開始想象有個精神導師會怎麼樣。我想像這位光彩奪目的印度女子，每個禮拜有幾個晚上來到我的公寓，我們坐着喝茶，談論神靈，她讓我閱讀作業，解釋我在冥想時刻感受到的奇異知覺是何意義……

All this fantasy was quickly swept away when David told me about the international status of this woman, about her tens of thousands of students—many of whom have never met her face-to-face. Still, he said, there was a gathering here in New York City every Tuesday night of the Guru's devotees who came together as a group to meditate and chant. David said, "If you're not too freaked out by the idea of being in a room with several hundred people chanting God's name in Sanskrit, you can come sometime."

在大衛告知我這名女子的國際地位，學生成千上萬——許多人都未曾親眼見過她時——這些幻想立即一掃而光。不過，他說，紐約這兒每週二有個聚會，讓導師的追隨者聚在一起沉思吟誦。大衛說：“倘若跟幾百人在房間裏用梵語吟誦神的名字，不會嚇着你的話，哪天就過來看看吧。”

I joined him the following Tuesday night. Far from being freaked out by these regular-looking people singing to God, I instead felt my soul rise diaphanous in the wake of that chanting. I walked home that night feeling like the air could move through me, like I was clean linen fluttering on a clothes-line, like New York itself had become a city made of rice paper and I was light enough to run across every rooftop. I started going to the chants every Tuesday. Then I started meditating every morning on the ancient Sanskrit mantra the Guru gives to all her students (the regal Om Namah Shivaya, meaning, "I honor the divinity that resides within me"). Then I listened to the Guru speak in person for the first time, and her words gave me chill bumps over my whole body, even across the skin of my face. And when I heard she had an Ashram in India, I knew I must take myself there as quickly as possible.

Eat, Pray, Love

隔週的禮拜二晚上，我跟他去了。這些看上去很正常的人士在歌誦神，並未把我嚇着，反而讓我覺得自己的靈魂隨着吟唱輕盈飄升。那天晚上我走回家時，感覺空氣穿透我，好似我是一條在晾衣繩上迎風飄揚的乾淨的亞麻布，好似紐約本身成了紙絹做成的城市——使我輕盈地跑過每一戶人家的屋頂。我開始在每週二前去吟誦。而後我開始每天早晨沉思導師發給每個學生的古梵語靜坐（莊嚴的“唵南嘛溼婆耶”［OmNamahShivaya］，意味“我敬重內心的神靈”）。而後我第一次聆聽導師親自講道，她說的話使我全身發麻，甚至傳到我臉上的皮膚。而當我得知她在印度有個道場時，我知道我得儘快去那兒才行。