【翻譯練習】生活是否太多意義？
Can Life Have Too Much Meaning?
作者：Scott Young
來源：https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2019/06/21/too-much-meaning/
對於「多即是好」的論調，我不禁存疑。大自然崇尚中庸之道，是故再好的事物若是過量，仍會戕害身心。多喝水很好，但喝太多恐怕就會嗆到。
而我認為，「意義」正是一種一般來說還算不錯、但是太多的話就會惹上麻煩的東西。
「意義」的意義
「意義」這個詞是有歧義的，很難確定大家是否都照同一套標準來理解「意義」。不過，我們都清楚某個人、事、物、目標或想法在什麼時候對我們是重要的，在什麼時候又是無足輕重的，這當中的差別便是「意義」所在。
意義不只是一種感覺，同時也是一種觀念。有人問你某某事物是什麼意思的時候，他們是在請你用字句來解釋它的意義，他們想要知道它的定義、緣由或可能的引申意涵。意義，是你在腦海中交織串起的字句和觀念。
人們傾向認為意義愈多愈好。完全不存在意義的話，往往令人感覺不妙 (雖然，或許並不是總是如此) 。同樣地，在概念層面上缺乏意義，便代表著困惑與無知。人們比較喜歡能夠明白道出事物的意義並相信這個意義，而不是單純聳聳肩丟下一句「我不知道」。
意義過多，怎會如此？
我認為有兩種原因會讓你面臨意義過多的窘境。
第一，你可能太在乎某件事的特殊意義 (significance)。當這件事對你而言意義非凡，而你卻束手無策時，你一定會感到焦慮和恐懼。或許是對方已無心、但你還想苦苦維繫的一段感情；或許是你付出了全部心力、卻換來解雇通知的一份工作；或許是你原本堅信不移、卻開始土崩瓦解的一則信念。
感覺，是心理的工具，我們會因為感覺而沉浸在一種狀態，在這種狀態裡，某幾種觀念、行動和想法會比其他的還要更容易充斥我們的內心。然而，既然內心比較開放讓這幾種觀念通行，那麼也必然意味著內心比較阻擋其他觀念的進入。因此，「意義非凡」的感覺在某些場合裡是利，到了其他場合卻成為弊，至於憤怒、恐懼、樂觀、喜悅、喜愛、悲傷等種種感覺，也都視場合而現其利弊。
第二種原因，則和意義在智識上的觀念有關。假使你對某件事的意義抱持堅定的看法，不論是在定義、解釋或衍生影響方面的意義，都會把你「侷限」在某一種看待事物的眼光。意義太多太沉重，會讓你無法換個角度看事情，然而或許正是需要採取其他觀點，才能解決某個問題。
意義過多，如何得知？
我猜想，日常生活中經常浮現的焦慮和恐懼感，不是意義過少、而是意義過多造成的後果，這當中混合了強烈的意義非凡感，以及自身察覺的缺乏控制感。
如果你關注政治動態，可能會覺得這世界一團亂，也可能覺得國家領導人之爭、政策實施與否之辯都很值得重視。但是與此同時，你或許會感覺自己幾乎無力掌控結果。
同樣，在你自己的生活裡，或許會有這樣的狀況：你一籌莫展，無法解決問題，卻禁不住再三反芻這個問題。雖然人們通常不會認為焦慮和恐懼起因於意義過多，不過事實正是如此，因為如果你確實覺得這個狀況無關緊要，那就根本不會擔心了。
智識上的意義過多，會使得觀看世界的方式變得太過僵化定型。如果對於世界的觀點、解釋和推理都過於狹隘，一旦遇到讓你無法領略其中深意的狀況，你便會卡在原地鑽牛角尖。
正念能否緩解意義過多的負擔？
我對冥想和正念、以及它們廣受歡迎的原因，有自己一套看法。
正念可以有效減少情緒上和智識上的過多意義，尤其是內觀禪修 (Vipassana retreats) 通行的身體掃描練習。
例如練習身體掃描的時候，身體某個部位會疼痛，這種體驗很常見。一開始疼痛很明顯，你覺得應該做些什麼來處理疼痛。但是過了二十分鐘，疼痛開始變成比較抽象的感受，也許是不規律的脈搏或心跳，性質變化多端。
就某個層面來看，我認為練習正念的體驗，很像一直重複說同一個字時的內心狀態 (試著大聲說「意義」這個字十幾次，就能明白我的意思)。藉由反覆專注在一件事上，本來會從意義層面去解析的事情，便分解成不存在意義的零碎片段，而你開始重新體驗到的事情，似乎與你原本抱持的意義斷開了連結。
我不太確定冥想時是否也會發生上述的經歷。很多練習冥想的人，會注意到相反的體驗：突然感覺世界充滿了此前隱而未現的非凡意義。
不過我也在想，這可能是對於自身慣常經驗全盤進行去意義化 (demeaningization) 的結果。放下了往常用來解析意義的濾鏡，此時在一片真空虛無中，新的濾鏡又會開始成形。新濾鏡也許不會有著跟舊濾鏡一樣的視線障礙物，而嶄新的觀看角度也許能夠帶你進入意趣盎然的新天地。
應該花時間「放下」生活中的意義嗎？
我想，意義 (尤其是深刻的意義) 是讓我們擁有美好生活的重要成分。請別把我的觀點跟虛無主義生活的論調混為一談。
其實我認為必須要做的，是偶爾能夠暫時「放下」生活中的意義。或許需要如此卸下意義，才能讓你跳脫長久深陷的泥淖，這團泥淖蒙蔽了你現前觀看事物的角度，困住你通往美好人生的步伐。
這種放下意義的轉念，可能針對的是特殊情況 (譬如對未來工作的想法)，也可能鎖定較為整體的面向 (譬如到底該不該尋找抱負的意義？)。
我也以為，意義並不存在完美的狀態，沒有一種永恆的觀點可以適切套用在全部事物上。因此，或許每隔一段時間就必須重新調整方向，放下舊的意義。儘管此後獲得的新意義，不一定絕對比舊意義來得高明，但或許仍能令你藉機察覺阻礙你邁向美好人生的絆腳石。
I'm suspicious of those things where more is always supposed to be better. Nature prefers moderation, so good things can harm you when you get too much of them. Drinking more water is good. Too much and you'll drown.
I think "meaning" is one of those things that is usually good, but that can cause you problems when there is too much of it.
What Meaning Means
Meaning is a slippery word, so it's hard to be clear we're using it the same way. However, we all know when a person, thing, goal or idea feels significant to us, and when those same things feel ordinary. The difference is meaning.
