Even if we have no interest at all in becoming a Hindu, Hinduism offers us at least four fascinating ideas.

即使我们对成为印度教徒一点兴趣都没有，印度教至少提供了我们四个有趣的理念。

1. LOOK FORWARD TO DEATH

1. 期待死亡

Hinduism is hugely radical in suggesting that there is nothing especially noble or interesting about being alive.

印度教认为活着不是什么特别高贵或有趣的，这一观点非常激进。

Once we look at matters dispassionately, a lot of what we have to go through is misery and suffering:

一旦我们不掺杂感情看待问题，我们必须经历的许多事情都是苦难和磨难：

we need - with great effort - to grow up, to assume responsibilities, to master a profession, to have a family, to take our place in societies full of backbiting and hypocrisy, to watch those we love get ill and eventually to succumb to old age ourselves.

我们需要-付出巨大的努力-来成长，承担责任，掌握一项职业，组建一个家庭，在充满诽谤和虚伪的社会中占据一席之地，看着我们所爱的人生病，并最终屈从于自己的衰老。

To think highly of ‘life’ is, through a Hindu lens, a fundamental intellectual error.

通过印度教的镜头，把“生命”看得太重是根本的思维错误。

As Hinduism sees it, our real purpose is to be done with life forever; that is the true summit of existence.

在印度教看来，我们的真正目的是永远与生命打交道，那才是人存在的真正巅峰。

Hinduism reverses the Western equation: the sinful and blinkered are forced to live forever, the righteous and awakened are privileged enough to be able to die.

印度教颠覆了西方的等式:罪恶和狭隘的人被迫永生，正义和觉醒的人有足够的特权可以死亡。

If we are not careful, if we do not show sufficient mercy and imagination toward others, we may well - Hinduism suggests - be subjected to the ultimate punishment: we will have to carry on into eternity.

如果我们不小心，如果我们没有对他人表现出足够的仁慈和关注，我们很可能——印度教认为——受到最终的惩罚:我们将不得不继续下去，直到永恒。

The symbol of this ghastly on-goingness is the eight-spoked wheel of ‘samsara’, the most commonly depicted item in the religion, which evokes the pitiless and unceasing nature of life

这种可怕的持续进行的象征是“轮回”的八个轮子，这是宗教中最常见的描绘项目，它唤起了生活的无情和永恒的本质

- to which we are committed unless we take a disciplined series of averting actions which together comprise the central components of Hindu ethics.

——除非我们采取一系列有纪律的避免行动，这些行动共同构成了印度教伦理的核心组成部分，否则我们将一直永恒。

Hinduism does not suggest that we will carry on forever in our own bodies.

印度教并不是说我们会在自己的身体里永远活下去。

According to the process of ‘samsara’, we are reborn into a succession of different outward envelopes, as each example is eroded away and disintegrated by time.

根据“轮回”的过程，我们在一系列不同的外部气囊中重生，因为每个例子都被时间侵蚀和瓦解。

Because samsara is at work across the whole animal kingdom, we might find that our enduring soul (‘atman’) transmigrates at our death into the body of a woodlouse, a pelican or a house spider (though we might also be reborn as a paediatric nurse or the president).

因为轮回在整个动物界都在起作用，我们可能会发现，我们不朽的灵魂(“阿特曼”)在我们死后会轮回到一只林虱、鹈鹕或家蜘蛛的身体里(尽管我们也可能重生为一名儿科护士或总统)。

What determines the quality of the migration is the degree of ‘karma’ or virtue that we have accrued in our lives.

决定转变质量的是我们在生活中积累的“业力”或美德的程度。

Among the many reasons why we might have to be kind to others is an awareness that unkindness might wind us up having to suffer a cycle or two of life as a cockroach or a naked mole rat.

在我们必须善待他人的众多原因中，有一个原因是我们意识到，不友善可能会让我们像蟑螂或裸鼹鼠一样经历一两个生命周期。

The suspicion that life is constantly painful and anxious is one that we largely have to bear in a very lonely way in the philosophies of the West;

西方哲学认为，生活总是痛苦和焦虑的，我们在很大程度上不得不以一种非常孤独的方式忍受;

in those of the East, pessimism is ennobled and takes center stage.

在东方，悲观主义被美化，占据了舞台的中心。

We are permitted to feel weary and amply dissatisfied; we have, without quite knowing it, been alive since the start of creation - and it is untenably exhausting and frustrating.

我们可以感到疲倦和充分的不满; 我们从创世之初就已经存在了，尽管我们并不清楚这一点——这是难以忍受的疲惫和沮丧。

The trick, and the true prize, will be to be good and wise enough to learn to die once and for all.

