禪與摩托車維修藝術(shù)

By Robert M. Pirsig

小編第一次看到這本書是在某網(wǎng)頁(yè)上推薦的一單程序員必讀書中，當(dāng)時(shí)心中暗自排列了下“程序員”、“禪”、“摩托車”這樣奇怪的組合，后來(lái)發(fā)現(xiàn)創(chuàng)業(yè)者們也要讀這本書，籃球教練也愛這本書，霍金還因?yàn)椤稌r(shí)間簡(jiǎn)史》能和此書相比較而感到備受恭維，至此小編覺得真的有必要來(lái)了解一下這本哲學(xué)小說(shuō)以及作者的故事。

1928年，羅伯特·M·波西格（Robert M. Pirsig）出生于美國(guó)明尼蘇達(dá)州，天資卓越的他15歲便進(jìn)入明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)主修生物化學(xué)，卻一度輟學(xué)，之后從軍，部隊(duì)歸來(lái)后重返大學(xué)，并在1950年獲得了東方哲學(xué)的學(xué)士學(xué)位，隨后到貝拿勒斯印度大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)東方哲學(xué)，1958年開始在蒙大拿州立大學(xué)教授創(chuàng)意寫作課程。他一直在哲學(xué)的道路上探索，并因此承受著巨大的精神壓力，1961年，他被診斷出患有妄想型精神分裂癥和抑郁癥，并被多次送入醫(yī)院，接受電痙攣療法。

1968年，波西格出院，他帶著10歲的兒子克里斯從明尼蘇達(dá)出發(fā)，進(jìn)行了一次橫跨美國(guó)大陸的摩托車之旅。這也是一次心靈的探險(xiǎn)之旅，最終他解脫并完整了自我，他把旅行中的感受與思考悉數(shù)道來(lái)，成就了這本《禪與摩托車維修藝術(shù)》（Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance）。

1974年，該書在被121家出版社拒絕（吉尼斯世界紀(jì)錄“世界上被拒稿次數(shù)最多的暢銷書”）后終于出版，立即成為超級(jí)暢銷書，而且在之后十余年一直居暢銷排行榜之列，并被選為70年代最具影響力的十本書之一。

本文節(jié)選的是作者關(guān)于人與從事的工作之間的關(guān)系的一些思考，進(jìn)而也可以引申至我們與所學(xué)知識(shí)之間的關(guān)系，與生活環(huán)境之間的關(guān)系，從而讓我們對(duì)在這短短數(shù)十載的生命中所要依托的生活方式也能有一定的認(rèn)識(shí)。

I found the cause of the seizures a few weeks later， waiting to happen again. It was a little twenty-five-cent pin in the internal oildelivery system that had been 1）sheared and was preventing oil from reaching the head at high speeds.

The question why comes back again and again and has become a major reason for wanting to deliver this 2）Chautauqua. Why did they butcher it so？ These were not people running away from technology， like John and Sylvia. These were the technologists themselves. They sat down to do a job and they performed it like chimpanzees. Nothing personal in it. There was no obvious reason for it. And I tried to think back into that shop， that nightmare place， to try to remember anything that could have been the cause.

The radio was a clue. You cant really think hard about what youre doing and listen to the radio at the same time. Maybe they didnt see their job as having anything to do with hard thought， just 3）wrench 4）twiddling. If you can twiddle wrenches while listening to the radio， thats more enjoyable.

Their speed was another clue. They were really 5）slopping things around in a hurry and not looking where they slopped them. More money that way...if you dont stop to think that it usually takes longer or comes out worse.

幾個(gè)禮拜之后，我找到故障的原因，它還在那，隨時(shí)都會(huì)再次出故障。在摩托車內(nèi)部供油系統(tǒng)里有一根二十五美分厚度大小的銷子被剪斷了，以至于在車高速行駛的時(shí)候，油沒有辦法流進(jìn)來(lái)。

為什么會(huì)發(fā)生這種事情呢？這個(gè)問(wèn)題不斷在我腦海中出現(xiàn)，這就是我想要寫這本書的原因。為什么他們的動(dòng)作這樣粗魯呢？他們不像約翰和西爾維亞一樣拒絕科技，他們自己就是搞技術(shù)的人，然而做起事來(lái)卻像猩猩一樣，非常野蠻粗魯。這事似乎沒有明顯的原因。我試著回想那間修理店，那個(gè)惡夢(mèng)般的地方，想要找出問(wèn)題的真正答案。

那臺(tái)收音機(jī)是一條線索，一邊工作一邊聽音樂(lè)是沒有辦法真正思考的，或許他們并不認(rèn)為自己的工作需要任何的思考，只不過(guò)是隨意地玩弄幾把扳手罷了。所以在你玩弄扳手時(shí)來(lái)點(diǎn)音樂(lè)是件很享受的事情。

他們動(dòng)作很快是另外一條線索，他們把東西隨處亂丟，而且也不記得丟在哪里。如果你不思考一番，你就不知道這樣做往往會(huì)浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，而且成效不佳——當(dāng)然，那樣做更來(lái)錢。

But the biggest clue seemed to be their expressions. They were hard to explain. Goodnatured， friendly， easygoing...and uninvolved. They were like spectators. You had the feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job. No saying， “I am a mechanic. At 5 P .M. or whenever their eight hours were in， you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job. In their own way they were achieving the same thing John and Sylvia were， living with technology without really having anything to do with it. Or rather， they had something to do with it， but their own selves were outside of it， detached， removed. They were involved in it but not in such a way as to care.