In addition to being a feeling, meaning is also an idea. When someone asks you what something means, they're asking for you to explain it in words. They want its definition, cause or likely implications. Meanings are words and ideas you weave together in your head.
More meaning tends to be better. A complete absence of meaning usually (although perhaps not always) feels awful. Similarly, a lack of meaning in the conceptual sense is confusion and ignorance. We'd prefer to say what things mean and believe it, than to simply shrug our shoulders and say, "I don't know."
How Can You Have Too Much Meaning?
I think there's two ways you can have too much meaning.
First, you could feel too strongly about the significance of something. We've all had anxiety and fears when something is so important to us that we're unable to function. That relationship that you wanted to hold onto even though the other person wasn't in love with you. That job which meant everything to you—until you got fired. That conviction you held to desperately, until it started to unravel.
Feelings are mental tools. They put our minds into a state that allows certain ideas, actions and thoughts to flow more easily than others. However, to allow some ideas to flow more easily, that must necessarily mean you're blocking others. The feeling of significance therefore will be useful in some contexts and harmful in others, just like anger, fear, optimism, joy, love, sadness and everything else you feel.
The second way you can have too much meaning is related to the intellectual idea of meaning. If you have a strong set of ideas about what something means, either in terms of its definition, explanation or implied effects, that can "lock" you into a certain way of seeing things. Too much meaning can prevent you from seeing something in another way, and other perspectives may be necessary to solve certain problems.
How to Tell if You Have Too Much Meaning
I suspect that the anxiety and fear we often feel in our daily lives is a result of too much meaning, rather than too little. It's a combination of a strong feeling of significance, along with a perceived lack of control.

If you follow politics, you may feel like the world is going mad, and that the battles over who leads the country and what policies they implement is extremely significant. Yet, at the same time, you may feel nearly powerless to control the results.
Similarly, in your personal life, there may be situations where there isn't much more you can do to overcome a problem, but you can't stop thinking about it. Although people don't often see their anxieties and fears as resulting from an excess in meaning, it follows that this is the case because if you genuinely didn't feel the situation was significant you wouldn't worry about it.
