VII
CONTROLLING THE MIND
People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The control of the thinking machine is perfectly1 possible. And since nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme2 importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent. This idea is one of the oldest platitudes3, but it is a platitude4 whose profound truth and urgency most people live and die without realising. People complain of the lack of power to concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they choose.
And without the power to concentrate—that is to say, without the power to dictate5 to the brain its task and to ensure obedience—true life is impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence.
Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; you run grave danger in hacking6 hairs off your skin; you employ a whole army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you to bribe7 your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little attention to the far more delicate machinery8 of the mind, especially as you will require no extraneous9 aid? It is for this portion of the art and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office.
"What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in the train, and in the crowded street again?" Precisely10. Nothing simpler! No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the affair is not easy.
When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards before your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking11 round the corner with another subject.
Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the station you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not despair. Continue. Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by any chance fail if you persevere12. It is idle to pretend that your mind is incapable13 of concentration. Do you not remember that morning when you received a disquieting14 letter which demanded a very carefully-worded answer? How you kept your mind steadily15 on the subject of the answer, without a second's intermission, until you reached your office; whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the answer? That was a case in which you were roused by circumstances to such a degree of vitality16 that you were able to dominate your mind like a tyrant17. You would have no trifling18. You insisted that its work should be done, and its work was done.
By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no secret—save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over your mind (which is not the highest part of you) every hour of the day, and in no matter what place. The exercise is a very convenient one. If you got into your morning train with a pair of dumb-bells for your muscles or an encyclopaedia19 in ten volumes for your learning, you would probably excite remark. But as you walk in the street, or sit in the corner of the compartment20 behind a pipe, or "strap-hang" on the Subterranean21, who is to know that you are engaged in the most important of daily acts? What asinine22 boor23 can laugh at you?
I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It is the mere24 disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But still, you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate on something useful. I suggest—it is only a suggestion—a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus.
Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more "actual," more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, and nonsense) than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter—and so short they are, the chapters!—in the evening and concentrate on it the next morning. You will see.
Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. I can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to yourself: "This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh chapter. He had begun to interest me faintly. But what he says about thinking in trains, and concentration, and so on, is not for me. It may be well enough for some folks, but it isn't in my line."
It is for you, I passionately25 repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you are the very man I am aiming at.
Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. It is the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed men who have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand26. Try it. Get your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half the evils of life—especially worry, that miserable27, avoidable, shameful28 disease—worry!
1 perfectly [ˈpɜ:fɪktli] 第8级 | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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2 supreme [su:ˈpri:m] 第7级 | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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3 platitudes [p'lætɪtju:dz] 第10级 | |
n.平常的话,老生常谈,陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 );滥套子 | |
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4 platitude [ˈplætɪtju:d] 第10级 | |
n.老生常谈,陈词滥调 | |
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5 dictate [dɪkˈteɪt] 第7级 | |
vt.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令;vi.口述;听写 | |
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6 hacking ['hækiŋ] 第9级 | |
n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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7 bribe [braɪb] 第7级 | |
n.贿赂;vt.向…行贿,买通;vi.行贿 | |
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8 machinery [məˈʃi:nəri] 第7级 | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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9 extraneous [ɪkˈstreɪniəs] 第9级 | |
adj.体外的;外来的;外部的 | |
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10 precisely [prɪˈsaɪsli] 第8级 | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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11 larking [lɑ:kɪŋ] 第9级 | |
v.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的现在分词 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了 | |
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12 persevere [ˌpɜ:sɪˈvɪə(r)] 第7级 | |
vi.坚持,坚忍,不屈不挠 | |
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13 incapable [ɪnˈkeɪpəbl] 第8级 | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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14 disquieting [dɪsˈkwaɪətɪŋ] 第12级 | |
adj.令人不安的,令人不平静的v.使不安,使忧虑,使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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15 steadily ['stedɪlɪ] 第7级 | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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16 vitality [vaɪˈtæləti] 第8级 | |
n.活力,生命力,效力 | |
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17 tyrant [ˈtaɪrənt] 第8级 | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
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18 trifling [ˈtraɪflɪŋ] 第10级 | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
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19 encyclopaedia [enˌsaɪkləʊ'pi:djə] 第8级 | |
n.百科全书 | |
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20 compartment [kəmˈpɑ:tmənt] 第7级 | |
n.卧车包房,隔间;分隔的空间 | |
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21 subterranean [ˌsʌbtəˈreɪniən] 第11级 | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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22 asinine [ˈæsɪnaɪn] 第11级 | |
adj.愚蠢的 | |
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23 boor [bʊə(r)] 第12级 | |
n.举止粗野的人;乡下佬 | |
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24 mere [mɪə(r)] 第7级 | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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25 passionately ['pæʃənitli] 第8级 | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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26 second-hand [ˈsekəndˈhænd] 第8级 | |
adj.用过的,旧的,二手的 | |
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