Not only did these mechanics not find that sheared pin， but it was clearly a mechanic who had sheared it in the first place， by assembling the side cover plate improperly. I remembered the previous owner had said a mechanic had told him the plate was hard to get on. That was why. The shop manual had warned about this， but like the others he was probably in too much of a hurry or he didnt care.

While at work I was thinking about this same lack of care in the digital computer manuals I was editing. Writing and editing technical manuals is what I do for a living the other eleven months of the year and I knew they were full of errors， ambiguities， omissions and information so completely screwed up you had to read them six times to make any sense out of them. But what struck me for the first time was the agreement of these manuals with the spectator attitude I had seen in the shop. These were spectator manuals. It was built into the format of them. Implicit in every line is the idea that “Here is the machine， isolated in time and in space from everything else in the universe. It has no relationship to you， you have no relationship to it， other than to turn certain switches， maintain voltage levels， check for error conditions— ” and so on. Thats it. The mechanics in their attitude toward the machine were really taking no different attitude from the manuals toward the machine， or from the attitude I had when I brought it in there. We were all spectators. And it occurred to me there is no manual that deals with the real business of motorcycle maintenance， the most important aspect of all. Caring about what you are doing is considered either unimportant or taken for granted.

On this trip I think we should notice it， explore it a little， to see if in that strange separation of what man is from what man does we may have some clues as to what the hell has gone wrong in this twentieth century. I dont want to hurry it. That itself is a poisonous twentieth-century attitude. When you want to hurry something， that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things. I just want to get at it slowly， but carefully and thoroughly， with the same attitude I remember was present just before I found that sheared pin. It was that attitude that found it， nothing else.

但是最重要的線索似乎是他們臉上的表情。那是一種很難描述的表情，很隨和的、友善的、輕松自在的……但卻是一副事不關(guān)己的表情。他們就像旁觀者一樣。你會(huì)覺得他們無(wú)事碰巧閑逛到那里，然后接過(guò)別人遞給他們的扳手。他們對(duì)自己的工作沒有認(rèn)同感，不會(huì)說(shuō)：“我是一名修理人員?！币坏┑搅讼挛缥妩c(diǎn)，八個(gè)小時(shí)一滿，你知道他們會(huì)立刻放下手中的工作，即刻離開，然后盡可能地不去想他們的工作。其實(shí)，他們?cè)诠ぷ鞯臅r(shí)候就已經(jīng)這么做了（不去想他們的工作）。在這一方面，他們與約翰和西爾維婭一樣，雖然想運(yùn)用科技的成果，但是卻不愿和它發(fā)生任何關(guān)系?；蛘哒f(shuō)他們之間的確有聯(lián)系，但是他們都沒有投身其中，而保持冷淡疏離的態(tài)度，他們參與了這方面的工作，但是卻沒有真正地關(guān)心它。

這些修理人員不但沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)銷子斷了，而且正是前一個(gè)修理人員在組合側(cè)蓋板的時(shí)候，不小心剪斷了銷子。我記得以前的車主說(shuō)過(guò)，有一位修理人員告訴他側(cè)蓋板很難蓋好。這就是原因了。一般摩托車修理手冊(cè)中都會(huì)提到這一點(diǎn)，但是他太匆忙而疏忽了。

在我編輯數(shù)碼產(chǎn)品、電腦等手冊(cè)的時(shí)候，也在想這個(gè)問(wèn)題。我靠寫這些為生，一年當(dāng)中有十一個(gè)月我都在編寫這方面的手冊(cè)，我知道這方面的資料一般都充滿了錯(cuò)誤，表達(dá)含糊不清，刪減嚴(yán)重，有的時(shí)候需要讀上五六遍才能略微了解它們的意思。但是我第一次意識(shí)到，這些手冊(cè)編寫者的態(tài)度和這些修理人員的態(tài)度竟是一致的，都是旁觀者，所以這都是些“旁觀者手冊(cè)”。在字里行間，你隱約可以嗅到這樣的意味：“這是臺(tái)機(jī)器，它和所處的周圍一切都沒有關(guān)系，它和你沒有關(guān)系，你和它也沒有關(guān)系，你只需要懂得操縱某些開關(guān)，維持電壓，檢查某些毛病等等?！本瓦@么一回事。修理人員對(duì)這些機(jī)器的態(tài)度、這些手冊(cè)所透露出來(lái)的態(tài)度，包括我當(dāng)時(shí)把車送去修理時(shí)的態(tài)度都是一樣的，都站在了旁觀者的角度。這讓我意識(shí)到市面上沒有一本手冊(cè)認(rèn)真談?wù)摫ｐB(yǎng)、維修摩托車這門藝術(shù)。因?yàn)樗鼈兌己雎粤俗钪匾囊稽c(diǎn)。人們忽視了專注于自己在做的事情的重要性，或是把所做的事情視為理所當(dāng)然而為之。

在這次旅行當(dāng)中，我想我們應(yīng)該注意這一點(diǎn)，并更深入地研究，看看是否能夠了解在我們身處的二十世紀(jì)，究竟出了什么問(wèn)題，把人和人所做的工作分離開來(lái)。我打算慢慢研究，因?yàn)槎兰o(jì)最要不得的態(tài)度，就是求快。當(dāng)你做某件事的時(shí)候，一旦想要求快，就表示你再也不關(guān)心它，而想去做別的事。所以我想慢慢來(lái)，用我查找那個(gè)被剪斷了的銷子的態(tài)度，這樣才能仔細(xì)而且透徹地完成這項(xiàng)工作。除此之外，別無(wú)他法。