Intellectually an excess of meaning can result in an overly rigid and fixed way of viewing the world. Your ideas, explanations and reasoning about the world is so tight, that you get stuck when you encounter situations that fail to make sense for you.
Is Mindfulness the Relaxation of Meaning?
I have an explanation of meditation and mindfulness and why it seems to be so popular.
Mindfulness, particularly the body-scanning methods popular among Vipassana retreats, are effectively, a way of reducing the emotional and intellectual excesses of meaning.
A common experience when you're practicing, for instance, is to have a pain somewhere in your body. At first this feels very significant and something that you ought to do something about. After twenty minutes though, the pain starts to turn into something more abstract, perhaps an odd pulsation or throbbing that has changing characteristics.
At one level, I think what has happened is similar to how if you repeat the same word over and over again (say the word "meaning" a few dozen times out loud to get what I mean). By repetitive attention something that would be processed at a level of meaning dissolves into parts that lack that meaning and you start experiencing something that seems to lack connection to the meanings you had previously.
I hesitate to say this is entirely what's going on with meditation. Many meditators will note the opposite experience: that suddenly the world feels filled with a hidden specialness that was invisible before.
However, I also suspect that this may be a consequence of the thorough de-meaning-ization of your regular experience. Dehabituate your normal filters for processing meaning and new ones will start forming again in the vacuum. Those new ones may not have the same obstacles as the old ones and the fresh perspective may be more enjoyable.
Should You Take Time to "Relax" Your Meaning of Life?
I think meanings, especially intense ones, are an important part of living life well. Don't confuse what I'm saying for arguing we should all live nihilistically.
Rather, I think what's necessary is that, from time to time, you are able to temporarily "relax" your meanings in life. This relaxation may be necessary to get out of ruts where your current way of viewing the situation is frustrated and can't allow you to live your best life.
These meaningness relaxations may be related to specific situations (i.e. how you think about your future career) or it could be more global (i.e. should you find meaning in ambition at all?).
I also suspect that there is no perfect state of meanings, no eternal viewpoint that will be good for all things. Therefore, relaxation of meaning is probably a necessary adjustment that needs to be done every once in awhile. The new meanings you get to may not be any better (in an absolute sense) than the ones you went in with, but they may help you see around obstacles that keep you from living a good life.