诀窍，或是真正的奖赏，就是要有足够的智慧，学会永远地死去。

2. REJOIN COSMIC TOTALITY

2. 加入宇宙整体

For Hindus, the way to step off the treadmill of eternal existence is to realise that, despite many appearances to the contrary, however paradoxical or absurd the idea might sound, we and the universe are in truth one!

对于印度教徒来说，摆脱永恒存在的单调乏味的方法是认识到，尽管有许多相反的表象，不管这个想法听起来多么矛盾或荒谬，我们和宇宙实际上是一体的!

From the earliest age, we tend to assume the very opposite.

从最早的时候起，我们就倾向于假设完全相反的情况。

It seems self-evident that we are one kind of thing and the tree over there, the relative over here, the clouds in the sky, the monkey on the parapet and the river wending its way to the sea belong to quite different categories.

似乎不言而喻，我们是一种东西，而那边的树、这边的亲戚、天空中的云、栏杆上的猴子和流入大海的河流属于完全不同的类别。

Yet Hinduism insists that our belief in difference belongs ultimately to a realm of ‘maya’ or illusion.

然而，印度教坚持认为，我们对差异的信仰最终属于“玛雅”或幻觉的领域。

If we look more deeply into the nature of things, through the help of teaching and spiritual exercises, we stand to discover the remarkable unity of all elements.

如果我们更深入地观察事物的本质，通过教学和修行的帮助，我们就会发现所有元素的非凡统一性。

Unlike what appearances imply, everything we can see and experience around us belong to the same life force:

与表象所暗示的不同，我们所看到和经历的一切都属于同一种生命力量:

the leaves unfurling on the tree, the child learning to read, the earthworm digging its tunnels, the lava bubbling from the earth, all belong to a single unitary power which only egoistic prejudice has hitherto prevented us from acknowledging as one.

树枝上绽开的树叶，学习读书的孩子，挖隧道的蚯蚓，从地里冒出来的熔岩，都属于一种单一的力量，只有利己主义的偏见才使我们无法把它视为一种力量。

Most of our pain, Hinduism argues, arises from an overeager attachment to the difference between ourselves and the rest of the world.

印度教认为，我们的大部分痛苦源于过分执着于我们自己与世界其他部分之间的差异。

We pay inordinate attention to who has slightly more money or respect than we do, we are constantly humiliated by people and events that don’t seem to honour our sense of uniqueness.

我们过分关注那些比我们更有钱或更受尊敬的人，我们不断地被似乎不尊重我们独特性的人和事件所羞辱。

But in a process known as ‘moksha’ or liberation, we can throw off the veil of illusion that works to separate us from the universe and can start to identify with cosmic totality.

但在一个被称为“解脱”的过程中，我们可以掀开幻觉的面纱，它将我们从宇宙中分离出来，并开始认同宇宙的整体。

It no longer matters exactly where we end and others begin; everything belongs to the same whole that we have mistakenly and unnecessarily carved up into parts.

我们在哪里结束，其他人从哪里开始已经不再重要了；一切都属于同一个整体，我们错误地和不必要地将其分割成了几个部分。

There is a little less reason to grasp, to be puffed up, to be proud or to become embittered.

没有那么多理由去控制、去吹嘘、去骄傲或去怨恨。

We can survey the course of our lives and of our societies with calm indifference.

我们可以心平气和地审视我们的生活和我们社会的进程。

We can cease to identify happiness with the working out of our will upon the world - and take in with compassion and serenity whatever destiny throws our way.

我们可以不再把幸福与我们对世界的意志联系在一起，而以同情和宁静的心态接受命运抛向我们的道路。

We enjoy ‘paripurna-brahmanubhava’, the experience of oneness with ‘brahman’, the principle of all things.

我们享受“paripurna-brahmanubhava”，与“婆罗门”合一的体验，这是万物的原则。

Once we have let go of our own ego like this, we may have a few more years left to live, but we can be sure that - eventually - we will not need to keep returning.

一旦我们像这样放下了自我，我们也许还能再活几年，但我们可以肯定的是——最终——我们不需要再回来了。

Constant rebirth is the fate of those who cleave too tightly to their own selves.

不断重生是那些过于执着于自己的人的命运。

By contrast, those who have learnt to surrender can at their demise merge with the universe and will never need to suffer the indignities of individual life again.

相比之下，那些学会投降的人可以在死亡时与宇宙融合，再也不需要遭受个体生命的侮辱。