作者：Scott Young
來源：https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2019/06/21/too-much-meaning/
對於「多即是好」的論調，我不禁存疑。大自然崇尚中庸之道，是故再好的事物若是過量，仍會戕害身心。多喝水很好，但喝太多恐怕就會嗆到。
而我認為，「意義」正是一種一般來說還算不錯、但是太多的話就會惹上麻煩的東西。
「意義」的意義
「意義」這個詞是有歧義的，很難確定大家是否都照同一套標準來理解「意義」。不過，我們都清楚某個人、事、物、目標或想法在什麼時候對我們是重要的，在什麼時候又是無足輕重的，這當中的差別便是「意義」所在。
意義不只是一種感覺，同時也是一種觀念。有人問你某某事物是什麼意思的時候，他們是在請你用字句來解釋它的意義，他們想要知道它的定義、緣由或可能的引申意涵。意義，是你在腦海中交織串起的字句和觀念。
人們傾向認為意義愈多愈好。完全不存在意義的話，往往令人感覺不妙 (雖然，或許並不是總是如此) 。同樣地，在概念層面上缺乏意義，便代表著困惑與無知。人們比較喜歡能夠明白道出事物的意義並相信這個意義，而不是單純聳聳肩丟下一句「我不知道」。
意義過多，怎會如此？
我認為有兩種原因會讓你面臨意義過多的窘境。
第一，你可能太在乎某件事的特殊意義 (significance)。當這件事對你而言意義非凡，而你卻束手無策時，你一定會感到焦慮和恐懼。或許是對方已無心、但你還想苦苦維繫的一段感情；或許是你付出了全部心力、卻換來解雇通知的一份工作；或許是你原本堅信不移、卻開始土崩瓦解的一則信念。
感覺，是心理的工具，我們會因為感覺而沉浸在一種狀態，在這種狀態裡，某幾種觀念、行動和想法會比其他的還要更容易充斥我們的內心。然而，既然內心比較開放讓這幾種觀念通行，那麼也必然意味著內心比較阻擋其他觀念的進入。因此，「意義非凡」的感覺在某些場合裡是利，到了其他場合卻成為弊，至於憤怒、恐懼、樂觀、喜悅、喜愛、悲傷等種種感覺，也都視場合而現其利弊。
第二種原因，則和意義在智識上的觀念有關。假使你對某件事的意義抱持堅定的看法，不論是在定義、解釋或衍生影響方面的意義，都會把你「侷限」在某一種看待事物的眼光。意義太多太沉重，會讓你無法換個角度看事情，然而或許正是需要採取其他觀點，才能解決某個問題。
意義過多，如何得知？
我猜想，日常生活中經常浮現的焦慮和恐懼感，不是意義過少、而是意義過多造成的後果，這當中混合了強烈的意義非凡感，以及自身察覺的缺乏控制感。
如果你關注政治動態，可能會覺得這世界一團亂，也可能覺得國家領導人之爭、政策實施與否之辯都很值得重視。但是與此同時，你或許會感覺自己幾乎無力掌控結果。
同樣，在你自己的生活裡，或許會有這樣的狀況：你一籌莫展，無法解決問題，卻禁不住再三反芻這個問題。雖然人們通常不會認為焦慮和恐懼起因於意義過多，不過事實正是如此，因為如果你確實覺得這個狀況無關緊要，那就根本不會擔心了。
智識上的意義過多，會使得觀看世界的方式變得太過僵化定型。如果對於世界的觀點、解釋和推理都過於狹隘，一旦遇到讓你無法領略其中深意的狀況，你便會卡在原地鑽牛角尖。
正念能否緩解意義過多的負擔？
我對冥想和正念、以及它們廣受歡迎的原因，有自己一套看法。
正念可以有效減少情緒上和智識上的過多意義，尤其是內觀禪修 (Vipassana retreats) 通行的身體掃描練習。
例如練習身體掃描的時候，身體某個部位會疼痛，這種體驗很常見。一開始疼痛很明顯，你覺得應該做些什麼來處理疼痛。但是過了二十分鐘，疼痛開始變成比較抽象的感受，也許是不規律的脈搏或心跳，性質變化多端。
就某個層面來看，我認為練習正念的體驗，很像一直重複說同一個字時的內心狀態 (試著大聲說「意義」這個字十幾次，就能明白我的意思)。藉由反覆專注在一件事上，本來會從意義層面去解析的事情，便分解成不存在意義的零碎片段，而你開始重新體驗到的事情，似乎與你原本抱持的意義斷開了連結。
我不太確定冥想時是否也會發生上述的經歷。很多練習冥想的人，會注意到相反的體驗：突然感覺世界充滿了此前隱而未現的非凡意義。
不過我也在想，這可能是對於自身慣常經驗全盤進行去意義化 (demeaningization) 的結果。放下了往常用來解析意義的濾鏡，此時在一片真空虛無中，新的濾鏡又會開始成形。新濾鏡也許不會有著跟舊濾鏡一樣的視線障礙物，而嶄新的觀看角度也許能夠帶你進入意趣盎然的新天地。
應該花時間「放下」生活中的意義嗎？
我想，意義 (尤其是深刻的意義) 是讓我們擁有美好生活的重要成分。請別把我的觀點跟虛無主義生活的論調混為一談。
其實我認為必須要做的，是偶爾能夠暫時「放下」生活中的意義。或許需要如此卸下意義，才能讓你跳脫長久深陷的泥淖，這團泥淖蒙蔽了你現前觀看事物的角度，困住你通往美好人生的步伐。
這種放下意義的轉念，可能針對的是特殊情況 (譬如對未來工作的想法)，也可能鎖定較為整體的面向 (譬如到底該不該尋找抱負的意義？)。
我也以為，意義並不存在完美的狀態，沒有一種永恆的觀點可以適切套用在全部事物上。因此，或許每隔一段時間就必須重新調整方向，放下舊的意義。儘管此後獲得的新意義，不一定絕對比舊意義來得高明，但或許仍能令你藉機察覺阻礙你邁向美好人生的絆腳石。
I'm suspicious of those things where more is always supposed to be better. Nature prefers moderation, so good things can harm you when you get too much of them. Drinking more water is good. Too much and you'll drown.
I think "meaning" is one of those things that is usually good, but that can cause you problems when there is too much of it.
What Meaning Means
Meaning is a slippery word, so it's hard to be clear we're using it the same way. However, we all know when a person, thing, goal or idea feels significant to us, and when those same things feel ordinary. The difference is meaning.
In addition to being a feeling, meaning is also an idea. When someone asks you what something means, they're asking for you to explain it in words. They want its definition, cause or likely implications. Meanings are words and ideas you weave together in your head.
More meaning tends to be better. A complete absence of meaning usually (although perhaps not always) feels awful. Similarly, a lack of meaning in the conceptual sense is confusion and ignorance. We'd prefer to say what things mean and believe it, than to simply shrug our shoulders and say, "I don't know."
How Can You Have Too Much Meaning?
I think there's two ways you can have too much meaning.
First, you could feel too strongly about the significance of something. We've all had anxiety and fears when something is so important to us that we're unable to function. That relationship that you wanted to hold onto even though the other person wasn't in love with you. That job which meant everything to you—until you got fired. That conviction you held to desperately, until it started to unravel.
Feelings are mental tools. They put our minds into a state that allows certain ideas, actions and thoughts to flow more easily than others. However, to allow some ideas to flow more easily, that must necessarily mean you're blocking others. The feeling of significance therefore will be useful in some contexts and harmful in others, just like anger, fear, optimism, joy, love, sadness and everything else you feel.
The second way you can have too much meaning is related to the intellectual idea of meaning. If you have a strong set of ideas about what something means, either in terms of its definition, explanation or implied effects, that can "lock" you into a certain way of seeing things. Too much meaning can prevent you from seeing something in another way, and other perspectives may be necessary to solve certain problems.
How to Tell if You Have Too Much Meaning
I suspect that the anxiety and fear we often feel in our daily lives is a result of too much meaning, rather than too little. It's a combination of a strong feeling of significance, along with a perceived lack of control.

If you follow politics, you may feel like the world is going mad, and that the battles over who leads the country and what policies they implement is extremely significant. Yet, at the same time, you may feel nearly powerless to control the results.
Similarly, in your personal life, there may be situations where there isn't much more you can do to overcome a problem, but you can't stop thinking about it. Although people don't often see their anxieties and fears as resulting from an excess in meaning, it follows that this is the case because if you genuinely didn't feel the situation was significant you wouldn't worry about it.
Intellectually an excess of meaning can result in an overly rigid and fixed way of viewing the world. Your ideas, explanations and reasoning about the world is so tight, that you get stuck when you encounter situations that fail to make sense for you.
Is Mindfulness the Relaxation of Meaning?
I have an explanation of meditation and mindfulness and why it seems to be so popular.
Mindfulness, particularly the body-scanning methods popular among Vipassana retreats, are effectively, a way of reducing the emotional and intellectual excesses of meaning.
A common experience when you're practicing, for instance, is to have a pain somewhere in your body. At first this feels very significant and something that you ought to do something about. After twenty minutes though, the pain starts to turn into something more abstract, perhaps an odd pulsation or throbbing that has changing characteristics.
At one level, I think what has happened is similar to how if you repeat the same word over and over again (say the word "meaning" a few dozen times out loud to get what I mean). By repetitive attention something that would be processed at a level of meaning dissolves into parts that lack that meaning and you start experiencing something that seems to lack connection to the meanings you had previously.
I hesitate to say this is entirely what's going on with meditation. Many meditators will note the opposite experience: that suddenly the world feels filled with a hidden specialness that was invisible before.
However, I also suspect that this may be a consequence of the thorough de-meaning-ization of your regular experience. Dehabituate your normal filters for processing meaning and new ones will start forming again in the vacuum. Those new ones may not have the same obstacles as the old ones and the fresh perspective may be more enjoyable.
Should You Take Time to "Relax" Your Meaning of Life?
I think meanings, especially intense ones, are an important part of living life well. Don't confuse what I'm saying for arguing we should all live nihilistically.
Rather, I think what's necessary is that, from time to time, you are able to temporarily "relax" your meanings in life. This relaxation may be necessary to get out of ruts where your current way of viewing the situation is frustrated and can't allow you to live your best life.
These meaningness relaxations may be related to specific situations (i.e. how you think about your future career) or it could be more global (i.e. should you find meaning in ambition at all?).
I also suspect that there is no perfect state of meanings, no eternal viewpoint that will be good for all things. Therefore, relaxation of meaning is probably a necessary adjustment that needs to be done every once in awhile. The new meanings you get to may not be any better (in an absolute sense) than the ones you went in with, but they may help you see around obstacles that keep you from living a good life.
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